Sunday Morning, May 26, 2019 AM Part 2

The Catastrophe of Exile and the Need for God’s Plan

Assyria had not plundered Jerusalem. Assyria had not taken away King Hezekiah into captivity and raided the holy artifacts from the temple. Assyria had done a lot of damage but they had weathered the storm and perhaps for some of them they had gained a false confidence that the city would never fall.

No matter how bad it got the city would never fall because they had the temple of the Lord. They would chant that the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. They were so focused on the architecture, so focused on the artifacts, so focused on the geography that they thought they would never fall.

And yet Nebuchadnezzar had come in 597 and had surrounded the city and Jeconiah had surrendered after three months of reigning and he had gone out with all the nobles of the city, their best craftsmen, their best metalsmiths, all the nobility had gone out and bought a bit of freedom for Jerusalem by allowing Nebuchadnezzar to come in and take whatever he wanted.

And he took the best of the best which of course was in the temple. This was a devastating blow to Jerusalem, a devastating blow to Judah and they're trying to figure out what now? What do we do now? What's the plan?

What does this all mean? What's going to happen next? What's the plan? And God is merciful, God is merciful to give them the plan. He tells them to surrender and what about those in exile? What about the Jews who are living in exile?

What are they going to do living out there in Babylon? Well they need a plan as well and God is merciful and he gives them the plan and that's what we're looking at when catastrophe strikes. Political, social, religious catastrophe has struck.

Now what? And that's what we're looking at in Jeremiah 29 verses 1 to 4. I invite you to stand with me as I read the passage for us. These are the words of Christ through his prophets to his people. Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

This was after King Jeconiah and the Queen Mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem. The letter was sent by the hand of Elisha the son of Shaphon and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them and plant gardens and eat their produce.

Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to your two husbands that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there and do not decrease.

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will have welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you and do not listen to the dreams which they dream for they prophesy falsely to you in my name I have not sent them declares the Lord.

For thus says the Lord when 70 years have been completed for Babylon I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you to bring you back to this place for I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart I will be found by you declares the Lord and I will restore your fortunes and that will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you declares the Lord and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile this is the word of the Lord you may be.

Seated catastrophe strikes now what's the plan.

Proper Assessment: Seeing Exile Truthfully

We looked at verses 1 through 4 and we talked about step 1 of the plan the P and the acronym PLAN plan. Is this proper assessment. Right. Thinking about what occurred. And to do that we have to make a particular assessment.

The details need to be right. Not only that but they need to be peculiar. They need to be seen from God's point of view not not just a basic data that historian may gather. But what is God. How does God see what just happened.

Make a peculiar assessment. And we have to make a prophetic assessment that we need to know what is going on the way things ought to be but also what is yet to come. We need to know what highway we're on but also what lies on the horizon.

And when it comes to anything that happens how is it that we're going to really know what we have. We have to have some sort of objective measurement to know what just happened. We talked about how you hang a picture.

You can use a tape measure you can use a level you can use someone back across the room. And all three methods will come together. And you can put the picture in the right spot. Perfect placement. And that's what we have to do with when something happens.

We got to take up the Word of God take up the law of God take up the the promises of God take up the gospel of Jesus Christ. And take a look at what just happened. And then we'll know what we have. So make a prophetic assessment.

And after we have figured out what it is biblically that just occurred whatever kind of catastrophe it is. Well then we need to make a programmatic assessment. In other words we're not just hearers of the word but also doers.

We have to leverage our assessment into action. We must be like the sons of Issachar who knew the times who and then who knew what to do. If there's there's a follow-through on our understanding. And now sometimes when we have come to grips with what has actually happened even if we can all agree on what actually happened what do we do.

That question sometimes goes in multiple directions. We can all agree on what actually happened. But now what do we do. Gary Larson the artist for Farside says there's four personality types. So glass of water on the table right at the mid-level the waters up midway on the glass.

First guy comes in says the glass is half-full. Next guy comes in says glass is half-empty. Third guy comes in says the glass is half-full. No it's half-empty. No wait wait. What's the question. And the fourth guy comes in and grumps.

Hey I ordered a cheeseburger. And that's the four personality types. There's the optimist the pessimist the relativist and the antagonist. We get the details. But then what do we do. What's the what's the response.

And and we seem to go in different directions. Sometimes there's four options for a wounded soldier who gets shot in the leg. Well catastrophe is struck. Now what this is. What happens in war. Soldiers get shot.

