I Know the Plans
Notes
Transcript
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.
“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear 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 I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
How many of us have ever made plans? Plans to travel, to visit family, finances, retirement, purchase of a vehicle, we plan for almost everything we do. Why? Because it makes sense to have a plan doesn’t it, to make sure we do not leave important things behind, that everything we need is packed and ready, that we have the money for the trip, it just makes sense to plan.
Planning can be fun! But, what happens when it doesn’t work out the way we wanted? Everything seems to go to pieces right? Ever had your boss say “we’re sending you to somewhere you don’t want to go and during a time you don’t want to go”? Or, how about last minute changes? I can remember when Emilee was graduating from High School and we had planned on a cruise. Had done research, knew where we wanted to visit, had booked the cruise, and even had it paid for. We were looking forward to it, as it would be our first cruise, and then… COVID. It changed everything we had planned in an instant.
Think about planning in another perspective though, what about when God makes plans for us? How often has God had something good planned for us, only to have us change the plans? Thinking we may know how to make it better. Maybe we just ignore the plans, and want to do our own thing? It’s almost like we can’t leave good enough alone at times. And here is where we have to be careful, or we can lose sight of God’s plans, and God’s blessings, for our hope and our future.
Jeremiah is priest during the reign of King Manasseh, and Manasseh has fallen back into a time of deep disobedience to God. Manasseh’s father King Hezekiah had turned the nation of Judah back to God and restored worship, now his son has reverted back to idolatry, cult practices, and pagan rituals. He left the legacy of his father in the past and returned to wickedness.
Jeremiah would not back down, and even though he is cited as being the “weeping prophet” he was known as a prophet who brought the “word of the Lord” to the people who were more interested in doing what they wanted than what the Lord wanted. There are 155 times the phrase “Thus says the Lord” is used in Jeremiah (over 1/4 of what is used in the Bible).
Throughout his ministry, he brought a call to repentance, but faced harassment from the people. He continued pleading with the people as he saw the impending destruction of Judah, and then witnessed the fall of Jerusalem. This verse comes from the middle of Jeremiah facing harassment for bringing the Word of God to the people - Jeremiah reminds them that God has a plan for His people, and even though they are about to go through a period of time where they will be under Babylonian rule, God will use this for their good, and not for their demise. You see, it is this time of judgment that God promises hope for His people.
In Chapter 29, Jeremiah writes a letter to the deported leaders who were being held in exile. It is a letter of hope and comfort. Interestingly, he has been warning them of this judgment, and now that it has occurred he is writing to give them hope. Now, I don’t know about you, but I would be writing “I told you so”!
The main reason it wasn’t an “I told you so” letter is because Jeremiah is still following God’s Will and direction.
Pray for Welfare of Captors
Pray for Welfare of Captors
4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.
6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.
7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
Again, Jeremiah is not speaking on his behalf, but on behalf of the Lord - and it quickly establishes truth. The Babylonians are not responsible for the exile of the Jews, THEY are! God placed them into captivity as a result of their sin and disobedience.
So God sends word for them to establish themselves and get comfortable they’re going to be there a while. Seventy years to be exact. But notice, God does not expect them to sit still, wallowing in misery and pain, he expects them to be busy providing for themselves and their families. Gardening, keeping house, marrying, having children, seeing your children have children. God was clear to not decrease in number, but to keep their strength up as they would be restored after this period of punishment.
Why would God be this specific? Hananiah had led them astray.
11 And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years.” But Jeremiah the prophet went his way.
Two years is much different than 70, and God reminds His people, their exile will not end until He is ready for it to end. You see, His people had to endure this period of time in their lives due to their own actions.
We should take a close look at this, as we too have to prepare for the life God has chosen for us. Our situations may change depending on our reliance on or rebellion against God. Even if we find ourselves in what feels like a time of punishment or exile, we should be living life in a way that will be pleasing to God, as there will be a better day coming. Do not allow yourself to get down and out, thinking God has left you or forsaken you. You see, Satan will try to use our predicaments to deceive us. There may even be people we are “friends” with that can lead us astray, too, so we must guard ourselves against being deceived.
Don’t Be Deceived
Don’t Be Deceived
8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream,
9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.
God again establishes Himself with His people, the “God of Israel”. He warns against listening to the prophets, diviners, and dreamers as they were not connected with Him and were not speaking on His behalf. He even says they are lying to the people.
Notice the use of “For”, it begins each verse. This word can be translated “Surely”, which gives some improved insight Surely says the lord of host, surely it is a lie, surely thus says the Lord… God is wanting to the Jews to pay attention to His Word with bold confidence, linking the false actions of others to His actions which are guaranteed.
Church, do we view God’s Words with the same boldness in which He has spoken them to us? Do we put the same faith into the promises given to us? A better question may be this, are we willing to put the boldness into following what God has commanded us to do? One problem noted by Dr. Tony Evans is “one reason the wheels are coming off our culture morally, in fact, is that for too many years, Christians have secluded themselves within their churches. We have abandoned the culture to Satan.” You see, we have been told to go outside the walls of the church, but instead we have remained inside. As a result, Satan has run rampant in society, and we wonder why we have lost influence in our communities. We have to be bold, or we run the same risk of the Jews, of being found outside the will of God and facing judgement.
But God did not allow the position of the Israelites to alter the plans He had planned for them, you see God had plans to prosper His people.
Plans to Prosper
Plans to Prosper
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.
Once the seventy year captivity was over, God had plans to restore the nation of Israel. Often times, we want to use this verse as a way to ensure God’s blessings on us because God has a purpose and a plan for us that will bring us hope. Instead, using this verse in the context of previous verses, we find God is giving a promise to His people, to bless them even in the middle of a rebellious culture where His own people had rejected Him and were instead seeking after everything but God.
Now they find themselves in exile, with little to no hope, but God. God will not allow them to stay in exile without offering the promise of restoration and hope. But there was a stipulation - once there desperation god to the place they recognized their sins, they were to turn back to Him and repent.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
You see, when we find ourselves out of the will of God, he expects the same from us. We recognize we are outside His will, we may even have to serve out a time of punishment, and then we are to repent of our sins. When we call upon Him, He will hear us and forgive us our sins.
We see something similar to this in 2 Chronicles 7:14
14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
when God heard Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple. You see, the people actually prayed… and sought God’s Will, and He heard their prayer.
God calls us to prayer, an earthly request for heavenly intervention, and He will hear our prayer and heal us, heal our churches, heal our nation. But he expects us to come seeking Him.
Closing
Closing
13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
We must seek Him with all our heart. You see, He is still waiting on us, He doesn’t move, He waits for us to find Him. And look at this promise “and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places…and I will bring you back”.
Can I ask you a question? What does God want to bring us back from, and where does He want to bring us to? Christian, too often we do not hear from God because we are not seeking Him. Seeking Him is not just going to Sunday School, Worship, Wednesday Night, Small Group, and being “busy” with church things. We are called to seek Him 24/7 - it’s when we seek Him that we find Him. So, have you found Him? I mean truly found Him, not just felt conviction and said a prayer and been baptized, but have we allowed ourselves to truly FIND Him? You see, He has plans for your life, but just like the Israelites, He cannot use you unless you are willing to seek Him, pray for His guidance, and follow Him fully.
Are you ready to make that commitment? If you are, then He is ready to be found...