I Know the Plans I Have For You

I Know the Plans I Have For You
Jeremiah 29:11

Here are some actual headlines I read on Friday, December 29, 2011:

A Controversial Year: Health Issues in 2011: Concerns over PSA screenings, mammograms, multivitamins, birth control & much more.

The 10 Dirtiest Foods You're Eating.

N. Korea: No changes to come.

Man, 99, Divorces Wife of 77 Years.

2011 scandals: Phone hacking, lewd photo tweets & celebrity meltdowns top the list of 2011 scandals

Sears lists the stores it will close: Here are the 79 locations the company plans to shutter, with more likely to be announced.

Stocks off to weak start on year’s final trading session: Fitch slashes Sear’s credit rating. Oil declines, while gold surges.

The article about scandals revisited some of the horrid scenes we witnessed this year in the lives of some prominent people. Among them were Representative Anthony Weaver with his texting of improper pictures, Jerry Sandusky of Penn State with his abuse of authority over teenagers, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn of the IMF and his abusive treatment of women.

This is some cap to the wonderful Christmas season we just celebrated, isn’t it? During the Christmas season we talked a lot about, or at least heard a lot of talk about, peace, joy, happiness, new life. Then we have to read the news.

You know, I’m not surprised that some people don’t read the news! Spending an hour or two reading these kinds of articles doesn’t set you up for an energized day!

Why read them? I was actually reading them for this sermon. My key text is 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.”

Can you think of a verse that excites more hope? A verse that promises more happiness? A verse that energizes our spirits more? “I have plans to prosper you,” God promises.

That is a popular verse in America. On Facebook, on blogs, in religious articles, you will see this verse a lot. It helps us forget the problems we have as a nation. As a church. As individuals. I want to turn the news off and this verse on. I want to forget there is a financial crisis. Cancer. Car wrecks. I want to think about being prospe

red. I want to be happy. I want to retire young, live long, and die in my sleep. I love this verse.

But, in preparation for this lesson, I read Jeremiah 29:11 in context. Context means you read the verses before and after it. Here is what I found: God’s promise to prosper Israel occurred in a context of pain, abandonment and deeper sorrow than I ever want to swim in.

Here is the story in 3 short briefs:
1) Israel prospered
2) Israel got real proud
3) Israel got thumped by God.

Being thumped by God meant she was conquered by the Babylonians and carted off to a foreign country. This was actually a process that took place over several years. Some Israelites were carted off in 597 B.C. The rest were carted off in 587 B.C. It took several trips to get all the Israelites from Israel to Babylon.

This, verse was likely written in 594 B.C. That means, it was written after Israel was conquered by a foreign nation, and when some of the Israelites were in captivity, and others were about to go. Did you catch that? Jeremiah 29:11 was written during a ten year period of crisis for Israel.

Look at some verses. Jeremiah 29:1 provides the setting: “This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”

We know it is about exile. About shattered hopes and dashed dreams. Babylon came across the desert, conquered Israel and carried the Israelites back to Babylon. The Israelites were held in captivity for about 70 years. When Jeremiah 29:11 was proclaimed, some of the people were already there, and in a few years even more would be there.

I read some grim news stories from American newspapers. What if we could see some news headlines from Israel in 594 B.C.? This is what we might read in the Jerusalem Times.

Israelites in Babylon hoping to be Home Soon. Will they be disappointed?

Prophets say: “Israelites to come home.” Jeremiah counters with: “Not so soon. More are going!”

God Voices Displeasure With Our Country.

Priests Make Further Departures from the Law.

King Forgets his Vows. Harem Grows with Three more Girls.

Jeremiah Threatens: Economic Condition Looks Bleak. Babylon to take all our gold.

How would you encourage a faithful Israelite in those days? They were hoping doom wouldn’t come, but it did, in the form of the enemy. It was God’s punishment. God offered hope by saying, “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.” That promise is followed with another promise in v.14: “I will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

In the context of exile and promise God gives the Israelites three charges:
1) Do not despair. In verses 5 & 6 he says, “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there (Babylon); do not decrease.”

2) Seek the welfare of the environment in which you live. Verse 7 says, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

3) Call upon the Lord. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you.” (Verses 13-14).

This gives me hope! As bad as our news headlines are, they aren’t nearly as grim as that of the Jerusalem times. So I can have even more confidence to not despair, seek the welfare of the environment in which I live, and seek the Lord.

Warren Baldwin

Suffering: Redemption

WHEN GOD ACTS #4: REDEMPTION

Sad, and hurtful things are the bane of our existence. Why do they happen to us? Or to people we love? Sometimes it may be because of punishment (as in Amos 4). It may be to get people’s attention and turn them back to God (Deut. 4:30). Sometimes it may be because God wants to discipline us (Hebrews 12:5b-9). God tests his servants (Gen. 22:1) to see what is in their hearts (Gen. 22:12).

Sometimes, act of God that result in suffering may be for REDEMPTION.

Some think that every act of God is for the redemption of people. Even when it results in suffering and death, God hopes that will turn people back to him (Deut. 4:30). As Amos 4 showed, it doesn’t always work as God hopes! In Amos the people suffered, but they didn’t turn back to him.

But, sometimes suffering does cause the response God wants (Psalm 119:67, 71; 76:10).

There are times, however, when God acts in ways that are especially for redemption. "God’s redemptive acts are those moments when God acts to remove suffering, to overcome evil, and to destroy death. Those are the moments when God rescues, delivers, and restores his people." (J.M. Hicks, Yet Will I Trust Him, p.138-39). We think of the cross, and rightly so, as God’s great redemptive act.

But the OT is also filled with stories of God acting redemptively to save his people: Calling Abraham; Sending Joseph into Egypt; Delivering Israel from Egypt; Raising up judges to conquer enemies of Israel; Sending of prophets; Returning Judah from captivity.

