Jeremiah 29

A Future With Hope

Posted on by Betsy

Batman and Robin decided to go camping. They set up their tent out in the woods and went to sleep. A couple of hours later, Batman woke his faithful friend. “Robin, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.” Robin, who is used to these midnight lessons, replied, “I see millions of stars.” “What does that tell you?” asked Batman. Robin pondered for a minute. “Well, astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Chronologically, it appears to be about 3:15AM. Theologically, it’s evident that God is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant.”

“Why?” continued Robin. “What does it tell you, Batman?” Batman is silent for a moment, then speaks. “Robin, you’re an idiot. It means somebody stole our tent while we were sleeping.”

How many of you grew up watching the television show “Batman?” Batman began as a comic book, evolved to TV, and is the recent subject of several new movies. This story is first told in a twelve-frame comic strip in 1939 in issue #27 of Detective Comics. Bruce Wayne and his parents were walking home from the theater when an armed robber accosted them. His father stepped in front of his mother and took a bullet. Then the gunman turned the gun on his mother while Bruce watched. The robber ran away, leaving Bruce standing over his dead parents. His guilt and life-long suffering over standing by helplessly while his parents were murdered turns the boy Bruce Wayne into the superhero crime-fighter Batman. He dedicated his life to stopping criminals and defending the weak.

Batman’s life is a statement about how we can use suffering to give us purpose and to make us stronger while we wait on an unknown future that is way off on the horizon. This little story is also a reminder that sometimes you have to get out from under the tent to truly see what is on the horizon.

Jeremiah 29:11 (New Revised Standard Version)

11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

Jeremiah was an Old Testament prophet who served God during a time of great discord in Israel. He was called to warn the kingdom of Judah about the coming destruction by the Babylonians. God was allowing this to happen due to Israel’s apostasy. Even with this impending doom, Jeremiah had the ability to see beyond the immediate to the future with hope.

I am reminded of a story one of my pastors told about the first time he took his 6 year old daughter on a cruise ship. As they made their way out to sea, she looked left to right and then right to left and exclaimed, “Oh Daddy! I can see as far as I can look!” Her first view of an unlimited horizon was breathtaking.

So should ours be.

God has prepared an unlimited horizon for us that includes a resurrection body, a new Eden, peace, and fellowship with him. So no matter what troubles you today, look up! See the stars. Watch the horizon. Be encouraged. This life is not all there is.

Get out from under your tent.

Unlimited Horizon by Michelle Robertson

To-Do Lists

Posted on by Betsy

In the year A.D. 403 a 16-year-old Christian boy from Wales was abducted by pirates and taken to Ireland where he was enslaved for five years. Eventually he escaped from this exile and joined a monastery in southern France. There he changed his name to Patrick and intended to live out his life as a monk.

But at the age of 45, God called Patrick to return to Ireland and carry the gospel to his former oppressors. Patrick went and invested the remainder of his life in serving the Irish. During the next 31 years he baptized more than 120,000 people as Christians.

In Ireland they still say of Patrick that “he found Ireland all heathen and he left it all Christian.” The church made him a saint.

While he was in his Irish exile, St. Patrick prayed for his enemies. He prayed for the prosperity of the land where he was trapped. In that exile, St. Patrick evangelized a nation. In his exile, he GOT TO WORK.

Our passage today is a letter to the Hebrew exiles in Babylon written by the prophet Jeremiah, who remained in Jerusalem. They must have been excited to receive a letter from home in their strange and foreign land! I imagine they were hoping to catch up on all the news and maybe receive a word of encouragement about God’s imminent deliverance.

Instead, they got a to-do list.

Jeremiah 29  (New International Version)

This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. It said:

4 This 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. 6 Marry 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.

Wait, come again? We’re stuck here waiting for rescue and you want us to settle down? Build houses? Marry off our children?? 

To the estranged and hopeless diaspora, this letter must have come as quite a shock. Then it gets worse.

 7 Also, 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.”

So in the midst of their despair, Jeremiah instructs them to pray for their oppressor. To pray for their unwanted city. To pray for the people who are holding them captive. And in thus praying, they would also seek peace.

This abrupt message to the exiles is a good lesson for us today. Our communities live in exiles of their own making based on political divisions that have eroded our oneness. We don’t love our neighbors like we used to, based on the flags they fly and the bumper stickers they sport. Many are estranged from their extended families and even our water cooler chats at work are fraught with danger. What to do?

Build. 

Plan. 

Adapt. 

Pray. 

Seek peace in places that you aren’t expecting to find it.

Get to work!

At the appointed time, the exiles were returned to the comfort of their homes. At the appointed time, we too will be delivered from our political exiles. In the meantime, get to work on evangelizing like Patrick, planning like Jeremiah, and loving like Jesus.

Ospreys at Work by Michelle Robertson

Get to Work

Posted on by Betsy

In the year A.D. 403 a 16-year-old Christian boy from Wales was abducted by pirates and taken to Ireland where he was enslaved for five years. Eventually he escaped from this exile and joined a monastery in southern France. There he changed his name to Patrick and intended to live out his life as a monk.

But at the age of 45, God called Patrick to return to Ireland and carry the gospel to his former oppressors. Patrick went and invested the remainder of his life in serving the Irish. During the next 31 years he baptized more than 120,000 people as Christians.

In Ireland they still say of Patrick that “he found Ireland all heathen and he left it all Christian.” The church made him a saint.

While he was in his Irish exile, St. Patrick prayed for his enemies. He prayed for the prosperity of the land where he was trapped. In that exile, St. Patrick evangelized a nation. In his exile, he GOT TO WORK.

Our passage today is a letter to the Hebrew exiles in Babylon written by the prophet Jeremiah, who remained in Jerusalem. They must have been excited to receive a letter from home in their strange and foreign land! I imagine they were hoping to catch up on all the news and maybe receive a word of encouragement about God’s imminent deliverance.

Instead, they got a to-do list.

Jeremiah 29  (New International Version)

This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. It said:

4 This 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. 6 Marry 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.

Wait, come again? We’re stuck here waiting for rescue and you want us to settle down? Build houses? Marry off our children??

To the estranged and hopeless diaspora, this letter must have come as quite a shock. Then it gets worse.

 7 Also, 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.”

So in the midst of their despair, Jeremiah instructs them to pray for their oppressor. To pray for their unwanted city. To pray for the people who are holding them captive. And in thus praying, they would also seek peace.

This abrupt message to the exiles is a good lesson for us today. The pandemic has come with an exile of its own. We can’t live life as we normally do. We are estranged from our extended families, we can’t travel, we are stuck in our homes, and we’re about ready to run out of Netflix. What to do?

Build.

Plan.

Adapt.

Pray.

Seek peace in places that you aren’t expecting to find it.

GET TO WORK.

At the appointed time, the exiles were returned to the comfort of their homes. At the appointed time, we too will be delivered from our pandemic exile. In the meantime, get to work on evangelizing like Patrick, planning like Jeremiah, and loving like Jesus.

We are one day closer to the end of this thing. Thanks be to God!

Finding Peace in a Distant Land by Mona Tice