For The U.S. Today
Jeremiah 29:11
Hi everybody it’s Pastor Dave. Welcome to the My Daily Church podcast. Here’s your question for the day. Could this be part of God’s Jeremiah 29:11 plan for us, personally? Could the unraveling of our country under the anti-God socialist agenda with the poster boy of the gentle old man, could the judgment that may be coming on this nation actually be part of the famous Jeremiah 29:11 plan for us, personally? Join me as we look at the actual context of God’s famous, “I know the plans I have for you” scripture of Jeremiah 29:11. And once you see it in the context it was written in, you may understand better, just how much this famous verse may apply to us, personally, individually, as we watch this previously Christian society crumble in rebellion to God.
So, open a Bible and get ready to make some notes. I’ll be using the New Living Translation version.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Well, there it is, the famous verse. But, watch the power that this verse has when we study it in the context it was written in.
In 2 Chronicles Chapters 5-7, are the incredible events surrounding the dedication of the Temple of God. That time, the dedication of the magnificence of the Temple of the Lord described there in 2 Chronicles Chapters 5-7, was the absolute high point spiritually for the People of Israel. It was awesome. It was incredible. There was fire from heaven, there was the tangible presence of God, it was the most and the best of everything incredible for the nation of Israel. And right in the middle of all of that, God is issued a heavy, solemn warning. It’s in 2 Chronicles 7:19-22. I’m going to talk you through it.
Basically, the gold is still drying on the Temple, and God issues this warning to Solomon. And God says that if the people abandon God, if they turn from him and serve other gods and worship other gods, then God will remove the people from the land, the land of Israel. And he will reject this magnificent Temple, and he’ll make it an object of mockery and ridicule.
And then fast forward to Jeremiah Chapter 29, where we’re headed today. And it’s basically, (for round number’s sake), three hundred and fifty years later. And the people of God have done exactly what God warned them not to do. Three hundred and fifty years earlier at the dedication of the Temple, God said do not do this, or I will remove you from the land. And when we get to Jeremiah 29, they have done what God told them do not to do.
But they hadn’t just started it – it wasn’t like they had just turned away in Jeremiah 29. The people had been really turning away from the Lord since not long after the Temple was complete. The people of God had been sliding further and further away from God for three hundred and fifty years. They turned from God over and over again, and they chased after pagan gods and the gods of this world over and over again. And for most of those three hundred and fifty years the people of God, while they were sliding, God had prophets warning them. He had prophets coming and telling them, “Don’t do this, turn back to God. Turn back to God.”
And so, with three hundred and fifty years of that, and now we’re in Jeremiah.
It’s into this spiritually dead environment, you have to grasp this, is where the people of God are, and into this spiritually dead environment is where Jeremiah starts prophesying for the Lord. And he begs and he warns and he pleads with the people of God to return to the Lord – year after year after year. And he actually does it for a total of fifty years. We’re going to see twenty-three years before God brings the correction, let’s say.
Skim through Jeremiah sometime, and look at the little section headings in your Bible. You’ll see in section heading after section heading, warning after warning, after warning of God trying to get his people to turn back to him. But you also see something else in Jeremiah, and all of the Bible for that matter. You see the incredible unending, new every morning, mercy of God. And you see God’s unwavering commitment to honor his covenant with his people.
And so, finally, after three hundred and fifty years of watching the steady spiritual decline of his people, and after twenty-three years of Jeremiah begging God’s people to repent and turn back to the Lord, after all that, finally God enacts the plan that is necessary in order to turn the hearts of the people back to him. That’s what’s happening in Jeremiah. We’ll start just back in Chapter 25 of Jeremiah. We’ll read a section and then we’ll get back to our key verse today.
In Jeremiah Chapter 25, you see where the people of God are at this point. And you see where they’re at when God gives them this famous promise scripture. And more importantly, please hear this, this is the plan. We see it in Jeremiah Chapter 25, this is the plan that was necessary for God to turn the hearts of the people back to him.