Well is it. What are your options. Well it could be time to bleed out and dies the noble hero. It could be time to surrender to the enemy. I mean better a patched up POW than a dead hero. It might be time to carefully retreat to a better safer position and receive medical help.

Or could it be the time to pull the tourniquet stop the blood flow advance on the enemy position. They gave themselves away by shooting at you. Finish the mission and secure landing zone for the next stage.

What's what's the answer. What does God tell the Israelites to do. Give up and die. Roll over become one with Babylon. We need to know what to do. Make the proper assessment. But then how. What does that look like in terms of our obedience.

What does that look tight look like in terms of our action. Catastrophe will strike. A loved one may die. There may be a breach of trust. There may be a financial crisis. There may be a religious scandal.

There may be a theological compromise. There might be a political firestorm. There might be a bad omen when you get shot in the leg. Now what. What's the plan. What do we do. But whatever happens stick to the plan which begins with proper assessment.

Long-Term Obedience in Exile

And the next thing the L in plan is long-term obedience. And that's what we're going to begin talking about this morning. Verses 5 through 7. We read those verses for you again. Verses 5 through 7. And we're going to hear the kind of long-term obedience that God commands of the Israelites.

This is what the Lord says. Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives become the fathers of sons and daughters. And take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there and do not decrease.

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will have welfare. So there's long-term obedience that God calls for the Israelites.

And it demands that they live in reality. That they deal with reality the way things really are not to live in an imaginary dream world of how they wish it would be but to deal with the facts as they are.

Unwelcome though they might be to handle the factors that are there. Unhelpful as they may be but with undaunted faith to follow through in long-term obedience. But they have to live in reality. And reality is hugely unpopular just now.

Even reality TV is all about escaping from reality in our matter. Magic paganism. Everyone does their best to craft their own versions of reality for themselves. People use magic today magic words. And then he's become she's and sin becomes choice.

And brainwashing becomes education. And finding the square root of four becomes an investigation into the repressive tyranny of white patriarchal structures which emit greenhouse gases we use to designate those who had lost touch with reality as a special class of ignoramus.

I. And yet now advertisements encourage us to defy reality. Change reality choose your reality reminding us that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is still hanging within reach. Long-term obedience demands living in reality.

Dealing with what is actually the case. Because God is a God of truth. God is a God of truth. Well let's look at the reality of the Jews. Long-term obedience is commanded of the Jews in exile. And they have some unwelcome facts that they're dealing with.

Fact number one that's unwelcome. They're gonna be there a while. They're gonna be there a while. We've already looked at a false prophet Hananiah who said no it's just two years. Just two years and everything will be fine again.

Jeconiah the exiles all the holy artifacts coming back in two years. It's only gonna be two years long. And Jeremiah says God says it's gonna be 70 years. And and as we look very carefully in Jeremiah the clock for those 70 years hasn't even started yet.

The temple is still standing. So they're going to have to wait for 70 plus years before they can come back. The exile is going to be long. They're not going to avoid this unwelcome fact number one. They're not gonna avoid the exile.

It's gonna be a long time. Unwelcome fact number two is that they are responsible for that exile and that's that's kind of hard to hear. The reason why they're in exile. The reason why they're in the land of Babylon rather than in the promised land is because of their own sin.

And we've been looking at that over and over again throughout Jeremiah but generation after generation turned away from the Lord and turned to idolatry and immorality and injustice. And God sent his prophets again and again and again but they would not listen.

They would not hear and God kept his promise. He's told them if you break my covenant I will break you and I will send you to a foreign nation with a language you do not know and worship gods that you have never known before and to live in that nation under their idolatrous paganism.

He promised that he said he would do it and he has done it. So that's unwelcome fact number two that they're responsible for their circumstances. Number one they're gonna be there a long time. Number two they're responsible for it.

Here's unwelcome fact number three they're starting from scratch. They're starting from scratch. That's an interesting expression. It first crops up in relation to bare-knuckle boxing in England where you scratch a line in the dirt.

Two fighters do and they have to start from behind their respective lines so that it'll be a fair fight. It's used also for racing. Scratch a line in the dirt and go back to start so that you will be where you're supposed to be to start racing juice also in cricket.

But nobody understands that. So I won't talk much about that starting from scratch. How are they starting from scratch. Once upon a time there was a it was an elderly man 75 years old his wife was 65.

They had no children and he was told to to move to leave his family to leave his land and go travel to a new land. He'd given a promise by God actually to go to a promised land where he would become a great nation.

