“Even in Exile”

Scripture: Jeremiah 29:4-14

In our last look at God’s word to Judah through Jeremiah, we consider a portion of the letter that the prophet wrote to the exiles in Babylon. The message is quite different from the words he delivered earlier in this book – we no longer see the condemnation and mourning that seemed to dominate the earlier chapters. Now we see words of hope and encouragement. Now we see words of prosperity.
It’s almost as thought the Lord had set all of the sins of Judah behind Him, and was now giving the people a reason to look forward to the day when they would again see Him as their one and only God. He wanted them to know that even in exile, there is hope.

Read Jeremiah 29:4-7

It would seem that the time in exile was intended to be a period of growth and restoration for the people.

Larry Kreider, in his book “Bottom-Line Faith” writes:

God shook Jonah -- the bottom dropped out of his plans.

God shook the apostles -- the vibrations didn't stop until they reached heaven.

An unshaken bottle creates a sour sediment like that at the bottom of a wine vat. This was the picture of Moab in Jeremiah 48:11: Moab had been at rest from youth, like wine left on its dregs, not poured from one jar to another--she had not gone into exile. So she tasted as she did, and her aroma was unchanged. The nation of Moab had become stale, flat and sour because she was sedimentary, calcified, hardened.
God restores people and nations by shaking them up. Where this shaking leads is known only to God .... Shaking, then, is a sign of God's involvement in our lives. If things aren't a little turbulent, we may wonder if God is ignoring us. He doesn't shake just for the sake of shaking. There is a reason. The stuff of life is being rearranged, and people are going to be effected.

--Larry Kreider, Bottom-Line Faith (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1995), 195-96.

Who here has ever poured a glass of juice without shaking the bottle first? I love tomato juice, and have a large glass nearly every morning. But before the cap comes off, I always give the bottle a twist up and down to remix it – and not just the first time I open it, but every time. If you are pouring natural orange juice, you want to remix the pulp and the juice before pouring, so you give it a shake. If we don’t do this, the good stuff remains on the bottom and the stuff you wind up with in your glass is usually a bit thin and nowhere near as good as it could be.

That was the case with the exiles of Judah – they were being remixed. Their faith - that “good stuff” that had sat on the bottom of their lives for so many years - was being reintroduced throughout the fabric of their lives. And the Lord didn’t want them to mourn and lament the loss of their glory days back home. For the next 70 years, Babylon was to be seen as more than just a prison existence, more than a punishment – they were to see this place as their home. They were to help this foreign land to prosper, and if they did, they would, too.
Hardly a conventional approach to exile!

Read Jeremiah 29:8-9

No matter where we are in life, there are always the nay-sayers. We aren’t told exactly what these false prophets and diviners were saying, but we can imagine. They were taking a stand in direct opposition to what God was telling them, so it was probably something like “Don’t help them, don’t cooperate, don’t give any aid to the enemy. If you can, plan an escape and return to our land the best way you possibly can.”
This was the military response to being a POW. Only give your name, rank and serial number, and get out of there if you can. But it wasn’t God’s response. Judah was in this place for a reason, and it wasn’t to be a chastening – it was to be a time of renewal. Jeremiah was telling them to stop listening to those who are saying things that were in total opposition to what God was telling them!

But how do we know which is which? The truth is that it can only come through prayer and personal discernment. All too often, we listen to what others think we should do, and never take the time to pray about our own situation. Judah had just begun their time away – their “retreat of renewal”, if you will – and the Lord had to get them on the right track right from the start. “Don’t cause trouble – live as if this were your own home. Marry, have children, build homes, make a life for yourself and your family right where you are!”

Where has our lives taken us? Do we feel as though we are in a foreign land, a waste land, some place we didn’t want to go to and want to get out of in the worst way? It may not be an especially pleasant place, but maybe it is offering us the opportunity for renewal. Maybe this is a time to step back and reflect on why we are here, and what we need to change if we are ever to get out! Maybe it’s a time for growth, and not for self sacrifice. Maybe it’s a time to stop our head long rush in life, and begin to spend a little more time with the Lord.

Read Jeremiah 29:10-14

“You’re going to go home, but until that time comes, I want you to live your life as though you already are home!”

Judah was to spend 70 years as a divided nation. Some were still in the land, continuing to work the fields and vineyards, providing tribute to the conquerors and gaining very little for themselves. But those who were taken to Babylon were to grow and prosper in their banishment. This would be the time when the concept of the synagogue would come into its own and the people would begin to discover that study and worship could occur even when they were absent from the temple.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel would not fare as well. Some would return, but most would be assimilated into Assyrian society, and would be lost. Even some in Babylon would choose to remain behind in the new life that they had made for themselves. Regardless, the time in captivity would turn out to be one in which the people would have to make many decisions and choices. Some would be good, some would not, but it would certainly be a time of discovering just who they were.

Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation, asking yourself the question “Why has God allowed this to happen to me?” Remember that sometimes it is just our “free will”, or the free will of others, that has caused us so many trials, but sometimes it is the Lord giving us the opportunity to get back in touch with Him. But how do we know which is which? Through prayer, reflection, meditation, discernment. And when our time in “exile” is over, He will welcome us back into His glorious plan, showering us with blessings and hope and His divine promise. And what will come of it?

Let me read vs. 12-14 again.
v.12 – “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” Two way communications between the people and their Jehovah would be restored. No longer would God be offering warnings, with the people ignoring them all.
v.13 –“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Faith could no longer be skin deep – it had to be heartfelt, it had to be honest, it had to be intentional.
v. 14 – “I will be found by you, and will bring you back from captivity.” The “finding” is up to the people, not God! He already knows where we are! But when we do find Him, when we finally know and accept His will for our lives, it is then that we will find ourselves on the road that leads us home.

Even when we are in that proverbial “far country”, God is with us. He has a plan for our lives that will never be taken away. It is a plan of glory, it is a plan of prosperity, it is a plan that offers incredible hope for our lives. And we will discover it when we pray to Him, when we seek Him with our whole heart, when we finally find that He has been with us throughout our entire ordeal. And what a glorious discovery that will be.

Are you on your way home yet?