Devotion: God’s Planning Includes Us
Please take a moment to read Jeremiah 29:10-14
Jeremiah is one of the major prophets in the Old Testament, one of many prophets God sent to the people of Israel with this message: Repent! God’s chosen people had turned away from God and worshipped idols, over and over again, from the time of the Exodus to the time of their exile in Babylon.
God forgave the Israelites over and over. But finally, he had had enough. In 597 BC, he allowed the Babylonian Empire to conquer the Israelites so they would experience the consequences of their sin. The invading force destroyed Jerusalem and the temple Solomon had built, and took the young, strong and beautiful into exile. They were slaves in Babylon, as they had been slaves in Egypt centuries before.
In today’s scripture, Jeremiah delivers God’s message of hope and comfort to the captives in Babylon. These are my plans for my people, God says: I’ll bring you home to me, I won’t harm you, I’ll give you hope and a future and prosperity, I will listen to you, and we’ll rebuild our relationship.
Some people have interpreted the phrase “For I know the plans I have for you” to mean God has a plan for our individual lives. God’s promises – what he will do – undergird our lives. But because God gave us free will, we get to make choices about our life’s path. If we are wise, we listen to God’s guidance and together we build a life with all the blessings God wants to give us. One of the biggest is knowing he is always with us, as he was with the captives in Babylon. He is with us in the worst of times and brings us through them.
God fulfilled his promise to the exiles. After 70 years, the Persians defeated the Babylonians, and the exiles were allowed to go home and rebuild the temple, which they did. But they were not a nation, just a province of Persia, with a governor appointed by Persia. With God’s help, his people worked with this new reality. They built a new temple. And they never again worshipped idols or pagan gods. And God kept his promise that the Messiah would come from the line of David and be for all people.
God, thank you, that I can live my life knowing you keep all your promises. Help me to seek your guidance as together we build my life. Help me give glory to you as I make choices day by day. Amen.
Written by Cheryl Stubbendieck
Cheryl Stubbendieck is a member of Sheridan’s Devotion Writing Team and leads the Wednesday Morning Women’s Bible Study at Sheridan. She and her husband Jim have two sons: Aaron, his wife Chaitra and their sons Theo and Nathan live in Houston; Reed lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma.