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Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Friday, February 15, 2008

Jeremiah 29

Long ago a man named Joseph waited for his deliverance from an Egyptian prison. He had accurately interpreted the dream of Pharaoh’s cupbearer, but that official seemed to have forgotten him. Many years later on a Roman cross the God-Man met what seemed to be His end. All of His disciples were soon scattered and in the darkness He breathed His last as some women and a Roman centurion considered what they were seeing in what appeared to be the pitiful end of the most promising life. Later still a man named Paul, once known as Saul, a citizen of the capital city of the empire was under house arrest in that city. He had already faced beatings, shipwreck, insults, trials, and much imprisonment. His race appeared to be almost over, and he poured out his life as a drink offering to Almighty God.

Is there any future for such men? Is there any hope for those who seem to be at the end of the line, and yet somehow far short of the destination that they are seeking? In this chapter the prophet Jeremiah writes to the captives in exile. There was more than one wave of deportation in the history of Judah. The final siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple have not yet taken place. God uses this written message to bring a sure word of hope and an important message of warning to His people who are so far from home.

The prophet writes to the surviving elders of the exiles, and He identifies His words as the true message of the Lord of Hosts. He tells them to build houses in the land of captivity and to live in them. They should plant gardens and enjoy the fruit of their labor. They should marry and give in marriage, and they should have children. You do not do things like this unless you believe that there will be a future. God clearly tells His people in Babylon that they should seek the peace and prosperity of the place where they are currently living. The elders that Jeremiah addresses will largely die in the land of captivity, but many of their descendants will return and will begin a new life in the land from which their fathers and grandfathers were cast out.

It will be seventy years before the return takes place. Seventy years is very different from two years. A man who believes that he will live in a foreign land for seventy years lives very differently that a man who believes that he will come home within two years. God has plans for his exiled people. These plans are sure, but they are not necessarily within the lifetime of those to whom he writes. They are plans that lay out a future and a hope. They are something to stretch toward as Joseph stretched toward the Promised Land when he instructed his surviving descendants to carry his bones back to Canaan when God would eventually bring the people out of the land of Egypt. That was a multi-generational promise.

To be sure, the Lord was with His people in Babylon. But one day He would be with their descendants again in Jerusalem in a new temple, where His presence would again be known in the place that He designated for their worship together as His people. This was the word of hope for them, but there was also a necessary note of warning. There were false prophets that were spreading lies in God’s name, giving false hopes to His people, false hopes that would distract them from their present duties. These false prophets had to be ignored.

One other important component of the letter was the necessary account of life back in the land of their former days. Should they envy the people that were not taken away as captives? God assures His people in Babylon that it is far better for them to be there at this time, since the people who remained in the land of Judah only face grave danger, trouble, and death.

Finally the letter speaks of specific individuals who have spoken falsely concerning Jeremiah and concerning those who prophesy lies. They have made a big mistake and will have no part in the hope that has been announced. It is a devastating thing to be cut off from the hope that the Lord gives to His people as they go through this world of present suffering. Our joy now is tied to our hope. To lose hope is to lose joy.

When Jesus spoke to His disciples about the future, he spoke of some things that would happen in their lifetimes, and of some things that would be for another day, beyond the mortal lives of those who first heard His words. Shortly after he spoke to them of these things, He himself would be the Man abandoned by His friends and on display as a capital criminal. He could have come down from that cross, but He persevered in perfect hope, knowing that the God who seemed to forsake Him on the cross, had in fact made perfect promises to Him of a future and a hope that was secure, not only for Him, but for a multitude of others who have been grafted in to the security of these divine promises.

Today we may feel very far from the land of promise since our citizenship is in heaven and we are here now. We need to seek the peace and prosperity of the place where we now live. We can enjoy the gifts that God gives us here, and plan for our future together, and for that of our posterity with the confidence that our place in a far greater land is secure through the blood of Immanuel, who kept on going when it may have seemed to others that all was lost.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

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