Posted: 23 Nov 2016 04:32 PM PST
10 This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. 14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”
(Jeremiah 29:10-14 NLT)
Jeremiah 29:11 is a favorite verse among Christians, who like the message that God has plans to prosper them and to give them hope and a future. Unfortunately, it is usually taken out of context. The proper context of the verse is that God had decreed that the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going into captivity in Babylon for seventy years and, at the end of the seventy years, God would bring them back to their home, planning to prosper them and to give them a hope and a future. God says that he would be found by them when they sought Him out wholeheartedly, and He would restore them to their former glory, settling them back in their own land.
What we can learn from this passage is this: even as God was decreeing their exile into Babylon, He was already planning to bring them back and restore them when they turned their hearts wholly back to Him. The reason they were being exiled from their land was that the people had prostituted themselves with the false gods of the peoples around them, worshiping Baal and turning away from the Lord who had brought Israel out of Egypt. Idolatry was rampant to the point that God said, "You have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah" (Jeremiah 2:28), with all the people running after the idols their own hands had created and fashioned. And even as God was preparing to punish them for their wickedness, He was also looking forward to the day when He would restore them to their fortunes in their own land.
God is sovereign over the affairs of our lives and sometimes allows us to go through hardships and trials. Many times, these things we go through are more than we can bear in and of ourselves, with the design that we will turn to God to get us through. These hardships can seem very unpleasant but we have the assurance that God is not only working out all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28), but that He already is planning to restore us once the time of trials has run its course. Just as He was looking to the day when He would restore the people of Jerusalem, God is also planning to bring us through our tribulations and bless us in the long run. The key is in our staying faithful and turning to Him with our whole hearts, fully entrusting ourselves to Him and His sovereignty.
Today, whatever we may be going through, we can look to the future with hope, knowing that He who started a good work in us will continue it until the day of the Lord (Philippians 1:6). Our best days are always ahead of us when we are in Christ Jesus and the hope we have in Him is a sure hope, not relying on our own goodness but on Him who justifies us through His Son on the cross. Let us remain faithful and wholeheartedly committed to our Lord as we patiently endure whatever we may have to go through. And let us continually offer to Him the sacrifice of praise as we joyfully confess His name in this world.
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GOD BLESS AND SHARE THE GOSPEL OF SALVATION BY JESUS CHRIST
First Corinthians 15:1-11
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