October 20, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.’ Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,’ declares the Lord.’“

(Jeremiah 29.4-9)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

To be the servant means to prioritize the mission, purpose and intent of God over the desire to “save oneself” which is a survival motif and mentality. This was God’s message to the exiles of Jerusalem who were in Babylon. It is His message to us as well. It is too easy for modern Christians to dismiss the witness of the Old Testament in the hope of strictly confirming the New Testament as a Christian testament. To ignore the prophetic presentation of the gospel in the Old Testament as “only to the Jews” is indicative of the blindness which the enemy of God and humanity desires to inflict upon all of the people of God. [Note: the people of God includes everyone who has lived, lives or will live on earth; while God’s people are those who accept the call to participate in the mission, purpose and intent of God.] It is a blindness which the enemy of God and humanity wants the entire “world” to suffer from and thus fall, as in Bruegel’s painting, The Parable of the Blind, in the ditch. Mighty ones of God, the people of God and sadly God’s people seem to be falling for the enemy’s blind diagnosis and thus are falling into the ditch. We must “ditch” this mentality, which is also intended to be our spirituality, and put on the vision of God. He has, in Jesus as the Christ, provided us with corrective lenses teaching us the true meaning and application of His Word (specifically the word “righteousness.”). In some instances, by the power of His word, He has restored the sight of the blind (as in the transformation of Saul of Tarsus to Paul of Christ. among others whom Jesus healed). In so doing, by either measure, the eyes of the world are opened to the truth of God and the truth of humanity by which they should measure themselves in the move from “good to great.” It is by putting on the robe of a servant that we find our true empowerment in life. His warning to the disciples about “who shall be the greatest must be the servant of all” is the foundation of the teaching of servanthood which He demonstrated in the Upper Room and at Golgotha. In the Upper Room, Jesus put on the posture and posturing of a servant and washed the disciples’ feet. Of course, on Golgotha, Jesus fully humbled Himself and became the suffering servant who laid down His life for more than just another. Jesus humbled Himself on the cross for all others. Jesus died for the sins of every man, woman and child in the world. It was for this purpose that He was sent by God in order to “restore the sight of those blinded by the world.” (my words) Yet, we all know that there are those “with eyes to see but refuse to see as well as ears to hear but refuse to hear.” Regardless of their decision, mighty ones of God in Christ Jesus, we must continue to be the true servants of God on earth as we will be in Heaven. Recognize the posture and posturing of Lucifer as he decided to no longer serve the Lord with gladness. He cast off his servant’s robe more beautiful than any in Heaven apart from God Himself. He put on the robe of insurrection and rebellion. He offered similar robes to others in heaven and two-thirds of them accepted bondage to Lucifer over service to God. Of course, they thought they were being given their “freedom” to be all they wanted to be. That was the deceit imbedded in the song of the Enemy. Lucifer’s “freedom” was nothing more than slavery to sin as sin is nothing more than pleasing one’s self instead of accept the good pleasure of God which is our salvation.

Look back to the story told in Luke of “The Prodigal Son.” I have little doubt that the son, upon receiving his portion of the inheritance, put off the robes provided by his father for him and purchased his own. He dressed himself with his own identity distinct and independent from his father’s. We can each imagine the robes we put on ourselves as we had the resource to do so that we were “different” from who we were under our father’s roof. We clothed our identity in all kinds of ways to make ourselves different and independent. The prodigal son did it to the extreme until the money ran out. He treated his identity as if it were merely an external appearance. Soon, the layers of the world began to shred and fade away. The less of his own identity he could support the more desperate became his situation. Finally, stripped of all dignity he surrendered to putting on pig slop to cover his pitiful identity. It was then that the word which his father has placed in him began to speak clearly because there was nothing left to hinder it. Proverbs teaches, “Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are older they will not wander far from it.” (Proverbs 22.6) With eyes wide open, the son remembered the faithful of his father as a servant to God. His faith in God allowed him to be the man he was meant to be. He did not clothe himself in arrogance or rebellion but in mercy and love. Such love was not intended for his family but for all those who served with him. The son knew that even as a servant of his father, life was better than being a servant to himself which made him a slave to others. What was the result? Upon his journey of repentance, the father meets the son on the road and puts on him a new robe. The son is restored inwardly and outwardly upon his confession and profession by his earthly father and his Heavenly Father. He is brought back to his rightful position as a servant of God in the image of “his father.”

So it was to be for the Jerusalem exiles in Babylon. Their penchant for being more like the world and the kingdoms of humanity than the kingdom of God brought them into the very “pigsty” of the world- Babylon. Oh yes, with all the wonders and riches and momentary power that was “Babylon,” it was not for the glory of God but the Babylonians. It was no different for any other kingdom on earth with the same worldly orientation. As we consider the exile, we might also remember this was the very place where Abram lived centuries prior before there was an earthly Israel. It was in Babylon that Abram worshipped and found/was found by God, Yahweh Elohim, and called to be a “servant of God.” Now the call would be extended again to those in exile. God gave them instructions for how to live and be restored just as He did with Adam and Eve in the Garden. They, too, had chosen to be more of a servant to themselves (and thus a servant of the Fallen and Cast Out Lucifer) than to God. In their shame and the discovery of it, they clothed themselves with fig leaves. You might say they camouflaged themselves. They could run but ultimately, they could not hide. They were found by God who then received them back to Himself. In so doing, He covered them with “robes” made of sheepskin and thus made the first sacrifice for the sake of redeeming His people from their sins. He restored them to their place as servants of the Most High God. They would, to borrow from the word given by God to the exiles in Babylon, “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.’” They were to be in the world but not of it and in so doing bear witness to what having faith in God would invoke. It would be an invitation to the other nations to be more like them instead of the other way around. A word to the wise!

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.