Exile

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.”

So, we’ve all heard this verse, ad nauseum, and I’ve even studied it multiple times in school… but I am not sure it ever really sunk in or resonated with me.  This verse is written to the exiles on behalf of God during a 70-year discipline.  This promise was not going to be fulfilled the day after it was given.  Earlier in the chapter God told them to prepare for the long haul: plow, build, marry, bury. Get comfortable, but remember Me.

Jeremiah 29:12 - “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity.  I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

And these verses are SO much more powerful than the first.  Frankly, Jeremiah 29:11 was not written to us.  It was written to the Jewish Nation… a specific promise, for a specific time, for a specific people group.  Obviously, when taken in the context of Scripture it definitately can be applied more broadly.  But it cannot stand on it’s own in that respect.  In contrast, verses 12-14 are in my estimation more applicable to all people, of all nations, of all generations.

I think that it is important that the Lord will be found… when we seek with all our heart.

He will listen… when we call and pray.

We will be brought back from captivity… when He is found.

We will be carried out of the captivity… which HE carried us into.