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Word in the Wild is a one year Bible adventure with friends. Join from anywhere and enjoy a fun, rewarding, and doable 12-month journey through the Bible where you read it from cover to cover and understand it. It’s not a devotional or recap. It’s a guide by your side through God’s Word. With support from a weekly podcast and an online community of fellow travelers, this is the year when you finally explore the Bible in its own words and on its own terms for yourself.
INTRO
This is Word and the Wild. It's the one year Bible adventure with friends. My name is Owen. I'm your host and your guide, delighted to be together with you on this 12 month journey as a podcast plus community where we read the Bible for ourselves, but not by ourselves.
It's week 33. If you like horror movies... then I've got someone you'll want to meet. His name's Ezekiel and he's here to show us just how frighting life without God can be. Meanwhile, Jeremiah gives us the cure for everything wrong with people.
So... hello and welcome in. And, a special welcome to our Word and the Wild PLUS community members. Their support of this non-profit endeavor is making space for all of us on this Bible reading adventure. As part of the Word and the Wild PLUS tribe, they enjoy access to our private, safe online space where no honest question is a dumb question... along with a weekly livestream Q&A, and bonus content like articles, interactions, meet-ups, and even some livestream teaching gatherings with yours truly.
If you've been craving a way to dive into the Bible and understand what it's about... now is a great time to jump in. We'll be hitting the New Testament before we know it. Check the show notes for how to become a member yourself. Or get all the details over at wordandthewild.com.
We're going to be hitting the new Testament soon. So join the Word & the Wild PLUS community now get a running start at it.
Check the show notes for how to become a member of the word and the wild plus community for yourself or you can get all those details over at word and the wild.com.
Now... let's get started with a delicate conversation about a future and a hope in Jeremiah...
Our first stop in this week's epic adventure is one where we're going to need to tread lightly. We're going to approach it delicately.
That's because it's one of the most well-known and misunderstood quotes in the entire Bible. It's a line that you have seen on bumper stickers, t-shirts, devotionals, home decor, and countless other bobules of Jesus junk. It might even be your favorite verse.
And the real meaning of it may surprise you.
But that's one of the real benefits of reading the Bible for yourself, isn't it? You don't have to rely on second-hand descriptions and interpretations. You get to see these sites with your own eyes.
The tour stop in question is found at Jeremiah 29:11:
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT-SE)
"The plans I have for you"
I am special to God. He has plans for me. BIG plans. His plans are to God will give me the future I want. God will make my wishes come true. It's the religious version of the Disney line, "When you wish upon a star...everything your heart desires will come to you."
These kind of fake takes on what the Bible has to say are one reason why the message of the Bible ends up feeling like an irrelevant fairytale. Something that belongs on the shelf with Cinderella and Snow White. It sounds nice. Inspirational, even. But it doesn't pass the road test of real life.
Plenty of us don't get want we want. Plenty of us at some point realize that we aren't the center of the universe. And plenty of us look around at the world we're living in and realize that our dreams often don't come true.
The thing about Jeremiah 29:11, is that it comes after 29:4,5,6,7,8,9 & 10. When we look at this verse inside its context, this promise from God becomes much more realistic and muscular.
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:
“Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce.
Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away!
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.”
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,
because they are telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them,” says the LORD.
This is what the LORD says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:4-11 (NLT-SE)
So, when God says, I know the plans I have for you... Who is the "you"? For one thing, it's not an individual. It's not, "I know the plans I have for you, Owen." God's message for a specific group of people. Who are those people?
Jewish exiles in Babylon. Right.
This verse is a message to the exiles. A group of people who have been ripped from their home and marched for a thousand miles to a place they don't want to be. They are trapped. Powerless. Demoralized. Transplanted to a new city. Living in a hostile environment. Sentenced to grind out day after day in a culture they can't stand. A culture that threatens their faith, their identity, and their very existence.
What's God's message to the exiles?
1. Work for the well-being of the place I have put you. You're going to be there a while. Make a life. Make a home. Roll up your sleeves and make your city better.
2. Don't let religious charlatans, crooks, and thieves influence you with false positive messages. If they say it's God's will is to give you immediate relief from your difficult circumstances. If they tell you to "sow a seed" "follow your dreams" or "claim your victory" ... even if they say they've heard that message from God... ignore them. They lie to you.
