Elections
have grown more and more contentious here in America during my lifetime. In
years past, the angst and frustration was reserved for the days leading up to
the actual election. However, once the election was held and the winner was
announced, the winning side would be happy and the losing side would be
unhappy. And then the next day everyone went back to their lives and made the
best of it. It’s never easy to lose. Eight years ago we elected a President
that vowed to “fundamentally transform America.” And transform it he did. What
we have now is a progressive and largely godless culture with tens of millions
of people unemployed, thousands of people killed every year in run-down inner
cities, police officers murdered regularly in cold blood, race riots,
legalization of same-sex marriage, and a general disdain for the rule of law.
For the half of the country that did not vote for this President, they had to,
nevertheless, make the best of it. And for eight years that’s exactly what they
did.
Well in our most
recent election, the half of the country that lost both four and eight years
ago to the current President said enough and elected someone that they believed
more accurately reflected the direction they wanted to country to move. As with
previous elections, this one was very contentious. However, although the
winners were certainly happy this time, the losers weren’t just unhappy, they
were downright distraught. Some were acting as though the world would come to
an end. There was literally wailing and gnashing of teeth! I always wondered
what that looked like when I read it in the Bible—it’s quite ugly. Like I said
before, no one likes to lose but something very different has also taken place.
There are some on the losing side that are calling for the death of people who
voted for the winning side, assassination of the newly President-elect, and the
rape of his wife! Now that’s new even though it probably falls along the
trajectory of the “transformation” of the country that has regularly led to violent
protests and riots and the ruthless murder of innocent police officers over the
last eight years. Nevertheless, it still seems strange to me the way some
people are reacting to the results of this year’s Presidential election. Some
people are acting as though suddenly everything has been taken away and all
opportunities to prosper and thrive have vanished. I suppose it’s different for
me because of the home I was raised in.
My parents left
their family and friends and immigrated to America in the late 1950’s. They had
next to nothing, they were not well educated, they knew virtually no one here,
and didn’t speak any English. Nevertheless, they immediately went to work
through the help of a contact in the local German community and made a life for
themselves and my sisters. They eventually learned English, although they
always spoke German around the house, and they were always respected in the
community and always became some of the most valued employees wherever they
worked. It was rarely easy and there were always some forces that seemed to be
working against them but they just worked that much harder to get things done
and get what they wanted. They passed on a valuable lesson to me—Bloom Where You Are Planted! I got to
thinking about that in the life of Israel and their nomadic and often exilic and
tumultuous history. Whether they were slaves in Egypt of exiles in Babylon,
Israel always managed to flourish and prosper—not because of their
circumstances but in spite of them. Although Israel’s Exodus from Egypt has
always been celebrated as the penultimate event of divine intervention in their
history, their Babylonian exile is more illustrative that God always has a
plan. While God’s plan often includes pain, suffering and disappointment, His
ultimate objective is that we are blessed. So what does God expect of you when
life plants you in the desert of despair or among the jagged rocks of pain,
suffering and disappointment? Bloom
Where You Are Planted!
Subject Text
Jeremiah 29:4-14
4This
is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into
exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5“Build houses and settle down;
plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6Marry and have sons and
daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so
that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not
decrease. 7Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which
I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers,
you too will prosper.” 8Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God
of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you.
Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9They are
prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD. 10This
is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will
come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11For
I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and
not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12Then you
will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You
will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I
will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from
captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have
banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from
which I carried you into exile.”
Context
You might
say that God called Jeremiah to active duty in the 13th year of King Josiah of
Judah (ca. 627 B.C.). However, God had already set Jeremiah apart for the
office of a prophet before he was even born, in order to take God’s words to
all Israel and to the nations.
God gave Jeremiah the overview of his prophetic ministry
when He said: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day
set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down,
to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant” (Jer. 1:9-10).
Jeremiah grew up in a generation
that saw the tearing down of the pagan high places of worship—altars, pillars,
images and even some shrines that dated back to King Solomon (2 Kings
23:10-15). At the start of Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry, Judah’s King Josiah
had already begun to make major reforms in an effort to bring Judah back to
proper religious observance (2 Chronicles 34:3). When the long-missing Book of
the Law was discovered hidden in the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kings 22:3, 8),
Jeremiah devoted himself to preaching “the words of this covenant” to the
people in Jerusalem and throughout Judah (Jer. 11:1-8).
About a century earlier King
Hezekiah had led religious reforms in Judah (2 Kings 18:4), but his son
Manasseh promoted the vile practice of child sacrifice and worship of the “queen
of heaven” (Jer. 7:18; 44:19). This continued into Jeremiah’s time (Jer. 7:31;
19:5; 32:35). It was against this background that Jeremiah was appointed by God
to reveal the sins of the people and the dire consequences of ignoring them.