And he made great efforts to make sure that his descendants would never ever go back to the land where he was from. And this man's name was Abram and he was later called Abraham. And the land that he was from after the city he was from was Ur of the Chaldeans.

Chaldeans are the Babylonians. Guess where Israel is now. They went all the way back to start all the way back to scratch. That's an unwelcome fact. You are the generation that that has been brought back to the beginning of where Abram was.

That's an unwelcome fact. You're having to start over from scratch. You're responsible for this for the situation and you're gonna be there a long time. Unwelcome facts. But they have to live in reality.

They also have unhelpful factors. There's no temple for them to pray at. No priests offering sacrifices on the altar. They have no king to direct all the people in obedience to the law. I mean who's really in charge here.

The rest of chapter 29 is about people trying to give commands and who's really in charge and giving instructions to the people. It's confusion. They live in a pagan land. They don't understand the language or the culture.

Those are the all the unhelpful factors. Yet in spite of all of those things they are called to this obedience. To build houses and live in them. To plant gardens and harvest them. To get married have children.

Make sure that they get married that they have children. And they are required. They are required to put the white flag away to fold it up put it in their pocket. They are not allowed to wave it. They are to take the towel and put it in their satchel.

And they're not going to throw it. They are required to multiply and to not decrease. Because in 70 years they are coming back. And they need to live in light of the promise. Despite all the unwelcome facts despite all of the unhelpful factors.

They must live in this way. They must not give up and diminish in their defeatist attitude. They must carve out a new life investing for the next generation. How many unwelcome facts and unhelpful factors did the pilgrims face.

Why did they cross the Atlantic in an old rickety wine ship. Half of them die and they wave goodbye to the Mayflower and stick it out. Why in the world. All the unwelcome facts all the unhelpful factors.

Because they were carving out a new life for their next generation. Carving on a new life for the next generation. Because they believe in the promises of God. And look this is especially a call to faith.

They must live as intercessors in the midst of their oppressors. Babylon had more soldiers more cavalry more spears more arrows more swords. Thus they won. And they have taken captive the best of the best from Judah.

And they have made them slaves. They have made them third fourth-class citizens in the Empire of Babylon. They have oppressed them greatly. They have stolen the the most precious articles of their culture for their own pleasure to and later on we'll see Babylonian Kings having a party and getting drunk using the holy artifacts of the temple giving no respect to their culture no respect to their religion.

These are the most oppressed people in the Babylonian Empire just now. And these oppressed people are now called to pray for the welfare for the success for the peace and prosperity of their oppressors.

That takes a bit of faith to follow through on that instruction. But why why would they do so. God commanded it of them and reminded them that in the welfare of the city of Babylon they would know their welfare and after all they're in it for the long haul.

They've got a promise coming 70 years and they're coming back. God will restore them to their land. So unwelcome facts unhelpful factors but undaunted faith. This is helpful for us. It's helpful for us in terms of our plan no matter what the catastrophe is no matter what it is that has occurred.

When we make a proper assessment of what has occurred we must then turn our attention to some long-term obedience which means that we're going to take account of the unwelcome facts and unhelpful factors to be honest about those things.

What is it going to take for us to succeed in obeying God despite all of these things that we don't want to think about or deal with. I mean encourage you if you could make a list of all the unwelcome facts and helpful factors in front of you that keep you and challenge you in obeying God and obeying the commandments of God obeying Christ.

If you will look at those in in light of the larger assessment I trust that we would then come into agreement with Paul and call these momentary light afflictions in in light of the the weight of glory that is ahead of us.

So put them in their proper perspective. That's part of the proper assessment. But we have to live in reality what they are actually are. And then listen. Obedience may mean starting from scratch. Obedience may mean that after you make the proper assessment about what the catastrophe that has occurred that we don't like the idea of starting over like the idea of starting over.

My fourth born was busily making a castle full of plastic pieces and it was getting up pretty tall. So tall that he had to get up on a chair try to finish it and unfortunately the chair was not stable and over he goes.

The whole thing just comes falling apart. That's a hard thing for a young man to face. I had the castle almost done and now I got to start over from scratch. And I thought about this sermon. Yeah yeah.

The Jews sat down by the River Euphrates and wept hung up their harps. It is a it is a hard thing to face when you have to start over from scratch. And yet here is here is an opportunity here's opportunity for true repentance when we start over from scratch.

Also please notice this obedience. Our obedience our long-term obedience just may be a response to the consequences of our disobedience. Our obedience may be a response to the consequences of disobedience.

