‘This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 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. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”’ –Jeremiah 29:10-14
What a wonderful promise verse 11 is… stuck right in the middle of that passage.
And so many times we pull it out of context.
It’s everywhere.
Memorized.
On plaques.
On billboards.
But when do we ever sit and read that promise in the context that Jeremiah meant it to be read?
Now don’t get me wrong… God’s word is weird. In the midst of contextual passages we can draw principles and promises ‘out of context’ and it will still be in context with the whole spectrum of scripture. Jeremiah 29:11 can stand alone… and it’s perfectly biblical. But we need to see that it is also directly written for another purpose as well. What other book can you do that with?
Weird is awesome.
But for the purpose of this post, I want to shy away from the normative of how God has all these great things in your future… sure it’s true… but I want to look at a different take.
God’s good plan is for his people.
The exiled people of God who are now in Babylon.
His eternal purpose is to dwell in the midst of His people.
We can read these words personally and receive encouragement from them… because that’s how God’s Word works. Though the original purpose of Jeremiah’s letter was to Israel… it rings true for us today.
God’s Word transcends time.
This promise of a hope and a future applies to every child of God.
We cannot forget however, that when God saves us…
He doesn’t save us to be independent, disconnected believers. He saves us, just as one body has many members, and combines all of us into one body.
God’s plan has always been to have a people in which He dwells.
In this age, all thanks and glory to Christ, we are that people.
The church.
A local church where you are in relationship, hearing the Word of God proclaimed and preached, rejoicing in the sacraments all with other Christians, other parts of the body, one family.
And this church of ours isn’t in a perfectly awesome time.
Not with all of the divisions, denominations, sects, heresies, false teaching, incomplete teaching, and cults who claim Christianity.
I’d say without any hesitation… we are in the middle of our own Babylon.
How did all of this begin?
Very simple… when you get enough people thinking too much about preference, power, prestige, and hoisting one doctrine over the rest… divisions begin.
So we can’t read a passage like this and only think of ourselves… God’s Word should always bring us back to Christ… and Christ’s words… to make disciples of all nations.
There are too many other people who need to hear and receive Christ for us to ONLY think of ourselves.
Sadly I feel people today use a verse such as Jeremiah 29:11 selfishly, for those who find comfort by it, awesome. For those who use it to continue their mind’s, heart’s, and soul’s focus to be upon themselves… what God can and will do for them… that’s where problems lie.
Individuality.
I read a book a few months ago entitled, Radical. It’s a VERY good book, written by David Platt, a phenomenal pastor and man of God. I would encourage you to check it out.
But the subtitle to the book is what catches my eye for this post… ‘Taking back your faith from the American Dream’.
For those of us who are Americans, this should hit us. We live in the most free country in the world, a country that stands upon Liberty, Equality, Justice, and Freedom… and yet we have allowed the culture around us to steal our faith.
The one thing that we claim, the devil can never take from us, instead… we allow a system, a ‘dream’, a culture to rip away from us.
One of the main things this dream needs in order to achieve is individuality.
And we allow it to grasp us and consume us a little too much.
Our own life goals.
Our own sense of independence.
Our own sense of self worth.
That mindset has hijacked our spirituality.
We forget the fact that…
God’s purpose has always been to save a people.
We can’t just look to the future and have a hope in plans, thoughts, purposes that are all about us… because God is more interested in people’s lives… not one single perfect life.
He’s more interested in people coming to know Him, and a people who are willing to tell other people about Him…
A people who care about His church, a people who care about what he is doing in the lives of other believers for the benefit of themselves and others.
A people who are concerned with our part in His plan.
Participation in God’s redemption of the world.
Now I’m not taking anything away from the idea that God truly sees us as individuals.
God does love us as individuals, he knows each of us by name, he cares for us, he knows every hair upon our head, the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts, everything about us individually. We aren’t just some number in this giant plan… he knows us. Perfectly. Honestly. Wholly.
Jesus taught about the good shepherd running after the one sheep, leaving the flock.
Jesus taught that God rejoices when one sinner repents than over 99 who are already saved.
But when it comes to living this new resurrection life we’ve been given… the focus never was, never is, never will be… about us.
And when we read God’s promises we need to keep this in mind.
God’s plan is for everyone.
Because God can create a plan big enough to encompass everyone.
He does that.
‘“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”’
It’s all about seeking God…with all of our heart.
And notice this… it’s part of the character of God.
God frees.
God moves.
God listens.
God brings us back.
God gathers.
He does all of that BEFORE he requires anything of us.
His plan is always to move first.
His plan is to always be one step ahead of us… we never have to wait on God to meet our needs, because his plan is always for Him to be our provider and our savior.
It was the same in Egypt.
He brought His people up out of Egypt… THEN he gave the Ten Commandments.
He broke the silence by coming down to Earth to save us… THEN he calls us to trust Him and repent.
And He is coming back again to ‘gather you from all the nations’ gather US from all the nations, and ‘bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile’ bring us back to the place where he sent us into exile.
Huh?
God never sent us into exile.
Jeremiah is talking about the people in Babylon.
God is talking about all people.
Babylon is east of where the Israelites are supposed to be.
And God wants to bring them back.
Humanity is still in exile from paradise.
Humanity is still separated from where we were meant to be.
God is showing signs of bringing back all of His people… back to an Eden of sorts.
Our tree of life is actually the bread of life.
Our Eden is actually heaven.
Our Adam is actually Christ.
God is speaking of his people.
God is saying, I know the plans I have for you… it’s all the same plan. And it’s something you can hope for. It’s something still in your future. And it’s definitely not going to harm you, and it’s definitely going to prosper you.
In the meantime, we have the church. We have each other. Let us work to be the people God is interested in dwelling with…because the truth is He is dwelling with us. Everyone of us houses God the Holy Spirit... let us be unified then.
Love is the solution. Knowing what we believe and why is the power.
Dig into your Bible. It is our road map in the midst of this journey.
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