Jeremiah's Letter to the Exiles

I originally wrote this as an article for the Family Life (the news letter for the Church of Christ in Falls Church, VA.) on Sunday, May 3rd 2020 but I feel it has a message for everyone during the Covid-19 virus pandemic.

Tuesday night (April 28th 2020) , during the virtual small group hosted by the McKays, we all shared scripture that was meaningful to us.  It was so good to see many familiar faces and a new one as well.  It was so good to hear everyone share how the written word of God is impacting their life.  I chose to share Jeremiah 29:4 - 9.

This week I have been listening to Jeremiah and it is a difficult story.  Jeremiah is called to be a prophet at a terrible time in the history of Judah.  The kingdom will have fallen by the end.  The last of the people will be ethnically cleansed from the Promised Land.

Jeremiah’s job is to proclaim this bad news.  He declares that these events were caused by the sin of the people and the LORD is responsible.  It is the LORD who is carrying the people away to new land and cities.  Their normal lives are turned upside down.  By the end of this, the people will need to make and find a new normal.

In this new normal the LORD tells the people in exile to settle in.  They are to make new homes.  They are to have families.  They are to encourage their children to have families.  They are to want the best for the new foriegn place they find themselves in.  They are to embrace the new normal.

They don’t want to be in exile.  The LORD knows this but in their exile they are to be light in the places they now live.

“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. (Jeremiah 29:7)

This should sound familiar.  Our world is turned upside down.  Our normal routines have been disrupted.  We haven’t been carried into exile but we are surviving a global pandemic.   The ways we used to live will not return and on the other side of this we will find a new normal.

In this new normal we are to seek the peace and prosperity of the place we find ourselves.  We are to pray for prosperity in this new normal because it will cause us to prosper too.

Like the exiles we won’t know what our new normal will be.  We are facing uncertainty.  Like the exiles we know the LORD is with us.  We have not been left on our own but the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are with us as we move into a new normal.