When God Is Building You in an Unexpected Place: Lessons from Jeremiah 22–24.

Jeremiah 22–24 reminded me that sometimes we judge a season by how it feels, while God judges it by what He intends to produce through it.

What looks like success may not impress God at all. What looks like displacement may actually contain His protection. And what feels like breaking may be His Word dismantling something that cannot accompany us into where He is taking us.

Knowing God Should Change How We Treat People

“Be fair-minded and just. Do what is right!” — Jeremiah 22:3–4

God’s message to Judah’s kings was practical. He commanded them to administer justice, protect people who were being exploited and care for foreigners, orphans and widows.

Their spirituality was supposed to be visible in their leadership.

This challenges me because we can sometimes separate knowing God from how we conduct business, lead people, handle money, build communities or treat those who cannot do anything for us.

But God does not make that separation.

As I rebuild different areas of my own life, I am learning that success cannot simply mean that something grew. I want to be able to ask: Did I build it God’s way? Did I treat people well? Was I honest? Was I fair?

Our character is part of the testimony.

A Beautiful Building Does Not Make a Great Leader

“But a beautiful cedar palace does not make a great king!” — Jeremiah 22:15–16

This might be one of my favourite lessons from these chapters.

God contrasts King Jehoiakim with his father Josiah. Josiah had material provision too, but what distinguished him was not what he possessed. He practised justice and helped the poor and needy.

Then God says something remarkable:

“Isn’t that what it means to know me?”

Knowing God is more than being able to quote Scripture or talk about Him beautifully. Knowing God gradually transforms how we live.

This applies to leadership, business, ministry, marriage and community. We can build impressive things externally while neglecting what matters internally.

The question is not simply, What am I building?

It is also, Who am I becoming while I build it?

God Cares About the Kind of People Who Lead Us

“I will appoint responsible shepherds who will care for them.” — Jeremiah 23:4

After condemning shepherds who had scattered and harmed His people, God promises something different: responsible shepherds who would genuinely care for them.

I love that word: responsible.

Leadership is stewardship.

Whether we are leading a company, family, ministry, team or community, people should not constantly feel unsafe, forgotten or disposable under our leadership.

And ultimately, Jeremiah points beyond human leadership to the righteous King God would raise from David’s line — the One called “The Lord Is Our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6).

Human leaders will always have limitations. Jesus remains our perfect Shepherd and our righteousness.

God’s Word Can Break What We Cannot

“Does not my word burn like fire?… Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashes a rock to pieces?” — Jeremiah 23:29

Jeremiah 23 strongly confronts false prophets who were speaking from their own imaginations rather than faithfully delivering God’s Word. Jeremiah himself was overwhelmed by the seriousness of what God had spoken.

Then God describes His Word as fire and a hammer.

Fire consumes and purifies.

A hammer breaks what has become hard.

There are things in us that motivation cannot change. There are fears, mindsets, habits and hardened places that require the Word of God.

This is why continuing to read Scripture matters, even when we do not immediately see results.

Sometimes the Word is comforting us.

Sometimes it is correcting us.

Sometimes it is quietly hammering away at something we have carried for years.

And because God asks, “Can anyone hide from me in a secret place?” (Jeremiah 23:24), we can trust Him with those hidden places too. Nothing about our lives is outside His sight.

What Looks Like Exile May Still Contain God’s Provision

“The good figs represent the exiles I sent from Judah to the land of the Babylonians.” — Jeremiah 24:5–7

This passage completely changed the way I looked at these chapters.

The people taken into Babylon probably did not feel fortunate. Exile meant leaving home, losing familiarity and entering a future they had not chosen.

Yet God called these exiles good figs.

And He said:

“I will watch over and care for them.”

“I will build them up.”

“I will plant them.”

“I will give them hearts that recognize me.”

Daniel and his friends were among the Judean exiles taken to Babylon in the broader period surrounding these events. Their stories later demonstrate something Jeremiah 24 helps us understand: Babylon could not cancel God’s ability to preserve, position and use His people.

That speaks deeply to seasons that do not look the way we imagined.

Sometimes we assume that because something feels uncomfortable, it cannot possibly be God’s provision.

But what if God has already gone ahead of us?

What if the unfamiliar place contains relationships we will need?

What if the delay is developing something?

What if rebuilding slowly is teaching us stewardship?

What if God can preserve our purpose even inside circumstances we would never have chosen?

The promise was not that Babylon suddenly became pleasant. The promise was that God would watch over them there.

That distinction matters.

God Can Plant You Before He Changes Your Location

Jeremiah 24:6 has become one of the most beautiful promises in these chapters for me:

“I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not uproot them.”

Maybe rebuilding does not always begin when circumstances finally change.

Maybe God starts rebuilding us first.

He strengthens our character. He corrects our priorities. He teaches us stewardship. He deepens our dependence on Him. He heals places we ignored. He teaches us to recognize His voice.

And ultimately, His greatest promise to the exiles was not prosperity or even restoration to their land.

It was:

“I will give them hearts that recognize me as the Lord.”

Perhaps that is the greatest thing God can produce in any season — a heart that knows Him more deeply.

Practical Takeaways from Jeremiah 22–24

1. Measure success by God’s standards. Ask not only whether something is growing, but whether you are building it with justice, integrity and love.
2. Let knowing God affect how you treat people. Faith should influence our leadership, businesses, marriages, friendships and communities.
3. Choose responsible leadership. If God entrusts people to you, see them as people to shepherd rather than resources to use.
4. Stay under God’s Word. Allow Scripture to comfort you, correct you, purify you and break hardened patterns.
5. Do not immediately label an uncomfortable season as a bad one. God may already have provision waiting for you there.
6. Look for what God is developing in you. Before changing your circumstances, He may be strengthening your character, wisdom and capacity.
7. Prioritize knowing God above escaping the season. The greatest outcome may not simply be getting out; it may be becoming someone who recognizes God more clearly because you went through it.

Conclusion: God Has Not Lost Sight of You

Jeremiah 22–24 reminds me that God is deeply involved in both our character and our circumstances.

He cares about how we lead.

He cares about how we treat people.

His Word reaches the hardest places in us.

And even when life takes us somewhere we never planned to be, God is not absent.

He can watch over us there.

He can build us there.

He can plant us there.

And eventually, He can bring us into what He has prepared.

So perhaps the prayer in an unexpected season should not only be, “God, when will You get me out of here?”

Maybe it can also be:

“Lord, what are You building in me here?”

Prayer

Father, thank You because no season of my life is outside Your sight. Teach me what it truly means to know You. Let my relationship with You be reflected in my character, leadership, relationships and the way I treat others.

Give me grace to build with integrity and to steward every person and opportunity You entrust to me well.

Let Your Word be fire and a hammer in my life. Purify what needs to be purified and break every mindset, fear, habit or hardness that cannot follow me into Your purpose.

And when I find myself in seasons I did not choose, help me remember that You can still watch over me there. Build me. Plant me. Prepare me. Give me a heart that recognizes You more deeply.

May I not be so focused on leaving a season that I miss what You are producing through it.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.