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“Jeremiah 29:11 in Context”
Categories: M. W. Bassford, Sermons
If there is any passage that has attracted our country’s attention for the past five years or so, it is Jeremiah 29:11. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a meme on Facebook that says, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 29:11 is everywhere, from coffee mugs to T-shirts.
Now, I’m certainly not opposed to the quoting of any Bible passage, but the sad truth is that this one frequently is misapplied by the quoters. When we look at the isolated verse, it is so vague—talking about plans, a future, and a hope—that it could mean nearly anything. Not surprisingly, the way that people use it often says much more about their plans for themselves than about God’s plans for them.
However, I’ve also seen people react to the memeification of this verse by denying that it has any applicability to us whatsoever: “If you weren’t alive in 583 BC, this verse is not for you!” I don’t think that’s right either. This morning, then, I’d like to find a middle ground by considering Jeremiah 29:11 in context.
Even with a limited view of context, looking only at the few verses immediately around the passage, several deeply significant spiritual lessons emerge. The first of these is that SIN HAS CONSEQUENCES. We see this laid out in Jeremiah 29:10. God tells the Jews that he is going to restore them to the promised land—but only after they spend 70 years in exile in Babylon.
Though this might seem cruel, it is 100 percent the Jews’ fault. God warned them repeatedly through the prophets that if they did not repent of their idolatry and greed, they would be taken into captivity. To these warnings, the Jews did not listen in the least little bit. They dared God to punish them, so He did.
Even in this, though, God’s purpose is instructive. By allowing them to experience the horrible consequences of turning their backs on Him, He is giving them one last chance to learn their lesson. Once they have learned it, He will return them to the land.
Our Father still teaches us this way today, just as we do the same for our children. Some parents, sad to say, are more concerned with their children’s happiness than their children’s character. Every time the kid fails or gets in trouble, there Mom and Dad are to rescue them from themselves and make it all better.
If you do that, though, you end up with a spoiled, selfish kid with no capacity for handling adversity. Instead, hard as it is, there are times when all parents have to let their kids fail, when we have to watch them suffer the consequences that come from doing what we told them not to do. Sometimes, misery is the only thing that will penetrate that thick skull!
So too for us, of course. God warns us repeatedly that sin is bad for us, that the devil hates us and wants to destroy us. Sometimes we listen to the warnings; sometimes we don’t. When we don’t, sooner or later, we will get a taste of how miserable sin is. Sometimes, as with the Jews, the consequences of our sin last for decades.
When God does this, though, when He teaches us through pain, we need to pay attention and mend our ways. If we don’t, we may prove to be beyond all help.
Second, if we want to experience God’s plan and hope and future, we need to remember that REPENTANCE COMES FIRST. This point appears in Jeremiah 29:12-13. God is going to listen to the Jews, but only if they call to Him and come and pray to Him. God will allow the Jews to find Him, but only if they seek for Him with their whole heart. He isn’t going to restore them to the land because the time limit has run out. He’s going to restore them to the land only once they come to terms with their spiritual failures.
Here’s where lots of people go wrong with Jeremiah 29:11. They like the thought that God has a plan for them, but they don’t realize that we have the plan in book form, and it’s called the Bible. They like the thought that they get to have God’s hope in their lives, but they don’t recognize that hope only comes from humbling themselves at the feet of Jesus. They like the warm fuzzy meme that doesn’t demand anything from them, but they refuse to see that if we want anything from God, we have to surrender everything first.
In short, if we want to take comfort from the fact that God has a plan for us, we’ve got to stop acting like we have a plan for God. He is not going to follow our plans. He is not concerned with our wealth or our earthly happiness. He is concerned with our holiness and obedience because he knows that those things are best for us.
This week, then, let’s all of us ask ourselves a difficult question: “Where do I need to repent?” Where are we falling short from putting God’s plan to work in our lives? Where are we keeping ourselves from the fullness of the blessing He promises by stubbornly clinging to our sin? I guarantee you, that question has an answer for every person in this room. When we are willing to confront the spiritual ugliness in our own hearts, His work of restoration can begin.
Finally, though, we see that GOD WILL DELIVER. Let’s read Jeremiah 29:14 together. Look at the promises here: “I will be found.” “I will gather.” “I will restore.” This is all the more impressive in its historical context. If you glance at the beginning of the chapter, you’ll see that Jeremiah wrote this during the reign of King Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, after Jeconiah, the previous king, and many of the nobles and artisans of the land already had been carried captive.
In other words, Judah at this point is almost completely under the control of the Babylonian superpower. Indeed, God already has warned them that even the people now remaining in the land will go into exile too. Once that happens, there is no earthly reason to hope that the Jews ever will return to the land or that they even will continue as a distinct people.
However, God promises this pathetic, doomed remnant that they will have a future and a hope, and so they do. The Babylonian tyranny is overthrown, and the exiles return to the land of their fathers—all on the timetable that God foretold. What would have been impossible for any human agency was nothing to God.
The same holds true for us. Many of us struggle with burdens that seem impossible for us to overcome. We’ve had a rotten relationship with that spouse or family member for decades, and we can’t imagine that it ever will get any better. We feel like we’ve made such a mess of our lives that there’s no way that we can ever get things put back together. We’re fighting a battle against sin, and we feel like we’re constantly losing.
You know, we might be right. Those things might be impossible for us, but they are not impossible for God. He is the great Deliverer, and nothing is impossible with Him. He provides the strength we need to overcome in our struggles, and He provides the grace we need to overcome in our failures. Judah hoped in Him and was not disappointed. If we hope in Him, we won’t be disappointed either.
