Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.
My eldest daughter, who is doing urban mission work in Chicago, called last week and asked some questions about the Book of Leviticus. Seems she is reading through the Bible and has gotten bogged down amid the Levitical Code. No surprise there. I tried my best to explain who Moloch was (pagan deity, I believe). What I really wanted to advise her to do is to just move on. Skip it. But I didn't, realizing that maybe even Leviticus might have some soul-edifying content. If nothing else, it's a good discipline.
I'm no Old Testament scholar but I know enough to recognize that the two game-changing events in Israel's history were the Exodus and the Exile. This text from Jeremiah is part of a letter written by Jeremiah, who was still with a remnant of people in Jerusalem, to the recently exiled Jews in Babylon. Apparently, the recently exiled were being told by other prophets that their exile would be brief and that they would soon return to Jerusalem. They tended to believe this optimistic perspective. They kept their bags packed.
Jeremiah's message is that they should reconsider because this might take awhile. They should build houses, plant gardens and pray for the people and the city where they reside. God has put them in Babylon, and God would bring them out when God was ready. God's wasn't ready yet, apparently. It would be another 70 years or so before they returned to Jerusalem.
Are you in a place you'd rather not be? Is God saying to be patient because this may take awhile? Here's a cliche for you straight from 6th century BCE Babylon: Bloom where you're planted!
I know for the natives, 'Seattle as exile,' is a concept hard to understand. I thought I would stay here temporarily, before returning to my home in the other Washington. Then I met Jeri, so you know the rest of the story. I really liked Saint Marks PC in Rockville, Md. We even went there from Seattle to get married. WPPC has now overtaken it as my favorite PC.
ReplyDeleteAs my non-governmental organization work has helped me look at long range planning issues, I try to pair that with day to day concerns. Fantasizing about what might be is a lot of fun. I find though, it doesn't take much to make a carefully laid plan, whether you're a mouse or a man, to go astray. Daily mundane chores can have their interesting sides, too. It just takes a little more to work at it.
I think what Jeremiah is telling the Israelites, in their prison like place, that they may truly HOPE to go home as soon as possible, but that may not be reality. So the prophet was trying to tell them that they might as well make the best of where they were, which was in Babylon. As I always remind myself, that “the land of hope is a great place to visit, but you cannot live there.”
ReplyDeleteWhen I went through a crisis, I prayed to God every day for it to be over. I had to patiently wait about a year and a half for that day to come. It felt like forever. But as a result of those hard times, I can now say that I have grown spiritually. I “bloomed where I was planted.”