Hope When You Least Expect It

Hope When You Least Expect It     

Jeremiah 29:1-14

Introduction

“Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19), because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a ‘wish’ … rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.” -RC Sproul

Hope clings to God’s promises. Life’s hardest seasons threaten that connection. Yet, true hope anchors us in God’s love and strength—even when it seems out of reach.

Our text is from Jeremiah’s prophecy. The “weeping prophet”—spoke God’s word for 40 years. To the exiles in Babylonian Captivity, He offered a warning of suffering as a consequence of rejecting God. He also offered hope: God has not forgotten you. There is hope ahead. Even in exile, hope can be found—sometimes when you least

expect it.

1. Hope Can Be Hard to Find (Jeremiah 29:1)

Imagine life in Babylonian captivity. Displaced from home, stripped of freedom, possessions, and even their spiritual heritage. All dreams, all songs of Zion felt impossibly distant. The heritage of faith as God’s victorious people under the leadership of Moses, Joshua, David, a dream of the very distant past.

Helpless and hopeless, they raise their lament… Psalm 137:1-5 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?”

Have you ever lost hope about something in your life—when things seem beyond repair, out of your control, or faded with time?

2. Four Paths to Hope Hard Places

A. Engage in the Life Around You (29:4-6)

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: 5 “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. 6 Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away!”

This is amazing and unexpected advice - the ‘false prophets’ were saying that the exile wouldn’t be long - just hang on. Jeremiah’s message is: put down roots, it’s going to be a while - your life matters right now, not just in the future.

Peterson: “Your life right now is every bit as valuable as it was when you were in Jerusalem, and every bit as valuable as it will be when you get back to Jerusalem. Babylonian exile is not your choice,  but it is what you are given. Build a Babylonian house and live in it as well as you are able.”

We are not always able to wait until times are better to experience hope again. We turn to God by living in the moment - and avoiding isolation. 

The Scriptures teach us to focus on “Today”

-Matthew 6:11 “Give us today our daily bread” 

-Psalm 118:24 “…Let us rejoice today and be glad.”

Today - engage in the life around you and find what blessing God has for you.

B. Pray for The World Around You (29:7)

And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”

Again - unexpected advice - praying for their captors? For those who had deported them to Babylon? It would have been easy for them to just focus on self- to be introspective and be sad about their circumstances. That’s a place we can visit, but not live. It robs us of the very job that God gave us. Lament is a viable form of prayer and relation to God and the World, but this encouraged them to look beyond themselves. 

Why pray for the world around us - even when there are things about it that cause us pain and make us unhappy. 

-Ask God to be at work in the world, He hears those prayers

-When things go well in the world around us, we experience prosperity along with it.

-By praying for the world around us, we have opportunity to help show the world the glory of God. 

-We are here in this place and time to seek the welfare of others in our parish.  Are we making it a better place? -How can you seek the welfare of those around you? What is your prayer for your parish, nation, and world?

C. Focus on God’s Truth (29:8-9)

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let your prophets and fortune-tellers who are with you in the land of Babylon trick you. Do not listen to their dreams, 9 because they are telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them,” says the Lord.