Jeremiah 29:11

A Pocket Paper
from
The Donelson Fellowship

May 10, 2009

______________________

 

Message by Robert J. Morgan, Senior Pastor

The Donelson Fellowship

3210 McGavock Pike

Nashville, TN  37214

615/871-4769

www.donelson.org

 

“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.”

 

***

 

This must be one of our favorite verses, because I keep hearing it at various functions.  Recently we had a dinner honoring all our high school graduates, and one of the parents stood with a microphone and quoted this verse to the seniors.  At a wedding here the other night, this verse was used during the ceremony. 

 

I read an article in the newspaper recently about an Ohio woman who is facing her fifth major surgery to correct a severe curvature of the spine.  A reporter asked her about her infectious optimism and good spirits, and she quoted this verse.

 

Another newspaper last week carried the story of a woman in Alabama who was raised in an abusive home and ended up in an abusive relationship.  While living in a halfway home she found Jeremiah 29:11, and that verse gave her the power to begin breaking some lifelong, self-destructive patterns.

 

It’s a verse with unique reassurances and it’s worth memorizing by all of us; it’s one of the 100 Bible verses that everyone on earth should know by heart: “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.”

 

That’s a great verse for us, because it tells us:

 

·        God has a specific plan for each of our lives; He has a plan for your life.

·        This plan is designed to prosper us.

·        It isn’t designed to harm us.

·        When we realize this, it gives us a sense of hope and a future.

 

But when you read this verse in its context, you realize that this is really a verse for people who are not, for the moment, where they want to be.  If you are not exactly where you want to be in life right now, maybe this verse will have a special meaning to you.

 

Background (Jeremiah 29:1-3)

Now, the best methodology for studying a verse like this in the Bible is looking at it within the setting of the chapter where it occurs.  So I want to describe for you the background of Jeremiah 29:11.  This is given to us in the first three verses of the chapter.  Look at Jeremiah 29:1ff.:

 

This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.  (This was after King Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.)  He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.

 

The author of this letter is the prophet Jeremiah, who is sometimes called “The Weeping Prophet” because he preached and ministered with great pathos in the most heartbreaking of times.  All around him was suffering. All around him was the collapse of his country.  The nation of Judah was being systematically dissembled and destroyed by the Babylonians.  Large numbers of people—including members of the royal family of Judah—were being rounded up and killed or hauled away to refugee camps in Babylon.  The nation was teetering on the brink of famine.  Many Judeans were already in Babylon, but Jeremiah was among the remaining souls still trapped in the encircled city of Jerusalem.  He knew that every passing day took him deeper into the disaster and closer to the utter defeat and dissolution of his nation, and he knew that judgment was inevitable.

 

But there were some Pollyanna-ish prophets and diviners in both Judah and among the refugee camps in Babylon who were saying something like this:   “It may look bad, but the Lord is going to come through for us.  You refugees will soon be back in Judah, and we Judeans are going to be delivered.  Somehow a miracle is going to occur.  God has delivered our nation in the past and He will do so again, now, any day.  Expect a miracle!”

 

But Jeremiah’s message was the exact opposite:  “No, the Lord will not save us from the Babylonians.  We are out of miracles.  Our sins have so alienated us from God that only judgment is left.  And yet, even here the judgment of God is tinged with mercy and it leads to mercy.  It may take 70 years, but God will re-establish our nation and His ultimate plans are undeterred.  His purposes are stubborn things and will win out in the end.”

 

That’s the message that Jeremiah was preaching to the huddled, frightened survivors in Jerusalem.  But he also wanted to communicate that same message to the refugees who had already been deported hundreds of miles away in Babylon.  That’s what this letter is all about.  Jeremiah 29 is a remarkable document, the record of an actual, ancient letter Jeremiah sent to the refugees who had already been deported by the Empire of Babylon.

 

So there we have the background as I’ve just described it.  Now let’s look at the text of the letter, and I’d like to point out some instructions that Jeremiah gives.  It’s actually a very relevant document.  We, too, are living in a decadent and dangerous society.  We’re living in the Last Days.  We inhabit a land that is poised for judgment.  When we see how thoroughly and adamantly our United States has turned away from God and from godliness and has rejected the Judeo-Christian heritage that gave our nation its birth and its greatness, then all of us are witnesses to the righteousness of the judgment of God.

