PLANS FOR A FUTURE

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, this is Boston Dean Thompson with a word of hope plans for hope and a future for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, said the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. This verse is among the most quoted in modern Christianity, and among the most quietly misunderstood. It was not first written to a gifted graduate, a hopeful entrepreneur, or a starting athlete. It was written to refugees. Jeremiah 29 is a letter from the prophet to Israelites just deported to Babylon. Their temple was destroyed, their land was lost, their leaders were dead or in chains. False prophets were promising a quick return. Jeremiah more painfully told them the truth. It would be seventy years. Verse 10. Most of them would not see Jerusalem again. They would die in exile. And in the middle of that hard letter, God says, I know the thoughts that I think toward you. The Hebrew word for thoughts, Mat Shavot, means more than feel fleeting impressions. It means designs, plans, intentions. God is not improvising your life. He is implementing what he thought what he has taught. Thoughts of peace. Thoughts of peace, the Hebrew Shalom carries a richness, no English word captures. Not merely the absence of conflict, but wholeness, flourishing, the full health of all relationships to God, neighbor, self, creation. Walter Brookman calls Shalom God's vision of the way things are supposed to be. God's thoughts toward you even now are aimed at making you whole, not of evil. Whatever Babylon you are sitting in, God's purposes are not malice. He's not punishing you out of vindictiveness. The exile what was a corrective, not an anneal annihilation. So whatever, so is whatever you are facing today. An expected end. The Hebrew literally an after end and a hope.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

God promises an outcome and an expectation.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

There is something on the other side of this. Then exile has a hereafter. So does your suffering. But notice what God does not promise. He does not promise the trouble will end soon. He does not promise the next decade will be easier than this one. The original recipients had to settle in Babylon, build houses, plant gardens, raise children, pray for the welfare of their captors. Verses 5 and 7. They had to live faithfully in the place they did not choose. What is promised is the end. Eventually, surely, behold, be beyond what you can see, God's thoughts toward you are running toward Shannon. The cross has secured the outcome. Romans 8 32 echoes this verse. He did not spare his own son. He who did not spare his own son, how shall he not also freely give us all things? So plant your gardens, pray for your city, live faithfully where you are. The end is not in doubt. O Lord, when exile feels long, remind us of your good intentions. When our problems just seem unending, remind us, O God, that better days are coming. Remind us, O God, of your plans for Shalom.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Amen. God bless you, my brothers and sisters.