October 22, 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:

Yesterday, I reflected upon the professed truth by God that “He went with the Jerusalem exiles.” Not only did He go with them, but He carried them there as if to deliver them by His own hands. One might think that this showed how upset God was with those in exiles as their unfaithfulness to Him exacted such discipline. You would be right to think that God was upset with them. He was probably a bit more than upset. Yet, for all that He might have felt, what rose above that was the love He had for His people, Love is not always convenient. Love is not easy. Love is not without its challenges and consequences. Yet, love never fails to accomplish what authentic love is truly about. We might step back a moment to gain a bit of perspective on this. Creation exists because of God’s love. God so loved all that He created that He included humankind to be a part of it. Did God really need us? Can God exist without us? I suppose there can be many debates on such things but that is not the point of this reflection. Let it suffice to say, creation needed us in order to be complete. Humankind is that part of creation which would easily be identified as the “head of creation.” Yes, I know, for many of those who are mighty ones of God in Christ Jesus, you immediately thought of Paul’s teaching concerning the body (of believers). In that illustration, Paul was very intentional to tell the Church that they were the body but not the head. Only Jesus Christ can be the head of the body. It is from Him the body receives its instruction and guidance by which its very existence depends. However, Paul was equally intentional to expand the metaphor by applying the principle of headship to the various functions of accountability. The first example he gave was to the man as the husband and thus head of the family. We cannot get lost into the misconception the modern world promotes as a distaste for the framework of man as the head of his wife. By that I mean that he has leadership of her (not over her or for her but committed to leading, guiding and directing his own life for her welfare and benefit so that she might flourish in all that she is to do.) Paul will go on to say that the wife should be submissive to her husband as “unto the Lord.” There is no question here that Paul was maintaining the flow of accountability upwardly and downward. The wife should be submissive to her husband as her husband should be submissive to Christ. Notice, that such submission on the part of the wife is not dependent on the “measure” of submission which defines the husband’s submission to Christ. Even if he should fall short and not be fully committed to his duty to Christ, her submission to her husband should reflect that of her commitment to serve Christ in all things. In some respect, I suppose by default, we have two individuals called into the same accountability which is to honor Christ as the head of “the body” (whether as husband and wife, mother and father, members of the Church, leaders in the community, etc.) In this way, we are able to see an example of the paradigm of “iron sharpening iron.” Separately and together, the husband and wife collaborate in submission to themselves and to Christ for the good of “the body” and to the glory of God as in Christ who also glorified His Father by being submissive to His will. That working together for the same goal (let me summarize that as “worship in spirit and in truth”) has such a great impact for the transformation of “good,” the intended will of God for His creation, to “great,” the culmination of all things working together for good emulating the very desire and will of God. At some point, the influence of such collaboration in the flesh and in the spirit before all the world will be undeniable. I believe this is why the message of the gospel as presented by “the Church” continues to hold sway through the ages. It must continue in this pursuit of submission regardless of what the world may say and how it may attempt to sublimate and eliminate the messenger with the hope of eliminating the message. That message, of course, is the gospel. The gospel can be summed up in this way: for God so loved the world (the people who live on earth) that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish (dwell apart from God forever in what would be Hell) but have everlasting life (dwelling in the very presence of God forever in what would be like Heaven.) In other words, regardless of how the world may respond to its call to be submissive to God and God’s will, those in the world but not of it (they are of the body of Christ who is in Heaven as He was on earth) should continue to live in right relationship with the head of the body who is Jesus the Christ. He alone is our paradigm of living in the world and the true definition of what it means to be human in the image of God.

What does this have to do with God’s “carrying” the Jerusalem exiles into Babylon? First, it demonstrates the justice which is God’s love. Knowing that love gives another freewill to choose who they are, whose they are and how they will live that choice out, it is never without demand or consequence. There is a right way and a wrong way to do it. If we take seriously Jesus’ profession of “I AM the way, the truth and the life and no one can come to the Father except by Me,” then there is only ONE way that is right amid a plethora of ways to do is wrong. Because God “loves” His people, He must be true to Himself and the standard of righteousness. He cannot simply dismiss His people into chaos. He is a “good” Father and seeks only what is best for His children. He sets the example, by some understanding He is submissive to His own will, and holds true to the standard of righteousness. His “punishment,” as the world might see it, is actually discipline and correction. Life and love have their consequences and rewards. It would seem that we would choose rewards over consequences but that is not always the case. It wasn’t the case for Israel and those who were seen as “the head of Israel,” the Jerusalem exiles, had to suffer the consequences for not being submissive themselves to their “one true head who is God Almighty.” His carrying them into exile was His affirmation of affection and right relationship. It was an expression of love with the intent of bringing them back to their senses and choose to again be faithful to God alone.

But there is another aspect of this which I see and believe should be brought to our attention. We first heard of this mentality to be countermanded when “the people” of Israel decided they no longer wanted to be led by priests. It is understandable considering the way some of the priests and judges (and their families) chose to live and to honor God which was not so good. Yes, no one is perfect but when you perfectly want to be imperfect you have entered into “the danger zone.” The choice of the people was to have a king rule over them like the nations around them which they were supposed to subdue but hadn’t and didn’t. This desire was a double-edged sword of sorts. Did they perceive the kings of the surrounding nations to be more of the world and less God (with a capital G) and so indicative of more personal freedom to “be who they wanted to be without a moral conscience”? Or, perhaps, did they see kings as gods (with that lower case g) and more directly in control or more easily controlled of their most important “current” situation. I tend to think it was more a rejection of God’s sovereignty and their accountability to Him than anything else. I think that because of the dialogue between Samuel and God where God said, “They are not rejecting you. Rather, they are rejecting Me.” God even allowed them to choose their own king according to their perceived standards of “a king like those around us.” In other words, they chose a king after their own image. (If you don’t hear the danger in that, mighty ones, I am truly worried.) God had a different plan and His plan was still in full effect even when the Jerusalem leadership (those who were now in exile) again rejected God and chose to ally with kings of other nations. Instead of rewards, they received consequences. Yet, what the enemy meant for evil, God was working together for good. The principle by which the enemy sought to subdue Israel (infiltration and assimilation) became the modus operandi of God to bring back His people to righteousness and to continue to make them aware of their purpose in the world. The “enemy” brought the Jews into their own land. God told them, through Jeremiah, to be good Jews and build up a community of faith (which hopefully they would do seeing the lack of fruit for their labors which they had done.) By their faithfulness in exile, the nations could be won and they would be returned. God gave them their goal and objective. He gave them plenty of time (a sacred designation of 70 years) to fulfill their “sentence” of righteousness. His love was still finding a way to make itself known to His people. Mighty ones of God, the objective and goal of God has not changed. Our choice is to honor the head of this body which is Christ Jesus who is “King of kings and Lord of lords.” How is our seventy years? Sounds like a lifespan to me, so we better get to it and make the most of the years given to us for the glory of God and the benefit of the world around us.

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.