"4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 Build houses an dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit.
6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished.
7 And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.
8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.
Two important things God told the people who have been exiled from their country to another country:
1. "I (God) have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon" and 2. "seek peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive."
Where ever God takes us no matter how we get there, it is God's will if we have no control over it and we must follow the two principles that He gave to the nation of Israel. We may not be told specifically to build houses and to marry, but the highest principles of all were clearly given as mandates to follow.
We may, at some point in our country, face the horror of being overtaken by another entity, no longer having the privilege of voting to choose our leaders. When this happens, we are told by God not to fight.
Picking up arms against a ruling authority, that we think is unjust, has been indelibly etched in our brains since childhood, it is not Biblical.
I believe in our second amendment rights to bear arms for use in hunting and protection from home intruders who are breaking the law. However the provision of our constitution for the redress of grievances was not the provision for fighting our own government. IF we as a country were being invaded and the government told us to take up arms to protect us, then that is a different matter. If we have been conquered the Jeremiah 29 passage applies to believers.
Also, not everything written in our constitution is Biblical, we must see the difference between the constitution created by man and the Bible written by God, through the apostles.
Jeremiah 29:11 "11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."
God has a purpose in all things, even the things we don't like or that remove us from our comfort zone.
God recognized those who refused to go into exile, who fought and hid to avoid it and told them that there would be no protection for them if they refused to go, but they stayed anyway.
Jeremiah 29:17 "17 thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad."
The protection God had for His people was while they were in exile. He does not always give us what we want, but always gives us that which is within His plan. If we trust Him in all situations, then we can willingly walk into captivity knowing that God controls even this.
When we fight against God's declarations we will be cursed and in a worse situation than if we had just taken our punishment, while trusting Him.
It takes faith to be willing to submit to God when it doesn't feel good, when things are not going the way we think we would like. It is not faith to fight like an animal who is frightened. That is a natural human instinct. Faith is accepting God's will, moving forward in His instruction knowing that His purposes are greater than our desires.
We can find peace in every circumstance. Even Paul said this:
8 Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel,
9 for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained.
10 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
"11 This is a faithful saying:
For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him.
12 If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us.
13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself."
Acts 16:25-34 "25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself.
28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”
29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household"
We never know how God is going to work and what blessing awaits us in the future when we obey God. Even if we are beheaded for our faith, we have great reward in heaven for our faithfulness to Him.
Remember too, that if we have to endure terrible things, God can give us the strength necessary to remain faithful to Him.
May those who love Christ dwell more on their faithfulness to Him than on their personal physical comfort, that when the day comes that they have to lose everything they have including the love of their families, they will be able to continue to experience great joy even during loss.
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