Quick Note – Jeremiah 42:6 – True Obedience

Jeremiah 42:6 – Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.

The people of Israel had just recently suffered a major defeat.  Not only was Jerusalem conquered by the Babylonian Empire, but their appointed leader Gedaliah was murdered by the traitor Ishmael.  The remaining Israelites that were left behind in the land after the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar took most of the people into exile were now about to be taken into captivity to Ammon as well.  Fortunately, a man by the name of Johanan rescued them from the hand of Ishmael, giving them an opportunity to return to their homeland.  However, because they were afraid of the retaliation the Babylonian king might bring due to the death of Gedaliah, the Israelites considered running to Egypt instead.  It was then that they sought the guidance of the LORD and asked Jeremiah the prophet to pray for them.  They wanted to know what God would have them do and told Jeremiah that whatever God said whether good or bad, they would obey Him.  In other words, whether it was to go to Egypt like they had planned or to return home to potentially face punishment from King Nebuchadnezzar, they would obey.   

Jeremiah then prayed for them, and ten days later, God answered them, telling them to return to Israel and to not to go to Egypt.  Rather than listening to Jeremiah, Johanan and the rest of the Israelites rebelled.  They accused Jeremiah of being a traitor, seeking to bring them into further captivity under Babylon, and went to Egypt like they had planned.  They did not obey God like they had said but rather chose their own wisdom, angering God in the process.  Instead of finding safety in Egypt, they found destruction, because God allowed the Babylonian Empire to conquer Egypt and the Israelite refugees as well.

Like Johanan and the Israelites sometimes we come to God in prayer not really seeking His wisdom but looking for His affirmation of our already decided choices.  We aren’t truly seeking His will but simply want Him to tell us that it is okay for us to follow our own.  We don’t want to obey what He says; we just want Him to bless our own decisions.  That is a recipe for disaster.  Our God does not exist to approve of everything we want.  He is not there to be a Yes man.  He is there to lead and guide our lives in the way that is best for us.  A lot of the time that will be contrary to what we may think is best for us.  That is why God says in Isaiah 55:8, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.”  He knows better.  So when we come to Him in prayer, we must not do so just to hear Him say Yes to what we want but because we truly want His will to work in our lives.  Whether it is good or bad, whether it is our desire or not, we must obey the voice of the LORD.  That is true obedience. 

Homesick for Heaven

Psalm 137:4-6 – “How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?  If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!  Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!”

In the famous movie classic of 1939 “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy, a small town Kansas girl, is sucked up into the wonderful world of Oz.  To make it home, she takes a long journey to the Emerald City to find the Wizard, a man who should be able to grant whatever one wishes.  In her journey, Dorothy makes tons of friends like a scarecrow, a tin man, a cowardly lion, and even some munchkins; but in the end, all she desired was to return home, stating one of the all-time well-known movie lines as she clicked her ruby red heels, “There’s no place like home.  There’s no place like home.”  Dorothy knew that even with all the new friends she made and enjoying a fun-filled adventure in a new world, there is no place like home.  This sentiment was shared by the people of Israel in our psalm today.

In our passage, we find the people of Israel expressing how homesick they were for Jerusalem.  This psalm was written during Israel’s captivity in Babylon, where many Israelites were stripped from their homelands, taken to a foreign country to live, and forced to acclimate into Babylonian culture for the next seventy years.  All the while, many Babylonians taunted and mocked the Jews as they lived in this new land longing for home.  You can easily see the pain and agony that the Israelites were feeling as you read these few verses:  “How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?”  What is really interesting about these verses though is that they do not stop at just homesickness instead they go on to pray that the LORD lay upon them curses if they ever forgot Jerusalem or placed anything above it as their chief joy.  What was so important to the Israelites in Jerusalem that made them speak with such serious language, you ask?  Jerusalem was home to the Temple of God.  It was the city that the Lord chose to place His house of worship.  It was the place where men and women were to go, seek, and pray when they wanted to gain wisdom, to seek repentance, or to simply worship God.  Jerusalem was the House of God, and they treasured this place.  They treated it as their chief joy, a place that should never be put out of mind or heart.  To them, it would have been better for them to lose the skill of their right hand or to have their tongue stick to their mouth than to forget the house of God.

