August 27, 2001
This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried
into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant
gardens and eat what they produce. 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.
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."
Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ... snip ... snip ..."
This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon,
I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.
For 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.
Jeremiah 29:4-11
God's timing amazes me.. As I've gone through Jeremiah I get just the right lesson at just the right time... I've long loved verses 11-12 for the hope that it offers but today as I read through the first half of the chapter I saw even more of God's heart. As the nation was carried into exile in Babylon God gave them instructions to make the most of their situation. He tells them as they go into captivity, under the cruelest nation that ever existed, that they are to make the most of it.. build homes, settle, down raise large families. Then he tells them to seek the peace and prosperity of the city... he's telling them that rather than be bitter and grumbling about the circumstance that they find themselves in they need to take ownership and responsibility of this place they find themselves in.. make the most of it, make it work... i.e. "bloom where they are planted"... despite the fact that it's not their ideal garden spot! They are not to get discouraged, give up or give in... no hopelessness is allowed here!! Wow, but that must have been something to try and grasp. All these years later we can see what God was doing... he wanted the nation to continue to grow so that when he brought them back into the land they would be strong and populous enough to do the rebuilding and to take care of the land. God asked them to have that attitude on the strength of the fact that God has a plan for them.. they had no idea what it was (of course if they had really been listening they would have known - but that a whole other lesson). It needed t be enough for them that God had a plan! Today this helps me as I've hit a tough spot emotionally and felt I can't do this anymore - it's too hard. It helps me to see that God allows all these things for a time, for a season. He is and always has been faithful to his promise to not give more that I can handle. The moment may be tough, but it won't last forever. God asks me to endure the tough moment, to work through it and to draw the lessons from it... all of this on the strength of the fact (the truth, knowledge, promise) that he has a plan for my life and this is part of it. I don't always like it or enjoy it but what I need to do is to work to 'bloom' in the midst of it. That is easier said than done... but not impossible. So today, in this moment it is enough for me that God is in control and that he knows the plan he has for me.