Ultimately, Josiah’s reforms were short-lived and couldn’t save Jerusalem from
God’s punishment because the sins of Manasseh had become so deeply embedded
(Jer. 15:4; 2 Kings 23:26-27). Judgment would now descend on Israel for the
sins of the people. Jeremiah witnessed the fulfillment of God’s warnings of
disaster, and he shared in the sorrow and troubles that followed the destruction
of Jerusalem. Soon after Josiah died, Babylon attacked Judah’s cities
repeatedly until the total destruction of Jerusalem. Jeremiah lived in Jerusalem
and witnessed the Babylonian brutality and destruction of Israel and the exile
of its people to Babylon (Jer. 37:4-5; 38:2, 28; 39:1).
Text Analysis
4This is what the LORD Almighty,
the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to
Babylon: 5“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what
they produce. 6Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for
your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons
and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7Also,
seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into
exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
The
fighting was over by the time we get to vv.
4-7 and Judah was the loser. They were conquered by Babylon whose army was
like a massive ocean wave that swept away everything in its path. Before the
Babylonians, the Assyrians were the masters of brutality. For example, they
took great joy in flaying their captives (slicing and stripping the skin and
flesh off a live human), or impaling them slowly, or beheading them, or cutting
off their hands, feet, noses, ears, tongues and other extremities, or burning
captives, especially women and children, alive. They ruled the region from the
middle of the 10th century B. C. until the early 7th
century B. C. when they were conquered by the Babylonians. Considering the brutality
of the Assyrians, imagine the brutality and ferocity that was needed by the
Babylonians to overthrow the Assyrians and you’ll get an idea of what it was
like to be conquered by the Babylonians. In short, Judah were utterly defeated
by a force they couldn’t resist so they had few choices but to make the best of
their situation.
However, it
is clear that even in the midst of their dire circumstance from the punishment
they brought on themselves, God was merciful. To prove that He hadn’t outright
rejected His chosen people, He gave them clear instructions to carry on with
their lives in much the same way as they had when they enjoyed the fruits of
occupying the Promised Land. As far as God was concerned, His plan for the
people of Judah/Israel was still moving forward and that meant that they were
to continue to grow in numbers and prosper otherwise. Don’t miss what’s
happening here. Israel’s identity was intimately tied to the Promised Land. To
them, being exiles was tantamount to being a non-people. However, from God’s
perspective, they were still His chosen people regardless of where they
resided. They occupied the Promised Land for their benefit not for God’s benefit.
God had a plan for them that included
occupying the Promised Land. However, that wasn’t the plan. God’s plan was for His chosen people to be faithful and
obedient to His commandments. When they failed to do so, God allowed them to be
exiled from the Promised Land. Being exiles was also a plan for them in order to realign their actions and attitudes to
once again conform to the plan. God
was primarily concerned with who they were as a people rather than where they
lived.
I have read
the Bible more times than I can remember and I always find myself shaking my
head when He leads me to a lesson that is so perfectly relevant to our daily
lives. Verse 7 makes perfect sense
for all peoples at all times. This can be a hard lesson to swallow when we find
ourselves living in a place that is not of our choosing. Mind you, this
principle applies to many areas of our lives not just our geographical locations.
Think about it—it can apply to the workplace you hate so much and feel trapped
in. Moving on to another jobs us usually an option by not necessarily the best
option. So try this: Seek the peace and prosperity of the company to which God
has carried you. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will
prosper. It can apply to your home. Abandoning your family relationships, or
any other relationship for that matter, is always an option but not necessarily
the best option. So try this: Seek the peace and prosperity of the
relationships to which God has carried you. Pray to the LORD for them, because
if they prosper, you too will prosper. Although Judah didn’t really have the
option of fighting, or running away or resisting captivity, they did have a
choice of how they would respond and God’s instructions was that they should
simply lean into the circumstances God led them into. If they blessed their
captors then they would be blessed as captives.