Jeremiah 25:2-11 (NLT) Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people in Judah and Jerusalem,3 “For the past twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, until now—the Lord has been giving me his messages. I have faithfully passed them on to you, but you have not listened.4 “Again and again the Lord has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention. 5 Each time the message was this: ‘Turn from the evil road you are traveling and from the evil things you are doing. Only then will I let you live in this land that the Lord gave to you and your ancestors forever. 6 Do not provoke my anger by worshiping idols you made with your own hands. Then I will not harm you.’7 “But you would not listen to me,” says the Lord. “You made me furious by worshiping idols you made with your own hands, bringing on yourselves all the disasters you now suffer. 8 And now the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Because you have not listened to me, 9 I will gather together all the armies of the north under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, whom I have appointed as my deputy. (The word “deputy” here is really like “my servant.” This ungodly King of Babylon, God appoints as his servant.) I will bring them all against this land and its people and against the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy you and make you an object of horror and contempt and a ruin forever. 10 I will take away your happy singing and laughter. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard. Your millstones will fall silent, and the lights in your homes will go out. 11 This entire land will become a desolate wasteland. Israel and her neighboring lands will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
Guys, this is critical. Follow me right here. This was the plan that was necessary for God to turn the hearts of his people back to him. Guys, this was God’s mercy exercised in discipline in order to turn the people’s hearts back to him. For three hundred and fifty years the people of God were in spiritual decline. And again, most of that time they had prophets calling them back to God, and when we reach Jeremiah 29 and we reach our famous scripture today, Jeremiah had been pleading with the people to turn back to the Lord for twenty-three years. And so, finally, in his mercy, God says it is time to enact the plan that I know will turn their hearts back to me. Wow!
And so, the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, comes into Jerusalem sieges it for the third time (actually), and the final time and this time he completely destroys the city of Jerusalem. And he completely destroys the Temple of God, and he carries most of the people away into captivity into Babylon. This is the lowest point of the nation of Israel. And right in the midst of all of this tragedy, Jeremiah writes a letter.
Turn to Jeremiah Chapter 29. We’re getting close to the famous verse, now.
Jeremiah 29:1 (NLT) Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar.
And then, in verse 4, Jeremiah tells the people who are being taken away as slaves, to be captives, exiled in Babylon for seventy years, he tells them to do good while you’re there. Even while you’re living as captives in Babylon, do good. At the end of verse 6, he says, “Don’t dwindle away!” Don’t just fade out into nothing. And in verse 7 he says, “…work for the peace and prosperity of the city… pray for the welfare of the city.”
What God is doing is telling the people, Listen. You brought this incredible discipline on yourself, but live “right” in the midst of it. In the midst of God’s chastisement, as incredible as it is, still, live right. Because God is saying, listen, this is part of my good plan for you. This devastating crisis – it’s part of God’s plan to turn his people back to himself and it’s the only plan that God knew would work. And so, God is resetting his people. It’s a spiritual reset. He is resetting his people to again earnestly seek him.
And then, finally, after the nation of Israel has lost everything because of their turning away from the Lord, with the City of God, Jerusalem, laying in ruins behind them, and the Temple of God being destroyed, and the people of God being carried away as slaves to Babylon, then we read in Jeremiah 29:10 the following.
Jeremiah 29:10 (NLT) This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon (as captives, slaves in exile) for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.
Guys, can you see the goodness of God’s plan through the devastating circumstances? Because that’s what he’s telling his people here in Jeremiah 29. These devastating circumstances that have been brought on because of your refusal to turn from sin and from idol worship, and pagan worship, and turn back to God – these devastating circumstances are part of God’s good plan.
God is promising he has a good plan. And then right as the people are feeling the heat of the consequences of their sin, God reminds them of his good plan. Immediately as this is happening, God says, look – it’s going to be bad for seventy years, but then… I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised and I will bring you home again. God is saying, look, this is necessary for me to be able to do the good things I’ve promised for you. This is what it’s going to take for you to turn your heart back to me, to get you in a place where I can do the good that I’ve promised to do for you.
Now, only now after all of that, can we read the famous verse.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Guys, this famous promise verse is spoken by God right in the midst of the greatest discipline that God has ever brought upon his people. This great promise from God is spoken to God’s people when they can still smell the smoke on their clothes from their city being burned to the ground and the Temple being destroyed. They’re still walking across the desert to be held captive in Babylon for seventy years, and now God says he has a great plan for them? No – it’s not “now.” God has always had a great plan for them, and he has always told them he had a great plan for them. This is what is required to get them to turn back to God and join God in his plan for them.
