"I Know the Plans"
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At the end of the annual meeting, just before the prayer of dismissal, the pastor turned to Jeremiah 29 and read to the congregation:
“Surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”
I wonder how many times in the past 2600 years this passage has thrilled and inspired God’s people.
People are often reminded that God has a plan.
He has a plan for each individual life and he has a plan for the people collectively, as a whole, as a Church.
In this case, most of the people of Jerusalem have been captured by the king of Babylon and marched away in chains (or some other restraints) to a foreign country.
They must have felt as if life was over for them and for their distant descendants.
Then “the word of the Lord” came to Jeremiah, left behind in Jerusalem.
Jeremiah was a prophet, authentically a prophet of the Lord.
What a prophet does is receive God’s word intended for his people, and pass it along to them.
In this case, Jeremiah wrote a letter to the captives despairing in the foreign land.
This letter was so important that not only do we have its whole text, but the family tree of the man who delivered it is given in some detail.
First, Jeremiah gives full instructions as to the attitude and frame of mind in which the captive Israelites are to live. It’s nothing captives anywhere would think of, themselves.
“Build houses and live in them; get married; have families; work and pray for the wellbeing of the place where you are.”
This is what will please God.
This is God’s plan for the people.
Another way of putting this is, “Live normal lives.”
If they were at home in Jerusalem and their own land, they would naturally build houses, get married, have families, and work and pray for the wellbeing of their home area.
By way of contrast, what might a lesser god (if any such existed) tell the people to do? What might they think would help their situation as prisoners of a powerful king?
“Give me liberty or give me death” would be most peoples’ natural and human response to exile.
Armed rebellion, revolution, going undercover to undermine the power structure and weaken the king’s power would be most people’s solution to captivity.
God also warns them, ”Ignore magicians and false prophets who deceive you [and try to lead you into other responses], and do not listen to the dreams that they dream.”
But God has plans for this people, and as is usual with God , these plans are a lot more creative, a lot more surprising than the knee-jerk response of armed rebellion.
In fact, his idea and command is the opposite: “You will prosper when you work for the good of Babylon.”
Unstated but clear is another message, “I love the Babylonians, too, and I will be glad to see good things happen to all of you.”
And it’s not forever. God promises that the captives will be captives only 70 years.
Meanwhile, God’s plans include a promise that he will hear and respond to the prayers he tells them to offer to him.
How wonderful to be guided by God himself!
“When you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me.” (Ch. 29: 12.)
“I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you…and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”
In Psalm 137, we read of the early despair of the captives when they had perhaps not been long in Babylon.
“By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered [Jerusalem]. On the willows there we hung up our harps….How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”
Psalm 126 is later and altogether different: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.…May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.”
God’s plans came to reality. God is good. Thanks be to God.
