The true meaning of Jeremiah 29:11

You have probably heard this verse quoted a million times:

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)

You have seen it printed on t-shirts, placed on church signs, knitted onto pillows, listed as some one's facebook status, or even mentioned in a sermon.

It is a very popular verse and why wouldn't it be? Who doesn't want to hear that God has plans for them and that those plans are for welfare and not for evil for a future and a hope?

But do you know the story behind the verse?

Do you know why God said these words and to whom He said them?

Because I have to tell you if you think Jeremiah 29:11 is an awesome verse now wait until you hear the story behind it.

So, Jeremiah has been telling the people of Jerusalem that God had reached the limits of His patience with their sin and would be sending punishment in two forms: exile and death.

Those who acknowledged their sin and God's right to punish them for their sin to the point of being will to accept that punishment would spend seventy years in exile in Babylon, but those who refused to acknowledge their sin or God's right to punish them to the point of resisting King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon would die.

Now you and I have both failed God on many occasions, but can you imagine being punished for seventy years? Talk about facing the music!

As we pick up the story in Jeremiah 29, the people who accepted God's punishment are already in Babylon. They are in year one of their seventy year punishment.

God is going to speak to them, in Jeremiah 29, and what He says here should make us want to immediately respond in worship to Him. After all, we are all sinners and from time to time we all endure the punishment of God for our present sin.

So, although He was speaking to Israel in this chapter He could just easily have written this to us (minus the whole seventy year exile in Babylon thing).

Instead of listing the whole passage in one lump form I am going to draw out five themes that I hope will motivate you to worship God as you read them and support those things from the story behind Jeremiah 29:11.

I hope that today wherever you read this--in a computer lab, at home, at work--will become a place dedicated to the worship of the awesome and merciful God we serve just as my office has.

Without further adieu, Here are four amazing realities about our God from the "rest of the story" of Jeremiah 29:11:

1. When God sets His mind on judgment it comes.

God is not a waffler (see Favre, Brett). He sets His mind to making decisions and He makes them. He may not always make them on our time-tables but He makes them resolutely.

He is often patient with our sin (that alone is worship worthy, right?) but when He determines the time has come for action rest assured action will come.

Listen to what God says to those beginning a seventy year exile--

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters... (5-6a)

Do you hear the resoluteness in God's voice? He is saying, "Get comfortable. I said seventy years and I meant it when I said it."

I am a little afraid that you will miss this point so let me make it even clearer. Do you know who God is speaking to in these two verses? He is speaking to the exiled young adult.

The young adult might have been thinking, "I am going to wait to really start my life. I know that God said seventy years but maybe He will change His mind if I walk around and pout a lot. Maybe if He hears me crying then He will cut it down to like 10 years. Maybe I can get Him to cut off some more time for good behavior."

But God says, "Go ahead and settle down. Build a permanent residence. Go ahead and get married and have children. And guess what? You will be there long enough to marry off your kids and see them have children. You maybe 20 now but you will be a 90 year old grandpa when your punishment is through."

God was resolute in their punishment. He was not waffling and He will not waffle with us either. He has warned us that punishment is on the other side of sinful choices. He means it.

Not ready to worship yet? We are getting to that part I promise.

2. God loves us in the midst of punishing us.

God has sent them into seventy years of exile but that did not mean He stopped loving them.

Listen to what He says next in verses 7 through 9--

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams as they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.

God is interested in their welfare. He tells them to work hard to make Babylon a great place because it would be the place where they would be. He was punishing them but He wanted the best for them. He wanted them to prosper and grow in Babylon. At the end of verse six He even tells them to multiply and not decrease while living there.

Not only is God interested in their welfare, but He warns them to avoid liars who would poison them spiritually. He warned them against listening to people who would lead them away from Him or attempt to convince them that God would waffle on His punishment.

Do you hear what this means for you and me? It means that even when we make sinful choices, reach our lowest point, and receive punishment at the hands of God He still loves us. He still wants the best for us. He still wants to work in our lives to lead us away from danger.

Yes God punishes us, but He loves us through the punishment.

3. God can't wait for the punishment to be over in order to bless us.

Any parent will tell you that they would rather give their child a present than a spanking and spend time with their child over sending them to time-out.

It is more enjoyable for the parent, who loves their child, to bring happiness to their child than it is to bring pain. Punishment is a reality of good parenting but it will never bring the smile that blessing their child brings to a parent's face.

God is just like that. He would so much rather bless us then punish us. Like any good parent, God will choose the one that fits the situation (He is not the "give you whatever you want" kind of parent) but He prefers to give gifts.

He is speaking to the exiled Jews in year one of a seventy year punishment and yet He is thinking about year seventy-one (if you aren't excited and wanting to worship at this point I can't help you). Listen to what He says in verse 10--

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.

I love it! He is saying, "I know seventy years is a long time but there will be a year seventy-one and it will be sweet. I will bring you back to the Promised Land (gift giving) and I will bless you there (gift giving).

Remember this when you are enduring the punishment of God for your sin--God still loves you and He (even more than you) can't wait for the punishment to be over and the blessing to begin.

Something tells me God was counting down the minutes to midnight of Day One of year Seventy-One with the excitement of a little kid on Christmas Eve.

4. No matter what we do, God is our God before, during, and after punishment.

Have you ever screwed up? I don't mean little league screw ups (oops I said a bad word) but have you ever majorly screwed up?

Well, Israel had. To get a punishment of seventy years in exile, you have to really really screw up bad.

Listen to how God describes Israel and Judah's s horrendous sin of idolatry in Jeremiah 3:6-9

The Lord said to me (Jeremiah) in the days of King Josiah: "Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, "After she has done all this she will return to me,' but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree.

God was so mad at His people He compared them to whores and said that they would sleep with any god, anywhere, at any time. Wow!

But even despite this heinous sin, God still was their God and they were still His people. He says this to them in year one of a seventy one year punishment:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, and I plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (11-14)

For God the seventy year exile was a blip on the screen of his relationship with His people. He punished them because that is what a good parent does but He had plans that went beyond punishment.

God will deal with your sin, but punishment is not the business of God. Restoration and redemption are the business of God. He might be punishing you but He has plans for you that go beyond punishment.

Do you get that truth? God deals with our sin (if He didn't He would be a lousy parent) but His relationship with us is motivated by love for us not love for punishment.

God is a year seventy-one kind of guy even in year one of seventy years of exile.