Do you see it? Can you see the potential for it to apply to your life today?
This is what was required to get God’s people to join God in his plan for them. Can I tell you please, God is at work to bring his great plan to pass in your life? And it is a plan for good, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. But (hear the “but”), if you are stiff-necked and if you are rebellious and if you refuse to turn from your worship of the gods of this world or your idols, God may lovingly enact a plan in your life in order to reset your spiritual priorities, in order to get you to return to him, in order to get you to join him in his great plan for you.
And so, if that happens to you or if that is happening to you now, hear the Word of the Lord in the verses that follow the famous verse in verse 11. Never stop reading at the famous verse. Look at verse 12.
Jeremiah 29:12-14 (NLT) In those days (What days? Meaning in the days when you return to the Lord in his loving discipline in your life) when you pray, I will listen. God says I will hear your prayers because you have returned to me. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. (Because you’ll be looking for the Lord wholeheartedly. If you’ll seek him wholeheartedly, you’ll find him.) 14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”
Listen, God is saying, I will restore the blessings of all of the plans that I have for you. I’ll restore the blessings of the plans I have for you that are good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. But, maybe, something needs to be done to get you to turn back to the Lord. To return to the Lord. To reset your spiritual priorities.
Let me ask you three questions.
1) Do you believe that God’s plan for you is good – to give you a future and a hope?
2) Do you believe that God will lovingly discipline you in order to get you to turn back to him and join him in his good plan for you?
And here’s the question I would love for you to spend more time with the Lord on today.
3) What is happening in your life right now that might be God’s hand trying to bring you back to him, trying to restore you to himself to get you to turn back to him and to get you to join him in his good plan for you?
Is there something in your life right now that just might be God’s loving hand to get you to return to him so that he can do the good things he has planned for you?
Finally, as you’re interacting with God on this truth, can you please acknowledge and embrace the fact that God works in necessary ways to accomplish his good plans for your life. Acknowledge to God what God himself says, in Isaiah 55:8-9.
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT) “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Guys, God’s thoughts and his ways are far beyond yours, but his plans for you are good, to give you a future and a hope. Turn to him and embrace his plan. Worship him alone to avoid his hand of “assistance” to get you to turn back to him.
So, open a Bible and get ready to make some notes. I’ll be using the New Living Translation version.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Well, there it is, the famous verse. But, watch the power that this verse has when we study it in the context it was written in.
In 2 Chronicles Chapters 5-7, are the incredible events surrounding the dedication of the Temple of God. That time, the dedication of the magnificence of the Temple of the Lord described there in 2 Chronicles Chapters 5-7, was the absolute high point spiritually for the People of Israel. It was awesome. It was incredible. There was fire from heaven, there was the tangible presence of God, it was the most and the best of everything incredible for the nation of Israel. And right in the middle of all of that, God is issued a heavy, solemn warning. It’s in 2 Chronicles 7:19-22. I’m going to talk you through it.
Basically, the gold is still drying on the Temple, and God issues this warning to Solomon. And God says that if the people abandon God, if they turn from him and serve other gods and worship other gods, then God will remove the people from the land, the land of Israel. And he will reject this magnificent Temple, and he’ll make it an object of mockery and ridicule.
And then fast forward to Jeremiah Chapter 29, where we’re headed today. And it’s basically, (for round number’s sake), three hundred and fifty years later. And the people of God have done exactly what God warned them not to do. Three hundred and fifty years earlier at the dedication of the Temple, God said do not do this, or I will remove you from the land. And when we get to Jeremiah 29, they have done what God told them do not to do.
But they hadn’t just started it – it wasn’t like they had just turned away in Jeremiah 29. The people had been really turning away from the Lord since not long after the Temple was complete. The people of God had been sliding further and further away from God for three hundred and fifty years. They turned from God over and over again, and they chased after pagan gods and the gods of this world over and over again. And for most of those three hundred and fifty years the people of God, while they were sliding, God had prophets warning them. He had prophets coming and telling them, “Don’t do this, turn back to God. Turn back to God.”
