June 5

Jeremiah 29
Days ago I asked, “Are you a good fig or a bad fig?” Yesterday I asked about the yoke you were wearing. The Lord through Jeremiah returns to both of those ideas today. He writes a letter to the exiles in Babylon and tells them to pursue the peace of Babylon and that the Lord will give them peace. Their yoke was to seek the Lord and to seek the peace of Babylon. In contrast those who stayed in Jerusalem were very bad figs which could not be eaten. They would have no peace. It is the glory of the Lord that He wants us to have peace while we bear His yoke.
We all bear a yoke. It is just a matter of whose yoke. Bob Dylan during his so-called Christian days wrote a song, You’ve Gotta Serve Somebody! We will either serve sin, Satan, self or the Lord. Can you imagine if your yoke was that your country had been defeated in war, and as a result, your conqueror was forcing you to start your life over in his country as a servant to him? What would you think of the thoughts of the Lord then? Would you believe:
11For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Yet God engineered this so that they might seek Him. He follows this up with:
12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
He often leads us into a yoke that looks impossible, but He will lead us through it and enable us to bear it. And the reward is Himself. The other yoke that might look easier leads to death. It is His glory to lead us into life and enable us to perform impossible tasks. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john