Today’s author is Prince of Peace member Gary Olson.
Upon reading this letter in Jeremiah written to Judah’s exiles in Babylon, I think of the many people in our country who have been scooped up by ICE, put in detention centers and threatened with deportation to another country. That country may not be the one from which their ancestors came. It may be Liberia or another of the African countries; a country whose language they do not know; a country they’ve never visited; a people they do not know and a lifestyle foreign to them. Some have lived here many years and have built productive lives.
What should they do? Rebel? Some are fighting their deportation in the courts, if they have the means to do so.
I wonder what I would do in a situation like that. What would you do?
There are times in life when we feel helpless, at the mercy and whim of forces much more powerful than we. Sometimes it is good to fight back and find others to fight back with you. Sometimes that can be more harmful to family, to yourself. It depends on your situation and the resources you have.
In Judah around 597 BC, people were being rounded up and taken to Babylon. Some prophets in Israel advised them to rebel against their captors. But they had few resources and little power to do that. The prophet Jeremiah advised them to do something different in Babylon: “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens…; take wives (and husbands) and have sons and daughters; multiply there and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you,…and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
Sometimes in life it is good to put one foot in front of the other and live as best we can when powerful forces threaten us. It is good to see the sunrise and the sunset, to plant gardens and raise children, to find joy in grandchildren and great grandchildren. It is good to fight as we are able. But when we are overwhelmed, it is good to live each day counting on God’s presence and God’s desire for our well-being, to put one foot in front of the other and simply live. And count on God’s presence.
As Jeremiah writes: “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 pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart….” Let it be so!