Devotional
Next Year-71: Jeremiah 29:10-14 Some people think the Old Testament is boring. I don’t think so Dave! Although I will grant you that sometimes it seems to be repetitive. For instance, the Israelites seem to keep going through a cycle of worshiping the One True God, then they forget about Him for a while, then they start worshipping all of these other foreign gods. They quit listening to God, and live in every kind of sin and disobedience. Then something drastic happens. God allows something to happen that shows them what life would really be like without Him. They are punished, they are captured, and they aren’t allowed to enter the Promised Land for a while.
So they go through these periods without God’s protection and blessing and they realize how stupid they were to ever leave or doubt Him in the first place. So what do they do? They return to God, praising Him and worshiping Him and Him alone. Great! But here’s where it gets repetitive, they always seem to forget about how God rescued them and blessed them, so they stumble back into the same old sin and disobedience. (That’s odd, the Old Testament sounds like a picture of OUR lives sometimes)
So we come to a point in the book of Jeremiah where God has had enough of their disobedience. Israel will be punished and their penalty is that they will be overthrown and conquered by Babylon for 70 years. Go read Jeremiah 25. But here’s the glorious news. God says they will be punished for 70 years, but He assures them He won’t forget about them. He says they will go through this stuff for 70 years, but after 70 years is up, He’s gonna rescue them! Now go check out Jeremiah 29:10-14. It’s like they just have to hold out for year 71, then everything is going to be great.
Do you think they threw a huge party to praise and worship God after He got them out of there? They probably had a huge cake with a “71” on it. No matter what you are going through at this very moment, know that God sees you, He will always remember you, and He will be found by you when you seek Him out! He will never leave you.
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** I encourage you to use these passages from God’s Word as a resource in your daily life. Don’t let this truth just rest on this tag or on this shirt. Use it! Let it become a part of you, let the scripture be written on your heart and move you to live your life in obedience to God out of love. Dive into God’s Word, spend time with Him in prayer, connect with other believers, live for Jesus who died for your sins and rose again! **
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