Series: Inspired
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
I’ve been praying about solving a problem I have for a while and since it’s taking some time I asked God the other day if there is another plan?
In other words, I started to wonder if I’m looking in the wrong direction.
Or maybe I’m missing something.
Sometimes that is the case when we don’t get an answer.
I remember when I was a young adult I read something that listed all the options that might be a possibility when we don’t get an answer to prayer.
It was a pretty complex article and while it was helpful in some ways it was also a bit overwhelming.
I remember asking God, “is there anyway this could be simplified?”
I came to realize the answer God gave me was “yes”.
And the longer answer was, “trust me”.
That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.
I didn’t want to grow into it but looking back that’s exactly what I needed to do.
The result of the trust “thing” was asking God to teach me how to trust.
I don’t remember it being easy to learn how to trust. There was no four step plan. While I did find Bible scriptures about trust that basically said to trust God. They didn’t say how to trust God. So…little by little, year after year I gradually (ever so gradually) struggled and prayed, struggled and prayed, and struggled and prayed.
It took time, but ever so softly when I asked for help with trusting God I started speaking the words, “I trust You, God.” Then I would lean in and give a sigh of relief.
Year after year I spoke words of trust and I would lean in toward God.
I kinda wonder if Jeremiah was praying for help when God told him in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
I remember from Old Testament class in Sem that Jeremiah and his buddies were in a tough spot when he wrote those words.
Israel had been conquered by the Babylonians and the brightest and best of Israel had been dragged off to live in a foreign land that worshipped foreign gods.
In addition to having to live in a foreign land with weird false gods and very strange customs, being a prophet meant that Jeremiah was told the truth…the whole truth about the outcome of the Babylonian Exile.
There were false prophets who spread word that they would return home quickly…even in a few years.
Hummmm….
That was NOT the word that Jeremiah had been given.
He was told the people of Israel would be allowed to return to their homeland in 70 years. Jeremiah knew that meant that many of those in exile would die in Babylon and they would never see their precious home again in Israel.
So, the words Jeremiah promised did not mean that everyone who read or heard the prophesy would get the plan they all hoped to receive.
The plan they really wanted was to go home.
In many cases the plan that was given was that God would bless them even though they were living on foreign soil.
Jeremiah was telling Israel individually God would continue to bless them today.
God wanted them to know that they could ‘bloom where they are planted.’
God wanted them to see that wherever they are God is in their midst.
God’s promise for those who were in exile in a foreign land was personal to every believer who turned to Yahweh God. God wanted them to realize that time and space don’t matter because God is greater than all of their expectations.
At the same time God wanted them to know that Israel did have a hope.
God wanted to let those who were in exile to hold onto the hope that their beloved Israel would arise again.
They would return.
They would rebuild. That meant even though Israel didn’t have a Wall or a Temple (which was a cause of great shame), they would rebuild.
Israel would be a nation again and the children of Israel would raise their children in the land of Israel.
As it turned out the people of Israel who were in exile did return to Israel in 538 B.C. By the decree of Cyrus the people of Israel were allowed to return to Judah. We read about their return and rebuilding in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
We read specifically about the rebuilding of the Wall and the Temple in Ezra. 1-6.
THAT folks was the ultimate promise Jeremiah wrote about.
That WAS their future and their hope. Our future and our hope is that God remembers us even today just like He remembered the exiles.
Spiritual Practice: Your Future
What is Your hope?
In God, Deborah
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