Some time ago, I shared a word I felt God was giving me
for a young man with a ministry leader and a church body. I shared from Jeremiah 29, but it wasn't
until the next day that I truly understood what God was showing me. As we were all praying for a young man with
crohn's disease, God reminded me that He has a plan for each of us and that
nothing He has NOT allowed to interfere will interfere. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "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.
I was immediately encouraged knowing that God has a plan for that young
man's life and nothing that the enemy tries to hinder or stop that plan will
succeed; even crohn's disease.
As I gave this well-known scripture more thought, I
realized this was part of a letter being written by the Prophet Jeremiah
"to the surviving elders among the exiles" which made me ponder a few
things. First, realizing Israel was in
exile and in bondage because of sin, I realized that not everyone in Israel was
a part of the sin. I am sure there were
some that really loved God and followed His decrees to the best of their
abilities, but were in exile with the rest of Israel. It doesn't seem fair when the ones that
aren't the cause of punishment receive that punishment alongside of everyone
else.
Second I recognized that the surviving elders probably
knew what it was like living in the blessing of the Lord. I am sure many had seen the hand of God at
work on many occasions. They knew what
it was like when his presence was there and his favor was upon them. They had tasted God's goodness and longed for
His goodness to return to Israel. The
elders had many prophets and diviners that were giving reports and prophesies
telling them they would be, to use a metaphor from years ago, out of the woods
very soon. The prophesies were false and
when they read the letter from Jeremiah, they must have felt great sorrow.
If you go back one verse from Jeremiah 29:11 to verse 10
the first part of the prophesy says, "This is what the LORD says: 'When
seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my
gracious promise to bring you back to this place.'" This tells me that some of the elders, due to
their age, would have had to realize that they would never see the fulfillment
of this prophesy. The people of Israel
would have to endure exile from Jerusalem for 70 full years before they would
see deliverance and the older generation would have to prepare the younger
generation to become the leaders that would take Israel back to Jerusalem. I would imagine they must have felt like a
man that has received a hefty bonus each year at his job, but was now being let
go. He knows he will never see another
bonus like what he received over the past years and his bosses have asked him
to train his replacement that will soon reap the benefits of the great bonuses.
For years Satan, the great deceiver, has worked to
separate the generations. He wants the
young to discount the wisdom of the old, and he wants the old to resent the
dreams of the young. You can see this in
our homes every day. Hollywood has been
on a systematic campaign to separate the generation in the traditional
home. Television shows and commercials
depict fathers as being ignorant and worthless to the family unit, and that the
children are much smarter and wiser than their parents. Mothers are portrayed as being the mindless
element that truly takes no side, there by becoming impotent as any type of
moral influence in the modern family model.
If children see no value in the elder generation, what lessons can they
learn from the experiences of prior generations, and if fathers resent the
dreams and visions of their children, what will they be willing to teach and
how beneficial will that knowledge be.
The elder generation must become mentors of wisdom, through love, to
their children, and the younger generations must find value in their fathers.
It was up to the elders, of Jeremiah's time, to train,
nurture, and grow the younger generation to be prepared to lead Israel back to
Jerusalem when God was ready to move. In
the same way, as the body of Christ, we have elders that have seen the hand of
God, they have seen miraculous works, sensed His presence and know the goodness
of Creator God. When this knowledge is
shared it works to build faith in believers. Revelation 12:11 says, "They
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they
did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." This means dying to self and selfish
ambitions. They must step up and lead a
younger generation, through the example of repentance and humility, in the
pursuit of our glorious and faithful, Redeemer God. In like manner, the younger generation must
be willing to follow.
God has a plan for each of us, but if the fathers do not lead
the children and teach obedience, righteousness and holiness, and if children
do not respect the wisdom of their fathers, then a new generation of seekers
will have to walk a journey of hard knocks in pursuit of God's favor and God's
plan for their lives and the Church.
