God's Thoughts Toward Us

How much do you think about the future? Where would you like to be, this time next year, or in five years? Or do you wonder what lies ahead for your children, your loved ones? We all know that we’re only a vapour. Our life is like the wildflowers which quickly fade. We can try plan the future, yet life can change in a hurry. So how can a person get through all the ups and downs of ordinary life? How do we know that the ending is going to be good?

We have questions about tomorrow. Yet a child of God meets it all with confidence. No matter how long or short we’re on this earth, our future is secure. Whatever happens, we know God has a good plan for us, his children purchased with precious blood.

That’s the message of Jeremiah 29:11, “‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,’ says the LORD, ‘thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.’” Now, I would guess that we’ve probably all heard this passage before. It’s really well-known. You can find Jeremiah 29:11 on greeting cards. You come across it in devotional books or Christian novels, on inspirational artwork and Bible covers and keychains.

It’s a well-known text, and for good reason. It’s a beautiful statement of God’s faithfulness and God’s purpose. In our trouble or uncertainty, God speaks powerfully through these words.

And if you think about it for a moment, that’s an amazing thing. For this is an old text, in an old book, one written many centuries ago. Yet this passage is able to speak directly to believers today—us included. That’s the power of the Word of God! It’s living and active. Over time it doesn’t lose any force, but in Christ it actually gains even more meaning.

The first to receive encouragement from this text were our brothers and sisters of long ago—around 600 years before Christ—the people of Israel. Except they no longer lived in Israel, the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But when the book of Jeremiah was written, a good number of God’s chosen nation was in Babylon, in exile.

Some time before the prophet ministered, the Babylonians had risen up in military strength. They conquered nation after nation in the Eastern Mediterranean. And around 597 BC, they set their sights on the little country of Judah. The Babylonian armies besieged the capital Jerusalem, took the treasures of the temple, and carried off many captives.

To be sure, there were Israelites left behind in the land. The people of Judah even had someone sitting on the throne in Jerusalem, acting like a king. Yet the nation was only a faint shadow of what it had been before.

For the land was a mess. The king was a puppet of the Babylonians, who were really the ones in charge. As for those who had been taken into exile, they had it even worse. They were bullied by their captors. They faced the pain of living far from home, in a pagan place, polluted by idols and an unclean people.

On top of everything else, some false prophets showed up. They began to confuse the people with their words. These prophets preached both to those left behind in Judah, and preached to those who were in exile. And the message that these prophets brought was that this captivity was going to end, and very soon.

We read one such prophecy, that of Hananiah, in chapter 28. In Jerusalem he prophesied to those who would listen, “Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, the God Israel, saying, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. And I will bring back to this place… all the captives of Judah who went to Babylon” (vv 2-4).

Good news: the exile is almost over! “Before you know it,” Hananiah said, “the captives will be safe and sound. They’ll be on their way back to Jerusalem, and they’ll be free to rebuild and restore. As for the wicked king of Babylon, he’s going to be bulldozed very soon. And then all this will be little more than a bad memory!”

This message of the prophets sounded really good. What they were saying was hopeful, and optimistic. Too bad it was false. God would destroy the king of Babylon—Isaiah had prophesied that already. And God would bring a remnant back to the land—that was his promise, too. But not yet. Not within two years. The timeline was all wrong.

God didn’t want his people to have a false sense of confidence about the future. God didn’t want his people carried away in excitement by a message that wasn’t true. This is where Jeremiah comes in. He was back home in Judah, and God told him to send all the exiles a prophetic word from the LORD. Jeremiah was to give them a message by way of letter.