Jeremiah 29.1-14 - "Bloom Where You're Exiled"
“Bloom Where You’re Exiled” — Jeremiah 29 — 9.15.19
The question for us this morning is: “What do you do while you’re waiting?” If you know something is getting ready to happen, yet you’re living in the time between finding out and it actually happening, what do you do? How you wait is paramount in the Christian life. It has been common to refer to this time between the first and second coming of Jesus as the Church in Exile. That is, we are waiting for hastening the coming of the Lord—to use Peter’s language. We have experienced the already of salvation from sin, but live in the not-yet of it’s final consummation. So how do you wait?
Have you ever heard of the “bird cherry”? It has developed over time and depends on being eaten and carried away by birds for its growth and flourishing. It exists throughout England, because it is taken from its home to a strange place so that it can receive light and water and not be crowded out by other seedlings. So it is with this Exile. Rather than be clustered in Jerusalem, God had eaten them and carried them away. For their good.
The main idea of our passage today is Bloom Where You’re Exiled. You and I are called to live and serve and act in anticipation of what is coming. We are not meant to fold our hands and arms and wear a frown at the way the world is. Rather, we look forward to God’s promise of deliverance by getting busy living under his reign.
So it’s happened. {2Ki 24.8-17} The Exile promised by Jeremiah for the last 28 chapters has happened. King Jehoiachin (grandson of the great and pious King Josiah) and the shepherds we heard about last week and many of the well to-do have been taken into Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah is left in Jerusalem with a puppet king with the ironic name, Zedekiah—the Lord is Righteous. And he sends this letter to encourage those in Exile.
Jeremiah 29.1-14
Like the Israelite Exiles, we are called to Bloom Where We’re Exiled. We see that the place you live, the people you interact with everyday, the job you have right now, the work God has called you to right now is not by chance any more than Israel being in Exile is by chance. Definitely the Lord uses means to get you to where you are, v. 1: “whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into Exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.” // But behind that instrument is the hand of God, v. 4: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into Exile from Jerusalem to Babylon”
You and I have to come to terms with the fact that God is heaven and he does whatever he pleases (Psa 115.3). Only then, after embracing his divine right to do as he pleases can we then hear this word of comfort. Otherwise, we’ll continue to indict and wag our finger at him, thinking that we know better. This was the error of the false prophets.
Once we grasp that, we can understand that we are to Bloom Where We’re Exiled. So what does it mean to Bloom in the place of Exile? There are really two points that we see that support this idea of Blooming. First, we are called to Preserve. Second, we are called to Produce.
1) Preserve.
God has sent his people into a foreign land to serve a foreign people. They had run after other gods and they are reaping what they sowed. But God tells them in v.5: Build houses and live in them. Marry. Continue living. Because I am there as well. Remember the Temple is destroyed and I do not live there, but I am ever alive. I am God over all the earth. I own the Babylonians just as much as I own you. So live your life and preserve the fabric of society for their welfare. You may be called a square because you don’t give into sensualities and temptations. You may be called a bigot because you refuse to approve of idolatries.
This is the sentiment Jesus echoed when he called his Church the salt of the earth. Salt is used to preserve meat and food for people’s benefit. Just because you live in enemy territory, that doesn’t mean you’re meant to look around you and let people fester and rot.
So how do we preserve? We live obediently to what we know is true independent of whether it will benefit us. This doesn’t have to be loud and obnoxious. // It can be the faithful kind of living that Daniel and Shadrach and Meshach and Obednego modeled. They wouldn’t disobey God’s command, though they knew it would mean death. // Our brothers and sisters refused to bow to Caesar. // Even now, our brothers and sisters eek out a subsistence in subSaharan Africa, refusing to take bribes or cut corners. // For us, preserving means to not lie, cheat, or steal from whoever we work for. It means saying that living with your boyfriend is not good. Not because we are more righteous! No, because it is not good for you. God has not given us rules to constrict and choke out life any more than rails do so for a train. Indeed, God has graciously given us his parameters so we aren’t disintegrated by our stubborn hearts. He holds us together. Not running after whatever fickle fancies we have today.
