pg. 28 — lightandlifemagazine.com
While we live in a country that is free
from the physical bonds of slavery, we are
not free from the influences of horrific
contaminants such as sexism, classism
and, most of all, racism. Racism not only
threatens to fit us in the bonds of fear
and hatred, but also to put our country in
jeopardy of being torn into a fragmented
mess. Racism is especially dangerous in
the church, because it seeks to normalize
dysfunctional behavior — the kind we
see in many nuclear families in the world
— into behavior that is acceptable in the
family of God. But it is not enough to
merely assimilate into a church building
and claim that you belong to the family
of God. There must also be an attitudinal
transformation, which occurs from
within.
Here is what Jesus says about those
who belong to His family. The members
of His true family were those who joined
Him in the kingdom community. They
left their nuclear families, ethnic heritage
and national heritage behind. Their new
family was to become the heart of their
lives now and in the kingdom to come.
If the church today is to complete the
pattern and be a demonstration of what
God’s family is like on earth, we must
commit to being reconciled to Christ, and
therefore, with each other (2 Corinthians
5:20). We owe the Lord our allegiance and
obedience. He requires of His family that
we be set apart as a holy example to all the
families of the earth. Are you willing to be
reconciled to Christ?
I believe that God truly does have a
comprehensive plan for us today. He not
only has a short-term plan; God has an
intermediate plan for us as well.
God’s Intermediate Plan
The intermediate plan God has for us
is twofold. It not only encompasses an
immediate element, but it also possesses
a future aspect as well. As I mentioned
previously, the term plan has multiple
definitions. As it pertains to the text of
Jeremiah 29:11, the author describes it
in three ways. We have already examined
how the prophet defined God’s plan as a
pattern. Now we will see how Jeremiah
identifies the plan as a scheme, which
Princeton University’s WordNet defines
as “an elaborate and systematic plan of
action.”
As we consider what God intended for
Israel to accomplish through executing
His elaborate and systematic scheme,
on the surface at least, we will observe
that the plan would not appear to make
much sense to the intended audience in
Jeremiah’s day, nor does it initially make
sense to readers today. Listen to the
instructions the prophet gave to Israel on
behalf of the Lord — specifically those
instructions found in Jeremiah 29:7,
“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
have welfare.”
Why would people who are in captivity
in a foreign land against their will seek
the welfare of the city belonging to their
captors? The answer is that on their own,
they would not have chosen to seek
anything that would benefit their captors.
This is apparent based on what we read
about the disposition of God’s people:
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat
down and wept, when we remembered
Zion. Upon the willows in the midst
of it we hung our harps. For there our
captors demanded of us songs, and our
tormentors mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of
the songs of Zion.’ How can we sing the
Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm
137:1–4).
In an ironic way, God was using the
spiritual strength of His people who
were in chains to spiritually liberate their
physical oppressors who were shackled by
the manacles of sin. Yet, in an even more
ironic way, God was also using Israel’s
physical captivity as an indictment against
their own spiritual darkness, which was
clearly responsible for leading them into
servitude in the first place.
“While we live
in a country
that is free
from the
physical
bonds of
slavery, we
are not free
from sexism,
classism and,
most of all,
racism.”
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