“Suffering
the loss of home, family, and freedom, removed from their king, temple, and
homeland, exiles are vulnerable to dreams conjured out of denial and promises
manufactured by human plots. When reality overtakes these first false hopes of
a short-term stay, chap. 29 offers spiritual resources for the long haul. These
resources remain powerful no matter how many generations one has lived in
exile…The LORD’s promises are like seeds of hope that are planted and grow into
fulfillment in gardens, in families, and in the course of human history. Exiles
still have the freedom to choose to live according to God’s plan…or to cut
themselves off from hope by disobedience or apostasy…
“The resources offered by this
chapter begin with an assurance of the divine blessing, which makes human life
possible—houses stand, crops grow, children are born and grow up, work has
tangible results. The external circumstances are far removed from humanity’s
first home in a fruitful garden, but the divine blessing and human task are
remarkably similar (compare Gen 1:28-29; 2:8-9; 15-16). The offer of a lively
relationship with God through prayer is the second resource. Prayers can be
made and will be heard, even in exile, where they do not rise with the smoke of
sacrifices and incense. Confidence in the LORD’s reign, even when it is
exercised through the foreign king instead of a descendant of David, is also a
resource for exiles…the place of exile can even substitute for Jerusalem as a
locus of temporal security, according to God’s plan
“Hope that seems beyond reach may
be abandoned in despair and apostasy, or it may grasp and be grasped in the
presence of the One who gives the blessings of life, answered prayer, and a
future even to exiles—especially to exiles.”[1]
8Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel,
says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not
listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9They are prophesying
lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD. 10This
is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will
come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.
Reality,
when it is painful or doesn’t conform to our desires, can be hard to accept for
all of us. Nevertheless, most of the time, for most of us, reality is just too
hard to avoid. Whether we have to come to terms with an illness, a dead-end
job, or a broken relationship, most of us eventually get around to facing
reality and making the best of it. However, reality, for some people is just
too hard to accept. So they build their lives on lies and accept whatever
propaganda supports those lies and lash out at anyone who threatens their false
reality or exposes the lies that form the foundation of their lives. The only
problem with a life constructed on lies is that it cannot survive and
eventually crumbles when it collides with reality. At some point the only way
to have real, authentic life is to face reality—even if that reality is painful
and unwanted.
There
were some among the Jews who apparently were self-proclaimed prophets bringing
God’s word to the people. Those prophets were telling the people that their
exile would be short and they would soon return to their own homes and should
resist the Babylonian authorities. Let me ask you a question, would you rather
hear good news or bad news? I know it’s a stupid question but I’m trying to
make a point. Sometimes reality is so hard to accept that people will accept
lies without any proof. There was absolutely no reason that the people should
have believed that their exile was going to be short. There was not way for
them to resist Babylon’s authority and rule. They were a conquered people; they
lost the war. The only prophet who correctly foretold that Judah would be
conquered and taken into exile was Jeremiah and he never told them their exile would
be short and he never encouraged them to resist Babylon’s rule. In fact,
Jeremiah’s instructions, which came directly from God, were the exact opposite
according to vv. 4-7. So God,
through Jeremiah, confronts them with the harsh reality that they would be in
exile for seventy years. However, with God, reality may be harsh but it is
never hopeless. After forcing them to face the reality that their exile would
be for seventy years, God leaves them with a message of hope that after seventy
years He would insure their return home to the Promised Land.
“Because
of his preaching, serious threats on his life stalked Jeremiah repeatedly.
Besides the opposition from his own family, a coalition of priests and prophets
charged him with blasphemy for predicting the temple’s destruction ([Jer] 26:1,
6)…
“Worst
of all, other prophets in Jerusalem—people more attuned to popular whims than
to God’s word—opposed Jeremiah. These false prophets contradicted Jeremiah’s
message, preaching peace and security instead of judgment. They were themselves
so deeply implicated in the sins of their fellow Jews that they could not cry
against them…They claimed to know the word of the Lord, but their claim was
empty…
“Jeremiah’s
dramatic conflict with the prophet Hananiah symbolizes the struggle between
true and false prophet ([Jer] 28: 1-17). Claiming divine inspiration, Hananiah
contradicted Jeremiah’s message that Judah and her neighbor nations should
submit to Babylon rather than rebel. He announced that captured Jews, including
King Jahoiachin, would return from Babylon within two years ([Jer] 28:2-5). It
takes little imagination to feel how such opposition rankled Jeremiah’s
righteous soul…
“Jeremiah
was personally honest, especially in his relationship with God. Unlike the
false prophets, he gave his hearers no glib answers, but wrestled with God to
be certain he really understood God’s word…Jeremiah combined a sensitivity to
his people’s suffering and a gracious humanity. His role as a prophet of doom
often clashed with his love for people and land. Judah’s refusal to repent and
indifference to imminent judgment put a knife through Jeremiah’s heart…
“Besides
his relentless preaching of doom. Jeremiah also saw hope for the future. The
hope rested not in the glib optimism of his prophetic peers but in God’s
sovereignty over history and his loyalty to Israel.”[2]
11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will
listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with
all your heart. 14I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and
will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and
places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back
to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
Let’s
first of all be careful to remember that these verses don’t specifically apply
to any of us. In essence, we’re reading someone else’s mail. However, that
doesn’t mean that there isn’t a principle at play here that doesn’t apply to
us. I don’t know that I’ve ever met anyone who has read the Bible who wouldn’t
say that vv. 11-14 are some of their
favorite verses. However, those people were usually basking in prosperity
already realized. I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who felt like the pain and
suffering of reality was crushing the life out of them that point to these
verses as their favorite verses. But that is precisely the context for these
verses. The Jews were marching toward seventy years of exile far from home.
