This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” [Jeremiah 29:10-11 (NLT)]
Jeremiah 29 consists of two letters written by the prophet to the exiles in Babylon. The first (29:1-28) was sent to the recently deported elders, priests, and prophets as well as to King Jehoiachin, his mother, and the officials, craftsmen, and artisans who’d been taken as Nebuchadnezzar’s captives several years earlier. Countering the message of the false prophets promising a quick return to Jerusalem from Babylon, Jeremiah bluntly told the exiles that Israel’s captivity would last seventy years. This was unwelcome news and, preferring to believe comforting lies rather than the painful truth, people accused Jeremiah of being crazy and a false prophet. The second letter in this chapter addresses one of his accusers.
It was important for the exiles to understand both the reason for and the duration of their captivity and, unlike the phony prophets, Jeremiah was not about to give them false hope. If the deportees continued believing their exile would be brief, they’d fail to make lives for themselves in Babylon. Not wanting anything to hinder a swift departure, they wouldn’t acquire possessions, practice their trades, commit to marriage and children, or work the land. Moreover, the false hope of a speedy return to Jerusalem could cause the exiles to provoke their captors. Nebuchadnezzar was not about to tolerate insurrection and God wanted His people to thrive in captivity, not be destroyed in a rebellion! Rather than fall into despair at Jeremiah’s news, the Lord told His people to move on with their lives and put down roots in Babylon—to build homes, plant gardens, marry, and have children.
Jeremiah’s prophecy of a lengthy captivity didn’t leave the exiles without hope. Both their exile and release had been foretold and, once Israel repented and returned to the Lord, their captivity would end. The Lord promised to bring his people home after their seventy years of judgment; He would gather them and restore them to their land. Promising them “a future and a hope,” God’s plan for His people was for their welfare, not disaster. The promised future and hope, however, went far beyond a return to Judah and the restoration of Jerusalem. In Jeremiah 30 to 33, in what is called “The Book of Consolation,” we find prophecies that go far beyond Judah’s immediate situation and point to the Messianic Age and both the first and second comings of Christ!
While we never may be captives in a pagan country as were the Judeans, we can find ourselves feeling like “captives” in a location we’d rather not be, a situation we don’t like, or doing what we’d rather not be doing. The loss of a spouse, child, job, financial security, or physical ability can exile us to a “new normal” and leave us feeling like victims in a tragic story. God didn’t want the Israelites defined by their tragedy nor does He want us to be defined by ours. Like the exiles, we have a choice of how we respond to the calamities, heartbreaks, and loss that are part of this fallen world. We can give into bitterness, anger, self-pity, and despair or we can settle into our new normal, make the most of a bad situation, and claim God’s promise of “a future and a hope.” God did not forget the Judeans in their exile and He will not forget us in ours!
In a cartoon drawn by Paul Noth, an enormous political billboard overlooks a pasture inhabited by a flock of sheep. Looking up at the picture of a grinning wolf in coat and tie saying, “I am going to eat you!” one sheep tells another, “He tells it like it is.” Would that all politicians were so forthright!
Joe Btfsplk was a character in Al Capp’s Lil’ Abner comic strip. With a last name that sounds likes what’s known as a “raspberry” or “Bronx cheer,” the poor man had a dark cloud of perpetual bad luck hanging over his head. Btfsplk no longer appears in the comics but I think his dark cloud of misfortune has settled over the head of a dear friend I’ll call JB (in honor of Capp’s luckless character). Since JB’s retirement, if something could go wrong, it has and, as soon as one challenge resolves, another one appears. When I saw the photos from his most recent mishap, JB looked as if he’d been tossed around in a giant rock tumbler filled with broken glass and boulders.
Several years ago, two friends joined the ranks of widowhood within a week of one another. Because her husband surrendered to cancer several months earlier by stopping all treatment, one woman was not surprised when she joined the club. The other woman, however, went to bed a wife and awoke the next morning to find herself a widow. Despite his looking the picture of health, her husband, having suffered a fatal stroke while she slept, lay dead on the kitchen floor.
After feeding a multitude with little more than a handful of food, Jesus sent the disciples across the Sea of Galilee to Bethsaida. He stayed behind to send the people home and then, exhausted, went into the mountains to pray. During the fourth watch (somewhere between 3:00 and 6:00 AM), Jesus looked out at the water and saw that the disciples were struggling against the wind and waves to keep the boat on course. Seeing their distress, he walked on the water toward them. Seeing Him walking on water, they thought Him a ghost and cried out in terror. Phantoms of the night were said to bring disaster and it was thought that the last thing a boatman saw before drowning in Galilee was a ghost on the water! It’s no wonder they were frightened at first.
Whenever I asked about her boys, my sister would give a vague answer like, “They’re fine…just doing their own thing” It was several years before I learned “their own thing” meant they were breaking her mama’s heart with their mental illness, addictions, and run-ins with the law. Because she kept her pain concealed, she carried the weight of that burden alone for many years.
Devotions of the Heart 