Prosperity, Prophetic Promises, and God’s Plans for His People

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 verses 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.

1. Who is meant by “you”?

2. Why does God have these plans?

3. What is the “For” for?

4. What are God’s plans?

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

Who is meant by “you”?

Verse 4 answers our first question of who.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:

God is speaking here to a group of people, as a group, not as individuals. He is speaking to “all who were carried away captive” not to an individual exile, but to the congregation. 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 peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive…

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

For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return 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.

Why does God have these plans?

Now to our second question of why. What is the occasion for this promise? Why make it?

Because they are in exile in Babylon, that’s why!

They need to be restored to the land of promise because they weren’t in it. And they weren’t in it, because God had caused them to be carried away captive.

That is stated in verse four and verse seven. And that’s important to consider when thinking about how verse 11 is often used.

Yes, God has plans to to restore them, plans for hope and prosperity.

But the fullness of His plan for His people also included seventy years of exile in Babylon!

He caused that period of captivity. It was His doing, for His purposes, part of His plan.

You can’t have the plans for good and for hope in verse 11, without the plans for discipline in the preceding verses.

And that’s what it was, discipline.

As a people, they had broken His covenant, and they were experiencing the sanctions of the covenant, exile from the land, as a disciplinary measure from the Lord.

The purpose of that discipline was to return their hearts to Him in purity of worship.

So the plans for hope, peace, and restoration, come after God’s plans for discipline and sanctification.

Discipline results in growth in godliness.

The plans for good, actually included the plans for discipline, for seventy years of exile, because that exile was good for the people, it brought them to repentance and faith, so that they returned to the Lord.

So verse 11 isn’t an isolated promise of good, but the culmination of a long period of sanctification.

What is the For for?

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. Think about Daniel and his friends. 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 spending 70 years in slavery and bondage in a foreign land before enjoying the welfare, future, and hope promised in verse 11!

What are God’s plans?

The answer to our final question seems obvious at this point, but because obvious isn’t always so obvious, we’d better talk about it.

God’s plans for welfare, for good, to give them a future and a hope, were plans to return Israel from Babylon to Jerusalem. To give them a future, as a people. To give them a hope, and that hope is Christ.

He is the long awaited hope of Israel, the One descended from David’s line who would rule in justice and righteousness forever, saving His people from their enemies, not the surrounding nations, but the enemies of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The plans were long term. Not just seventy years.

The return from Babylonian exile happened in stages.

Zerubbabel led a group of exiles to return in 538 BC to rebuild the temple. He was of the second generation born in exile.

Ezra the scribe, led another group to return in 458 BC and instituted religious reforms.

Nehemiah returned in 445 BC to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

And Christ wasn’t born for nearly another 450 years!

This promise of welfare, a future, and a hope, was a long term promise of peace with God through the work of the coming Messiah.

Heirs of the Promise

Even now, our hope for the future is not an immediate hope. None of us know how long the Lord will allow us to continue in this life, or when the coming of the Kingdom will be consummated.

The promise is not a promise of present prosperity, but of future blessedness.

God promised Judah that He had a plan for their redemption from Babylon, but that plan was part of an even larger plan of redemption for the elect from among the nations who would come to Christ in faith.

We are heirs of that promise, and recipients of the blessings of it, in Christ.

So there is a truth here in Jeremiah 29.11 for all believers. 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. He is our future, and He is our hope.

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, 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 ever, and his kingdom comes to earth, the throne of heaven is merged with the throne of David, and the Eternal Son rules in righteousness for ever and ever, world without end, Amen.

Coffee Talk: Brance and Lauren talk about honey process coffee.

Defining Theology: Brance and Lauren have a discussion of the theological term Doctrine.

Resources Mentioned:

2LCF (2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith)

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