A loving Father’s promise to his children handed in a time of discipline.  As parents, we discipline our children when needed. It grieves us to see their disappointed or brokenhearted faces; but ultimately our goal as a parent is for our children to learn from their experience and hopefully, prevent greater troubles down the road. Our Heavenly Father, likewise, often disciplines us or guides us into unchartered waters for a purpose that we don’t understand.

   

In Jeremiah’s day, God’s children had forgotten His commandments, they had forgotten the miraculous deliverance from Egypt, and they had turned to other gods of the neighboring nations. “Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and observe closely: see if there has ever been anything like this. Has a nation changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all?) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols” (Jeremiah 2:10-11 NIV) He challenges the hearer of the prophesy to see if there was ever another nation who abandoned their god(s), even though their god is only made of wood or stone?  Yet, God’s children who had the one true God, had abandoned Him.  I like the NLT version that translates verse 10 as, “Has anyone ever heard of anything as strange as this?”  In other words, “Who DOES this?” Even the priests and prophets of the day were leading the people astray.  Jeremiah 2:8

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God said enough and appointed Jeremiah to be a prophet to proclaim judgement.  He was ready to lay down some justice by allowing Babylon to invade the land, destroy the city and take the people into exile. Jeremiah prayed earnestly that God would change His mind, but He refused. As the people of Judah were enslaved, God tells them in chapter 29 to build homes, marry, have children, and work for peace and prosperity of the city.  Wait, which city?  You mean, the very city that annihilated their homeland? Babylon?! And, He even goes on to instruct them to PRAY for that city!  AND that the welfare of their captors would determine their own welfare! (Jeremiah 29:5-7) AND THEN He says that after 70 years He’ll bring them back home.  70 years!  That means most of them would never see their homeland again.  They were being told to work and live and prosper in and among their captors, to pray for their captors and that they most likely would never see home again in their lifetime.  It is after all of this, that He hands down this widely publicized verse of hope that we all know and love today.  Just how well do you think that was received?  How would you have received it?  

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Sometimes our plans to stay, or go, do not end up at all what we had originally planned.  Many years ago, we wrestled with a decision to sell our home and move to another town.  I did not want to go and even cancelled the first realtor appointment.  After years of renting, we were in a home that WE had built, and I was sure that was where we needed to stay.  When we finally came to the realization that our move was necessary, we met with the realtor who showed us the comps in the neighborhood.  Our jaws literally dropped to the floor as unbeknownst to us the house had greatly increased in value.  This was just before the housing bubble had burst.  We sold the house at full price within, no joke, hours of being on the market.  I was able to quit my full-time job and work part-time from home. We were able to invest in our business, missions, and family.  Had I sunk my heels into the ground of that previous home, we would have never received all the blessings that the Lord poured out on our family from just letting go and trusting Him.

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Jacob’s youngest son, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and spent years of captivity before he came to a powerful position and was able to see the outcome God had in store for him, his family, and his people.  “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20 NIV) 

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God did not say, “For I know the plans YOU want…”, (which of course, He does know).  No, He said, “I know the plans that I have for you.” His plans were not for their exile to end immediately, nor were they for an end to their oppression at that moment.  The plan was to stay put and to flourish where they had been planted. 

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That was the plan for the people of Judah who were exiled.  What does the Lord have planned in your life? Are you wrestling with not knowing? “Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise. Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21 NIV)

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Or maybe you recently found out the plans were not what you were expecting; being passed over for a promotion or a new job, a denied loan, a failed relationship, cancer, an unplanned pregnancy at a difficult season, or miscarriage, or loss of a parent. Sometimes, like Jeremiah, we pray earnestly for something only to receive an answer we didn’t want. Does that mean Jesus loves us any less? Does it mean we are always being punished when things don’t go our way?  No, sometimes we are just victims in and of a sinful world. “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NLT) Jesus is able to take anything which the enemy sends for destruction and use it for something that gives us life. “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” (John 10:10 NLT)

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We don't always know the plan and sometimes we don't even know the purpose at the time or for times to come, but we do have a Savior that is guiding us THROUGH each step, each trial, and He is our hope.  Isaiah 64:8 reminds us that He takes each trial as if it's a potter's tool and shapes us into His purpose. Our hope is not promised to jump over the trials but that He is there with us through them, refining us along the way. 

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Reflection: 

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Think of some other examples in the Bible where God used an unlikely situation for a future blessing. 

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Looking back over your own life, what are some of the trials He led you through that has resulted in you being able to bless others? 

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