This
is what the LORD Almighty, the God
of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat
what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons
and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and
daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and
prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you
too will prosper.”
Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says:
“Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to
the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my
name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD.
This is what the LORD says: “When
seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my
gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have
for you,” declares the LORD,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
(Jeremiah
29:4-11)
As
I listened to this passage yesterday, I found myself considering the current
circumstances in our country. On all sides, we have people claiming they're
going to make America great again, and calling for us to "take back
America." Quite honestly, the means by which they say we're going to do
this seem to me to be both contrary to the principles of Christianity and
contrary to the principles on which America was founded. People are flocking to drink in what is being
offered by latter day secular prophets and priests who delight in have marinating
their lives in disease-ridden filth. Even though the dream offered is clearly
unattainable, they kiss the offered hand or backside and walk away with far
more than a brown nose. They don't think about those to whom they will spread
the disease.
Others who wisely refuse to sully
themselves wonder what we are supposed to do. We know that things that are
happening are wrong. We feel besieged, or like we're being led away as slaves
in a foreign land. In the Old Testament, when the people reached this point,
one of two things would happen. Either God brought about a miracle, or they
were taken into exile with a promise that they would someday return home. In
this passage, God told the Jews to go where they were taken and set up
households for themselves, to prepare to live in the land. We are not supposed
to listen to the excrement-dripping prophets and priests who proclaim
"peace, peace" or "victory, victory," because their lives
prove them to be false prophets.
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Birthday of Dorothea Lynde Dix
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