'I Know My Plans For You', Declares The Lord

This next passage is a wonderful promise given to Israel but it was given at a time when there were false prophets in their midst giving false hope.

"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." - Jeremiah 29:10-11 ESV

We are not a nation in captivity but we are people who live in a perverse world. Things are not the way they are 'supposed to be' in relationships and politics. The ecosystem on our planet is suffering.

People retreat into fiction and there are always folks very ready to tell a good story to make people feel better.

There are two things that stand out to me in this passage from Jeremiah.

First, God is saying that what He has planned is on a strict timetable that he has ordained.

Secondly, (this is the first time I'm seeing this) God is talking 'from' the place of deliverance. He says, 'I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place'. He does not say 'that place'. He says 'this place' like He is standing in the place where He Is going to bring them as He Is making the promise.

This morning I am picturing Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father saying, 'I am standing here but one day you will be with me. Everything is timed out. The future I have planned is full of hope and to bring good things into your life.'

We can want things to be a certain way and there are voices out there that will declare that 'God' is saying all kinds of things that He just isn't saying. We need the objectivity of the Bible more now than ever before. God has spoken. It is all written in a book. We need the hope that God has given us. False hope will cause us to have a false emphasis which will lead to disappointment and disillusionment.

Our promises come from a Saviour who is seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus Is our hope. It isn't in things or outcomes. It is in knowing Him and making Him known.

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