WEEK SIX - DAY TWO - GOOD PLANS AHEAD!

Could this be the hope we’ve been waiting for?!  It seems Jeremiah has been a long, dry road. It has been full of admonitions and warnings of upcoming discipline and destruction.  But here we have a day of God's good, good plans. We can say with joy in our voice the memory verse of this week, Jeremiah 10:11, “'For I know the plans I have for you', says the Lord, 'they are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope'”

Now that is reassuring, isn’t it? To know that our God is planning good things for us, mapping out lives full of hope! If we just didn’t have to look back to verse 10, we could rest in the joy!  But when we do back up, we see that God certainly does have good plans for Judah’s future, but that good future comes 70 years down the longer, drier road of captivity.  Does that caveat erase the fact that God is still planning good for them? Or does it mean that God is abandoning them for these coming 70 years? Does it mean that no good can come out of these 70 years? When God‘s good "big" plans for us are delayed, do we grow discouraged and weary and doubtful that He ever had good plans for us in the first place? Do we feel like all good things have been put on hold? 

The good plans that God has envisioned for his people, His very good plans, will certainly come about. They will need to be patient and they will need to be confident of his faithfulness to His promise.  As do we. We have a God who is working for us, all the time.   In John 5:17 Jesus tells us, "My Father is always at work..."  Even when we are in the period of waiting for His ultimate good plan, He continues to have good plans for each segment of our lives.  In fact, Paul writes in Romans 8:28, "And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose." Amplified Bible.  While the people of Judah lived in captivity in Babylon, God did not leave them and His plans were still ongoing.  His plans included a Jewish boy taken captive named Daniel, a servant to the King of Persia named Nehemiah, and an exiled priest named Ezekiel. In the time of waiting, His plans highlighted a heroic Queen named Esther, and a Jewish King named Zerubbabel. Was God far away, had he quit making plans for his people?  The stories of these Old Testament lives show how untrue that assumption is.   For all the other unnamed people of Judah living in exile, God had given them instructions of how to live in the time of waiting, Jeremiah 29:5 says, "This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles who were carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.”  While we wait for God's promise, He continues His plans for good.  We don't wait in misery, we wait knowing we have a good, good Father who is always at work on our behalf. 

Just as in Judah’s time of waiting, as we wait we, too, need to be reminded that God has never left us and that He is always at work.  Just as we now can see all the other things going on in those 70 long years of captivity, we can be assured that God is working out what we often think are the subplots of our bigger story; and then sometimes those seemingly lesser storylines, surprisingly (only to us, never to God) become our life’s big story. The one that we thought would never happen!  All of a sudden we say, "Wow, God did that in a way I never saw coming!"

Sadly, for many of us as we grow older, it seems that life no longer holds a great future or the light of hope.  We’ve passed the ages of setting goals, starting families, and nothing seems to get us as thrilled with life as we once were. I’m sure for the older Jews who were in exile and knew they probably would never see their home country again, they, too, had their hope diminished.  

I have come to think that God purposefully uses our diminished excitement with earthly plans to further ignite in us a greater anticipation about His heavenly plan…after all, it is His big, forever plan of good for us!  It is the plan that God had from the beginning of time, His plan of salvation for us, to reconcile us unto Himself and to live with Him for eternity.  

So, YES, this is a message of good, good plans ahead...plans for a forever future and a glorious hope!  

Revelation 21:1-7 - "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying:“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.” 

And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.” And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life. The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son."

WEEK SIX - DAY ONE - AN AUDIENCE OF ONE

The title of this lesson begs the question...who are we playing to?  Who are we looking to as we play on the stage of life to give us that longed for 👍?  What are the words we are longing to hear as we go through our day-to-day lives?  

"Great job with that presentation, today!"

"You really have such a great eye for decorating - your home is just so lovely!"

"Your family is just about picture-perfect!  You've been great parents!"

"You are one of the smartest people I know - you are just so knowledgeable about so many things!"

