Great Promises of the Bible Jeremiah 29:11
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Great Promises of the Bible
Jeremiah 29:11
Lt. Colonel Allen Satterlee
Feasts, then Failure
For centuries, three times a year all Jewish males who were able travelled to Jerusalem for one of the great feasts. Women and children frequently went as well. There was nothing of grudging service. These were joyful celebrations of magnificent worship coupled with unparalleled fellowship as hundreds of thousands gathered in Jerusalem, spilling out to the surrounding hills. The gleaming Temple with its white marble and gold trimming literally shone in Palestine’s sun. The feast times were the moments of grandeur amid otherwise difficult and unremarkable living.
Then Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, not leaving its gates until it fell. Although the first time he left the city largely intact, he returned home with tens of thousands of Jewish captives. These were the brightest and best the little nation had. Among these were Ezekiel, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Left behind in Jerusalem were the poorest of the land along with the prophet Jeremiah.
The captives longed for the day of their return to Israel while the ones left behind yearned for their missing loved ones. A lively correspondence continued between the captives in Babylon and the struggling survivors in Israel. But what they wanted was not in line with God’s plans. The prophets continued to warn that Israel’s punishment was not over and that the captives might as well get comfortable in their new surroundings. The great feast days, at least for now, were to be memories only. The captives needed to focus on serving God in their present circumstances, in the place where they were found instead of looking to the horizon for a deliverance that was not to come.
Words from Home
Through the prophets, the people were told to forget about their wishes. But they were not forgotten. God graciously spoke a promise to them. “’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’” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Three times the word “plans” is used in this Scripture. The plan of God scattered the stars across the void of space, organized them into spectacular galaxies and set them spinning and moving and slicing darkness with glorious light. The plan of God created the lumbering elephant and the tiny flea that hops across his back. The plan of God scooped out the valleys and piled the mountains into place. The plan of God takes dirt and water through the roots of a tree and into its limbs to offer an apple to the passerby. The plan of God set the laws of physics in motion so that eclipses can be predicted with pinpoint accuracy and rockets can speed through space to a place chosen decades before. This God who planned so much proclaims, “I know the plans I have for you.”
Future
What are those plans? To prosper us. What He purposes and the means to make it so often vary greatly from our ideas of it. If you said one day, “I believe I would like to eat ears of corn that I grow myself,” there would be a multitude of things that have to happen from that wish to its fulfillment. The sharp edge of the plow has to violate the earth,
digging deep, casting aside as it rips through hardened ground. Seed must be pressed down deep to safeguard it from the animals that would steal it and to give it a chance to germinate. Efforts would have to be made to ensure that adequate water is available. When weeds would try to crowd around the fledgling plant, they must be uprooted without destroying the shoot. And though the corn stalk is green and lush, going to it too early will not give you the corn you want. Even when the ears appear, opening them too soon will destroy any hope of the corn ever being ready. Prosperity comes on the day when the corn is ready to be harvested. The process to get to that point is hardly easy. In the same way, prosperity for us is not so much found in a supermarket aisle as it is in a garden that is hot and dirty, demanding our sweat to enjoy our harvest. When God says He wants to prosper you, do not take that as an all expense paid ticket to Wonderland. Prosperity is as much in the process as the end product.
The plans are to give us a hope and a future. He is moving us somewhere to be something more than what we are right now. Our feet are not stuck in a concrete trap. That is our hope. But we can be distracted. Aging with its relentless reminder that we cannot do what once we did mocks the idea of a hope for something better. The constant pull to the side from nagging temptations underscores persistent weakness. These things remind us that we are ill fitted for the world in which we now live. We were meant for something better, a place where all things align with God’s full intent for His children. Hope comes by abandoning the notion that this world in its condition can offer hope. We must seek elsewhere. We must seek Him.
There is a future. We will catch snatches of it, like when we hear the faint music of a band in the faraway distance. Turning our heads toward it, we strain to listen for more. We know that as we move closer, the melody will become clearer, the lyrics understood. It is the music of home.
Child of God, you were designed for eternity. Your future ultimately lies in that place where time is no longer a tyrant, where your glorified body no longer needs pills and crutches and devices to help it move. Your future is standing with the One you have loved, but not to pepper Him with questions about why this or that happened to you. In that moment of untethered love for Him, you will look to see that all that took place was the unfolding plan He had for you.
Our Corporate Prayer
Dear Lord, I look at my life and see that many times I have had plans for myself that didn't turn out so well. Because of this, sometimes I lost hope. But today I claim this promise. I want Your plans so that I can have Your hope and with that the future You have for me. Make me what You want me to be. I give myself to You again in this moment. In Jesus' name. Amen
Our Worldwide Prayer Meeting
Malawi Territory
Reaching Out to Others
is there someone you know who is losing hope? Someone who seems to have lost their way? Pray for them now and if God allows, be ready to share with them where true hope is found.
Notable Quotables
" Christian hope is not to be written off as a form of wishful thinking. The letter to the Hebrews describes it 'as sure as it is firm.' This anchor cannot drag because it is rooted in the very being of God." - General Frederick Coutts
Finally, let's listen to a song that reminds us of God's unfailing faithfulness.