Day 3 - Mysterious ways
Scripture focus: "Build houses and make yourselves at home. Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country. Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you'll thrive in that country and not waste away. Make yourselves at home there and work for the country's welfare. Pray for Babylon's well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you." Jeremiah 29:5-7 (The Message)
It strikes me as curious that God sends a letter to the Jews in captivity and actually instructs them to bless Babylon. He tells them to pray for Babylon's well-being. He encourages them to make themselves comfy in exile. He wants them to thrive and not waste away. He instructs them to encourage their children to marry and have kids of their own.
This is completely preposterous if we think about it. Who does this? Who blesses their captor? Who works for the welfare of the country that carted them off from their homeland? Maybe it's just me, but my experience is that in the world we live in, there are far more people who go through life sticking it to the man than there are people who work for the welfare of others - especially when those "others" are clearly labeled "enemy." I guess that's why Eugene Peterson practically begs us to gnaw on the word of God, chew on it, meditate on it, growl over it, wrestle with it, and allow it to change us from the inside out. God's ways are mysterious. He offers up one big surprising revelation after another!
Can we even believe this? He is asking us to love like he loves, care about what he cares about, bless those who curse us, pray for those who mistreat us. As natural as sticking it to the man is to mortals, it is unnatural to God. We like that about him when we're the ones to whom he extends good intentions. But what about when it's reversed, and we're asked to imitate Christ, and extend those same good intentions to not only those we love, but those we hate? One writer in scripture says that God's ways and our ways are radically different. He wasn't kidding. If we're going to be transformed, we will make the decision to surrender to the mysterious ways of God and spend the rest of our life trying to grasp the incomparable great love that he has bestowed upon us.
Recommended reading: Leviticus 9 - 12
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