Jer. 27-29
There are a few things that stand out to me in this passage right now. One is that God declared king Nebuchadnezzar “my servant”. I don’t have any reason to believe that king Nebuchadnezzar knowingly or willingly served God. But that did not stop God from using him for His purpose. God gave not just His people but all of the surrounding lands, along with the men and the beasts of the field that dwelt in them, to the Babylonian king. God made Nebuchadnezzar great because He chose to. Nebuchadnezzar did nothing to deserve any of it. However, God also promised that He would deal with Babylon when its time came. God is sovereign. He has a plan and there is nothing and no one who will stand in the way of that.
Also, God told His people to settle in the land where He exiled them. They were to live there; to make it their home. Like it or not, understand it or not, this was God’s plan for them. In order for it to go well for them, they needed to surrender themselves to it. He told them to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jer 29:7). But He also told them to “multiply there, and do not decrease” (Jer 29:7b).
That really speaks to me of how we, as God’s people, are to exist in this world. We are to engage with it, be a part of it, pray for it, and seek its welfare. But in all of that we are to remain God’s people. The Jews were not of Babylon, even as we are not of this world,. However, they were sent into it, as we are sent into this world, for God’s purpose. And we know that when God’s time is fulfilled, we will return to our true home.
One last thing that stood out were the warnings against the lies of the false prophets. These were men who tried to present lies as God’s truth. Jeremiah warned the people not to listen to them. God called these false prophets to account for making people trust in a lie. The thing I found especially interesting, though, is that God said the false prophets had “spoken rebellion against the LORD” (Jer 28:16b and 29:32b). Any lie that attempts to distort or redefine God’s truth is rebellion against Him, pure and simple. I see this everywhere today and we need to be very careful to not be swayed by such lies.
Heb. 5
“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb 5:14). Wow – what a statement! I understand “solid food” here to mean the deeper truths of the Bible. It is all the stuff that goes beyond the basic Gospel message – the message of Jesus as God in human form who is our perfect sacrifice to restore our relationship with God. This is the basic message that the author (or authors) of Hebrews has been reviewing thus far. This ‘milk’ is all you need to be saved, but to truly walk in God’s way and bear His fruit in and through our lives requires something more. It requires ‘solid food’.
This verse states that we mature into digesting such solid food. The key to understanding the deeper truths is discernment. Discernment comes by constant practice and enables us to distinguish good from evil; truth from lie. So how and what do we practice in order to gain the powers of discernment needed to understand the deeper truths and not be swayed by lies about the things that are more difficult to understand? It’s a good question. But one thing I know for sure is that any training requires intentional effort.
I think it starts with what the author of Hebrews is trying to do. We need to start with a firm foundation; a solid understanding of the basic Gospel message. Then we build on that foundation, as we prayerfully seek understanding of other parts of scripture. Each building block should fit with the foundation. We repeat this process every day, taking every thought and fitting it against what we already know to be true. If it doesn’t fit, we throw it out.
The prayer part is vital. It is our means of interacting with God, who is the source of all wisdom and understanding. We must be careful not to become “dull of hearing”, as the recipients of this letter were, but remain open to what God’s Spirit reveals to us. Bottom line? If we want to grow in our understanding, we need to actively seek God, and we need to do so constantly.