The question we, as Christians, need to ask ourselves today is “Do we treasure our God in this way?  Do we long for heaven and His kingdom in such a manner?”  Do we place God’s presence as our chief joy?”  So many of us have gotten used to living in this world that we don’t want to leave.  We would rather enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season than to spend time with our Heavenly Father.  We have forgotten the New Jerusalem and instead settled into our present day Babylon.  Just like the Israelite who wrote this Psalm, we need to long for home, to long for the time when Christ will return, to long for His kingdom to be established on this earth.  That’s what He meant when He told us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must stop splitting our focus and instead direct it to the one thing that truly matters – our Lord Jesus Christ, for the things of this earth are temporary, but our God is everlasting.  Let us seek our Lord God as the one and only important thing in our life, our chief joy, and our desire.

Bigger, Better, Greater

Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”

 

Almost every time I watch TV, I catch at least one commercial advertising some sort of fast food whether McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr., Burger King, or any other favorites. They usually show, in a hunger-inducing, get your taste buds salivating kind of way, a new burger that they have just created. From these commercials, I am convinced that the burger is so unbelievably delicious that I can’t help but visit the closest store to try that new burger. Unfortunately, most of the time I am quite disappointed by the purchase and go home unsatisfied. The burger was only half as good as it looked on television! I get even more disappointed when I decide to try some Mom and Pop’s store that was recommended by a show on Food Network or the Travel Channel. I go into the restaurant, try the specialty dish, and then come out unsatisfied again. Either I am a difficult person to please, or these dishes are just not living up to the hype.

Certainly we have all had these experiences where we were disappointed with something that we thought would be “amazing.” Because of the tendency of our plans or ideals not meeting our expectations, it is easy to bring this type of thinking into our lives spiritually. But the opposite is true with God’s plans for us. His plans are always bigger, better, and greater than we can imagine. In our passage today, the LORD tells His people, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you…thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (The word thoughts has been translated as plans in other versions.) The context for this verse indicates that the people of Israel were currently in Babylonian captivity. Just like any person in bondage, they sought for freedom from their captors. Many false prophets were telling the people that in just a matter of time the Lord would break this yoke of bondage and set them free. But Jeremiah was preaching an entirely different message, a message actually from the Lord, which was instructing the people to adjust to this life in captivity, for they were going to be there for a while. The Lord was telling the people to start building houses, planting gardens, raising children, and even praying for their captors. The Lord basically told them that they needed to get used to this life in captivity until their exile was complete. This plan definitely would not have sounded appealing to the Israelites. But the Lord made sure to remind them that His thoughts and His plans are plans that are bigger, better, and greater than they could imagine – plans that would bring about peace and an expected end. Their best plan was to be free from the yoke of the Babylonians right this instant, but God’s plan was to deliver the Babylonians into the hand of the Persians for utter destruction, to return the captive Israelites to their land, and to even have the Persian king provide supplies to rebuild the Temple of God. It was a bigger, better, and greater plan. Another more obvious example is with Jesus Christ. The Jewish people thought their Messiah had come to earth to free them from their Roman captors, but Christ came to do so much more than that. He came to free all people – no matter what nationality – from their captivity to sin. Freedom from death over freedom from people, clearly the former is much greater.

In our lives today, it is easy to get caught up in planning our next moves, deciding that we have all the control and can pilot our lives the best, since we “must know ourselves better than anyone else knows us.” But the obvious truth is that God knows us better than we know ourselves, meaning that His plans will always be bigger, better, and greater plans for us. One of my great mentors in the faith is Pastor Verne Campbell. He recently moved to state of Washington, reluctantly leaving his ministry as a hospital chaplain here in California. Now, he is looking for ministry opportunities in Washington, where he can continue to serve as a chaplain whether it be at a nursing home or hospital. When we prayed about it this last Saturday, it got me thinking about how we often think we can come up with a great way to serve God. We feel that we have this wonderful, well-thought out plan that will impress God, but in actuality, our idea was just the tip of the iceberg of what God had planned for us. God’s plans are always bigger, better, and greater than we can even consider. Let us trust in our Almighty God and Savior to devise plans for us that seek our peace and our expected end.