 

So as Christians in an apostate land, what can we learn from this passage about living in these crucial and critical times?

 

1.  Make the Best of Things (vv. 4-6)

First, make the best of things.  That sounds like cliché for positive thinkers, but it’s really solid, biblical advice.  It’s exactly what Jeremiah said.  Let’s continue reading with verse 4.

 

It (the letter) said:

 

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so they too may have sons and daughters.  Increase in number there; do not decrease.”

 

Jeremiah’s point is this:  There isn’t going to be a last-minute miracle or any sudden solutions to the problem.  Things aren’t going to get better, but worse.  There are not any quick fixes or short-cuts.  There may be hope for our long-term prospects, but in the meantime things are not going to be as we would wish.

 

So all you can do is to make the best of it.  I like that phrase in verse 5:  “Settle down.”  Sometimes we just have to settle down, to decide we’re in it for the long haul, to go on with life, and to make the best of all that comes.  Build your house.  Plant your garden.  Accept the fact that you’re never going to see the City of Zion again in this life, but make the most of it where you are.  Get married.  Have children.  Be hopeful.  Increase in number.  Don’t decrease.  Don’t give up.  You may not be where you want to be and you may never be where you want to be, at least in this life—but make the most of it where you are.  Bloom where you are planted.  Make the best of a bad situation, and you may find that it’s not such a bad situation after all.

 

The other day I read a quotation from Martha Washington, our nation’s first First Lady.  She said:  “I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have . . . learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.”

 

Sometimes there is nothing you can do to change your circumstances.  Maybe at some point they’ll change, but only in time.  For now, all you can do is to make the most of it, to do the best you can, to rejoice in the Lord and to keep on going.  Do the best you can where you are right now.   Don’t give up.  Don’t spend years wishing that something had or had not have happened.  Don’t be consumed by things you cannot change.  Just settle down and do the best you possibly can where you are.

 

2.  Pray Where You Are (v. 7)

Second, pray for peace and prosperity wherever you are right now.  Look at verse 7:

 

Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.  Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

 

In other words, Jeremiah was telling the people to pray for their enemies, for the nation where they had been exiled, for the Babylonians, and to pray for the peace and prosperity of that nation.  Now, the words peace and prosperity are not actually in the original Hebrew wording.  The Hebrew word that is used is shalom.  Pray for the shalom of the nation where you are located.  But the Hebrew word shalom means welfare, or peace and prosperity; and so that’s why it’s worded in this way.

 

This gives us a clue as to how we should pray today.  Let’s pray for the peace and prosperity of the United States.  Let’s pray for the peace and prosperity of the world.  Let’s pray for the peace and prosperity of our city and our church and our homes.  After all, those are the things we’re worried about right now.  We’re worried about issues relating to peace and war and terrorism and nuclear weapons and dangerous enemies and warfare. And we’re concerned about the global economy.  How do we pray in times like these?  We pray for peace and prosperity.  You can put those two words in your prayer book.

 

3.  Beware the Wrong Voices (vv. 8-9)

Third, beware the wrong voices.  After Jeremiah had told the people to settle down and make the best of things where they were, and after he had told them to pray for the peace and prosperity of the nation where they were, he then warned them not to listen to the wrong voices.  Look at verses 8-9:

 

 Yes, this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says:  “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you.  Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have.  They are prophesying lies to you in My name.  I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.

 

I don’t believe there has ever been such a time in the history, when so much deviant propaganda is being directed at so many unthinking souls through so many mesmerizing media, and it’s resulting in a thoroughly desensitized and morally deprogrammed culture.

 

The wrong dresses itself up in costumes of self-righteousness, while the right and the good and the holy are tarred and feathered as though they were wrong.

 

The easiest, simplest way we can begin to think on a higher level and learn how to listen to the right voices is to begin the simple practice of reading our Bibles every single day.

 

4.  Take the Long View (v.10)

Fourth, take the long view.  Remember that your long-term prospects are better than your immediate circumstances.  Look at verse 10:

 

This is what the Lord says:  “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill My gracious promise to bring you back to this place.” 

