God Wants You To Prosper

Jeremiah 29:11 is the particular verse we are focusing on this morning. If you’re just jumping in with us for the first time, this is part 4 of our Rightly Handling the Truth series, which is just a brief pause from our regular preaching through whole books of the Bible. We have been selecting popular bible passages that are commonly taken out of context, misused, and misapplied. Week one we looked at “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” Week two we looked at, “God is love” out of first John. Week three, last week, we looked at Romans 6:14 “We are not under the law, but under grace.” And today we’re looking at this text… 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 promise that my goal is not to somehow show you that this commonly encouraging verse is somehow really discouraging. That’s not the case. But without the context, one simply cannot know the full affect of what it means, and how strengthening it really is, or how to accurately apply it to our lives today.

The context of Jeremiah 29

Jeremiah is writing a letter to leaders among the Jewish exiles in Babylon who had survived the invasions. That’s in v1 of chapter 29

Chapter 28 tells us that the reason for the letter was because of false prophets who were giving false hope to the Jewish exiles.

How were they giving false hope?

They preached a false hope by prophesying quick trials, speedy recoveries, and soon-to-come restoration.

But it was God who had placed them in Babylon, in exile, for purpose.

This goes back to chapter 27 where we see the Sovereignty of God on display.

Jeremiah 27:5-7 It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me. 6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. 7 All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.

We learned some of this when studying through Daniel this summer…that God allowed, even caused the exile of Israel as a consequence of their rebellion, and by placing Nebuchadnezzar in power to serve his ultimate purposes.

It was God’s will that for a determined season the people of God would serve Him in Babylon, a foreign land of idolatry and wickedness.

But, just like today, when God’s people are in the midst of trials, false prophets come along and bring a message of false hope.

Jeremiah 27:9-10 So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune-tellers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’ 10 For it is a lie that they are prophesying to you, with the result that you will be removed far from your land, and I will drive you out, and you will perish.

Part of their false prophesying was evidenced in the fact that they contradicted the direct word of God. God brought them into captivity, and it was not going to be a quick moment, but a time of testing, and patience building, and learning to trust in God. But many were preaching the opposite. So, God said through Jeremiah in v16 Do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of the LORD’s house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon,’ for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you. 17 Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live.

It’s worth pointing out that God even gave them a simple test to prove whether they had integrity or not.

Jeremiah 27:18 If they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, then let them intercede with the LORD of hosts, that the vessels that are left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.

Because in fact, by the time it was all said and done, all of the vessels would be taken from the Temple and brought into Babylon until THE DAY, that the Lord visits them, and says it’s enough.

OK, so that’s a very important backdrop...

A people in exile because God placed them there

God’s desire for them to stay in Babylon, to serve the king there, and live...

A world full of false prophets who contradict the sovereign word of God and give a false hope to God’s people.

Chapter 28 gives the account of one of the false prophets, Hananiah…and it’s worth looking at the way this individual operated.

Here are his words in Jeremiah 28:2-4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 I will also bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, declares the LORD, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”

Hananiah goes so far as to give a visual, and he takes the wooden yoke that Jeremiah had worn in giving his prophesy about the rule of Babylon, and he breaks it. Later, Jeremiah comes back with a Word from the Lord and says, you’ve broken the wood yoke, and it’s been replaced with an iron one...

And then this indictment is given in v15 Listen, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth.

The end of chapter 29 actually records another false prophet named Shemaiah.

He was essentially sending letters to Zephaniah the priest, accusing Jeremiah of being the false prophet because he was saying “Your exile will be long; build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce.” 

And this is the response from Jeremiah…in 29:31 Thus says the LORD concerning Shemaiah of Nehelam: Because Shemaiah had prophesied to you when I did not send him, and has made you trust in a lie, 32 therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I will punish Shemaiah of Nehelam and his descendants. He shall not have anyone living among this people, and he shall not see the good that I will do to my people, declares the LORD, for he has spoken rebellion against the LORD.’ ”

So then how does Jeremiah 29:11 fit into all of this?

