See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

“Then the Lord said to me, ‘What do you see, Jeremiah?’ I replied, ‘Figs, some very good and some very bad.’  Then the Lord said: ‘The good figs represent the exiles sent to Babylon.  I have done it for their good.  I will see that they are well treated and I will bring them back here again.  I will help them and not hurt them; I will plant them and not pull them up.  I will give them hearts that respond to me.  They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with great joy.

But the rotten figs represent Zedekiah, king of Judah, his officials and all the others of Jerusalem left here in this land; those too who live in Egypt.  I will treat them like spoiled figs, too bad to use.  I will make them repulsive to every nation of the earth, and they shall be mocked and taunted and cursed wherever I compel them to go.  And I will send massacre and famine and disease among them until they are destroyed from the land of Israel, which I gave to them and to their fathers.”  (Jeremiah 24:3-10)

Figs represented all God’s people.  One group, He treats with great care and the other group are treated like spoiled figs.   God had shifted into a different era and only one group of His people listened, stayed pliable and shifted with Him.  The other group became hard-hearted and refused to obey.  They failed to shift with God and stubbornly held to the current era.

This group was trying to force God to accommodate their decisions, fit into their box and dictate the way things should be based upon how things were in the past.  So, the difference between the two groups is that the one group listened and followed God into a new era (the new things that He was doing- Jeremiah 33:3).  The other group failed to follow and listen.  They stayed behind and became hard hearted, refusing to obey.  When God brought in the new, they held on to the old.

God sent the people prophets over and over again but one group stubbornly ignored them and failed to hear.  They missed it, not because they were not told or made aware, but because their hearts were hard and stuck in the culture, refusing to change.   But even then, God was with them and for them.  They were experiencing such difficulty because they were outside of His will.  They were no longer living for Him but steeped in the culture around them.  Being His covenant people but living in alignment with the world and its opposing forces can be painful!

His message to them simple:  “Turn from the evil road you are traveling and from the evil things you are doing.  Only then can you continue to live here in this land which the Lord gave to you and to your ancestors forever.”  (Jer. 24:5)

Even when they were stubborn and hard-hearted about following God into this new season and the new thing He was doing, He made a way for them.   He tells them that if, through their difficulties and tremendous suffering, they turn to Him and let go of the idols of the world, He will care for them right where they were – they didn’t even need to enter into what He was doing now.  

Had they been pliable in His hands, they would have been blessed and not gone through tremendous suffering.  The Lord would have pushed them into the new era and new thing that He was doing while giving them His best.  They just needed to embrace the change and shift – no matter how uncomfortable it felt.

Being uncomfortable and embracing the shift is much easier than being stubborn, rebellious and holding onto the old – going against God’s will and experiencing the consequences for it.  Yet, in experiencing these consequences, the Lord was still for them and desiring them to turn towards Him.  In doing so, He would make a way for them though they stubbornly stayed behind.  

Yet the ones who moved into the new era, became the hands and feet of God to bring forth His purposes for them.  The Lord brought His people right in the heart of Babylon so that the people of Babylon could come to know Him.   He shifted a whole nation by bringing this small, weak remnant in their midst.

We know from the stories in Daniel that what was unexpected by the Babylonians was that rather than assimilate the people of God into their culture by making the brightest and best of them study their culture, the Israelites shifted their culture to one that honors God.  It opened the eyes of their king to even proclaim that all people should serve the Israelite God.

We also know that God was still with and for these hard-hearted and stuck covenant people who stayed behind.   In Isaiah 46:3-4, He says to them, “Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all you who remain in Israel.  I have cared for you since you were born.  Yes, I carried you before you were born.  I will be your God throughout your lifetime—until your hair is white with age.   I made you, and I will care for you.  I will carry you along and save you.”

This was a time that the era was shifting again.  The Lord was doing a new thing.   Having completed His purposes for Babylon, He would bring His people out and lead them, with resources from the king and his support, to restore worship and traditions in the Promised Land with a new heart.  He would show them that He was still with them and for them.

God has always been for the hard-hearted and stubborn.   He uses every opportunity to cause them to turn to Him and avoid as much suffering as possible.  We see this with Nineveh.  They were a people who were doing evil all the time.  Yet, the Lord saw that there was hope and at the opportune time, sent Jonah.  We all know that Jonah was stubborn and hard-hearted and experienced difficulty as a result.  But finally making the shift, he stepped into the will of God and many were saved. 

