Jeremiah 29:11 is one of the most
beloved verses in all of Scripture. It was a favorite of my mother-in-law, even
on her deathbed. One can see why when one reads the verse. However, the context
and original addresses of this verse are often forgotten.
Jeremiah speaks these words from the
Lord and sends them to the Jews in exile in Babylon. These people were hoping
to return soon to their homeland and specifically to their city, Jerusalem.
They liked the prophets who told them what they wanted to hear: that the exile
would end quickly.
Jeremiah was not one of these prophets.
He did not tell the people what they wanted to hear. Yes, he said that the Lord
would eventually restore them to the land of Judah, but it would be 70 years
before that would happen. Some of the Jews living in exile would not survive to
see the return to Jerusalem. Jeremiah 29:11 was a great promise to God’s people
as a whole, that he was not giving up on them, that he had a good plan for
them. However, it did not seem like a hopeful message to each individual Jew
who heard it.
Sometimes, we too have a hard time
hearing the hopeful word the Lord wants to give us, because we have another, a
different, hopeful word we are wanting to hear. Really laying ourselves open to
God, asking him even to reshape our desires, is a difficult exercise. Yet, like
a dog that submits to his master who must remove a thorn from his paw, we must
trust that our Master knows best.
The message of Jeremiah 29:11 was a
hopeful message to each individual Jew who sought the Lord with all his heart.
These were the ones who could count on the fact that God had a good plan for
them.
Paul says something similar to us as
Christians in Romans 8:28,
We know that all things work together
for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
Paul does not say that all things are
good, but all things work together for good. There are things in this life that
are excruciatingly painful, that are beyond our understanding, that are hard to
see any good in at all. However, Paul assures us that God is going to use
seemingly evil things, and painful events, to bring about ultimate good, for
whom? For those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, or as
Jeremiah says, for those who seek the Lord with all their heart.
While it may be easy, at times, to
believe that we have been called according to God’s purpose, if we are honest
with ourselves and God, then we will admit that often we do not seek him with
all our heart, nor do we love God as perfectly as we might. In such times,
perhaps all we can do is confess our failure and trust in God’s forgiveness,
trust that he will make us more like his Son Jesus who did love his heavenly
Father and seek him with all his heart.
That is why Jeremiah 31:34 is a favorite
verse of mine: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no
more.”
It is hard to imagine that God would
ever, or could ever, forget our sin. After all, we often do not forget our own
sins. Rather, we often live plagued by guilt.
Perhaps that is when we most need to
remember that this verse does not promise that God will forgive and forget.
Rather the promise is that God will forgive and not remember. Forgetting is
something we do as weak human beings. Our minds cannot retain a perfect memory
of everything we experience and everything we learn in life. Our brains are
like sieves, more so the older we get. Thus, we forget.
However, God, in his omniscience, does
not forget anything. “To not remember” something is active, not passive like
forgetting. When the Scripture says that God does not remember our sins against
us, it means that once he forgives us, God will never bring our sins up against
us, or even mention them, ever again.
As Corrie ten Boom used to say, “God
drowns our sins in the depths of the sea, and then he puts up a sign that says ‘No
Fishing!’”
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