Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, an Iranian General was assassinated by US Military. I have friends serving in the military overseas, deployed and soon-to-be deployed. I watch as friends in Lebanon are directly affected by this death. In fact, Simple Sparrow was gearing up to go to Beirut to support a mission school before Lebanon bubbled up in revolution last fall (a revolution I applaud and stand in awe of the resilience of the Lebanese).
All I can do is watch devastation and wait. I cannot stop it from coming and I cannot look away (although so many times I want too...).
So I picked up my Bible and started reading through the books of the prophets again. The stories resonate with me right now: the prophets couldn't stop devastation from coming, they couldn't look away.
All they could do was watch and wait.
Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Isaiah... all wrestled with God about human suffering, they lamented (Jeremiah actually wrote Lamentations) and were resolved to WATCH and WAIT.
Watch and Wait. That's hard for me. Like any good American, I have am bred and groomed to get what I want when I want it. And to want "peace on earth and goodwill toward all" seems like a pretty good thing to want...but I must wait.
In my reading of the prophets, I came to Jeremiah 29. To put this in context: King Nebuchadnezzar had defeated Judah and carried off the loot and exiles into Babylon (btw, God warned Israel for hundreds of years that this would happen if the people did not stop doing evil...they were commanded to "love God" and "love one another" (Deu 6) but they continued to harden their hearts and practice evil instead practice good). False prophets assured people the exile would be short lived. It gave them hope, but it was false hope.
I want to pause here for a moment on false hope. I heard a preacher once say, "the soul can accept a hard truth but it cannot accept a lie." Whatever your concept of "soul" is, the point is that the very core of who we are cannot rest in the company of lies, no matter how pretty and comforting that lie is. I have seen pretty lies and false hope repeatedly fruit in my own life and it is rancid. False hope and pretty lies are human driven manipulation to extract an outcome that we think is best. In all our eternal wisdom and intelligence, we humans know what's best (please note the saturated sarcasm in that last sentence). The false prophets didn't want exile. No one wanted exile! But rather than lean into God, trust in Him for strength to endure the suffering, human manipulation and control make people lean more on themselves and other people...who ARE NOT GOD! Because when things are going well, who needs God? When things are going as we want, there is no need for divine intervention because "we got this."
I sympathize with the false prophets. They just wanted to cheer people up. They just wanted to fix everything and make the world a better place...a better place, on their own, without God. Note that without God, the history of their nation was not a better place. The nation of Israel without God, became invaded by other nations and ceased...the people were scattered, exiled to Babylon. And the prophets who spread false hope soon died!
In Babylon, these Israelites were very much like our modern day refugees: PTSD from war (although the Bible doesn't call it out because "post traumatic stress disorder" wasn't defined until 1970s) and struggling to find their identity among strangers. These were leaders, skilled workers and craftsmen (Jer 29:2b) who were accustomed to management and self-expression through their craft. Now in exile, who were they? What was their purpose? What were they supposed to do now?
God via Jeremiah gives them an answer: still be YOU.
"Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and allow your daughters to get married so that they too can have sons and daughters. Grow in number; do not dwindle away. Work to see that the city where I sent you as exiles enjoys peace and prosperity. Pray to the Lord for it. For as it prospers you will prosper." -- Jer 29:5-7
Still love God and still love one another...seek SHALOM (peace and prosperity). AND ASK GOD for it (not people).
As children of God, our identity is in Him and cannot be taken away. God created us for relationship. He created us to be in community with God and one another to steward His creation (Gen 1:26-30). Christian faith teaches that relationship with God is possible because of the work and ministry of Jesus Christ (John 3:16). We believe Jesus is fully God and fully man, that He came to earth to teach the true character and identity of God to all people. God is love (1 John 4:7-21). Jesus was killed and buried in a tomb. He was dead 3 days before He came to life again. Death had no power over Him that He did not allow. Death is the ultimate devastation. God has power and control even over that!
So as I watch devastation and wait, I remember who God is. He reminds me who I am:
I am a farmer. I plant gardens and eat. I cannot stop suffering. But I can ease it. I can teach how to plant gardens. I can teach how to prepare meals from food the farm grows. I can teach how to farm, how to steward. It's small and it feels insignificant. But it is purpose driven and it satisfies the soul.
Who are you?
