Pray Jeremiah 29:7 for Our Nation

With all that has happened this year, it seems there's more emotional exhaustion, frustration, fear, and worry these days.  The easy road is to check out of reality and binge-watch things that doing matter.  (I know, it's my regular temptation too!)  But God repeatedly encourages and (at times) commands us to pray.  

His instruction to pray in Jeremiah 29:7 is especially telling.   In a letter Jeremiah sent to the elders exiled in Babylon, God instructed the people to build houses, plant gardens, and let their kids get married.   When God said, "Multiply, do not decrease" is was as if he was saying, settle in, you'll be here for a while but grow while you're here.   Also, note that in Jeremiah 29:4, God says, "to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon. . . "  Who deported them?  God did.  

Then God goes on to instruct them to "Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to.  Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives you will thrive" (Jeremiah 29:7).    

Why would God put them in such a place that he was only later going to judge (Isaiah 13:1-14:23)?  I believe Scripture gives us three reasons.  

1.  God wanted them to multiply, not decrease.  This seems to be about physically growing in number, but it also grounded their theology.  This season produced men like Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.  This season also gave us Esther and a reality of statements like, "for such a time as this."  

2. This season in Babylon seemed to reinvigorate a passion for the Lord.  Prayer and fasting became more meaningful, as did obedience (consider Daniel's determination to pray regardless of the consequences and  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's faithfulness to obey God).  Nehemiah heard about the state of the exiles and the city of Jerusalem in the month of Chislev (Nov-Dec) and "wept and mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of the heavens" (Nehemiah 1:4).  In the month of Nisan (March-April) he was still distraught about it.  The exile and situation drove him to prayer and gave him a heart inline with God's heart.  

3.  This was also to show God's power and glory to the World.  We see (especially in the book of Daniel) God's hand in raising up world powers when the Persians conquered the Babylonians.  Nehemiah was well funded and supported by the ruling government to take people back to the promised land and rebuild.  It was a picture of the exodus all over again.  In that situation, God continued to harden Pharaoh's heart so that by the time of the last plague, the Egyptians not only wanted the Hebrews out of the land, they were dumping their gold, silver, and resources on them as they left.   In a modern-day example, it's like watching the Church grow rapidly and well in China and Iran, under tremendous persecution.  That must be infuriating to the helpless powers trying to stop God's Kingdom.   

I don't if we're heading in the the same direction, time will tell.  Either way, we are in a position to pray.  As Christians, this should be the first and natural response to the things we see in the world.   So Redeeming Life Church, let's be people who pray.  

For the Kingdom!
Pastor Bryan