During my daily excursions through the Bible I came across Jeremiah Chapter 29 and I wanted to share some truths that I learned.
We ALL know that Jeremiah 29:11-13 was spoken directly to us, in this present day and age, and so I was thinking
“What specifically ARE the plans that God has for us? The plans to prosper us and give us a hope and a future? Everyone always pretty much inserts their own thoughts here, but surely the Bible must give us some clues as to what they could be”
Utilizing some exegesis skills I found the answer only a few verses prior. “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. Jeremiah 29:6-9.
We see clearly then that God wants us to build houses and settle down. That means that we should not live in apartments or rent basement suites, as that is not what the Lord requires of us. Besides, if we lived in apartment buildings we could not fulfill the plans God has for us, which is that we should plant gardens so that we can eat of their bounty. The reality is that those who don’t have gardens are disobedient and are in sin, because we see a clear commandment from God towards us. He wants every person to have at least one garden, full of carrots, onions, beans, etc.
As well, the Church should be doing much more to actively discourage singleness. It is a blight upon us when we know that everyone should be marrying and having both sons and daughters. Furthermore, to help us in that, I think we need to issue a challenge to the men in the community who are not finding wives for theirs sons. We see that is one of the chief responsibilities that God have given the men. Left to their own devices, the sons may find wives in bars and clubs or at the supermarket of at work.
A thousand times No! The fathers need to step up and be visible and be on the hunt for suitable women for their sons. And likewise, they need to find suitable menfolk for their daughters to marry, or else how will they be able to give them away in marriage? The problem is also compounded by the widespread use of birth control. We are to actively be involved in having sons and daughters and increase in number, not minimize our offspring with chemicals and prophylactic devices.
If we don’t do this, if we don’t seek him with our whole heart and don’t embrace the plans he has for us, what will be the result? Not only will we be disobedient to a direct message from God, but we see a few verses after Jeremiah 29:11-13, that ” this is what the LORD Almighty says: “I will send the sword, famine and plague against them and I will make them like figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse and an object of horror, of scorn and reproach, among all the nations where I drive them. Jeremiah 29:17-18.
Listen, I don’t want plagues and famine. I don’t want the sword. And yet we see that this is who God is. God is looking down at us in our respective towns and cities and telling us that plagues, death, destruction are before us. Those verses are for us! The Lord spoke those words as a message to us! Directly! personally! We are the recipients! The great Prophet Osteen was right! So were the minor prophets Warren, Furtick, and Noble.
These words in Jeremiah 29 are not to “the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”
This is not to “all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon”
This is not to be given to people “When seventy years are completed for Babylon”
This is not “what the LORD says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all the people who remain in this city”
No way! Don’t buy into that lie! Jeremiah 29 is about us for us! God knows the plans he has us, plans for good and not for evil. Plans to give us a hope and a future.Or to quote The Message Bible [Or as I like to lovingly call it, KJV 2.0] ” I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. ”
In order to achieve that, we need to repent and build those houses. We need to stop being so focused on the economy and more focused on the earth in our backyards to bring forth vegetation. If your neighbour lives in an apartment, reprove him and call him to repentance. If he is not finding wives for his sons, rebuke him openly. We don’t need his sin in our Churches. We don’t need this disobedience among the flock. We don’t need this wickedness and this dismissal of God’s word.
Only the collective heeding of these words will save us from destruction. Seeing as how the Lord does not like to tarry, I give us 5 years. Tops.
Contributed by Dustin Germain]