 

Now, this is an extraordinarily important prophecy.   The deportation associated with the removal of King Jehoiachin occurred in 597 B.C.  The complete collapse and fall of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem happened eleven years later in 586 B.C.  On several specific occasions, Jeremiah predicted that the nation of Judah would be destroyed, its capital city burned, its people deported, and the entire nation would be wiped off the face of the earth; but that within 70 years, Judah would be back.  The nation would be reestablished.

 

Let me show you some Scriptures about this:

 

·        Here in Jeremiah 29:10, Jeremiah wrote:  When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.

 

·        Compare what Jeremiah wrote to the captives with a sermon he had preached in downtown Jerusalem in Jeremiah 25:8ff:  Therefore the Lord Almighty says this:  “Because you have not listened to My words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations.  I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin.  I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp.  This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.  But when seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians….”

 

To get the full picture, I want you to imagine that I was preaching something similar today.  Suppose I said, “Within ten to fifteen years, the United States of America is going to be defeated and destroyed by the People’s Republic of China.  The Chinese will develop a secret military weapon that will bring the United States to its knees.  Its major cities will be destroyed, its people wiped out, and the survivors will be deported to overseas refugee camps.  But exactly 70 years later—at the very end of the 21st century—the United States of America will be reestablished as a prominent player once again among the family on nations on this planet.”

 

That is exactly what Jeremiah was saying regarding his own nation.

 

What happened?

 

The nation of Judah was defeated and destroyed in 586 B.C.  Seventy years passed, and in the faraway capital of Babylon, an old Jewish statesman named Daniel was studying it over:

 

·        Daniel 9:1ff says:  In the first  year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom—in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.  So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer and petition, in fasting and in sackcloth and ashes….

 

Daniel claimed the promise of God regarding the restoration of Israel after seventy years of exile, and he prayed earnestly for the fulfillment of this promise.  And now let’s turn to the book of Ezra and see how it all ends up:

 

·        In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing….

 

I’ll not take time to read the proclamation that follows, but the essence of it is that the new Persian Empire, which had defeated and replaced the Babylonian Empire as the greatest political force in the world, issued a decree for the repopulating of Israel, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the restoration of national life in Judea.  This took place in 530 B.C., long after Jeremiah was dead and gone.

 

Now the point of it all is that our long-term prospects are always better than our immediate conditions.  We live in a day in which everyone wants immediate gratification, but Christians are looking forward to God’s faithfulness to His earthly promises to us and to His immutable assurance of our heavenly home.

 

·        In 2 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul said:  Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

 

If you’re overwhelmed by the struggles of life right now, just close your eyes and visualize how faithfully God is going to work on your behalf for the rest of your earthly pilgrimage, and how wonderful you’re going to have it 100 years from now, and 1000, and 1,000,000 years from now.

 

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s grace,

Then when we first begun.

 

5.  Get Hopeful about God’s Plans (v. 11)

Fifth, take hope in God’s plans and purposes for your life.  That brings us to our verse 11:  “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. 

 

Remember that these words were spoken to a displaced, defeated, depressed group of exiles.  They had hung their harps on the willow trees and had lost their song.  “How can we sing the songs of Zion in this strange land,” they said.  But with the Lord, things are never hopeless.  He says to you:  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. 

 

6.  Seek the Lord Above All (vv. 13-14)

Finally, the next couple of verses remind us that since God has plans to prosper us and to give us hope and a future, we must seek Him with all our hearts. 

 

“Then you will call upon 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.”

 

This passage is so very similar to the one we looked at last week in Matthew 6:33:  Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.

 

There once lived a woman named Adelaide Pollard who dearly wanted to travel to Africa.  She wanted to be a missionary there, but she was unable to raise the necessary funds and had to cancel her trip.  She nearly sank into disappointment and despondency, but she attended a prayer meeting and heard an elderly woman praying.  The older woman said, “It’s all right Lord.  It doesn’t matter what You bring into our lives, just as You have Your own way with us.”

 

That very night, Adelaide Pollard wrote out her own prayer along those lines, and it became a great hymn of invitation.

 

Have Thine own way, Lord, have Thine own way,

Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after Thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still.

 

So if you are not exactly where you want to be today:

·        Make the best of things.

·        Pray where you are.

·        Beware the wrong voices

·        Take the long view

·        Get hopeful about God’s plans

·        Seek Him with all your heart

 

“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.”

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