Surviving the Waiting Room of Life– part 1-Jeremiah 29:4-14
Nine months before Covid hit our big world, my husband Gary was diagnosed with a brain tumor. While he never got Covid, the protocols that were put in place made it especially difficult for us to navigate his diagnoses. Let me give you one example: After Covid started spreading, we arrived at the oncology center for his regular cancer treatment, and they would not let me go in with Gary because of Covid fears.
I said to them, “You do realize he has a brain tumor and he will not be able to answer your questions?” “Yes.” They said, “Don’t worry, we will take good care of him.”
So, I went back to my car to wait for him to get his treatment. Soon a nurse was standing at my car door with Gary by her side. In the waiting room they called out Gary’s first name so he had stood up not realizing there were two cancer patients named Gary at the center that day. This is how my husband ended up getting a shot that was intended for a Leukemia patient and not his regular treatment for his brain tumor. Fortunately for us and for the cancer center the injection had no ill effect on my husband’s health. In fact he seemed to feel a little better for a while. After this incident they always let me go in for Gary’s appointments.
Gary was very concerned that the nurse who made the mistake would lose her job. If you knew my husband you would know that this sounds just like Gary. As soon he could, he assured the oncologist he was not upset. How could my husband hold this benevolent attitude? Even though Gary knew he was dying he still wanted to witness to this woman and he didn’t want her to suffer because she had made a mistake.
I on the other hand was very tempted to start collecting offenses. I was exhausted. How could she do this to my husband when he was so sick? This would not be the last time I felt emotions of anger, confusion, and depression. With Gary’s illness I was no longer in control and I felt like I had moved to the waiting room of life.
I know I am not the only person who has struggled with feelings of helplessness. I want you to think about this for a moment. What are some circumstances that might make you feel like you have moved to the waiting room of life?
Maybe it is when a loved one has lost their job, or you have a child who has been diagnosed with an incurable illness. Maybe you are going through a divorce, or you have lost your home to the bank because you can’t make your payments. In big and small ways, you feel trapped.
I would define the “waiting room of life” as any time in our lives when change has been forced on us, when we are not free to make the choices we used to make. All of us will have seasons in life when we are not in control and we can’t play God. So, how do we live out the freedom that is ours in Jesus, when we don’t understand what God is doing?
There is a precious passage in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah that can give us clear insights into living the victorious life we find in Jesus. Just like us, the ancient Jews who were carried off in the Babylonian captivity found themselves forced to live with the unknown. They were probably wondering, what God was doing? I can imagine they were easily confused with their new address. Most of them were never going to see Jerusalem again. They were dazed by natural feelings of exhaustion, shame, fear, defeat, depression, disappointment, and anger. Life was not turning out as they had planned. In the past they had been a free people, but now they found themselves captives in a strange land, with a strange language, and living under a strange culture. What were they to do?
A famous verse comes out of these troubling times in Israel’s history from the book of Jeremiah that I am sure many of us can quote. In Jeremiah 29:11 we read these words…
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. NIV
These words do comfort, but it would be dangerous for us to rip them out of context. For example what does the verse above Jeremiah 29:11 say? Let’s read both of these verses in context.
10 For this is what the Lord says: “When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. CSB
Reading these verses in context completely changes the meaning. Seventy years! Did Jeremiah really say they would be in Babylon for seventy years? These words must have felt awful. I wonder if this pronouncements reminded them of when their forefathers were afraid to enter the promise land, and then were sentenced to wander in the desert for 40 years. But, 70 years, that was almost twice the number of years Israel wandered in the desert.
So, let’s go back and read more of Jeremiah’s message in chapter 29. Before you start reading this passage please pray and ask Jesus to speak to you through his word, then read Jeremiah 29:4-14.
4 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Find wives for yourselves, and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. 7 Pursue the well-beingof the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.”
8 For this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you, and don’t listen to the dreams you elicit from them, 9 for they are prophesying falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them.” This is the Lord’s declaration.
10 For this is what the Lord says: “When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and I will restore your fortune sand gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “I will restore you to the place from which I deported you.” CSB
Notice that in verse 4, and also in verse 8, God refers to himself as the LORD of Armies in the CSB translation. Other translations will use the phrase LORD of Host. Host is an old English word which means armies, so if I were to say “she cooked for a host of people”, I would mean she cooked for an army. Why would God choose this name, the LORD of Armies, when addressing the exiles in this passage?
The Israelites had just been defeated by a huge Babylonian army, so God is reminded them with this name “I am in control. It may look like Babylon is in control, but I am in control”. “I say to this army go this way and to another come here. I am the LORD who controls armies.” This is an important name to be reminded of when we are exhausted. God and God alone is in control.
