Blessing Your Enemies
A God Who Weeps - Part 6
Sunday, October 9, 2022
Jeremiah 29:1-7
Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don’t dwindle away. Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because your future depends on its welfare.
Jeremiah 29:5-7 (CEB)
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
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There are few verses in scripture more quoted than Jeremiah 29:11 - “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” It’s often used for big moments or transitions in our lives like graduations, retirements, etc. as a way of offering encouragement as we enter into new and unknown chapters in our lives. The problem is that far too often, we view God’s plans like a set of puzzle pieces that we have to put together in a particular way. The “plan” involves the getting the right job, marrying the right person, or any number of other “right” decisions that will keep us aligned with God’s “perfect will.”
The more interesting verse for me in this chapter, however, is verse 7… “promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile.” Yes, God has a plan to restore Israel to their rightful land, but not in the lifetime of most who are hearing this message. For them, God’s plan is about how they live among strangers and enemies. It’s about breaking them of their arrogance and self-reliance as God’s people, thinking they could get away with anything simply because they were God’s chosen and because God had a perfect plan for them. Exile is a reminder that God’s “plan”, whatever that may look like, is not about a prosperous life, but about a faithful life in both prosperity and in desolation.
Jeremiah 29 is far less about God making everything work out the way the people want and far more about how to live faithfully in exile, especially since they were unable to live faithfully in their God given homeland. In exile, God is teaching them what it means to be a blessing to all the nations rather than elevating themselves above everyone else. God’s message is perhaps one of the most radical things they could ever imagine… “I care about Babylon too.” In other words, God loves Israel’s enemies as much as God loves them, and in exile, they too must learn what it means to truly love their enemies.
God’s people were not called to retaliate or seek escape from Babylon. They were called to work toward the welfare or “Shalom” of this foreign land. They were to bring God’s peace among their enemies. This isn’t just a matter of biding their time and trying to live isolate lives, separate from the world around them. It was a radical call to fully engage in Babylonian culture and work toward wholeness, prosperity and the overall wellbeing of everyone.
In a nation where the church is entrenched in one culture war after another with warring factions or “parties”, this message is as relevant today as in Babylon. We do not glorify God by “converting Babylon to Christ” or “forcing Babylon to pass laws to make it easier or more comfortable for us to live out our faith.” Rather, we glorify God by loving our neighbors, even if they are our enemies, and working together for the peace and well-being of all.