plans for the exiles

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)

This has to be one of the most popular coffee cup verses in all of scripture. You’ll find it not only on coffee mugs, but on graduation cards, jewelry, clothing, and home decor. In all these places, of course, what you won’t find, is context.

There are two contexts to consider, the immediate context of the verse around this promise, and the larger context of the surrounding chapters.

The immediate context answers a couple questions that should come to our minds when reading verse 11.

What does the “For” refer to? Why?

Who is meant by “you”?

Let’s back up into the preceding verses and find our answers.

Verse 4 answers our second question of who.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

God is speaking here to a group of people, as a group, not as individuals. He is speaking to “all the exiles” not each of the exiles. A distinction made clearer as we read on.

In verses 5-7 God tells these exiles to settle in comfortably to their exile, to build houses, plant gardens, get married, have kids, see their kids married, and to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile”.

Then in verse 10 God tells us the timetable for the promise of verse 11.

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.

70 Years! If the exiles who are receiving this prophecy are adults, some of them with children already, they can’t expect to live to see it fulfilled. Perhaps their children might not even live that long. This can’t be a promise to the individuals, but rather, to the whole of them as a people group.

To be sure, groups are comprised of individuals, but when something is promised to a group, it is not a guarantee to each and every individual within the group.

To appropriate this verse as a promise to an individual, for instance on a graduation card implying that God has a great plan to provide a job and a great future for the graduate receiving the card, is a wild misuse of the verse.

Now to our second question of why. What is the occasion for this promise? Why make it? What does the introductory “For” refer to?

For this let’s zoom out for the even larger context of the surrounding story.

The best of the best of Israel have been taken captive to Babylon. They are in exile, parted from the land promised to Abraham and his offspring. This is not a situation they are thrilled with.

False prophets have arisen, preaching a form of prosperity gospel. In chapter 28 one of these prophets preached that God was going to restore the exiles in two years. Jeremiah wished it were so, but then prophesied God’s judgment on the false prophet for speaking lies.

Now, in chapter 29 he tells them it won’t be 2 years, but 70. In 70 years he will fulfill his promise and restore them to the land. For, or because, he knows he has plans to keep his promise. But he knows his plans, not the plans of the false prosperity prophet.

The timetable will be God’s because he makes it so. It is true, as opposed to the false prophet’s timetable, God doesn’t “know” those plans because they are not his, and they are not true.

I don’t think most college grads would be excited to hear that God’s plan involved waiting 70 years before enjoying that welfare, future, and hope the verse promises!

There is a truth here for all believers though. The truth is this: God does have plans for his people that involve our welfare(peace), our future, and our hope. Those plans, that future and hope, are found in Jesus. He is our welfare.

Like the Israelites in Babylon, we are exiles in a foreign land. Some number of generations may spend their lives in exile without seeing the promised restoration of the Kingdom. But rest assured, that God knows his plans, and they will take place at the proper time. Our future and hope will be realized in Jesus when we enter into his peace for eternity, and his kingdom is restored on earth.


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