Throughout the Bible God has made various promises to His people—and God always kept His promises, because God is a good, loving Father who is truthful.One of the most loved promises in Scripture is found in Jeremiah 29:11 “I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Yet there are some who teach that this promise is not for us today. They look at the context and say that it was only given to the Israelites as they were taken into captivity.Now they reject this promise because of a false teaching that promises “health and earthly wealth” to all believers. Now I want to really examine the context instead of this wrong view of God’s promises.Let’s look at verse 10, where God tells the Israelites: ““This is what the Lord says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.’” Now this is the point for those who say this promise is not for us today. It was for those being taken into Babylonian captivity. So let’s look closely at the context.In Jeremiah 10 we’re told that there was a false prophet named Hananiah. Hananiah was telling the people that God would break the yoke of Babylon, and free the people to return home, within the next two years. But Hananiah was a false prophet. His message appealed to these people that had lost their houses and their nation because of their sins, and they wanted to go back home. But Hananiah lied to them! He told them what they wanted to hear, but he wasn’t telling them what God wanted them to hear.So we’re told in Jeremiah 28:15-17, that God was going to punish Hananiah and he would die. Therefore, Jeremiah was telling them what God’s plan for them was. He told them that they would live in Babylon for the next 70 years — NOT 2 years. God’s plan for them was that they should PLAN to settle down, build houses, and marry.That’s not what they wanted to hear, but that WAS God’s plan for them. They would be safe in Babylon; they would have a future, and they would have hope because God has a plan. God has a plan for us – a ...
