Context

Jeremiah 29:11-13

There are not many days that I leave work ready to throw the towel in, but yesterday was one of those days. If I told you what had me so flustered, you would probably think I was over reacting and find it trivial. The problem is, the issue I was irritated over goes against my core beliefs, not just as a teacher, but as a human being. It wasn't anything explicitly immoral, nor was a child in danger. However, I do believe we are setting a generation up for failure, and that bugs me. I'm not going to say anymore about it, but as I was studying this morning, I thought about how the nation of Israel's core beliefs were challenged. We read these verses for comfort, but most of the time we do not look at them within the context that they were written.

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“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. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Jeremiah 29:11–13

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Doesn't this make you feel good? God knows His thoughts that He thinks about us, and they are for peace, a future, and hope. They are so that we will call upon Him in prayer and He will listen to us. We will look for Him, and we will find Him with all of our hearts. It brings about feelings of rainbows and butterflies, hearts, and green pastures. While what I just said is true, when we read this within the context that it was written, we get a very different perspective.

This chapter starts with Judah being told that they will be in captivity for 70 years in Babylon. That does not mean much to us, but can you imagine being forcefully moved from you home to a foreign country 1,680 miles away. Think being forced to move to Venezuela (if we could travel in a straight line) and you do not speak Spanish. Then you are told that you can leave after being there 70 years. The message was so clear that God told them to build houses and establish lives there (Jeremiah 29:5-6). He told them to seek the wellbeing of Babylon so that they could live in peace (v. 7). It was going to be a long stay.

When we read verses 11-13, we need to understand that God is telling Judah that He is doing this for their good. They had abandoned Him for idols. They did not trust Him. They were not obedient to Him. They did not obey His law. They were living like the pagans around them, and He was doing all of this to turn their hearts back to Him. Suddenly, these verses lose a little bit of their luster. God is telling them that once they had served out their judgment, then they would understand all of this. We have all seen the caravans of people traveling up through Mexico to cross the border in Texas. What if, instead of people coming this way, it was us being driven the other way? What if, instead of Ukrainian refugees, it was Americans fleeing into southern Mexico? How would we view these verses if God said, “Because you have abandoned me for idols, I am going to send you into captivity in a different country, so that you will know that I am God?” I can tell you most assuredly that we would view these verses from a much different perspective then.

Father, context matters. Perspective matters. So often we look at verses like this for what we can get out of them. We look for peace and ease in life, even when that is not what the passage is describing. I pray that we would turn our hearts to You. We would trust You with our safety, security, and futures, no matter where You lead us. The journey may hurt. It may be uncomfortable. It may even challenge our core beliefs. We may want to quit and throw in the towel, but You are working Your will in our lives, and for our good.