Those are great compliments - and none of the praised qualities are to be looked down upon in any way.  But if we're playing to the audience of our peers, our families, our friends, then we're always going to be seeking the next words of acknowledgement of our most recent and, hopefully, best performance.  Talk about stress!  Yet that's just what so many of us do - put ourselves in situations of performance for other people to give us their 👍 and bracing ourselves against the possibility of the dreaded 👎.  

Jeremiah was getting a lot of 👎, to the point of being threatened with execution!  Jeremiah was given specific words by God to proclaim to the King of Judah...not easy words, words of impending destruction and captivity.  King Jehoiakim wasn't too keen on hearing that he would be deposed and his kingdom taken from him, he didn't like the words Jeremiah proclaimed, and the Judean priests and prophets were right there with him.  "You must die!" ...they cried out...does it make you think of a similar scene approximately 600 years later?  The words then were "Crucify Him!" as our Savior spoke words from His Father that the priests and rulers did not want to hear.  Words of another King, another Kingdom, greater than they could imagine. When power and position are threatened, people tend to get very antagonistic! 

Jeremiah paralleled Jesus in another very striking way as he was interrogated...where Jesus said in John 10:18, "No one takes it from me [life], but I lay it down of my own accord", Jeremiah says, "I am in your hands; do with me as is good and right in your sight.  Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, and on this city and on its inhabitants; for truly the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing."  Jeremiah never backed off of the words that God was giving him, even in the face of death.  Jeremiah knew whose hands his life was truly in, and God would stay by his side no matter what the people decided to do with him.  Just as David had written in Psalm 118:6, Jeremiah understood, "The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?"

Jeremiah's fate seemed sealed until "some of the elders" spoke up.  They remembered Micah, another true prophet of God, who had prophesied during the days of King Hezekiah.  He had also preached a message of impending destruction and of needed repentance. Hezekiah had heeded Micah's message and Judah had been saved from God's hand of judgment at that time.  The elders, those who could remember a time of obedience, turned the opinion around and Jeremiah's life was saved.  An interesting note that Scripture includes is that "the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hands of the people to put him to death."  I am not familiar with this character, are you?  Looking back in 2 Kings 22, we find that Ahikam was indeed the son of Shaphan, and Shaphan was the scribe who had been given the Book of the Law that had been found in the temple.  Shaphan had brought the Book to King Josiah and when Josiah had heard the words of the Book, he tore his clothes and sent a group, including Shaphan and his son, Ahikam, to inquire of the Lord concerning the words of the Book.  Shaphan, Ahikam and the others in the group had to go back to the King with hard words, words of God's wrath against Judah due to their disobedience, and they had fearlessly delivered the words as they had been given.  So, dear Ahikam, had been in the place where Jeremiah found himself now, delivering hard words and standing true to God.  Ahikam was likely one of the "elders" that recounted obedience and adherence to God's prophets had been to Judah's favor in the past, and they needed to consider the "old, godly way" as they were at this critical crossroads!

The thing is...Ahikam, Jeremiah...all the other Old Testament prophets, didn't back down.  They didn't opt for the popular or preaching the message that would draw a crowd.  All they did was say, "This is what the Lord says...." and they didn't add to or take away from the words they had been given.  And then our ultimate example, Jesus!  He certainly didn't back down, He stayed true to His mission and obeyed His heavenly Father's voice, always and completely.  John 12:50 "I know that His commandment is eternal life. So the things I speak, I speak [in accordance with His exact instruction,] just as the Father has told Me.”  Amplified  Bible.  

If you, like most of us, fight the addiction of the approval of others, pray for a release from that painful and destructive compulsion.  It adds stress and confusion to our lives.  We must decide now who our audience is and then give it everything we've got...so that when the last curtain falls, we hear our One saying,  "Well done!"

