Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. | ||
| Jeremiah 29:4-6 | ||
| Jeremiah’s letter didn’t tell the Babylonian captives to gather weapons, start assassinating every leader they saw, ruin the economy, or overthrow the government. Instead, he told them they might as well dig in because they would be there for a long time. They were to plant gardens, get married, and build houses. It was God’s plan for those people to be in captivity and difficulty for seventy full years until His purposes were accomplished. This has implication for me. I must realize that if the Lord allows friends of mine to be in hard places, I am not necessarily to try to run in and get them out. There are some times when it is the Lord’s plan to keep a person or even a nation in the place of difficulty for a season to accomplish what He wants to do in them. For example, historically, the Church has been the strongest in places where persecution has been the hardest. Therefore, we must, like Jeremiah, react according to spiritual discernment rather than according to political persuasion. Pastor Jon Courson | ||
