A Biblical Election Perspective
Jeremiah 29:1-14 October 26, 2024
*Please note that this sermon does not have downloadable powerpoint slides.
Introduction
Election environment in Pennsylvania (key swing state) ….more political adds in
the mail then ever before [read political flyers received just yesterday]….each
side pointing out the faults of the other and trying to fear monger you into voting
for their candidate.
Nine more days until the election. If you’re like me your sick of it all…sick of the
polls, sick of the pundits and prognosticators, tired of the extremism and
hate…fed up with the cries that the sky is falling if the other candidate wins. Like
a pregnant mother in her third trimester…I just want it to be over.
How do we approach election season with a godly, biblical worldview that we
may be lights in the darkness of the constant election hate and foreboding?
Background on Jeremiah 29
o Waves of Israelites being carried into exile…Jeremiah is writing to the first
wave of exiles
Evil King Jehoiakim/Zedekiah (son of Josiah) rebelled against Baylon
in favor of allying with Egypt after being a vassal of Babylon (see 2
Kings 23:36-24:7) he was killed, Jerusalem was captured and many
people were carried into exile around 603 BC (including Daniel).
Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin/Jeconiah briefly took the throne (3
months) before he too was carried into exile as he sought to continue
the rebellion but was defeated (see 2 Kings 24:1-16, Jeremiah
24:1). Evil King Zedekiah (Jehoiachin’s uncle) then takes the throne
until he too rebels and Babylon destroys Jerusalem and the temple in
587/586BC.
This chapter is during Zedekiah’s reign around 597BC and the letter
is sent to the first two waves of exiles in Babylon…but would certainly
have been widely read in Judah as well.
So writing to exiles – 70 years in exile – and Jeremiah was
instructing them on how to behave while in exile….not unlike us
today going through our exile-like lives in this world system that
is not our home and that is hostile to the gospel.
o Psalm 90:10 “The years of our life are seventy, or even
by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and
trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.”
Exposition
Jeremiah 29:1-4 “29 These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet
sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the
prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from
Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the
eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal
workers had departed from Jerusalem. 3 The letter was sent by the hand of
Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah
king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It said: 4 “Thus
says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into
exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:”
“Exiles” (v1, 4)
o John 8:36 “Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my
kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I
might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the
world.””
o Philippians 3:20 “20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await
a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ”
o 1 Peter 2:11-15 “11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain
from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep
your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak
against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on
the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human
institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as
sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence
the ignorance of foolish people.”
o Illustration of dual citizenship…Olympic games example Armand Duplantis
(’20 Tokyo, ’24 Paris pole vault gold medal champion)….from Louisiana,
competes for Sweden (mother’s country)… must choose allegiance
o We may be American citizens, but we are first citizens of heaven – which
allegiance is your primary…who do you represent in life…who do you more
loudly promote, a political position or a spiritual position?
Paul was proud of his roman citizenship and used it to his advantage
(see Acts 22:25), but had his priorities straight with his identity as a
citizen of heaven first and foremost
Our identity is in Christ, not a political position, ideology, or issue. And
the call to holiness and loving one another is not set aside just
because you think your position is the righteous, godly one.
Have an opinion – I pray it is a biblical one – but go about
discussing it and promoting it in a wise, winsome, God-honoring
way that gives life and does not promote hate, condemnation,
or an allegiance to something greater than an allegiance to
Christ.
You might be thinking, I’m good my identity is in Christ. Well, let me
ask you a question: if your candidate doesn’t win how will you feel?
Angry, afraid, dejected, depressed, violated – like something
was taken from you, like you want to quit or give up or run
away? If that’s how you think you’d feel, guess what…you may
want to re-evaluate who or what is shaping your identity.
“whom I have sent” (v4)
o Daniel’s prayer of thanks – Daniel 2:21 “He changes times and seasons;
he removes kings and sets up kings…”
o Nebby’s dream – Daniel 4:17 “The sentence is by the decree of the
watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the
living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to
whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’”
o Romans 13:1 “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.
For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been
instituted by God.”
The Lord places the authority, and we are to honor and obey those
whom the Lord places over us (and pay our taxes). The text does not
address what to do when a government ceases to function in its role
as a keeper of justice nor what to do when the government is
committing a moral wrong. But the text does instruct us to honor and
recognize those over us, even if we don’t like them.
Jeremiah 29:5-7 “5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their
produce. 6 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. 7 But 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.”
o Seek the welfare of our city (country) – this is why we vote, why we serve
the communities through civil service and the like, why we seek to have our
country flourish while we flourish within it….and why we don’t alienate
ourselves and become recluses bunkering down and prepping for the end
away from everyone else.
Plato said to his students, “the penalty that good men pay for not
being interested in politics is to be governed by those worse than
themselves.”
o Water spider illustration….live under water in silk bubble filled with air from
above….in the water but not of the water…continually refreshes itself with
live giving air though its present home is under water.
o Jesus’s prayer for us – John 17:10-11, 14-18 “10 All mine are yours, and
yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the
world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep
them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even
as we are one. … 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated
them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I
do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from
the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the
world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate
myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”
In the world (v11)
in the name of the Lord (v11)
not of the world (v14, v16)
not to come out of the world (v15)
sent into the world (v18)
this is why we seek the welfare of our city (country)…that we
may share truth
this is why we pray for our country, that we may have the
opportunity to continue to share truth
Jeremiah 29:8-9 “8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let
your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not
listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to
you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.”
o Many false teachers/prophets, and lying, enticing voices that wish to stir
you up…everyone has an agenda. Remain focused on the truth of the
Word…everything else is subordinate to that.
o Recognize the industry of hate-mongering, fear-mongering, and
condemnation that has emerged out of the political zeitgeist – both sides of
the spectrum.
Playing to social media dopamine hits and endorphins to rally
folks to a cause….we do not rally to cause, we cannot fall into
this culture….we rally to Christ.
Love your country…but not more than your calling to serve the Lord
and spread His truth…if your nationalism is getting in the way of your
calling, repent of those deceptions you have fallen for and return
serving the Lord above all else.
Jeremiah 29:10-14 1”0 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are
completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring
you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,
plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you
will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek
me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,
declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the
nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will
bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”
o Never forgot from where our hope, joy, security, peace, justice, and
prosperity comes….not from any political candidate…it comes from the
Lord.
o Hebrews 6:18-20 “…we who have fled for refuge might have strong
encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this [the
promises of God] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that
enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as
a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek.”
Conclusion
Only political add I care about is this: Revelation 21:1-4 “Then I saw a new
heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,
and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming
down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of
God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God
himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their
eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying,
nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.””
o I don’t need to be told how terrible someone is. I know how good my God is
and I know what I have to look forward to no matter who wins this election.
5 Points
o Remember where your citizenship lies and who you represent
o Trust the Lord with whoever He puts on the throne and honor that person
as the man or woman of God.
o Seek and pray for the welfare of this country
o Ignore all of the deceptive voices around you that don’t speak truth
o Look forward to the certain hope we have in Jesus
Let’s pray for our country