Due to their disobedience and negligence of God’s commandments, God allowed the people of Israel to be taken into captivity in the land of Babylon. It seemed unjust and harsh especially considering that the Chaldeans didn’t fear God and were known for their cruelty and savagery. How could God even punish them using as an instrument a nation that was even more wicked and vile than they were?
Their captors egged them on to sing the songs of Zion while they were in this land. But how can they even do that when they knew Zion was totally desolate and forsaken and here they were, living as captives in a foreign land? And so they hanged their harps on the willows by the rivers of Babylon as they wept and lamented their seeming hopelessness.
But God instructed them through His prophets to remain in captivity and live their normal lives. They were to build houses, have their sons and daughters marry and be given into marriage and to plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.
The amazing thing about this experience was that though they were in the land of captivity, God continued to be with them. No, He has not given up on them. They were going to be there for a time and in God’s own sweet time, He will visit them and bring them back to their land. In fact I find in this instance one of the most reassuring and hopeful promises in the Scriptures when God says through His prophet Jeremiah (29:11): “For I know the plans that I have for you says the Lord: plans to prosper you and not to harm you; to give you hope and a future.”
That’s what is so amazing about God. Due to our disobedience and rebelliousness towards His will, He may allow us to go into the land of captivity- of ill health, financial setbacks or failed relationships. He is not going to perform a miracle to save us from suffering the consequences of our wrong decisions and stubborn will. But He does not leave us there. He does not give us up. We are so precious to Him and He assures us of His continued care as He insists whoever touches us “touches the apple of His eye.” Zechariah 2:8.
So let us not get discouraged however our situation may be- whether going through a storm or walking through a dark valley. Let us continue to trust in Him because indeed, He knows the plans He has for us and these are plans that are not meant to harm us but to prosper us- and to give us hope and a future. There is hope even in the land of our captivity. In God’s own sweet time, He will visit us again and bring us back to our own land.