The fact that we're starting over from scratch. The fact that we have so many unwelcome facts and unwelcome factors in our lives may just very well be because we have been disobedient to God. We have been disobedient to the Scriptures.

We have sought our own wisdom and gone our own way. And we have all these problems now in our life which is no surprise as we've been reading through the book of Proverbs. Do things your way. Bad things happen.

Do things God's way. Generally good things come about. Now it's hard for us to think about long-term obedience as a response to our own failures our own sins. But true repentance will manifest in obediently rowing upstream if that's what it means that was that was that what it means that we will row upstream and we will look to the long term for obedience.

Quick fixes. Quick fixes are where false prophets and Jiffy Lube make their money. We don't need quick fixes. We need long-term obedience now. This long-term obedience for the Jews is a good example for us.

Long-Term Obedience Rooted in Genesis and the Image of God

But we also need to recognize that the long-term obedience that they are that they are called to is not just dealing with a factor of 70 years. This kind of obedience does not stretch ahead of them for 70 years.

It actually stretches back behind them for thousands of years because what God calls them to do is nothing new it is nothing unique. This is long-term obedience that originates in Genesis. It originates in Genesis again.

What God says is build houses live in them plant gardens eat their produce take wives become fathers of sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and your daughters and give your daughters to husbands.

They may bear sons and daughters and multiply there and do not decrease. Multiply there and do not decrease those. Those instructions are are not novel. They're not specially crafted instructions unique to post or unique to Judah in exile.

In Babylonian exile it only applies to them. These are instructions that have been given since the beginning of time. And to remind us of that we have to go back to Genesis chapter 1 and begin reading in verse 26.

Notice what God says concerning his special creature mankind. Then God said let us make man in our image according to our likeness. And let them rule over the fish of the sea over the birds of the sky over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

God created a man in his own image in the image of God. He created him male and female. He created them. God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply. Be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky for every living thing that moves on the earth.

Then God said behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth. And every tree which has fruit yielding seed it shall be food for you. It sound somewhat familiar about multiply.

Do not decrease. Plant gardens. Eat the produce of them. This is nothing. This is nothing new. God is repeating for his wayward people the basic instructions about how to live in the image of God. That was what their problem was all along.

They refused to live as those who were called to be his people to live in his image and exemplify that to the world. They decided to go their own way. And now God is calling them back to his way to live in his image.

Genesis 2 selected readings here verses 8 and 9. The Lord God planted a garden toward the east. So God planted a garden and he commanded his people to plant gardens. And so you know it's a good idea to do plant a garden.

The Lord God planted a garden towards the east in Eden. And there he placed the man whom he had formed out of the ground. The Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Verse 15. Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. And verse 18 and the Lord God said it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable to him.

And then verses 21 through 24 so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed with the flesh. At that place the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought it to the man.

And the man said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman for she was taken out of man. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and they should become one flesh.

These instructions plant gardens. Eat their produce. Cultivate these gardens. Build these houses. Live in them. Keep what you are constructing and building. Get married. Have children. Make sure they get married that they have children.

These are not amazingly new instructions. These are all coming right out of Genesis 1 and 2 because after all what God called Israel to do was to live in his image. And after all it's what he called Adam and Eve to do.

Well this is part of the plan. The plan has not changed for us. The instructions to Israel in exile are not new or exclusive. We are made in the image of God and that does not cease to define our nature when something bad happens.

When something bad happens we do not cease to then be made in the image of God. We are still in the image of God and what that means is still active for us. Exile happens. We're still living in the image of God.

The fall happens. We're still living in the image of God no matter how many unwelcome facts there are and unhelpful factors. And there are many because of the fall we are still called to live in the image of God.

Well what does all that mean. Well let me give you a very quick summary. When we think about God making Adam and Eve we recognize some special roles and special relationships. Specifically looking at the way that the scriptures talk about Adam.

Adam had royal priestly and prophetic roles duties that he was to perform in special relationship to God and to humanity starting with his wife Eve and then to the land and the creatures whom God had given to him royal priestly and prophetic roles and all the requirements to do that all the requirements to exercise authority to set things apart as sacred like a day or a place all that he needed to do to speak the truth to to Eve and teach her the ways of God.

All the royal priestly prophetic roles all that he needed to do that were a part of his nature. He was made. We are made the image of God is soul and body manifested as a whole. We are rational and moral expressed in our language.

We are male and female consummated in marriage. This is what it means to be. This is the basic nature of what it means to be in the image of God. And what are we to do. We are to mediate the authority of God.