Even after fulfilling God's purposes, Jonah wanted to die as a result of his own judgements against the people of Nineveh and his hard-heartedness.  It made him miserable, and he couldn’t see it.  So, the Lord told him in Jonah 4:10, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”  

Jonah finally came around to embracing God's Kingdom purposes as best.  Like with Jonah, making the transition to a new era and entering into new ways of thinking, believing and following rather than holding to culture and traditions has always been hard for the people of God.  People get stuck to what they have because they feel most comfortable.  Rather than staying pliable in God’s hands and moving forth in trust, they fear, resist and hold back from His will – clinging tightly to what is known.

Isaiah 48:6-8 says, “You have heard my predictions and seen them fulfilled, but you refuse to admit it.  Now I will tell you new things, secrets you have not yet heard.  They are brand new, not things from the past.  So you cannot say, ‘We knew that for all the time!’  Yes, I will tell you of things that are entirely new, things you never heard before.  For I know so well what traitors you are.  You have been rebels from birth.”

When the Israelites left Egypt and went into the desert where they needed to trust the Lord for their provision, they became uneasy and uncomfortable.  They grumbled and complained rather than embrace the new thing that God was doing with joy.  It was only Moses who genuinely sought God’s will and pushed the Kingdom forward.  In fact, the whole generation, except for Joshua and Caleb, had to die before God could bring them into His new purposes.  They had to completely forget the leeks in Egypt.

Looking to our ancestors and the "rock from which we were hewn,"’ our biggest struggle over time has been to grab hold of what God is doing and press forward into it.  God is always bringing His Kingdom purposes forth.  And sometimes the era changes and there are huge shifts people must make.   Rather than being on the front end of making the shift like Moses or Joshua with pressing into God's plans, we cling to what we know and resist change-- even when it is not good for us and causes us suffering.  We quake and cling to the old in Egypt rather than leading the charge forward to new land. 

Yet in the midst of it, the Lord deals with and cares for His people.  He is working for their good and not for their harm.  Their rebellion and stubbornness bring difficulty into their lives.  But all they need to do is shift out of rebellion and move forward into the new era to find a place of rest and protection.  It may not be comfortable, convenient, or even make a lot of sense, but it is always the best decision we can make.  We need to operate out of a Kingdom mindset rather than just going along with the crowd, staying in the familiar and feeling safe in this.

With myself, I can see where I struggle a great deal with making change.  Even though I am not change adverse, I can hold to the past when it has been enjoyable and fruitful for me.  While failures are easy to let go of, learn from and change from, successes are much more tough to let go of.  I want to do the same things that led to success in the past all over again.  

For example, with me, when God showed up powerfully at a little retreat cabin on December 28, 2000, I showed up at that cabin again on that day for the next twelve years.   While it was powerful for a time, there came a time, after ten years, that He moved on and was doing something new, but I didn't.   I just kept showing up until I figured it out. 

The Lord has been speaking to me that we moved into a new era.   He is doing a new thing and, at times, I am reminded to let go of the past and the way things worked then.  In a dream I had about this change in era, the old system and structure crumbled and came down under the weight of what He is bringing forth in preparation for His return.   Yet, like the people in exile who looked back and remembered Jerusalem or when they returned, remembered the old temple as they rebuilt, I remember the powerful Kingdom work that fulfilled me in the past and want it all over again.   It sometimes can blind me to entering into what God is doing now differently.  Like the cabin, I just keep showing up.   I want to use my past experience to dictate how to do the new work.  I struggle to let go of it.

Lord, I know You have opened up this new era that You are bringing forth.   It is a Kingdom era of seeking Your return.  Stepping into it is the only safe place of rest and full protection.  I get glimpses of it at times but I struggle with how to enter into the new Kingdom work.   I see this beautiful army that you are beginning to form and preparing to send forth.   Help me not to rely on the past, past ways or past successes but help us to follow You.  You are Yahweh-Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts.  Let us not resist Your will but press into with all our might.  That we would revel in what You are doing in the world rather than resist it.  Give us vision, wisdom and insight on how to best do this. Keep us pliable and enthusiastically moving forward.  We want to be with You where You are.

"We continue to look forward to the joyful fulfillment of our hope-in the dawning splendor of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus, the Anointed One."  

Forgetting the past
Forging the new
We know one thing for certain
You are faithful and True
Wrapped tight in Your arms
And Your loving protective care
You my dear Father
Will get us there
Not too early
And not too late
Just in time for a wedding
Dressed in white for the date
Fill our hearts with Your love
For all who are lost
As we press into Your purposes
Let us not count the cost.