Gods divine agenda for His people as individuals and as a collective, unravels everyday. If we believe and confess that the steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord, we also admit to being His followers, being aware of every inkling and leading from within, so that we can move “in step with the Spirit”.

Over the years of walking with God, a harsh truth I’ve come into understanding of is that Gods divine agenda isn’t only about the big bold steps as we like to note. It trickles down to the little minute inklings and leadings even with our will, desires and emotions. I’ve come to understand that our compassion must also be in line with Gods compassion, we can’t be praying for respite where God is wanting to build endurance. We can’t be praying for provision when God is wanting to teach prudence.

It’s a hard truth I’ve had to learn, that when we feel for people, we cannot love them more than God loves them, and so, must love them as God desires to show His love.

I came across a perfect example that could drive this home only this weekend. It’s always been a theoretical understanding in my heart, but this example drives home the practical implications.

From the start of the prophets, from prophet Amos and prophet Isaiah, God had spoken of the outcome that awaited Israel. God had said that they will end up in exile because of the reprobate mind they had given themselves to. Each time God spoke of this expected end, He also spoke of His promised restoration, which involved the judgement of the nations that have Israel under their yoke, and the return of the people to their land after the years in exile.

It was probably a tough decision God came to after He realised that the hearts of His chosen possession had been so corrupted with idol worship, and only the megaphone of pain in the valley, was going to prune their hearts and help them remember their first love.

So from the inception of this prophecy of exile, God told them not to resist, but to submit to Babylon when the time came, the only promised restoration was actually to the people who went into exile. Important to know that God very clearly told the prophets that those who stayed in Israel after Babylon overpowered Israel will not be spared. God is quoted saying they will be destroyed by war, famine or disease.

So we see that Gods divine agenda for Israel at this point in history was to be in exile. Hard to fathom but the reality.

Later in Jeremiah 29, we’ll read Gods instruction to Jeremiah about a new king; “But this is what the Lord says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all those still living here in Jerusalem—your relatives who were not exiled to Babylon. This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “I will send war, famine, and disease upon them and make them like bad figs, too rotten to eat.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭29‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭

It’s in same chapter the very popular verse we quote comes from “for I know the plans I have for you…”. Those plans weren’t all rosy as we like to think when we quote it, but regardless of what the plans looked like, it was guaranteed to bring them to an expected end (Gods own desired end).

There was something God wanted to achieve with the hearts of the Israelites through exile, and so the ones who weren’t exiled hadn’t learnt what God wanted to teach them, so God had to remove them before the return of the children of Israel to avoid further corruption.

The compassion of some prophets in same time as Jeremiah was to assure the Israelites that exile was not Gods plan for them and that they should pray and resist and avert it, but I fact it was Gods plan.

Anyone abreast with Gods plan at that time would have advised the Israelites to pray for grace for the period in exile, and not for power to resist exile or escape it.

Also to say that the different waters we go through in life actually make us and if we keep avoiding and resisting the waters, we actually remain unfit for Gods use and disobedient to His divine agenda. Exile was a making water for Israel. It didn’t have to be, but it had to be because of the hardness of their heart.

God agenda for those who remained instead of going to exile was to make them like bad figs, who were too rotten to eat.

I found my heart earnestly praying that we always align ourselves with heavens agenda, even at the cost of our convenience. Because in this story, It was Gods desire to preserve a remnant only by those exiled. So any attempt to resist the invasion was actually counter to Gods plan.

My prayer is that we not plan to stay in places God desires we move from and that our totality (will, emotion, desires and compassion) are in line with Gods own and not contrary to it.