Tag: Babylon

Through It All

~ John Grimm ~ 3 Comments

Jeremiah 50:17-20 (NRSV)

Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured it, and now at the end King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed its bones. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria. I will restore Israel to its pasture, and it shall feed on Carmel and in Bashan, and on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead its hunger shall be satisfied. In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and none shall be found, for I will pardon the remnant that I have spared.

By John Grimm

Israel and Judah had sinned tremendously.  Their sin was enough that God took them out of the Promised Land!  Once their punishment was complete, the Lord sent them back to the Promised Land, its pasture.  What they had to go through because of their sin was severe.  However, because the kings of Babylon and Assyria exceeded their mandate from God to punish Israel and Judah, now God was going to punish them.

We understand God punishing us for our sins.  We do reap what we sow.  However, when the sins of others impact our lives, then we see injustice.  Knowing God has pardoned us for our sins, through the blood of Jesus Christ, we can begin to live just and righteous lives.  What a joy this news is!

Do we have faith enough to get through God punishing us for our sins?  Do we have enough faith to endure when the sins of others cause us to be treated unjustly?  Will our faith last until we hear from the Lord that our iniquity is no more?

Lord, we have sinned.  You know us.  You know our sins.  We admit that we have hurt ourselves and others.  Thank you that we find forgiveness in the blood of Jesus Christ.  May those who are harming us now find that their sins can also be forgiven by the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray we and those who harm us may be among those you spare.  Amen.

Seeing the Plan Play Out

~ Chuck Griffin ~ Leave a comment

Jeremiah 29:10-14

For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Just before these verses, the political leaders, craftsmen and other fine minds of Jerusalem, living in captivity in their conqueror’s homeland, received bad news from the prophet Jeremiah. They were not going home from Babylon any time soon—they might as well build houses and gardens and settle down.

God’s chastisement of his chosen people, caught up in sin, would ultimately lead to restoration and the continuation of his plan to bring salvation to the world through them. We are reminded, however, that God’s plan plays out over generations, centuries, and even millennia. God plays a long game, one so long that even the devil cannot keep track of it all.

I am struck by how blessed most of us reading this are, living as we have lived. Alignment with God does not automatically mean having a comfortable life. Throughout history, it’s been common for people to have the opposite, forced to live according to the whims of powerful, ungodly people.

We particularly are blessed to live in the time after Christ, making a fully restored relationship with God individually possible through simple faith. On top of that, most of us are blessed to live in places where we have the freedom to worship as we want and live as we want.

Yes, this is another one of those “count your blessings” devotionals. As you make your way through the day, appreciate what you have, and remember how we are called to seek God with all our hearts, using our freedoms to play a part in God’s great plan to redeem all of creation.

Lord, help us through faithfulness and devotion to you to preserve the great gifts we have in this life. May exile never be our state, and may those who find themselves in it also find rescue by your hand. Amen.