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
I have always found today’s verse comforting but never really considered when it was written or who it was originally for until recently.
To summarize, the prophet Jeremiah was told to write this letter to the Israelites in exile during their time in Babylon. They’d been conquered and relocated, taken away from their “Promised Land.” All in all, a very bad time.
Before this verse, the letter told the Israelites to settle in and settle down, marry, have children, live out their lives, and support their new hometowns, because they’d be there for a while - seventy years, in fact.
This was probably not what the Israelites wanted to hear. No, I imagine they would have much rather had a letter that promised something like what had happened in Egypt - plagues, miracles, rescue. They would have wanted nothing more than to go back home.
And doesn’t that somehow feel familiar?
I don’t know what your life has looked like, but I am fairly certain it has probably had its fair share of traumas and difficult times. Maybe you’ve even wondered why life has to be so hard, or questioned just what, exactly, you were living for.
A brief side note: If you, like me, have ever struggled with depression or thoughts of suicide, please get help. Dial 988 to speak to someone at the Suicide Crisis Hotline, or speak to your therapist if you have one. Ask your friends and family for support. Just…don’t try to go it alone. Please.
This past weekend, Sam spoke about the kind of hope offered to believers of Christ. It’s not a hope for riches or immediate comfort (although that would be nice, no?). Rather, it’s a hope for all the universe - that one day, when as many people as possible have heard the gospel and had the opportunity to choose Christ, He will return, conquer all evil, and set up a new heaven and a new earth for us to enjoy with Him and with one another for the rest of eternity.
I believe God’s message to the Israelites through Jeremiah can apply to us as well. Settle in, settle down, marry, have children, live out your lives and pray for the wellbeing and prosperity of your hometowns/nations/countries, because if they prosper, we prosper. And look forward to the day when we get to go back home.
Wherever you are on the road of life, I hope and pray that you will be comforted with the knowledge that there is a future and a hope for you. That you will be reminded of God’s love and sacrifice for you and for your siblings in Christ. That you will take this opportunity, this lifetime, to share that love and sacrifice with everyone around you, to share that future and hope with them as well.
God bless you.
