Link to the Moderator’s Monthly Bible Studies: http://www.brethren.org/ac/2017/bible-study/
April 2017
God Lives! Now Repent and Be Faithful
Scriptures for study:
- Zechariah 1:1-6
- Jeremiah 29:1-14
“Risk Hope”, the 2017 Annual Conference theme, emerges as a recurring chorus from an Old Testament saga of tragedy and redemption – the story of Israel’s progressive descent into and emergence from exile. Staring down obstacles and situations very reminiscent of our 21st century challenges, our ancestors in faith made mistakes, suffered consequences, and endured darkness, but in the midst of it all they found their footing in their identity story, and ultimately welcomed God’s powerful presence in their midst. That presence launched them on a new path to abundance and blessing.
Last month we stood with Ezekiel to hear God’s history lesson. Through Ezekiel, God reminded the people that God had delivered their ancestors from exile in the past and can deliver them as well. This dead people can rise again. From the time of Abraham God has called God’s people to abundance and blessing if they can but walk in God’s ways and keep God’s commandments. This month we hear some simple instruction for setting out on that path.
Read Zechariah 1:1-6
The opening verse sets our context – Zechariah is from a priestly family and has been called as a prophet to the people in Babylon during the reign of King Darius. His name, Zechariah, means “Yahweh has remembered” and it underscores God’s faithfulness. Ezekiel called the people to remember God’s promises to their ancestors and God’s deliverance of the exiles in Egypt. Zechariah, by his very name, reassures them that God’s promises to the ancients hold for them as well. Yes, Zechariah tells them, The Lord was very angry with your ancestors who did not hear or heed and continued in their evil ways and evil deeds. But God says to them, Return to me…and I will return to you. Zechariah reports, so they repented and said, “The Lord of hosts has dealt with us according to our ways and deeds, just as he planned to do.” How astonishing is that simple sentence! So they repented and said, “The Lord of hosts has dealt with us according to our ways and deeds. We are responsible for the mess we are in, and we are sorry.
Can you sense the pause there? The quiet time for the people to recognize their role in their own demise, and to feel remorse. That quiet space is the point of all turning. The moment when the people give up all of their excuses, their “yes buts,” their claims to righteous indignation and simply let God be God. That quiet space is the portal to all possibility – the opening on a new beginning, a new chapter for the relationship between God and God’s people.
Read Jeremiah 29: 1-14
One of the challenges to full repentance in exile had been the false prophets who, predicting a short stay in Babylon, encouraged the people to revolt. The prophet Jeremiah condemned those reports and rallies, and pressed the hard reality – the exile is going to last a while, so get used to it. Exile is the new normal.
So what should the People of God do?
Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. Tend to the everyday business of living, making the very best of the situation you are in. Jeremiah’s letter answers the question Ezekiel faced – Can these bones live? Jeremiah says, “Yes, if they stop acting like they’re dead.”
In the film The Shawshank Redemption, the prisoner Andy tells his friend and fellow prisoner Red that the secret to having hope during a long period of darkness comes down to a “simple choice”. One must choose to “get busy living or get busy dying.” Jeremiah tells the exiles the same thing. “Get busy living.” But, Jeremiah adds, living is not enough. The exiles must “get busy living” specifically as God’s people.
Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. God has sent you, God’s people, to a faraway land, but you are still God’s Chosen and God’s Servants. Do the work of the Lord in this foreign land with this foreign people, and God will bless you in their midst. For all you know, God may have prepared you specifically for this work at this time in this place.
History played out the truth in Jeremiah’s advice and projections. The work the exiles did to prosper in Babylon, to be the Chosen of God and the Servant of God in the land of the Chaldeans, to sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land, did indeed bear much fruit. Their hope and dedicated worship of God proclaimed “Our God Reigns” in the midst of their captors. The stories and texts they collected, copied and collated established an experienced account of God’s work in the world that would go on to ground a new era for Judaism in the return to the Promised Land. And, their new understanding of their role as the Servant of God – to be the light to the nations – pointed directly to the coming of Jesus the Christ.
Questions for Consideration
- We know that repentance is an essential part of our faith walk, yet we find it difficult. What kind of tactics do we use to avoid full repentance? What do those tactics accomplish? Why do we persist in avoiding that hard look in the mirror?
- With reassurance of the steadfast love of Christ, true repentance can bring new life, provide a fresh perspective, or open a new path forward. Can you think of stories from the Bible or from your own life where repentance helped open access to new life?
- The writer of Ecclesiastes says, To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;…a time to mourn, and a time to dance. How do these words apply to God’s people in exile? How do they apply to the challenges we face in our world today?
- Jeremiah instructs the exiles to seek the welfare of the city, to work for the good of their captors and to pray to God on their behalf. How does a captive people following Jeremiah’s advice accomplish the work of God? Can you think of other times in history when a captive people provided a powerful witness for Christ? There are some who would claim that the Persecuted Church is, in fact, the best witness for Christ. Do you agree? Why or why not? What implications does such a perspective have for our work in the world today?