3. Never give up on hope. You are in exile now, but your future does not end there. My promises stand. I will bring you home.
God does have a future and a hope for his people. Here's the thing: It's God's future for them. And it's God's hope for them. Not the wishes of a selfish person for temporary relief of momentary success. We've already seen from people like Isaiah that this whole earth is destined to be destroyed. Why would God's good future for his people include piles of things and accolades that will wash away?
Someday, what God's hope for his people will become their hope. What he loves will become what they love. What he longs for will become what they long for.
That's the good future God plans for his people. And, if you are one of his people, then that's the future and the hope God has planned for you.
Speaking of your hearts desires... one thing we're seeing from Jeremiah this week is that our hearts desires are exactly the problem.... with God's people and with us.
And, it's the exact problem God's future plans are crafted to address.
An unhealthy heart leads God's people to seek human solutions to the problems of security and significance.
Not only is the human heart sick... it's also sneaky. It's layered and it lies. It's complicated and it cleverly protects it's own interests...no matter what it takes or what it costs us in the long run.
But, as we will see this week, God claims to both know every human heart, and know what every human heart needs to be healed.
We are going to see a picture-perfect look ahead into the future plans God has for his people in these stunning words in Jeremiah 31:
“The day is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the LORD.
“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the LORD. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the LORD.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the LORD. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NLT-SE)
Wow. This is the future. This is the hope. There will be a cure for God's people for the deep inner drive to wonder away from God and take their own selfish path through life. Someday. What a day.
Someday there won't be any more Bible studies. Someday there won't be any more pastors or Bible teachers. The drive and determination to run away from God will be replaced by a deep desire to know and love God. The shame, guilt, and anger that entangles our relationship with God will be forgiven and forever gone and forgotten.
Hope for our future is a healthy heart... what we love and long for...what we desire and dream to attain... beating in rhythm with what God wants for us. The true, authentic, good future.
You wait. One day in our story, we will sit along a table at a dinner party. A man will stand among a small band of friends with a cup of wine in his hands with a toast that marks the beginning of this heart healing future.
A future where we know know God like he knows us.
EZEKIEL AND HIS VISIONS
Now... as we look ahead this week, we'll meet a new face on the trail. His name is Ezekiel. He is a man who speaks for God in a a time of great distress in our story.
The bad guys are winning. The Babylonians are ripping through the Promised Land.... Peeling the gold off the walls of God's sacred Temple in Jerusalem and carting everything of value off to be kept as trophies in the temples of their idols.
Destruction, death, and despair everywhere we look. And here is Ezekiel to speak into the tragedy.
The civic leaders, religious leaders, and the people of Judah themselves have chosen a path. Their path has been the path away from God. One choice after another. One generation after another. The path offered pleasure, convenience, and self-determination.
Deeper. Farther. Faster. Into the mist and fog. It's like we're in a dense, dangerous forest with only the shimmer of a full moon to offer light. Jump scares, ghosts, and mythical beasts hide behind every twisted, gnarled tree.
This path has lead us a haunted house.... And Ezekiel's visions are the disturbing art film flickering wall. It's frightening, alarming, and memorable.
And it's supposed to be.
So, grab your popcorn. Close your eyes when it gets too scary. And, remember to tell yourself when you're watching Ezekiel's visions....
"It's all just a dream."
OUTRO
Enjoy the journey this week, my friend. How's it going for you so far? I'd love to hear from you. Hit me up on facebook. If you're not already part of the "Word & the Wild" facebook group, search for it an join. Or, look for thewild.us on insta. And.. be sure you've subscribed to this podcast. Apple Podcasts...spotify... youtube... all the places.
Word and the Wild is a one year Bible adventure with friends. I'm loving it and I hope you are, too.
All you Word and the Wild PLUS community members, thanks again for making this journey a reality...
I'll be seeing you in THE WILD... our private online community space. Everyone else, don't be a stranger. Subscribe to this podcast and follow Word and the Wild on Facebook for some interaction there.
Word and the Wild is a LineHouse Community. It's part of the LineHouse Community Network, a nonprofit organization with a mission to bring neighbors together to promote awareness, appreciation, and understanding of the Bible.
Because friendship and God's Word change lives and change cities.
And... presented by the LumaVoz podcast network.
And with that, we're out. I'm Owen, I'm your host and your guide. Until next time, I'll see you out there on the trail in the Word and the Wild.