Chapter 29 - “I Know the Plans I Have For You”
So we get to Jeremiah chapter 29. We arrive at one of the most poorly quoted verses in all the Bible. There are not very many people who have very many verses from the book of Jeremiah memorized. There are quite a few people who have one verse from Jeremiah memorized. People have written it in graduation cards. People have used it to tell themselves that things will be just fine and that next year is going to be a great year. People have used Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11 more like a note in a fortune cookie than a verse from the Bible.
The verse (and remember that originally there were no verses at all in scripture, we added them for memory and study sake) is within a letter sent to the exiles in Babylon. The most heartening part of the letter is the section in verses 6 and 7. God tells the people in exile to settle in, to work for the good of the city, even the city to which they are exiled. God tells the people to plant gardens, to marry and to have children. In other words, God says, you are going to be exiled for quite a while, even for generations.
Then 29:11 - “For I know the plans I have for you ..”
You might know the rest – plans to prosper you, to give you hope and a future.
Read Jeremiah 29:10 first: this exile is going to be 70 years. In other words, a lifetime.
Jeremiah 29:11 is not a verse to apply to individuals as if what it is saying is that God is going to grant you success in whatever you set your heart to.
The people's hearts in exile were set to get back to their home. They would not do this. They would die in exile.
The bigger truth, however, is that God was with them, even in exile, even in pain and disappointment. If you want to properly quote 29:11 do so by saying that even when things happen to us that we would never choose, even when we fall victim to our own sin and self-focus, even when we lose what we took for granted; even then – God is with us.
It is true that the people of God will return, but the ones who went into exile will die in exile. It will be mostly 2 generations later that will return again to the promised land. These will be people who have never lived there before.
Dear God:
Always, always help me to see that the world is bigger than me or my fears or my comforts. Help me to know that your goodness is greater than my lifetime. If I measure your goodness only by the span of my life I will fail to see what true redemption is. Give me eyes to see.
Amen.