The OT is a history of redemption. But, two redemptive events stick out as particularly significant. Both of these events provide the context in which Israel interprets God’s redemptive work in their lives.

THE EXODUS
Exodus 3:7-10 says God heard the cries of his people and he redeemed them from bondage. This would fulfill a promise God made earlier, back when the Israelites under slavery were told they had to gather their own straw. At that time the Lord spoke to Moses and reassured him (Exodus 6:6-7). God revealed himself so that his people could know him.

Dating
What is the purpose of dating? To have fun? Get to know people? Yes. Ultimately, dating is about getting to know someone you will marry. Dating is about marriage. Dating doesn’t start out with commitment, but it ends with it. How do we know when we find "the right" person that we want to marry and trust that they want to marry us? By what we reveal about ourselves. Our thoughts, values, goals. Ideas about family. Unfortunately, too many young people think dating is about concealing. We want to conceal the parts of ourselves we feel insecure about. We may feel we are unattractive, dumb, clumsy. So we hide those parts of ourselves as best we can. The truth is, dating is an opportunity to reveal who we are with the ultimate view of finding the person who loves us for what we are and wants us in marriage.

The Exodus - God dating Israel
I know this may sound like a stretch, but to God the Exodus was like an opportunity for him to "date" Israel. An opportunity for him to reveal himself in the hopes that Israel would accept him and love him.

What did God reveal about himself? His power over nature. Think of the plagues. His power over people. Think of how Pharaoh finally gave in to God. Why did God do all this? Exodus 10:1,2 - So that he could reveal himself to his children. Why do we take pictures and put them in albums? So years from now our children can show our pictures to our grandchildren and say, "We are going to go see Grandma and Grandpa. Do you remember them? Here, let me show you their picture." God said, "Years from now, show your children the photo album. Tell them of the good things I did for them so that they could be free." God wants his children to know and love him. And the Exodus shows a side of God that his children could love.

THE RETURN FROM EXILE
God blessed his children with life in the promised land. It was a land flowing with milk and honey. A land free, for the most part, of hostile enemies. Crime was low. Wealth abounded.

But what often happens in times of plenty like that? In times of ease? The people forgot God. And when they forgot God, they sinned. They sinned in abundance. Their punishment was to be conquered by foreign enemies. The northern kingdom was conquered by Assyria and the southern kingdom by Babylon. Also, thousands of Israelites were taken into captivity in Babylon to live as slaves (Jer. 30:15.).

And that didn’t make God happy. As much as they deserved their punishment, it grieved God. In Jer. 30:18 God promises to restore their fortunes because he love them with an everlasting love (31:3). Jer. 31:20 says God yearns for them. The idea of ‘yearning’ is God still wants fellowship with these stubborn, rebellious people.
So God enacts a bold plan. He will bring his people home. They are miles away in a foreign land. They are working as slaves. They do not have the freedom to just get up and return home. But, that is not a problem for God. God works in the heart of Cyrus, King of Persia. After Cyrus defeated Babylon, he told the Jewish people, "Ok, you can go home now. Go back to your lands." And they did.

And this is just as God wanted (Jeremiah 33:11b-16). My favorite verse in all this is Jer. 31:5 - they will plant fruit trees that will bear them fruit. Why would God be so kind to such a rebellious people? (Jer. 31:18-20). These were HIS people.

"God punished Israel, but in his compassion he redeemed a remnant. The remnant sought God in their exile, and God responded to their prayer. God will be found by those who seek him (Isaiah 55:6). Redemption flows out of God’s great love whereby he seeks to share his communion with his people. God yearns for a people and he acts in the world to create a people for himself." (Hicks, p.148).

Ultimately, God’s yearning for a people finds fulfillment in the events we read about in the NT. But that story comes later.

For now, remember this about suffering:
Sometimes we suffer because God is punishing us.
Sometimes we suffer because God is disciplining us. Making us stronger.
And sometimes we suffer because God is working redemptively in our lives. Ultimately, God wants all of us back home in fellowship with him.

Years ago, when I was a kid, I heard a preacher tell a story about when he was a teenager. He was rebellious. He yelled at his parents, slipped cigarettes into his room, smoked and in other ways was disruptive in the family. He left home in anger. He took what money he had and went a long way from home. And like the prodigal son of Luke 15, this boy ran out of money and friends. He had no food, no home, and no money. So he called his dad collect. Dad paid for the call and the boy poured our his heart. "I’m sorry Dad. I realize now how wrong I was. I was rude and disrespectful. I broke the rules of the home. And I’m so sorry. Will you and mom forgive me." The Dad cried. The Mom cried. "Of course we forgive you son. You are our boy and we love. And you have a home here waiting for you."

"Oh thanks, Dad. Could you send me the money for a bus ticket Dad?"

"Of course not, son. You got yourself in this mess because of being selfish and undisciplined. Now, learn some discipline. Get a job, save your money, and buy your bus ticket home. And we’ll be here for you."

I know a lot of us might think that Dad was pretty cruel to his own son. Wouldn’t even buy him a ticket home. Let him stay a couple of months far, far from home, all alone and broken-hearted. Did the dad make the right decision? Well, the man I heard tell the story was the son, all grown up, matured and disciplined. And he said he learned more from his time in captivity than he ever would have learned if dad had wired him the money.

Time in captivity may be for punishment. It may be for discipline. But ultimately it is for redemption. God wants you home. He wanted the Israelites home. It took some suffering to get their attention, but they left captivity to be with the Father. And God wants you home. You may be in the captivity of sin, or in the captivity of suffering. But you can come home to the fellowship of a father who is waiting for you to call.

(Many of the ideas for this series come from the book Yet Will I Trust Him by John Mark Hicks)