Well it’s in the midst of a letter that Jeremiah sent to the exiled leaders in order to correct the false teaching of the false prophets - remember that the lie was that the exile would soon be over and they would be free from the yoke of Babylon. That was the lie.

Here’s the word from the Lord that Jeremiah gives them...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. 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. 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.

So what IS the point God is making through the prophet? And how would Jeremiah 29:11 be rightly applied to our lives today?

Since the whole context is God’s word to an exiled people, we know immediately that we cannot interpret any of this in a way that says God’s people shouldn’t struggle or suffer.

Let’s just take a minute and be human. Exile for these Jews meant loneliness, unknowns, new neighbors, new leaders, overwhelming sadness because of a longing for their home and familiarity, clashes of belief systems because the people around you just don’t get what means to be the chosen people of God, to be called out of this world, to be different and to be holy.

Humanity gets this as a whole, because all of us were made as eternal beings with spirits that were designed to know God and dwell in his presence. In that sense, in the design sense, humanity longs for God but cannot find Him, as Ecclesiastes says. But the Christian is an exiled being in the fact the the new nature we are given in Christ completely clashes with the world and its trajectory.

The Christian is to live every day in this tension.

I’m going home, but I’m not home yet.

I belong to God. The world is hostile toward God, but I’m called to love them.

These exiles were commanded to build, live, marry your children off, pro create, and multiply. Those are positive commands, but then there’s the negative at the end of v6. DO NOT DECREASE!

In other words, what they were called to do in the promised land, they were to continue to do in Babylon. The conditions around them in Babylon were not to become the convenient excuse for why they were not being productive for the sake of God.

There are troubles in your life because of the fallen world. There always will be! There are hardships in your life because you have to work, and strive, and plant, and harvest, and people are difficult? There will be hardships…but you’re here because God has placed you here, and you’re going to be here for a while, so do not be lazy, but be fruitful for God.

Not only were they to watch themselves, and be mindful of their fruitfulness in Babylon, but they were to be intentional about prayer for the welfare of their city.

Do you do this? When we prayer walked Bath in the early days of planting New City, I would take teams through the city praying for shops, and restaurants, and the fire department, and for the owners, their families, their success…Why? Largely because of this verse. Because this is the city I live in, and God loves people, and His common grace allows for successes and flourishing all around us. Brothers and sisters, pray for your towns, and its welfare, not so that they can know earthly prosperity, but so that through the witness of the church they might come to know Christ, and become thankful to Him and give glory to Him.

What makes all of this so difficult is the fact that we are sinful, and we are not quick to show compassion like Jesus, so we look at the world we live in with all its evils and corruption and we forget that God has actually called us to be here, in the midst of it, to plant gardens, and eat its produce, build houses, to marry, multiply, and do not decrease, and KNOW that our faithfulness to God while in exile will have influence on the Kingdom.

The false prophets of that day were much like the so-called prophets of our day... “God would not allow you to go through this suffering for much longer”. But God said, “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.

Jeremiah 29:11 is not a personal promise to be claimed for safety and blessing in any situation. It’s not even a verse about personal prosperity at all is it?

Jeremiah 29:11 in it’s context...

Is a call to be patient under trial because the timing of God’s rescue is perfect.

Is a reminder that God’s thoughts toward us, even in hardship, are always good.

Is a reminder not to build our lives on the faulty foundation of earthly dreams, and false prophets who speak nothing but ease, but on the sure word of God that calls us to patient endurance.

The Gospel allows us to see this more fully.

If these were God’s thoughts toward exiled Israel, then would you imagine that He would he think less of those who who are in Christ and under the new covenant of His blood?

I want to exhort you today that if you’re in a season of waiting, or trial, or hardship, or in need of healing or direction, relief from that trial is not your hope, Christ is your hope. Don’t forget that to be in Christ is to have eternal life, and to have a fearless outlook on life that allows you to live in this world and build, plant, plan, and be fruitful and multiply.

Finally, know that God’s plans for you are far bigger than to simply make your circumstances better. He desires a relationship with you where you trust him with all of your heart.

We’ll close with Jeremiah 29:12-14 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 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.