So I’m in Jeremiah right now and I was excited yesterday about what chapter I was going to be reading today. The one where we find the infamous verse, Jeremiah 29:11.
“‘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.’” {ESV}
And the reason for my excitement was, I was curious as to the context of that verse. Why did God give it? What conditions surrounded it? Because it’s tossed around nowadays almost like a good-luck charm. ‘God knows our future! He’s got great things for us! Holla!’
But when I read the whole chapter, I sobered up pretty quick.
It wasn’t just a pick-me-up kind of verse. This promise was actually attached to a judgment God had placed on His people because they had forsaken Him. They had turned away from serving Him, and so God caused King Nebuchadnezzar to take the children of Israel and Judah into captivity for 70 years. And to those who had been carried away, this promise was given to them. To hang on. To know that when those 70 years was over, then God would bring about the ‘future and a hope’ He promised.
“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all 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 that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 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.” {Jeremiah 29:4-7, ESV}
In other words…you’re gonna be there awhile. You turned away from Me, you stopped serving the Lord your God, and so for the next 70 years, you’re going to understand that I’m {God} not okay with that. Meanwhile, you might as well get married, build houses, have kids…because this time of captivity isn’t going to be over quickly.
“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.’” {Jeremiah 29:10-13, ESV}
Hmm. This isn’t exactly what I was thinking about when I hung that uplifting verse on my wall. This promise had to last them 70 years because they had chosen to walk away from God. It was given to them as a reminder that they would be in captivity for the whole 70 years because that was part of the consequences of choosing to serve other gods instead of the one true God.
He told Jeremiah to let them know, ‘settle in, build homes, get married, have kids’, and furthermore {if you caught this part} they were to actually pray for God to prosper their captors. Because as their captors prospered…then so would they. {Only God, right?}
So after reading this whole chapter and the context of that one verse, it seemed to me that the focus was more about their endurance than the promise. {Makes sense?} And by that I mean, God was more about encouraging them to endure those 70 years for the promise to be fulfilled, rather than simply giving them a happy-go-lucky assurance that everything was going to be super-cool super quickly.
Thing is, God does have a great plan for my life, and He does have an incredible one for my family, but His timing is key here. To me, it’s the main point of the story. Equally as important as the promise itself. For the Israelites, it was 70 years. No sooner, no longer.
So, how much longer for me? Not sure.
How much longer for you? Don’t know.
But God knows. And He’s going to be right on time. Every time.
Meanwhile {back at the ranch}, strap in. Build homes. Get married. Go to work. Have kids. Live life. And when God’s timing is ‘complete’, His promise will be fulfilled and He’ll get all the glory.
Will you ever know why it all happened? Maybe. Maybe not.
But will it be important? I doubt it.
The great thing is though, even after reading the whole chapter, I still felt encouraged by that verse, Jeremiah 29:11. However, I also found an endurance test buried inside it. And something tells me that, in order to get to the promise, I might also have to…take the test.
Typical, huh? 
{Image courtesy of Flickr}
