October 21, 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:

What words do you think of when you hear the word “exile”? Here are a few from a thesaurus: banish, expelled, deported, evicted, separated, ostracized, captured, removed, condemned, guilty. At one time or another, each of us may have felt the powerful reality or threat of such words just not to the extreme as many in the world today might feel. Did the Jerusalem exiles feel them as well watching the smoke of a destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple fade in the west as they were marched east to Babylon? Were they filled with anxiety as they left their “normal and comfortable” behind to face the unknown which was ahead in a culture and climate which had no respect for their God, Yahweh Elohim? Did any of those exiles stop to consider mentally, emotionally and spiritually that they were suffering the consequences of the decisions to “not know” or more aptly “forget” what it meant to be truly Jewish, one of those chosen by God’s love among all the peoples of the world to be His very own? Would they have been insightful enough to contemplate the reality of having lived in a self-appointed exile in their own homeland, the Land of Milk and Honey promised to them by God, separating themselves from being truly and authentically His? In their desire to be like other nations at the same time knowing they were to be distinct from them, did they feel the angst of the failure to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to be faithful to Him only“? Or were they so convinced of their state of entitlement embracing the vanity of their faith believing they called God to be theirs instead of being called to be God’s people? How many people feel that kind of separation in their own lives without having to consider the spiritual aspect of it at all. The problems of the world and the ability to survive it can easily overwhelm or supersede the spiritual foundational truth of who we are and who we are meant to be. As I reflect upon the words of God given to Jeremiah to be delivered to those exiles of Jerusalem then living in Babylon, especially in chapter 29, I cannot overlook the great possibility that God was being true to His identity as their God. The truth of which I speak would be “Immanuel: God with us.”

Don’t you think it would be easy to think of exile as abandonment, condemnation, accusation and contempt? How many people in the world today, in this moment, are rejecting the notion of an Almighty and Loving God who professes sovereignty over all creation because their current circumstances are dire, impossible and near death? Looking through the catalogue of their lives (and not even calling it “sin”) the errors and mistakes of one’s own life gather in the shadows where we would love for them to be and thus “out of sight, out of mind.” And just when we think we have forgotten them, the very thought of them to “not exist” shines light on them and we see them again. It is there in the place between light and dark, hidden and revealed, shadow and reality that “blame” speaks the loudest. Such “blame” screams “if only” and that God who is said to be “in charge” is seen as one who abandoned us and not the other way around. Even now, I hear the words of Adam who speaks from the shadows of the shrubbery in which he attempted to hide from God, “That woman YOU made me, made me do it.” Perhaps the louder the complaint the more that self-awareness speaks of personal conviction so quickly denied. It is hard for most all of us to say, “I am wrong” or “I did this” or “It is my fault. I am to blame.” These are also the words of “exile.” They fix a gulf of death between truth and reconciliation. Denial is believed to fill the emptiness such realization of guilt has created. It never does. We will not survive denying our part in the problem and the feeling of exile which wraps itself around us as some kind of security blanket. Nor will we survive this world allowing there to be a distance between God who is our Savior in our own heart, mind and spirit. In truth, there is no such distance. God is just “right there.”

This is what I hear in the words given to Jeremiah for the exiles. He said, “[He, meaning God] says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon….” God professed that He was not standing on Mount Zion with Jerusalem and all Israel under His feet pointing that accusatory finger at the guilty (and those exiled leaders were indeed guilty) shewing them away and rejoicing over their misery, confusion or even contemptuous thoughts intermingled with some sense of guilt and realization. Instead, God, in the execution of His justice as the extension of His promise to be their God (not their excuser), carried them into their temporary dwelling place. Think of it this way. There is a great difference between being sent to the corner for time out and being escorted there. Not only were these exiles escorted but God says He “carried them” there. Is the image one of holy hands scooping up thousands of Jews and transporting them personally to their “time out corner”? Is it of beasts of burden and wagons fashioned by those very hands which carried them? Is it a reminder of the shared Holy Spirit which not only was a part of their being created still connected to them and binding them one to another? I cannot say myself, but these images come to mind as I read and reread God’s declaration of sharing in their exile with them. He was not distant and never was. Maybe the people and their leadership thought they could be distant from a God who “failed” them. Maybe they rejected God because He did not comply and created a distance of “He doesn’t care” between themselves and the God for whom “nothing could have been further from the truth.” While they were separated from their homes, friends, families and “old familiar places and faces,” they were not separated from God. This was the word which Jeremiah was commanded to deliver to them: “You are not alone!”

Mighty ones of God, hear these words. They are even more true now than ever. We may each be feeling a sense of exile in our own lives and the burden of distance it creates between us and those we love. But, “we are not alone.” God has gone before us. God follows after us. God is with us. His very presence gives us the courage to keep the faith and hold fast to the calling by which we have been called. We are even more fortunate than those Jerusalem exiles because they hoped for a redeemer, a savior, a messiah who would rescue them from all their other enemies. I say “other enemies” because I would hope and pray that they would have come to the recognition and realization that they were their own worst enemy. I would hope and pray they would have claimed the real truth instead of blaming others to reinforce the lie. And we have to be able to do the same today! We must claim the truth “that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God intended for us, in us and through us.” That “all” must include ourselves as that tenuous human trinity of “me, myself and I.” Accepting this truth does not alienate us from God. It actually draws us closer to Him so much that we feel God is moving closer to us. The prodigal father runs to his repentant and humbled son. Jesus declares, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” We do not suffer alone except that we refuse to see the holy Other who is there in spirit and in truth and then those whom we put in the shadows with our sins and mistakes believing that we could not be forgiven. Yet, it is the light of God’s love, mercy and grace which pushes back the darkness, overwhelms the sting of sin and brings forth life in a community of faith. We call that light Jesus who is “the way, the truth and the life” which leads us back to God. He is with us, mighty ones of God. He is carrying us through and will be with us all the way back home.

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.