“A Letter From Home”

Jeremiah 29:1-14

Quest for Best - living by faith in the opportunities or
circumstances you are given this very day


INTRODUCTION:

Indonesian Journals - letters - 6 years - inspiration - Waltke - Honor Mother & Father - 5th commandment. Honor = “show them how much they mean to you.” Letters - good source of reflection and remembering. Great value in taking up pen and paper all this, background for Jereniah’s experience - pen & paper - letter to exiles in Babylon (vs. 2)

In his letter, Jeremiah expresses another variation in our theme thru this book - Quest for Life at its Best. Jer. 29 - Life at its Best is a life of faith in the opportunities and circumstances you are given this very day!

What kind of opportunities has God given you today to exercise faith and trust Him? To live well means to be tuned in some respected to today. To say it another way - Modern theologian with legions of followers, Mr. Calvin of Calvin and Hobbs -
“Live for the Moment” is MY motto. You never know how long you’ve got! You could step into the road tomorrow and - WHAM - you get hit by a cement truck! Then you’d be sorry you put off your pleasures! That’s why I say “Live for the Moment” What’s your motto? (Hobbs) “Look down the road.”
Hobbs motto appears to be wish - But Calvin has a point - especially in our hurried, go-go-go way of life. Let’s see how Jeremiah makes the point -

In his letter - Jeremiah 29 - Jeremiah gives instruction and encouragement.
Instruction vs. 4-9 encouragement vs. 10-14

(Background of the letter)
vs. 3 - Letter comes to exiles from Elasah and Gemariah. These two - on a mission for King Zedekiah to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. Jer. entrusts his letter to them.
Exiles - children of Israel - disobedient so long - Deut. 28 comes to bear. Before we look at Jer’s instruction and encouragement to these people - put your imagination to work for a minute. What would it be like to be an exile? To be a So. Viet - to be Kuwaiti?
Someone you don’t like to be around. Someplace you can’t stand to be. Put these two together. You have an initial feeling for what it was like for these exiles. Then ADD in - shock (state) - fear (experience) - foreigness (feel)
They don’t fit - out of place - can’t function. not needed - feel insignificant and useless and worthless.

One commentator sees the Israelites describing their lot this way:
We can’t understand the language we don’t like the food; the manners of the Babylonians are boorish; the schools are sub-standard; there are no decent places to worship; the plains are barren; the weather is atrociously hot; the temples are polluted with immorality; everyone speaks with an accent. They complained bitterly about the terrible circumstances in which they were forced to live. They longed, acheingly, for Jerusalem. They wallowed in self-pity, what Robertson Davies calls the “harlot emotion.”

It is to people like this - feeling these kinds of things - that Jer’s letter comes.

I. HIS INSTRUCTIONS vs. 4-9
a. build houses
b. plant gardens
c. marry and have children and raise families
d. seek the welfare of Babylon
e. don’t be led away by false prophets who proclaim to you the dreams you encourage them to have.

In essence - Jer is saying -
(5) this is not a weekend excursion to Brown Country
make yourself at home in Babylon - not favorite spot but it is your current lot.
find a house and remodel it. (hire Bab. architect - build relationships with neighbors) Build a new one - make the best of it.
Today is as valuable as yesterday and as valuable as tomorrow.
No time to sit in shade and daydream about yesterday or dream about tomorrow.
(5) plant a garden - become a contributor instead of a consumer.
try some new Babylonian recipes with the produce from your garden
investigate how these foreigners water their gardens - learn from them.
(6) Raise a family - your children will pick up this foreign language with ease and they can help you.
Give your children a future - increase in numbers
(7) Seek the peace and prosperity of Babylon - p&p = shalom = wholeness, health.
Get involved in its society and make a difference
Write letters tot he editor, be a good Samaritan, help your neighbor, be informed, get involved, be an agent of health/wholeness in Babylon.
(7) Pray to the Lord for His shalom. Ask the Lord how you can make a difference, then do it.

Break out of your lethargy - get out of the shade and on your feet
Get out of your easy chair and get moving.
These strange circumstances are new opportunities.
These different aspects of your new life are opportunities to experience life in ways you’ve not known.

