Jeremiah 30:19b-20 – A Futureward Flow
18 “Thus says the Lord:
‘Behold, I will bring back the captivity of Jacob’s tents,
And have mercy on his dwelling places;
The city shall be built upon its own mound,
And the palace shall remain according to its own plan.
19
Then out of them shall proceed thanksgiving
And the voice of those who make merry;
I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish;
I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
20
Their children also shall be as before,
And their congregation shall be established before Me;
And I will punish all who oppress them. Jeremiah 30:18-20, New King James Version
In "To a Louse" Robert Burns observes a lady of some pretensions. She is unaware, though, that she has a louse in her hair inconsistent with the tidiness she perceives in herself. Burns reflects by extension and gratitude, "O wad some Power the giftie gie us to see oursels as ithers see us!"
I've had people spot the lice in my life, and point them out. I have even learned to sometimes take such inspection gratefully. More memorable, though, are the times seeing myself as others see me is a heartening experience which emboldens the gifts others have dismissed or repudiated. Fittingly to go along with Robert Burns's memorably quaint language in the poem, as I was considering helping teach the young at my church, youth minister Shon Earhart said I had a formal, quaint, almost British way of speaking.
I was all but prepared to apologize, as many of the closest people in my life have thought they discerned pretensions here and have prodded me toward simpler speech. Shon, though, said the way I thought and talked would be fascinating to the kids, that his son in particular would be drawn to God's Word to and through me because it was different. I have seldom felt so validated, felt so confirmed in my genuine affection for Charles Spurgeon, and Winston Churchill, and CS Lewis and their exquisite expressions from across the pond and across the decades.
I consider this instance in light of what God continues to unfold about His heart and His plans in Jeremiah 30:19-20. He has affection for the reboot, for quaintness, for continuity. He is not a God of change for change's sake, of tacking awkwardly in adjustment to the winds of coming cultures. His glory is on display in humble tents, the same metaphor Paul will pick up for our decaying bodies. Dwelling places are a specifically mentioned object of His mercy as He taps into His people's sense of nostalgia and continuity by building on the old ruins.
He is the one, after all, Who advises generation after generation, via Jeremiah 6:16, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls." There is decidedly a celebrated, rhythmic place for confirming what the Lord HAS done and His continued inhabiting of such means, whether tents, or ruins, or teachings directly from the Word, or from Spurgeon, or from Lewis. The fact that we don't have to adjust to an existence that is entirely alien every morning is, predicts Jeremiah 30:19, the stuff of celebration once we stop to think about it.
But the point of a WAY is to go somewhere. The point of orienting ourselves using what God has done in the past is that we would follow Him trustingly, optimistically, with vigorous, grateful curiosity into the future. That's why Shon's comment is so memorable, though I usually retain slights a lot more readily. The quirkiness God has fashioned in us by connecting us in distinctive ways to His work in the past, that artistry is fashioned with an eye toward showing us off to those He will bring into our sphere in the future.
Actively leaving a legacy, He declares in Jeremiah 30:20, is a sign of His ongoing favor. As valuable as it is to look backward, to marvel at what He did, to adopt a language interwoven with His previous works, He fashioned our eyes, and our faith, to look forward. Greater things are ahead, He promises, and not just in Heaven. Parents and teachers, you get to influence future generations not just by passing on lifeless, rote memorization of patterns, but with declarations of what He has done in your own idiom, reflective of your own experience with Him.
Thus, His people thrive and don't diminish. The stark reality that His Church is always one generation from extinction is turned on its head. GK Chesterton in Everlasting Man, a major influence on Lewis who himself did not spring completely original from sea foam, offers the benediction, “Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.”
The way out of the grave of nostalgia-loaded irrelevance, very often by God's grace and plan, is us opening our mouths with present enthusiasm as to what He has done previously. Ours is the sincere enthusiasm of Psalm 145:4, "One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts." We declare those works with words those who know only the present will have to ask about. We declare those works with dad jokes that will make eyes roll, but nevertheless will build relationships. The work of the Ageless One goes on.
