I read Jeremiah 29 last night. It made me laugh. Here't my overly-analytical thoughts on it.
The chapter is a letter, which Jeremiah wrote to the Israelites that were carried away in captivity to Babylon. He had predicted this, so it was no surprise.
He writes letting them know not to mourn too badly - it's only for 70 years, they should plant gardens and marry and have kids, and basically live life normally.
After 70 years, God will return you to your homeland - it's not His plan to destroy you (the famous verse 11: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." )
Then he goes on to discuss the people who didn't go in to captivity but stayed in Israel against God's wishes: (v 17 "Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. 18 And I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence; and I will deliver them to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth—to be a curse, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19 because they have not heeded My words..".)
I find it funny that verse 11 and verse 17 are only 6 verses apart, but everyone knows verse 11 and thinks it applies to them, and no one knows verse 17 and thinks it applies to them.
In reality - neither apply to them. They're written in a letter TO ISRAEL in a very specific situation. There's certainly reason to believe that God does have plans for a future and a hope for all believers (it's called eternity). But this verse isn't the proof of nor the basis for these plans.
And one side note. Both sides here - the captives and those who stayed in Israel, are experiencing punishment. But neither side has this punishment as a permanent thing. They are being punished temporarily (or temporally - in time), but not for all eternity. God isn't talking about hell or anything like that - just that He punishes His children. Here he even tells why - in verse 19, because they didn't listen and obey.
Verses 12-14 gives God's motivation here: "Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity;". Yes - he wants His people to return to Him. That's the overarching principal of this passage - that God does what it takes to bring His children back to Him. That was true of Israel (who had special conditions with God that we don't have - like "obey me and you'll be blessed, disobey and you'll be cursed"). But it's also a general truth of how God deals with people - he wants us to seek Him.
Okay, enough sermon and analysis for the morning. I just had to laugh ruefully last night when I noticed the context of this very famous verse.
