Entrusted
You’ve never heard of them. But you know the words with which they were entrusted:
“Build houses and settle down.”
“Plant gardens and eat what they produce.”
“Marry and have sons and daughters.”
“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you.”
These familiar words are all excerpts of the prophet Jeremiah’s well-known letter to the exiles in Babylon recorded in Jeremiah 29. It is a letter that has had monumental impact over the long arc of human history. Its direct recipients took from it vital instructions to live out, in most cases, the rest of their earthly lives! After all, the prophet was informing them they would be in exile for another 70 years, and that they should settle down and not only embrace that reality, but in fact that they should seek the blessing of their city of exile. This had to be a jarring instruction, but also one crucial for their very sanity.
You have almost certainly taken comfort and guidance from these words, and others in Jeremiah 29. My first published book was inspired by the words in verses 13-14, words that frame our lives in a posture of seeking and pursuing God, and which promise He will not be elusive!
These are world-changing words if ever there were any! But I draw them out for you to note their method of delivery. Most of the historically impactful words you can recall were delivered by the one they are attributed to:
“I have a dream” and “I’ve been to the mountaintop” were uttered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Fourscore and seven years ago” and “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” were delivered by Abraham Lincoln.
“I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth” and “I’ve got an awful lot to live for” came from the mouth of Lou Gehrig.
The words and the speaker go together. But not so with Jeremiah 29. The words are Jeremiah’s, written to the exiles in Babylon. But Jeremiah could not deliver them himself and Jeremiah 29:3 gives two names you’ve likely never remembered or considered, and credits them for delivering the now-famous letter:
“He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.”
Elasah and Gemariah. If you could recall their names without reading the text, you are well ahead of me in biblical knowledge. In all likelihood, these are names lost to the margins of your mind. And yet, they were entrusted with one of the most important and impactful messages of all time! This one task, even if it had been the only lasting contribution of their lives, was crucial to the realization of an impact far beyond anything they could have asked or imagined (Eph. 3:20-21).
You didn’t know their names, but you have felt the impact of their obedience!
The question for you today is not, “Who knows your name?” The question for you is, “What is it that you have been entrusted?”
It is a sacred thing to be entrusted with a sacred responsibility, and God’s story is replete with His insistence on entrusting sacred tasks to His sacred people. He chooses to intertwine His mission and His narrative with His people—with you.
So what is that you have been entrusted? Are you concerned about having your name remembered in the pages of history? Or are you properly focused on simply stewarding well that which has been entrusted to you?
Entrusted is better than remembered.