Their city, homes, and the temple were destroyed and undoubtedly many lost
family and friends during Babylon’s military siege. Hope was probably the last
thing the Jews were feeling. Maybe anger, fear, grief, disbelief, sorrow, or
despair but probably not hope. But that’s exactly what these verses are trying
to convey and it all hinges on the first few words of v. 11—“For I know the plans I have for you.” If we can somehow
believe those words then the rest of God’s promise that follows can ignite a
flame of hope within us. We know in our heads that God is sovereign but if we
can internalize that understanding deep down in our hearts then we can begin to
recognize even the most painful events in our lives as falling within the
boundary of a sovereign God’s plan for our lives.
Let me make
something clear though about God’s “plan” for our lives. It can be hard to
accept that it was God’s plan for your child to be killed in a car accident. It
can be hard to accept that it was God’s plan for your marriage to fail. It can
be hard to accept that it is God’s plan for you to have to battle with cancer
or some other terrible illness or disability. It can be hard to accept that it
was God’s plan for you to be sexually assaulted. Here’s where we have to be
careful to make the distinction between what God “directs” within the boundary
of His plan and what He “allows.” Let me try to give you an example from my own
life.
It can be hard to
accept that it was God’s plan for me to be abused by an alcoholic father.
However, it can be easier to accept when understood that God “allowed” those
events to occur because He now “directs” me to minister to those who are
victims of abuse. While both fall within the boundary of His plan for my life,
He allowed the abuse so He could direct me in ministry. Unfortunately, for me,
and maybe for you, it can be hard to make a distinction between what God allows
and what God directs in the midst of the pain or grief or sorrow or despair or
fear. And that’s where the second half of v.
11 comes in—“Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you
hope and a future.” Whatever events God allows or directs to intervene in your
life, His overarching plan for your life is intended to give you hope and a
future. For Judah, part of that hope and future was for them to Bloom Where They Are Planted! in the
land of their exile.
Please
don’t fall into the trap of making an immediate correlation between God’s
promise of prosperity as a promise for personal wealth and enrichment.
Prosperity in this context should be broadly understood as God’s grace and
mercy toward His people even while they are being punished for their sins. We
get a fuller understanding of the promise of prosperity when we understand it
in the context of the second part of the promise that God’s plan is not to harm
us. A good parent that punishes his or her child for disobedience doesn’t do so
with the purpose of harming their child but to correct their child’s behavior
with the hope that that correction will lead to prosperity in the child’s life.
Prosperity can certainly include personal wealth and enrichment but it can also
mean receiving the strength to endure hardship, pain and suffering by promising
that our prayers will be heard by God and that one day, we will be set free
from the struggle of our circumstances.
“Christians
in the West have largely become repulsed by the tragic elements of life, and in
so doing lose the opportunity, in facing tragedy, to experience the divine
depths of faith and hope that spring from…Christ. They never get to know what
it means to cling to God in the dark.
“Running
from darkness and tragedy, one loses that most precious gift, that feeling,
that thrill that makes us most human; the joy at seeing the first rays of a
long awaited dawn after a long, dark night. Instead, we keep our self-made
night lights on.”[3]
Application
As
I said at the beginning, there are some people who after nearly a week are still
despondent about the results of our most recent Presidential election—some even
despairing of life itself. Even though they have no idea what the future holds,
they fear that it can’t be good whatever it is. This can be really difficult
for unbelievers who put their faith and trust in sinful human beings and the flawed
institutions they create. But this shouldn’t be the attitude of Christians.
Instead, “In a time of drastic change one can be too preoccupied with what is
ending or too obsessed with what seems to be beginning. In either case one
loses touch with the present and with its obscure but dynamic possibilities.
What really matters is openness, readiness, attention, courage to face risk.
You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all
going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered
by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.”[4]
[1] Gerald
L. Keown, Pamela J. Scalise, and Thomas G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-53—Word Biblical Commentary, (Dallas, TX: Word Books,
1995), 80-81.
[2] William
Sanford LaSor, David Allan Hubbard, and Frederic William Bush, Old Testament Survey: The Message, Form, and
Background of the Old Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing, 1996), 330, 332-334.
[3] Tom
Neal, “Bloom Where You’re Planted,” Word
on Fire, October 10, 2016. Accessed November 13, 2016. https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/bloom-where-youre-planted/4640/.
[4] Thomas
Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,
(New York, NY: Doubleday Religion, 1966).
(Audio version; Music: "Nothing Like Your Love" and "Hope Of The World" by: Hillsong United)
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