Did you know that the book of Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible? True, the book of Psalms has far more chapters (150) than Jeremiah (52). However, Jeremiah has 33,002 words in the original Hebrew compared to 30,147 for the Psalms. So Jeremiah accounts for a substantial amount of Biblical real estate. However, many Christians know very little about the book of Jeremiah. As we’ve noted before, Christians likely have an aversion to Jeremiah because of the dark subject matter. The vast majority of this book involves the anguished condemnation of the southern kingdom of Judah and its capitol city of Jerusalem. It just does not make for easy reading. Yet it’s incredibly important.
I’ve said before that if we were going to give the book of Jeremiah a subtitle, I think it would be “How God responds to evil.” They say that you can’t fully know someone’s character until you see how they respond to adversity. Well, the book of Jeremiah shows us how God responds when things have gone badly wrong. God chose the people of Israel so that they might bear his image. By reflecting God’s love and wisdom, Israel would bring justice, peace and flourishing to the world. Moreover, God had promised that through Israel he would bring blessing to all the nations. Tragically, Israel utterly failed to accomplish her task. She instead descended to levels of depravity even more despicable than the pagan nations that God had driven out of the promised land before them.
God was now faced with a huge problem. He was deeply grieved by the behavior of his people. Although the LORD warned them again and again, they refused to change their corrupt ways. Utterly forsaking the one true God, the Israelites had bowed down and worshiped idols. Jeremiah reveals the sobering reality that the people of Judah eventually became so intractably evil that God no longer loved them; instead, he determined to bring about their destruction. “I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them.” (Jeremiah 13:14) Such pronouncements constitute the vast majority of the book of Jeremiah, yet it seems very few Christians are familiar with this material.
There is one verse in Jeremiah that everybody knows! Jeremiah 29:11: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'” Within evangelical Christian circles, this verse is everywhere. Very often you find Jeremiah 29:11 on plaques displayed prominently in people’s homes. Plus it’s on cards, tee-shirts, bookmarks and posters. A typical Jeremiah 29:11 card has a lovely bucolic scene with trees or flowers. Also popular are photos of ocean waves, sunsets, or majestic mountain vistas.
And why wouldn’t we love Jeremiah 29:11? In all the vicissitudes of life, it’s amazing to know that the God of the universe loves us and cares deeply about even the smallest details of our lives. All of us face disappointment and difficulties. Every human being wants to believe that, despite our current circumstances, a better future awaits us. For Christians, it’s immensely comforting to know that God Almighty is working to bring about that glorious future.
However, there is a catch here. As we’ve noted, Jeremiah is a very long book. The vast majority of Jeremiah’s prophetic career involved strenuous warnings and sustained condemnation upon the people of Judah. If we’re really going to have a solid grasp on the book of Jeremiah, we can’t just cherry-pick one verse that gives us a warm, fuzzy feeling while ignoring the other 99% of the prophet’s message. Yet that is precisely what many Christians have done.
How can we correct this imbalance? The only solution is to step back and examine the wider context.
Much of Jeremiah chapter 29 records a letter which Jeremiah had written to the Jews who had been carried into exile in Babylon. God had determined that the Jewish exiles would remain in captivity for 70 years. Although God had spared their lives, he had decreed that they must serve the king of Babylon for 70 years as punishment for their rebellion. But at the end of those 70 years, Babylon itself would face God’s anger because of their cruelty and pride. The power of the Babylonian empire would be shattered. When that happened, God would bring the Jewish exiles back to their own land.
Why did Jeremiah write this letter?
First, it’s perfectly obvious that refugees who have been violently displaced from their homes will yearn to return as soon as possible. Therefore, the Jewish exiles would inevitably be tempted to believe that they might be released long before the 70 years had elapsed. Indeed, the book of Jeremiah tells us that false prophets arose among the exiles, giving them empty hope that they would soon be restored to the land of Israel. So Jeremiah makes it perfectly clear that these prophets were only deluding the people with their lies. He warns the Jews in exile that these false prophets – and anyone who followed them – were in rebellion against God. “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you…They are prophesying lies to you in my name.”
Secondly, Jeremiah wants the Jewish exiles to flourish and prosper. If the Jews had deceived themselves into thinking that they would soon return to Israel, then they wouldn’t go about the business of ordinary life. Why build homes and plant gardens if you’re not going to be around very long? God (through Jeremiah) wanted to make his plans very clear. He had determined that the Jews would serve the king of Babylon for 70 full years. He therefore wanted the Jews to use that time wisely, pouring all their energies into building productive and prosperous lives.
Third, God wanted to reassure the Jews in exile that he would not forget them. He would absolutely fulfill his promise to bring his people back from exile. Here is where we reach the all important passage: “‘This is what the LORD says, ‘When 70 years are completed in Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to [Israel]. For I know the plans I have for you’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'” (Jeremiah 29:10-11)
It’s a wonderful and encouraging promise! But here’s a question for us to consider: can we claim this promise for ourselves today? But before we try and answer this crucial question, let’s sharpen things up a bit.
Just a few verses after the wonderful promise of Jeremiah 29:11, we find God making additional promises of a much more disturbing nature. “This is what the LORD says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all the people who remain in [Jerusalem], your countrymen who did not go with you into exile – yes, this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will send the sword, famine and plague against them and I will make them like poor figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth and an object of cursing and horror, of scorn and reproach, among all the nations where I drive them.” (Jeremiah 29:16-18)
Ouch! This sounds really bad. Instead of promising prosperity, hope and a glorious future, here God is promising horror, scorn and death.
So why is it that Jeremiah 29:11 is plastered all over our plaques, posters and bookmarks while Jeremiah 29:18 is not? What’s the difference? What makes people believe that the blessings of 29:11 apply to them but that the curses of 29:18 do not? Of course, from a purely emotional standpoint 29:11 gives us encouragement and hope while 29:18 fills us with dismay and dread. But how we feel about a given passage should be irrelevant, right? Whether God promises blessing or disaster upon us, how we feel about that doesn’t alter the truth of God’s decree.
So how can we sort this out? How can we know whether we’re people of Jeremiah 29:11 or 29:18? Blessing or curse? Thankfully, it can be summed up in one word: obedience.
Just after God promises blessing upon the the Jewish exiles living in Babylon, he says this: “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:12-13) God’s intention to bring about prosperity, hope and a bright future for the exiles depended entirely upon their obedience to him. If they truly repented of their wickedness and sought the LORD with all their hearts, then God vowed to do them good.
On the contrary, the people of Judah still in living in Jerusalem remained under God’s curse because of their ongoing disobedience. This included the evil king Zedekiah, the last king who reigned in Jerusalem before the city’s complete destruction. These people had continually refused to listen to God’s warnings and therefore remained under his wrath. Jeremiah explicitly tells Zedekiah that the LORD “will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in anger and fury and great wrath.” (Jeremiah 21:5) God also plainly declared, “I have determined to do this city [Jerusalem] harm and not good.” (Jeremiah 21:10)
So by all means, let’s soak up the glorious message of Jeremiah 29:11. But we cannot forget that this word depends completely upon our response to the living God. The book of Jeremiah warns us again and again that God’s anger hangs over the heads of those who turn away from him, who refuse to obey his commands. Disaster and destruction await them. Yet if we have given our full allegiance to the Lord Jesus the Messiah, and are allowing his Spirit to transform our lives, then we really can be sure that God has good plans for us – plans so amazing that we can’t even imagine them! “For no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”