And so, with three hundred and fifty years of that, and now we’re in Jeremiah.
It’s into this spiritually dead environment, you have to grasp this, is where the people of God are, and into this spiritually dead environment is where Jeremiah starts prophesying for the Lord. And he begs and he warns and he pleads with the people of God to return to the Lord – year after year after year. And he actually does it for a total of fifty years. We’re going to see twenty-three years before God brings the correction, let’s say.
Skim through Jeremiah sometime, and look at the little section headings in your Bible. You’ll see in section heading after section heading, warning after warning, after warning of God trying to get his people to turn back to him. But you also see something else in Jeremiah, and all of the Bible for that matter. You see the incredible unending, new every morning, mercy of God. And you see God’s unwavering commitment to honor his covenant with his people.
And so, finally, after three hundred and fifty years of watching the steady spiritual decline of his people, and after twenty-three years of Jeremiah begging God’s people to repent and turn back to the Lord, after all that, finally God enacts the plan that is necessary in order to turn the hearts of the people back to him. That’s what’s happening in Jeremiah. We’ll start just back in Chapter 25 of Jeremiah. We’ll read a section and then we’ll get back to our key verse today.
In Jeremiah Chapter 25, you see where the people of God are at this point. And you see where they’re at when God gives them this famous promise scripture. And more importantly, please hear this, this is the plan. We see it in Jeremiah Chapter 25, this is the plan that was necessary for God to turn the hearts of the people back to him.
Jeremiah 25:2-11 (NLT) Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people in Judah and Jerusalem,3 “For the past twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, until now—the Lord has been giving me his messages. I have faithfully passed them on to you, but you have not listened.4 “Again and again the Lord has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention. 5 Each time the message was this: ‘Turn from the evil road you are traveling and from the evil things you are doing. Only then will I let you live in this land that the Lord gave to you and your ancestors forever. 6 Do not provoke my anger by worshiping idols you made with your own hands. Then I will not harm you.’7 “But you would not listen to me,” says the Lord. “You made me furious by worshiping idols you made with your own hands, bringing on yourselves all the disasters you now suffer. 8 And now the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Because you have not listened to me, 9 I will gather together all the armies of the north under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, whom I have appointed as my deputy. (The word “deputy” here is really like “my servant.” This ungodly King of Babylon, God appoints as his servant.) I will bring them all against this land and its people and against the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy you and make you an object of horror and contempt and a ruin forever. 10 I will take away your happy singing and laughter. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard. Your millstones will fall silent, and the lights in your homes will go out. 11 This entire land will become a desolate wasteland. Israel and her neighboring lands will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
Guys, this is critical. Follow me right here. This was the plan that was necessary for God to turn the hearts of his people back to him. Guys, this was God’s mercy exercised in discipline in order to turn the people’s hearts back to him. For three hundred and fifty years the people of God were in spiritual decline. And again, most of that time they had prophets calling them back to God, and when we reach Jeremiah 29 and we reach our famous scripture today, Jeremiah had been pleading with the people to turn back to the Lord for twenty-three years. And so, finally, in his mercy, God says it is time to enact the plan that I know will turn their hearts back to me. Wow!
And so, the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, comes into Jerusalem sieges it for the third time (actually), and the final time and this time he completely destroys the city of Jerusalem. And he completely destroys the Temple of God, and he carries most of the people away into captivity into Babylon. This is the lowest point of the nation of Israel. And right in the midst of all of this tragedy, Jeremiah writes a letter.
Turn to Jeremiah Chapter 29. We’re getting close to the famous verse, now.
Jeremiah 29:1 (NLT) Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar.
And then, in verse 4, Jeremiah tells the people who are being taken away as slaves, to be captives, exiled in Babylon for seventy years, he tells them to do good while you’re there. Even while you’re living as captives in Babylon, do good. At the end of verse 6, he says, “Don’t dwindle away!” Don’t just fade out into nothing. And in verse 7 he says, “…work for the peace and prosperity of the city… pray for the welfare of the city.”