‘Behold, I will bring back the captivity of Jacob’s tents,
And have mercy on his dwelling places;
The city shall be built upon its own mound,
And the palace shall remain according to its own plan.
19
Then out of them shall proceed thanksgiving
And the voice of those who make merry;
I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish;
I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
20
Their children also shall be as before,
And their congregation shall be established before Me;
And I will punish all who oppress them. Jeremiah 30:18-20, New King James Version
In "To a Louse" Robert Burns observes a lady of some pretensions. She is unaware, though, that she has a louse in her hair inconsistent with the tidiness she perceives in herself. Burns reflects by extension and gratitude, "O wad some Power the giftie gie us to see oursels as ithers see us!"
I've had people spot the lice in my life, and point them out. I have even learned to sometimes take such inspection gratefully. More memorable, though, are the times seeing myself as others see me is a heartening experience which emboldens the gifts others have dismissed or repudiated. Fittingly to go along with Robert Burns's memorably quaint language in the poem, as I was considering helping teach the young at my church, youth minister Shon Earhart said I had a formal, quaint, almost British way of speaking.
I was all but prepared to apologize, as many of the closest people in my life have thought they discerned pretensions here and have prodded me toward simpler speech. Shon, though, said the way I thought and talked would be fascinating to the kids, that his son in particular would be drawn to God's Word to and through me because it was different. I have seldom felt so validated, felt so confirmed in my genuine affection for Charles Spurgeon, and Winston Churchill, and CS Lewis and their exquisite expressions from across the pond and across the decades.
I consider this instance in light of what God continues to unfold about His heart and His plans in Jeremiah 30:19-20. He has affection for the reboot, for quaintness, for continuity. He is not a God of change for change's sake, of tacking awkwardly in adjustment to the winds of coming cultures. His glory is on display in humble tents, the same metaphor Paul will pick up for our decaying bodies. Dwelling places are a specifically mentioned object of His mercy as He taps into His people's sense of nostalgia and continuity by building on the old ruins.
He is the one, after all, Who advises generation after generation, via Jeremiah 6:16, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls." There is decidedly a celebrated, rhythmic place for confirming what the Lord HAS done and His continued inhabiting of such means, whether tents, or ruins, or teachings directly from the Word, or from Spurgeon, or from Lewis. The fact that we don't have to adjust to an existence that is entirely alien every morning is, predicts Jeremiah 30:19, the stuff of celebration once we stop to think about it.
But the point of a WAY is to go somewhere. The point of orienting ourselves using what God has done in the past is that we would follow Him trustingly, optimistically, with vigorous, grateful curiosity into the future. That's why Shon's comment is so memorable, though I usually retain slights a lot more readily. The quirkiness God has fashioned in us by connecting us in distinctive ways to His work in the past, that artistry is fashioned with an eye toward showing us off to those He will bring into our sphere in the future.
Actively leaving a legacy, He declares in Jeremiah 30:20, is a sign of His ongoing favor. As valuable as it is to look backward, to marvel at what He did, to adopt a language interwoven with His previous works, He fashioned our eyes, and our faith, to look forward. Greater things are ahead, He promises, and not just in Heaven. Parents and teachers, you get to influence future generations not just by passing on lifeless, rote memorization of patterns, but with declarations of what He has done in your own idiom, reflective of your own experience with Him.
Thus, His people thrive and don't diminish. The stark reality that His Church is always one generation from extinction is turned on its head. GK Chesterton in Everlasting Man, a major influence on Lewis who himself did not spring completely original from sea foam, offers the benediction, “Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.”
The way out of the grave of nostalgia-loaded irrelevance, very often by God's grace and plan, is us opening our mouths with present enthusiasm as to what He has done previously. Ours is the sincere enthusiasm of Psalm 145:4, "One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts." We declare those works with words those who know only the present will have to ask about. We declare those works with dad jokes that will make eyes roll, but nevertheless will build relationships. The work of the Ageless One goes on.
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