Jeremiah 23:7-8 “So then, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 8 but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”
Sometimes we need a “do-over”, a “fresh start”, a “new beginning.” Things have gotten out of hand and if we can’t step beyond what has happened, we will have to live in a very bad place. The question is, what kind of new life will the new life be?
Because any transition is a where choices have to be made. Location, occupation, relationships, habits, belongings, purpose. All these and more get decided, or decided for us, when transitions happen. And our reaction to those changes shape the next season in life.
One of the positive things can be the fact that we can leave some of our failures and fumblings in the past. We can turn our backs on our own worst self. We get a fresh start.
Or at least that is the hope.
The problem is that we take ourselves into that future. So we must change, or history will repeat itself.
Ancient Israel had a problem. They had repeatedly turned their backs on the LORD. For generations they said one thing and did another. They said they wanted to follow the LORD and that they were committed to Him only, but then they would seek counsel from idols, foreign gods, who weren’t gods at all, just crafts of human hands.
Jeremiah keeps repeating this theme as the reason for the coming judgment. But they haven’t responded. And there is a message of hope that they need to hear.
Even though judgment is coming, the LORD is not finished His work of reaching the world through His people. There will be a new chapter in your history, He says. And the chapter will look very much like the previous chapters. The theme will be: The LORD Delivers!
So why is hope so important when times are difficult? Bad circumstances can overwhelm the human heart. They can make it very difficult to face each new day. If today is going to be as miserable as yesterday, I think I will just stay in bed.
So the LORD wants to give hope that the Exile in Babylon will last 70 years, but then you will be returned to your land. Things are going to get much worse on the outside before they get better. Look forward instead of backward.
Israel kept counting on the LORD’s history of their deliverance from Egypt as a guarantee that He wouldn’t judge them. But the LORD will provide them a new point of deliverance to help them through this moment of time. They will have a new story, one for their generation, one that will once again show that the LORD is the ONLY God.
And when the nations around see this new deliverance, and the people’s obedience and dedication to the LORD, then the story of Scripture will be fulfilled. God and humanity living in harmony AND human with human doing the same.
Have you noticed that it hasn’t happened yet? We are still at odds with each other. Why?
Because the same human heart that was there before these events was there after the events. It is only when hearts are truly changed and continue to be changed by their continued encounters with the Living God, that history changes and becomes more what the LORD has designed it to be.
So how are you living? Does your life shine to the world the reality of His presence right now in you?
The Arnold Journey 