The Land of My Sojourn

"'You shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed and you shall not plant a vineyard or own one; but in tents you shall dwell all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.'" (Jeremiah 35:7 NAS95S)

Observation:  These are the words of the Rechabites to the prophet Jeremiah when he invited them to "drink wine."  Contained here is a powerful message.  We will not drink and we will not settle.  To put it another way, we will not party and we will not park.  In the positive:  We will be a sober people and a mobile people.  A people of sound mind and a people of steady movement.  

Isn't that what we want to be as God's people, sober minded and obedient to the movements of His Spirit?  Truly, we cannot follow the lead of His Spirit if we are imbibed with the ways of this world.  We can not move with him if we are settled into self.  

I am reminded of the song by Rich Mullins... Land of My Sojourn:  

Land of My Sojourn

Rich Mullins and Beaker

And the coal trucks come a-runnin' 

With their bellies full of coal 

And their big wheels a-hummin' 

Down this road that lies open like the soul of a woman 

Who hid the spies who were lookin' 

For the land of the milk and the honey 

And this road she is a woman 

She was made from a rib 

Cut from the sides of these mountains 

Oh these great sleeping Adams 

Who are lonely even here in paradise 

Lonely for somebody to kiss them 

and I'll sing my song, and I'll sing my song 

In the land of my sojourn 

And the lady in the harbor 

She still holds her torch out 

To those huddled masses who are 

Yearning for a freedom that still eludes them 

The immigrant's children see their brightest dreams shattered 

Here on the New Jersey shoreline in the 

Greed and the glitter of those high-tech casinos 

But some mendicants wander off into a cathedral 

And they stoop in the silence 

And there their prayers are still whispered 

And I'll sing their song, and I'll sing their song 

In the land of my sojourn 

Nobody tells you when you get born here 

How much you'll come to love it 

And how you'll never belong here 

So I call you my country 

And I'll be lonely for my home 

And I wish that I could take you there with me 

And down the brown brick spine of some dirty blind alley 

All those drain pipes are drippin' out the last Sons Of Thunder 

While off in the distance the smoke stacks 

Were belching back this city's best answer 

And the countryside was pocked 

With all of those mail pouch posters 

Thrown up on the rotting sideboards of 

These rundown stables like the one that Christ was born in 

When the old world started dying 

And the new world started coming on 

And I'll sing His song, and I'll sing His song 

In the land of my sojourn 

In the land of my sojourn 

And I will sing His song 

In the land of my sojourn 

I love this song because it captures the reality of the now and the not yet; the paradox of living in a broken world; the paradox of the Christ who came to conquer that brokenness by entering into it.  I love the line that says:  "So I'll call you my country, and be lonely for my home..."  

Truly, the Rechabites wandered in the regions of Israel...  they might have even called it their country... but was it really their home?  Maybe all that wandering in tents was to remind them that their home was a completely different land altogether.  

I think of the words of the Hebrew writer who penned:  

"By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN IN NUMBER, AND INNUMERABLE AS THE SAND WHICH IS BY THE SEASHORE. 

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them."  (Hebrews 11:9-16 NAS95S)

Do we desire a better country?  Are we looking to settle here, or journey their?  Are we looking to be drunk with wine or filled with the Spirit?  O let us accept the apostle challenge today:

"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;"  (Ephesians 5:18-19 NAS95S)

Yes, let us sing "His song, in the land of our sojourn!"  

The song of Moses, the song of the Lamb, and the song of Home!