“For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” -Jeremiah 29:10-11 (ESV)
The words of this passage were delivered in a letter to the elders, priests and prophets and all the exiles who were in Babylon after King Nebuchadnezzar had deported most of the people out of Jerusalem. Jeremiah, still in Jerusalem, delivered this prophecy from God to those who had been warned many times in many ways about this calamity. Now it had come true. The words of these verses are a promise to the captives that God was going to limit their time in Babylon to seventy years and that His plans for them were not for harm but for a future and a hope. Christian believers today often come to this verse for encouragement when our future seems bleak because God’s promise to Israel is our promise too. God has made plans for each of us. His plans are for our good welfare and they are not to place us in harms way. They promised the captives a future return to Jerusalem and rebuild and live there. His promises for us are what we read and study each day. God cares about our future and He has good plans for us now and in the future in heaven with Him.
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