Popular Sayings Jer 29:11

All of the bible is important, but some parts are more popular than others.

The most popular parts are usually the more positive parts, which is ok if we understand that the more negative parts are just as important to understanding biblical truth.

But there is nothing wrong with having favourite bible verses that encourage and inspire us.

We must also make sure that we understand what those verses mean and resist the temptation to make them say something we want them to say.

We want to be encouraged by the truth not made up ideas which distort the truth.

Over the next few weeks we will look at some of the most popular verses in the bible and I hope they will be an encouragement to you.

We will see that some are not always understood properly, but I hope that when you see what they are really saying you will still be encouraged, even if in a fresh way.

The first passage we are going to look at is Jeremiah 29: 11.

Pray

We all hope that life will turn out well for us

We are constantly on the lookout for evidence that this will happen.

We do whatever we can to see it turn out well.

Those of us who are Christians are also eager to know that God wants life to turn out well for us too and we scour the bible to find out if that is true.

Our passage this morning gives us great hope that God wants that for us Jeremiah 29: 11.

What a comforting, positive and uplifting passage.

But did you know that the people who first read it were quite disappointed?

Jeremiah 29: 4 – 23 is the text of a letter from God that Jeremiah wrote from Jerusalem and sent to the exiles in Babylon who had been forcefully removed from their homeland 29: 1 – 4. (Actually, the forceful removal was God’s doing in judgement on his people).

Given that, what were the exiles feeling about this letter? A letter from home, from God, through a prophet in their homeland … were they nervous? Excited?

What do you think they were hoping was written in that letter?

I reckon they were hoping for this … All is forgiven, come back to the Promised Land, come home right away!

But it didn’t say that 29: 5 – 10 (not only time but working for the good of their hated captors. Settle down. It’s going to be a while).

No man!

Suddenly 29: 11 doesn’t look that encouraging.

And the verses that follow, 12 – 14, which also were so encouraging would not happen for another 70 years!

Suddenly the end of 29: 11 takes on a new time meaning. A whole generation would not see the blessing of 29: 11.

So, the full comfort of 29: 11 (and 12 – 14) would not be experienced now but in the future. That was their hope.

For many Jews that was not good enough. They wanted God to give them their best life now.

And there were other prophets that were willing to tell them what they wanted to hear … that actually they didn’t need to wait for “pie in the sky when you die by and by” … that God wanted them to have it all now. 29: 8 – 9 (they were actually prophesying that the exile would only be two years not seventy [28: 3 + 11]).

And in the rest of the letter (15 – 23) God through Jeremiah again warns his people not to listen to these false prophets or they will suffer the same severe judgement that awaits these false prophets.

The exiles had to learn that while God’s plan for them was a good plan, it was a plan that would only be fully experienced in the future. That was their hope even if it didn’t feel like the truth now in their current situation.

And while they waited, and even if it never happened in their lifetime, they had to continue to trust in God, and live for his glory.

So how does 29: 11 apply to us?

Does it apply to us? We are gentiles living a number of millennia past the fulfilment of that promise for the Jewish people that went back to their land.

Well, actually it does still apply to us, but we have to be careful how we apply it.

It applies to our lives in at least two main ways that I can see.

Firstly, it applies to us through Jesus.

We know that the Jews that returned seventy years after the exile to their homeland messed everything up again.

Their relationship with God didn’t get better but worse. It never really reached the heights of what is described in 29: 11 – 14 (even with regards to the nations – occupation of Persia, the Hellenistic and then Roman Empires).

And it is only when Jesus the Messiah establishes his kingdom (a new Israel that is open to Jews and Gentiles) that those who are in that kingdom experience that kind of relationship with God separate from political considerations.

Of course, we now know that God’s plan was always to save his elect people (which would include Jews and gentiles) through Jesus. Which is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1: 20, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.”

But only if you accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour does the promise of 29: 11 apply to you.

And then then there is the second way 29: 11 applies to us and it is similar to the way it applied to the Babylonian exiles.

If Jesus is your Lord and Saviour, the full fulfilment of 29: 11 for us (like the exiles) is also a hope for the future, not primarily now.

Which is why Peter describes those who accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour in this way in 1 Peter 2: 11 – 12 (remember that Peter is written to Christians, receivers of the promise of Jeremiah 29: 11, who are suffering persecution), “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

Our homeland is not in this world – we are exiles here. Our home is in the world to come.

So, while in Christ the promise of Jeremiah 29: 11 does apply to us, its full fulfilment is yet to come in heaven and then on the new earth.

That is our hope and future.

This passage is meant for all exiles (and that includes Christians. Not that we are under judgment, but that we are not in our real homeland).

This passage was never meant to encourage us to think that life would be a kind of heaven on earth now, the prosperity gospel.

Anyone who says it does is a false prophet like back in Jeremiah’s time.

How is that encouraging for us now?

Well, it is always encouraging to know that we know the truth and are not being fooled.

It is also very encouraging to know that as a Christian when we go through really difficult times and we read a verse like Jeremiah 29: 11 we don’t have to believe that we are missing out on one of God’s promises because our faith is weak.

No!

That promise is ours in Christ. We will experience some of it now but will only fully experience in the future … that is our hope.

No matter how little or much you suffer, God is working out his good plan for your life … and that is all heading to a time when it will be fully experienced.

But until then, he’s got you and will never let you go.

He will even use the suffering to make you like Jesus our suffering Saviour and give you peace through that.

And then one day he will take you to the full fulfilment. Praise his name for that!

Questions:

1. What are your favourite Bible passages and why?
2. Read Jeremiah 29: 11:
   1. Why was it so disappointing to the people who first read it and how does that help us understand its meaning?
   2. How does it apply to us today?
   3. How is that very encouraging?
   4. How is it wrongly used today sometimes and why is that so dangerous?
3. This week encourage someone with Jeremiah 29: 11