We don’t do this bombastically. But we live faithful and quiet and steady lives. We don’t have to put offensive signs in front of our church. We don’t try to get on the news. But if we do, we don’t yell and scream and degrade. Instead, we plead like Jeremiah “Be reconciled to God. Why will you die?”
This word “welfare” is a familiar one to our congregation because it’s a familiar one throughout the Bible. The word is also the word for peace. Shalom. V.7: Seek the shalom of the city where I have sent you into Exile.
// This kind of preserving can be seen in 1930’s Nazi Germany. // Hitler had just sanctioned the National German Church and sought to rid the Church of all Jewish influence. It was yet another way of controlling. But there were a few that stood up and sought to preserve the name “Church” and wrest it from his fists. They wrote a very brief and to-the-point Declaration called the Barmen Declaration—because they met in Barmen, Germany.
And they addressed this idea in 1Peter 2.17, “Fear God. Honor the Emperor.” The same issue Israel had to wrestle with while serving a Babylonian King. The same issue Roman Christians had to reckon with under Caesar. The same one we have to wrestle with when the government seeks to supplant the Church.
The Church acknowledges the benefit of this divine appointment in gratitude and reverence before him. But we call to mind the Kingdom of God, God's commandment and righteousness, and thereby the responsibility both of rulers and of the ruled. It trusts and obeys the power of the Word by which God upholds all things.
“We are thankful, but don’t go against God’s laws.” In the same way, when we see unrighteous and unholy laws that violate God’s command, we must speak. When we see false prophets prophesying we must tell them to be silent. We must not listen to them (v.9). We must preserve. But not only this, we are called to…
2. Produce
We see this producing language throughout our text. We heard it last week of being fruitful and multiplying. This has always been the call of God’s people.
V. 5: Plant gardens and eat their produce. Marry. Have children. Marry some more! Multiply there. And why are they not to just hold tight? Because the default is not to stare up at the sky and wait for the Lord’s redemption. We are to keep oil in the lamps. And these lamps are to light and bless others…in the place of our Exile.
Instead of licking our wounds, God calls us to exercise faith in his purposes. Faith in his timing. Faith in him. Because in spite of the dark clouds, we know his purposes for us. V. 11: “Plans for welfare (i.e., shalom) and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. THEN you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you.” Sometimes his plans are for you to suffer the plundering of your property (Heb 10.34). Sometimes it means death (Luke 21.16-18). Every time it’s so that you can have more of him! Seek me and find me.
God’s people were always intended to be a working people. A people who labor under his gracious yoke. A people who find rest from their labors of righteousness. Like Israel we were never intended just to get by. Just to subsist. Sure, there may be days you feel like you’re just hanging on. You may feel like your loads are too heavy. But God is calling you to stop relying on your ability to be all buttoned up and cleaned up. He calling you to stop blaming your circumstances and other people. What are you waiting for? Conditions will never be perfect. Peter said we wait for and hasten the coming of the Lord. Hasten: plant, water, prune, plow, teach, mend, sow, harvest.
Mother: love and teach next generation to see the glory of God in an acorn
Father: work faithfully to provide showing God’s faithful provision
Single person: use your time to serve and give your life away
Doctor: listen, treat patients as image bearers of God and heal.
Fast food operator: smile and love ungrateful patrons
Retired person: use your time to volunteer at after school programs.
Children: use your time wisely. Serve your neighbor freely.
Mundane faithfulness in the face of difficulty is beautiful because it’s part of a magnificent story if God’s redemption.
Instead, he’s calling you to be faithful and fruitful with what you do have. Until we see Jesus’ face, we will be in Exile. But we can still see beauty in others’ faces. We work in the strength that he supplies so HE gets the glory. We seek wholeness for our neighbors. What has God laid on your heart? Don’t be afraid to try and fail! Don’t be afraid of what might happen. Dream of what could happen!