11/25/2023 0 Comments Jeremiah 29 verse11Deliverance comes with a price-70 years spent imprisoned by captors. The prophet delivers hope to a fallen nation by prophesying their deliverance from captivity. Judah worshipped false Gods and offered sacrifices to idols, becoming a faithless and sinful nation. He also delivered messages of repentance and righteousness on behalf of nations and people. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote the book between 630 and 580 BC announcing God’s judgments upon Judah, a tribe of Israel. So., what does Jeremiah 29:11 mean? Here’s some background of the book of Jeremiah. ![]() I write this short sermon on Jeremiah 29:11 for me as much as anyone. Does this scenario sound familiar?ĭo you sidestep scripture that makes you uncomfortable? Can you yield to God’s truth even if it makes you feel prickly and awkward? That’s what the Israelites had to do-yield to Jeremiah’s message-to restore favor with God. God placed Jeremiah over nations and kingdoms to “root out, pull down, destroy, throw down, and to build and plant” (Jeremiah 1:10) He delivers a message to the Israelites they don’t want to hear regarding Babylonian captivity. None of us say, “God, please give me a huge helping of adversity so I can suffer.” Everyone skitters away from difficulties because going through valleys is unpleasant. In the How to Study the Bible podcast, pastor and Bible teacher Nicole Unice brings life back to reading the Bible by walking listeners through her Alive Method of Bible study, helping us personally encounter God through his Word by giving us a practical, clear road map for understanding, interpreting and applying Scripture to our lives.Jeremiah 29:11 provides hope in the midst of suffering and helps you make things happen. What should feel alive often feels confusing and boring and irrelevant. We want to experience God through the Bible… we really do!īut our good intentions fall flat when reading the Bible just doesn’t seem to help us experience God in a real way. What hard thing are you currently going through? In the midst of your suffering, cling to Jeremiah 29:11, but cling to it for the right reason: not in the false hope that God will take away your suffering, but in the true, gospel confidence that he will give you hope in the midst of it. And when we learn perseverance, we find surprising joy. But as we walk out our lives on this crazy earth, let’s remember that the best growth comes through persevering through trials, not escaping them entirely. And ultimately He will give us a glorious future. Yes, of course God knows the plans He has for us. In verse 10, God says that he would fulfill this “after seventy years are completed in Babylon.” This meant that none in the current generation of Israelites would ever return to their home. Instead, God’s plan was for them to stay right where they were, and to help prosper the nation that enslaved them!Īnd then came the biggest blow of all. They wanted to be told that their suffering was going to end. ![]() ![]() This is not at all what the Israelites wanted to hear! They wanted to be told that they were going to go home. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (29:7) The thing is, before he shares this promise, just a few verses earlier, he gives them this directive from God: “seek the peace and the prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. God does indeed have a good plan for the Israelites, and it is a plan that will give them hope and a prospering future. Jeremiah calls out Hananiah’s lie, and then states the promise we read in 29:11. ![]() The prophet Jeremiah confronts the false prophet, Hananiah, who had boldly proclaimed that God was going to free Israel from Babylon in two years (spoiler alert: God doesn’t do this). Here’s the context for Jeremiah 29: the Israelites were in exile, a punishment from God as a result of their disobedience. As she explains, the heart of the verse is “not that we would escape our lot, but that we would learn to thrive” in the midst of it. We often approach Jeremiah 29:11 as a security blanket: God has a plan for me that is good, so clearly this suffering I’m going through will end soon and then my flourishing will begin! But that is not at all what God was promising to the Israelites, and it’s not what he’s promising us, either.Īuthor and blogger Mary DeMuth addresses our misunderstanding of this verse in her article, Jeremiah 29:11 Doesn’t Mean What You Think. My Old Testament professor had this to say about the ever-popular Jeremiah 29:11: “I am going to destroy what this verse means to you, but then I’m going to reframe it so you understand it better within it’s original context, and then you will love it even more when we’re done.” He definitely had our attention! “’ For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” – Jeremiah 29:11
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