What God is doing is telling the people, Listen. You brought this incredible discipline on yourself, but live “right” in the midst of it. In the midst of God’s chastisement, as incredible as it is, still, live right. Because God is saying, listen, this is part of my good plan for you. This devastating crisis – it’s part of God’s plan to turn his people back to himself and it’s the only plan that God knew would work. And so, God is resetting his people. It’s a spiritual reset. He is resetting his people to again earnestly seek him.
And then, finally, after the nation of Israel has lost everything because of their turning away from the Lord, with the City of God, Jerusalem, laying in ruins behind them, and the Temple of God being destroyed, and the people of God being carried away as slaves to Babylon, then we read in Jeremiah 29:10 the following.
Jeremiah 29:10 (NLT) This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon (as captives, slaves in exile) for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.
Guys, can you see the goodness of God’s plan through the devastating circumstances? Because that’s what he’s telling his people here in Jeremiah 29. These devastating circumstances that have been brought on because of your refusal to turn from sin and from idol worship, and pagan worship, and turn back to God – these devastating circumstances are part of God’s good plan.
God is promising he has a good plan. And then right as the people are feeling the heat of the consequences of their sin, God reminds them of his good plan. Immediately as this is happening, God says, look – it’s going to be bad for seventy years, but then… I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised and I will bring you home again. God is saying, look, this is necessary for me to be able to do the good things I’ve promised for you. This is what it’s going to take for you to turn your heart back to me, to get you in a place where I can do the good that I’ve promised to do for you.
Now, only now after all of that, can we read the famous verse.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Guys, this famous promise verse is spoken by God right in the midst of the greatest discipline that God has ever brought upon his people. This great promise from God is spoken to God’s people when they can still smell the smoke on their clothes from their city being burned to the ground and the Temple being destroyed. They’re still walking across the desert to be held captive in Babylon for seventy years, and now God says he has a great plan for them? No – it’s not “now.” God has always had a great plan for them, and he has always told them he had a great plan for them. This is what is required to get them to turn back to God and join God in his plan for them.
Do you see it? Can you see the potential for it to apply to your life today?
This is what was required to get God’s people to join God in his plan for them. Can I tell you please, God is at work to bring his great plan to pass in your life? And it is a plan for good, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. But (hear the “but”), if you are stiff-necked and if you are rebellious and if you refuse to turn from your worship of the gods of this world or your idols, God may lovingly enact a plan in your life in order to reset your spiritual priorities, in order to get you to return to him, in order to get you to join him in his great plan for you.
And so, if that happens to you or if that is happening to you now, hear the Word of the Lord in the verses that follow the famous verse in verse 11. Never stop reading at the famous verse. Look at verse 12.
Jeremiah 29:12-14 (NLT) In those days (What days? Meaning in the days when you return to the Lord in his loving discipline in your life) when you pray, I will listen. God says I will hear your prayers because you have returned to me. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. (Because you’ll be looking for the Lord wholeheartedly. If you’ll seek him wholeheartedly, you’ll find him.) 14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”
Listen, God is saying, I will restore the blessings of all of the plans that I have for you. I’ll restore the blessings of the plans I have for you that are good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. But, maybe, something needs to be done to get you to turn back to the Lord. To return to the Lord. To reset your spiritual priorities.
Let me ask you three questions.
1) Do you believe that God’s plan for you is good – to give you a future and a hope?
2) Do you believe that God will lovingly discipline you in order to get you to turn back to him and join him in his good plan for you?
And here’s the question I would love for you to spend more time with the Lord on today.
3) What is happening in your life right now that might be God’s hand trying to bring you back to him, trying to restore you to himself to get you to turn back to him and to get you to join him in his good plan for you?
Is there something in your life right now that just might be God’s loving hand to get you to return to him so that he can do the good things he has planned for you?
Finally, as you’re interacting with God on this truth, can you please acknowledge and embrace the fact that God works in necessary ways to accomplish his good plans for your life. Acknowledge to God what God himself says, in Isaiah 55:8-9.
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT) “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Guys, God’s thoughts and his ways are far beyond yours, but his plans for you are good, to give you a future and a hope. Turn to him and embrace his plan. Worship him alone to avoid his hand of “assistance” to get you to turn back to him.