Building in Babylon

There’s a story in the book of Jeremiah that we talk little about.  Yet, in it you will find one of the most well known verses in the Bible.  

Chapter 29 begins with the prophet writing a letter to the people of Jerusalem who had been captured and taken to Babylon.  I can only imagine what being exiled to a foreign land must feel like.  The changes in culture and language.  The loss of home and family and freedom.  

How scared they must have been.

I wonder at the excitement they must have felt when news of the letters arrival spread throughout their community.  I can actually feel the hope that must have coursed through their veins with the expectation of deliverance that was most certainly spelled out in the pages they now held.

Surely, this captivity was about to end!  Soon they would be set free from this bondage and back to the very thing they longed for… home!  

To life as it was... before.

I can imagine the scenarios that played through their minds as they began to open the letter.  Was there a secret plan in place?  Had Jeremiah come up with a way to help them escape?  Was he even now just outside those city gates preparing to set them free?

And how their hearts must have broken when they saw those first words, “This is what the Lord says.. ‘Build homes, and plan to stay.’”

Plan to stay?

No!! 

Just reading these words thousands of years later brings tears to my eyes.

Build homes? 

Here? 

In Babylon?

The letter goes on to encourage the exiled people to not only build homes but to plant gardens… get married… have children… and then have them marry!  

Wait.. what?

“We’re gonna be here that long?!?”

As Christians today, we focus so often on being set free from bondage.  And, yes, there are many bondages we should seek to be free from.

But we cannot deny that there are situations in our lives that we cannot change.  We cannot avoid. And we cannot escape.

Which begs the questions - what does your Babylon look like?

The death of a dream?  A marriage?  A loved one?

Loss of health? Home? Finances?  

Or can it be summed up by simply saying “COVID-19”?

Babylon is that place we land unwillingly and with no desire to stay.  And to open our minds to the idea of putting down roots and learning to live… no… even thrive in Babylon is offensive to our senses.

I shared this concept with a group of teens recently.  Many of them are living in the Babylon of broken homes.  It is not of their choosing - yet they have no other option.  Their current condition is based on the choices of others.  

And they must reap the consequences.

I challenged them to look even further into Jeremiah 29.  In verse 7, the people are told to “work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon.  Pray for it.  For its welfare will determine your welfare.”

What??

Pray for the peace and prosperity of my Babylon?

No!

I don’t want to live here!  

I. want. to. go. home.

Back to before.

Back to normal.

We can wail and scream and cry.  Search for a means of escape… ignore the obvious… and attack those around us.

But when you’re in Babylon… you’re in Babylon.

At the moment when their hearts couldn’t have sank deeper into their chests, hope appeared on the pages of that letter.

Yes, they were stuck in Babylon.  Yes, they were asked to accept their reality and learn to live with it.  

A hard ask. 

But then the Lord gave those beautiful words we love to claim without acknowledging those earlier sentences… He said, “I know the plans I have for you.  They are plans for good and not for disaster.  Plans to give you a hope and a future.”

He goes on to invite His people to search for Him wholeheartedly with the promise to end their captivity and restore their fortunes - but it wouldn’t happen for seventy years.  

Life had changed.  And it would never look the same for them again.

Sound familiar?

I asked earlier what your Babylon looks like.

How long have you been there?

How hard has it been?

Does the thought of staying offend your senses?

I get it.  I do.

And while your Babylon might look different than mine, I invite you to link arms and join me in praying for the peace and prosperity of our individual Babylons even as we shake the dust off our weary hearts and begin searching for ways to build a life inside our situations.

Take comfort in knowing that God knew where to find the exiled people - after all, the letter reached them even though they were far from home.  He knows where to find you as well.

When we stop searching for a way to escape Babylon, it is then we can pick up a hammer and begin building a new life inside the wrong side of the walls we so despise.

It may not be where you’d choose to be… but if that’s where you are, I hope you will find courage to rise up, build, plant roots and thrive - even in Babylon.

Who's Your Rahab?

I've been thinking about giants and Rahabs and wilderness living…

In our walk with God, we yearn for the day when we reach our destination.  Our promised land.  But, yet, I see in the modern church culture the same fear of giants the Israelites experienced.

Our giants look different. 

They resemble giant corporations that spew hatred towards Christianity while promoting acceptance, love and world peace. 

It looks like the church down the street that doesn’t hold the same values as ours…sending us into avoidance, competition, slander and self-destruction.  But, boy, do we all love our Jesus.

Today’s giants are the voices that promote fear, proclaim shame and announce doom.  These voices stir Believers to an action that sends us straight back to the wilderness.

Boycott!

Turn!

Run!

And then there’s Rahab.

Yes, we know the Isrealite's future was in God's hands… but from their side of history, they only knew they had to trust that Rahab hadn't ratted them out. 

Imagine placing your life… your future… your promise from God into the hands of a harlot.

Gasp!

Instead, we refuse to dirty our hands with the least of these.  We tsk, tsk over their shameful way of life and pray our sweet Jesus will come quickly and save us from this old sinful world.

I get it.  Trust me, I get it.

I get tired of giving up my time, my resources, my comfort.  I get nervous about stepping into the land of giants.  I don’t want to hang out with Rahab.  But do we really expect people to live and love like Christ… without having Him in their life?

There’s a promised land on the horizon, and avoiding conflict sends me back to the wilderness…leaving the giants to enjoy my promise… and leaves Rahab without a Redeemer.

What does claiming Jericho look like?

It means trusting God no matter where He leads you.  It means loving the unlovable.   It means praying blessing over those who despise you…something that, admittedly, doesn’t feel good in my mouth. 

But in the end, it changes…it changes me.

Avoidance has been the name of the game too long.  My whole life this has been the Christian mantra – if a business reportedly supported something bad, BOYCOTT! 

We’ll show them!

But stop and think about it.  What are we showing them?  We’re showing them the opposite of who Jesus is.

He came to serve and to love.

He gave unselfishly – even to those who would betray Him.

Imagine shaking off the self-righteous, condescending, pious approach, and instead going inside the walls of your Jericho and finding someone to love… someone who has nothing but a messy, broken life to give in return.

Does refusing to extend love and grace really win them over in the end anyway?  Or is it more about keeping our garments unspotted from the filth of this world.

Truth is, you can live in the wilderness.  You can build a shelter, eat manna and dream of the good things you enjoyed back in Egypt.  Ahh.. the good ole days… when you were… living in bondage… yeah.. those days.

But then there’s Jericho.

The place where God has called you to.  You see, we beg God to show us His will for our lives… but at the first sign of discomfort, we cave.

Yes, there are rivers to cross, giants to face, and you may have to befriend the town harlot.  But if that’s what God uses to get us to our promised land, why would we question Him?

The world has seen what it looks like for the body of Christ to remain on the banks of the Jordan…and they’re laughing.   We’ve showed them what powerless Christianity looks like… maybe it’s time to show them a new kind of Christian. 

The kind that crosses over into the land of giants, loves the unloveable, extends peace, offers hope and lives fearless… because we know that God is ultimately in control.