How Long Oh Lord
The last couple of weeks, Yahweh has been bringing me face to face with my sin. It has been a good time, a challenging time. I cannot help but smile as I know that Yahweh is doing this for my joy in him. In this time, the passage that has really spoke to me is Jeremiah’s letter to the first group of exiles taken by Nebuchadnezzar. It is found in Jeremiah 29
, specifically 29:4-14 which the ESV reads,
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: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
What is so interesting to me about this passage in Jeremiah 29 is everyone loves to quote Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” And I will say rightfully so. One can just read that text and feel the hope and promise it oozes. Yahweh’s sovereignty that so permeates this text steps into the foreground to give the reader hope.
But what I have noticed is the disregard that people have for the context of this passage. Look up at Jeremiah 29:10, “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.” When the seventy years of exile are over, Yahweh will come to visit his people again. But not until then. In Jeremiah 29:5-7 Yahweh tells the Hebrew exiles to dig in for the long-haul. They are to marry, have children, build homes, seek the welfare of Babylon in prayer to Yahweh so that in the welfare of Babylon they will find their own welfare. Yahweh will not deliver them until the seventy years are up. Jeremiah warns the exiles to not listen to the “prophets” because they have not been given a message from Yahweh (Jeremiah 29:8-9). In fact 29:15-22 Yahweh tells the exiles to expect to see the death of many still in Jerusalem and Judah because they have not learned to obey. They can expect more to follow after them.
The message of this letter is what to do when under the Lord’s hand of discipline. How should one live when under divine chastisement? The answer, trust Yahweh’s sovereignty and dig in for the long-haul. Don’t expect to be delivered right away. Trust Yahweh in his discipline and live one’s life. Continue to seek Christ-likeness while wholly leaning upon Christ’s righteousness as one’s own. Seek the welfare of one’s community so that one’s own welfare is found. Don’t look for the end of the discipline, look to the sovereign Lord and his good purposes for one’s life.
This message of just trust Jesus while I undergo the Lord’s hand of discipline has been very comforting. It helps me get to sleep at night. It’s a message that we all can use. Just trust Jesus.
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