We are to mediate the holiness of God. We are to mediate the truth of God. Royal priestly prophetic duties. As we love God supremely as we love each other rightly. And as we steward the creation responsibly.

Well these same roles and special relationships were present with Noah. Noah was called to do all the same things that Adam was. So also was Abraham. So also was Israel so also was David. God made the covenant concerning the creation with Noah on Mount Ararat.

God made the covenant with Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre but it was confirmed at Mount Moriah. God made the covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai in the wilderness. And God makes a covenant with David in Jerusalem on Mount Zion.

And every single one of these moments in the redemptive history we find that Noah Abraham Israel and David all had these roles royal priestly prophetic roles. They were all called to love God supremely.

They were all called to love each other rightly. They were all called to steward their creation or the land that God had entrusted to them in a particular way every single time. And so what is Israel to think here.

They are in exile. Is it over. No. They're still made in the image of God. They may not have a functioning royal or priestly dimension in exile in terms of they don't have a king on there on the throne that they can follow.

They don't have a priest offering sacrifices in the temple. But they are still made in God's image to live according to God's Word. And this is something that would be hard for them to understand. If you grew up in Judah grew up in Israel everything centered around Jerusalem everything centered around the temple.

And once you're moved away from the land of promise moved out of the land of Canaan. Now what. What does it even mean to leap to be a Jew. What does it even mean to be a follower of God in a pagan land.

How do you even think through those things. Well God is helping them by bringing them back to the basics. He's saying you can still worship me. You can still love me. You can still follow me. Here's how we're going back to the basics what I first said in Genesis.

And by this we're talking about. What does it mean to cultivate. What does it mean to cultivate. See the second point. The first point is the imago Dei the image of God. The second thing is God told him to cultivate.

Cultivate the ground plant gardens. All that cultivate families cultivate society. Don't give up. Don't roll over. Start doing what I have called you to do. This is called the cultural mandate. Cultural mandate what God commanded back in Genesis 1.

The cultural mandate does not cease to bind our consciences when change occurs. Okay something bad happened. Do we stop. Do we stop trying to do what God has called us to do. Not at all. Listen. God's goal is to fill the earth with his glory.

That's his goal to fill the earth with his glory. The plan began with a man and his wife Adam and Eve cultivating propagating being fruitful and multiplying. That's how it began. That plan is still in effect.

When Israel was exiled to Babylon they were still to build still to plant still to marry still to bear children. Right. That was still the plan. And everything begins with cultivation. The garden. You ever heard of the words cult and culture.

We think of cult. We think of some kind of strange group that drinks Kool-Aid. But that's that's the way the term is used. But the actual term speaks to the religion speaks to how the people worship God.

And then of course we have culture which we as a term we use a lot more but cults. The cult and the culture comes from the idea of cultivation. How we do our work is to be in submission to the God who has made us and what he wants the whole world to be about.

So if I if I'm going to labor I'm going to not labor for myself or a false God. I'm going to labor for the God who made me and his goal is to fill the earth with his glory. So that's my goal. And whatever labor I perform to whatever small degree that is I will be laboring toward that end and I know how he's going to fill the world with his glory is going to be through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm going to labor towards that end. And and in this we see that culture. Culture is actually religion externalized. Whatever the religion is whatever the religion is behind the culture that's what defines the culture.

Culture is just religion externalized. So what kind of what kind of culture do we have in America. Well trace it back and you'll find what religion is actually at the core of it. Okay. So whatever whatever we look around and say well this is our American culture.

Well trace that back walk it back and you will discover what religion is running it which is some kind of right now some kind of matter magic paganism where you can speak words and things change around and you can create your own realities with words and practice witchcraft.

Why is it so important. Why is it so important that the exiles focus on the basics of these God glorifying human ways of living they had 70 years ahead of them not to they need to build houses so they could live in them.

They needed to to have families. Why. Well the lineage of the Messiah was at stake. Was it not. What happens if they roll over and die. What if they just say well we're done. What if they just say we're going to diminish.

What if they say we'll just become Babylonians. What happens. The lineage of the Messiah is at stake even as it was multiple times in Genesis with the continuation of the family we need a husband and a wife have children.

Do it again. Ezekiel lived in exile and he lived in just such a house with his wife live in exile in a house that they had built obeying God's instructions. Now what's the connection between gospel advance and cultural mandate in the image of God.

That's a really astute question. I'm glad that you asked it. And and here it is our renewal our renewal into the image of God which is we can say sanctification becoming ever more like Christ our growth in maturity in Christ.