WEEK FIVE - DAY FIVE AND WEEK RECAP

How very fast these weeks have gone!  Five weeks behind us and here we are heading into the last week of our study of Jeremiah.  I hope you have gotten as much out of it as I have.  Looking forward to one last week of diving into what this prophet of long ago has to share with us.

The last day of week five was titled, "Rescue with Repentance" - the only way to true spiritual rescue is through our true and broken-hearted repentance.  Key word in that sentence is "true"...we won't truly be rescued unless we are truly repentant.  The people of Judah voiced their repentance, but their lives didn't reflect the words that were coming out of their mouths.  Our text tells us, "The people were crying out for rescue, but God knew their hearts.  Their motives weren't right.  They wanted God's hand of help without any relationship or repentance...Like a good parent, God chose to allow Judah to experience the difficulty brought upon them by their bad decisions."  Until our hearts cry out for rescue, with pure motives and ready for restoration upon our repentance, God won't reach down to rescue us, just as He did not respond to Judah.  True repentance isn't just admitting our sinfulness and saying we're sorry, it is turning away from our sinfulness and asking God to give us the strength to remain turned away, to desire to distance ourself from what we know is opposed to God's will for our lives and to turn to God and the lives of holiness that He calls us to.

When we stand in opposition to God and refuse to turn, we find ourselves lying about God and about ourselves.  If we find ourselves thinking that God is less than who He really is or if we find ourselves thinking that we have as much authority over our lives as God does, we need to stop and review our lives and see where we might have gotten off track, where there is a need for repentance and a u-turn to get turned back around.  That's why Psalm 139:23-24 is such a good prayer to routinely voice to God, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."  

From our text, "God is always faithful to redirect us, rescuing us from a road of dangerous pitfalls."  It's so much better to call out for rescue when we realize we're on the wrong road, but we haven't yet fallen into a pit.  The sooner we heed God's redirection, the better.  And the sooner we learn that God is for us, never against us, oh, so much the better....then we are not nearly so prone to get on that rocky road in the first place!  Lord, help us trust You....that's what you keep asking of us, isn't it?

Our fifth week was focused on Quitting the Blame Game, Personal Responsibility.  In our session on Friday, we spent quite a bit of time discussing the Scripture of  Jeremiah 6:16,  "This is what the Lord says, 'Stop at the crossroads and look around.  Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it.  Travel its path and you will find rest for your souls.  But you reply, 'No, that's not the road we want.'"

Isn't that just a treasure of a Bible verse?  So, so much good advice packed in this verse.  And yet, the closing sentence shows the people of Judah, and the people of today, responding with the same stubborn comeback, "Nope - that's not the way we want to go."  There has just been an offer made of rest for our souls, and yet we reject that offer and think we have a better way.  And then we wonder why we have lives full of anxiety, stress and malcontent!  Again, God is asking us, "Trust Me!" and we say, "No, we really think we can find a better way to get to where we're going."  God has a better way for our earthly lives than we can devise on our own, and He has a much better way for our eternal lives.  He has THE WAY...the only way.   If we try to get there on our own, we're going to be sorely disappointed - we can't.  There's a chasm that is unmanageable for us to traverse, we won't make it.  

What is that old, godly way that we are to ask for?  Jeremiah knew the Torah, and he very likely was thinking of Deuteronomy 30:11-20, "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.  See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.  But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 1 declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.  This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

God gives us a clear message, He shows the way for us, we are the ones who have the choice to make as to how we will live.  Then  He made it even clearer for us when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to tell us that He had come to let us know He was preparing an eternal home for us, and that if He was preparing that home for us, He would surely come again and claim us as His own and take us to that glorious new home.  

Stop, look, ask, walk, and find...

• Stop what we're doing now and see if we need an adjustment
• Look around us and see who we need to be helping along the way,
• Ask, continually ask, for God's direction, look to that old, godly way
• Walk in that way - travel that path
• Find rest!  The rest that only comes through the One who can provide...Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest."

It's a great offer!  Don't turn it down!