This name “the LORD of armies” is used 285 times in the Old Testament, 71 times in the book of Jeremiah. So, it is a very significant name. When we don’t like our circumstances it is easy to be tempted to believe that our God is not strong enough to fix them, when this is not true. Our God is mighty, he is the LORD of armies. If God is asking us to live in an uncomfortable place there is a reason.
Every time we travel with God into the unknown our trips will be full of purpose. God had specific activities he wanted the Jews to accomplish while they were living in captivity, and God has specific assignments for us when we find ourselves living in a hard place. Look again at Jeremiah 29:4-6.
4 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Find wives for yourselves, and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. CSB
1) When we remember we serve the LORD of Armies, we can multiply while still living in the waiting room of life. Jeremiah 29: 4-6
Jeremiah knew it was imperative that the Jews increase and not decrease while they were living in the city of Babylon. To do that they had to put down roots. They had to build houses, plant gardens, they had to marry, they had to have children, and they had to let their children marry. It had been foretold that the Messiah was to be born in Israel, a Jewish nation. If the exiles didn’t continue to increase while they were living under these severe circumstances, there was a risk that there might not be a Jewish state for the Messiah to come to. Multiplying in harsh living conditions is only possible if we believe we serve the LORD of Armies.
Like the Jews in captivity, God wants us to come out of our exile stronger than when we went in, and he wants us to come out with more influence. He wants our tribe to increase. Jeremiah did not want the Jews to decrease while they were in exile, but in our modern day circumstances our fruitfulness in exile might look differently than what Jeremiah describes. Instead of growing the number of our descendants, we might find the strength to witness more freely than we could before. Remember, there is nothing inherit in suffering that would keep us from multiplying. We may be tired, we may be exhausted, but when we suffer people are still watching us, we still have influence, and if there are people observing our actions than our tribe has the ability to increase. While Gary was sick and even after I was widowed I was amazed at the number of people who were suddenly curious as to where my strength came from, pointing them to Jesus was one of the greatest privileges of my life.
2) When we remember we serve the LORD of Armies, we can bless others while still living in the waiting room of life. Jeremiah 29:7
Jeremiah challenges the exiles to pray for the city they now live in because their welfare is tied to its welfare. This must have been very hard for them to hear. In their strength this would have been an impossible request. But, God often ask us to do things we can only do in his strength. Think about this, God was asking them to pray for the very people who had destroyed their temple, killed their loved ones, and carried them off to captivity. Look again at Jeremiah 29:7
Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive. CSB
Some translations use the word prosper instead of thrive. Why would Jeremiah ask them to pray for the people who had hurt them?
These words kind of sound like Jesus’ words. Remember when Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespass as we forgive those who trespass against us.”? We learn in the Lord’s Prayer that our forgiveness from God is tied to our ability to forgive those who had trespassed against us. Jeremiah tells them, your prosperity is tied to the prosperity of the city you live in. If the city of Babylon was having a good year, so would they.
Have we made this connection? Do we know that if our city prospers we will prosper? It is something we should consider. One of the best ways to bless people is to pray for them. When we find ourselves living in exile, struggling to understand why God is allowing this turmoil it might seem strange to realize he is asking us to pray for our city. Interceding for our city will transform our attitude, shift our focus from our trial, and realign us with God’s eternal perspective. God is not just concerned about today. He is working to change us, and use us to bring heaven to earth. Praying for our city is also a great way to love our neighbor as ourselves, and nothing about moving to the unknown can keep us from praying for our city.
No matter what situation we find ourselves living in, we are strengthened when we remember our good God is in control. One of his most precious names in the Bible is the LORD of Armies. In this lesson we looked at two tasks he wants us to accomplish when we have been taken into captivity, and we will look at two more in our next lesson.
When we remember we serve the LORD of Armies, we can multiply and bless others while still living in the waiting room of life.
After my husband Gary had endured about nine months of chemo therapy, his brain tumor started growing again. The oncologist advised us to try a new experimental drug, but that meant going to a different medical center and seeing a different doctor. Amazingly, In the midst of this bad news my husband was still thinking about others. He wanted to do something special for the people who had been trying so hard to save his life. So, we took some cupcakes and brownies as a thank you gift to those who had been administering his chemo therapy. While experiencing nauseating symptoms, my husband was trying to make a difference. Gary knew his future in heaven was secure, he was not so sure about the nurses, radiologist, and technicians he had befriended. In the midst of his suffering, he was still trying to multiply and advance the kingdom of God in Tucson. We too can do this when we know we serve the LORD of Armies.
Jeremiah believed that our prosperity is tied to the prosperity of the city where we have been sent. This world is not our home, so where ever we live on earth, we are living in the “waiting room”. For those who know Jesus, heaven is our home. I believe Jesus wants us to pray for our city, so we can take as many people as possible with us to heaven.