In a nutshell - there is no time for self-pity and whining and complaining and being critical. So - get about the business of living life - make yourself at home in this foreign place.

There is a second part to this letter,

II. JEREMIAH GIVES THEM ENCOURAGEMENT vs. 10-14
God says In 70 years I’ll bring you back to the Promise land.
I’ve got great plans for you.
Your future will be beyond your dreams
I will prosper you.

There is a silver lining to this exile - this punishment for your sin.
Being uncomfortable - being removed from what you know and were at ease with - will expose you to new horizons.
You will be brought to situations where you will seek and find God - nothing like what had been in Jerusalem before.
You will be brought to situations where you will pray again and God will be listening - not like before.
You will experience exile so you can appreciate Jerusalem.

So - for the next 70 years - live life at its best - restoration is coming - in the meantime, live richly and deeply and fully and daily.

The letter of Jeremiah goes on to describe further warnings and punishment for the false prophets who mislead the people during their period of exile.


Conclude by asking
III. WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN TO US?
In the course of life, we have all experienced some form of exile.

In various ways we have been uprooted and had to face new situations.
In different ways, we’ve been forced to be where we didn’t want to be, with people we don’t like and didn’t want to be around. Think back with me -

1st experience of exile was birth - warm, comfortable, cozy, then..
birth canal, cold harsh new world, shock has erased it from your memory!
Then there was first grade - out of home, new ‘mother’
then off to college, then work-a-day world

There have been other changes - new situations
government
values in society and workplace
families - new babies, empty nests, divorce, death
ourselves - emotions, bodies,, ability to remember, etc. etc.

What we are used to - familiar with, comfortable with.; what we understand, what is normal, consistent, regular, predictable = these are no more in our experiences of exile.

Illustration:
Minor “exile” - 2 car family, 1 quits, while it is in the shop, schedule is uprooted, everything changes, but not all bad - walked home, new horizons.
Plumbing quits - easy to forget how often you use water in our homes, sinks, showers, commodes much of our lives changed for several days.
Exile in any form, small or great - is not something we would choose.

So what are we to do?? 4 things come out of Jer’s letter

1) continue to be about the business of life - keeping on living, building homes, planting gardens, raising families, making contributions to the community.

2) live that life by faith - exercise trust in God in today’s job, school, town, economic climate, etc.

3) submit yourself to God’s plan - His plans are good. he is where you are.(3X, 1st, mid, end, “I carried you into exile”) Seek Him with all your heart and He will be found by you. We live in end times! increase in earthquakes, wares, and rumors of wars. God is still in control - He’s fulfilling His plans.

4) don’t succumb to the temptations to whine, complain, wallow in self-pity, to look back at good ole days. Always easier to complain that live well. Change is seldom easy.

Rather, ask yourself how you can experience triumph, today? What does God want me to experience in this strange, foreign, uncomfortable, harsh circumstance?

One commentator: “The only opportunity you will ever have to live by faith is in the circumstances you are provided this very day: this house you live in, this family you find yourself in, this job you have been given, the weather conditions that prevail at this moment”

Jeremiah’s exiles would prefer to complain about the problems of their current experience rather than live by faith. Exiles needed to take some risks for the benefit of others rather than daydream in self-pity. Exiles needed to re-look at life as it was that very day and rejoice at what was there rather than sorrow about what wasn’t. Exiles needed to rejoice in the opportunities before them rather than lament about the good things now past.

Exiles were stripped of all that had been normal, controllable and known and comfortable and common and ordinary. No one asked their permission - and in their exile, they found what was really important - seek the Lord with all their heart.

So we - our exile - a catastrophe, disaster
a misunderstanding, a relocation,
a loss of job, a blow to our pride
an illness, a death, a divorce, a miscarriage
an abortion, an accident, an injury,
an injustice, etc. etc.
our exile - sometimes just a few moments, sometimes a day, several months, many years. Is life over? Doesn’t have to be. Don’t have to complain. Don’t have to escape into fantasies or .....
Can rather, in the normal structure of life, building houses, planting gardens, marrying spouses and raising kids - SEEK GOD with all our heart and find Him to be sufficient and abundant, and gracious, and protective and prosperous and all we need.

Release from exile = calling, praying, seeking, finding.


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