Jeremiah: Weeping for Judah's Fall

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. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:10-11 NIV)

Jeremiah had an impossible assignment from the Lord. Yahweh commissioned Jeremiah to call the people back to Him, even though He also assured Jeremiah they would not listen. He was called to speak God's Word to His people at the time of the fall of the southern kingdom, Judah. No wonder he was called the weeping prophet.

God's people had come to a place of rebellion that left no remedy.

The LORD, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through His messengers again and again, because He had pity on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against His people and there was no remedy. (2 Chronicles 36:15-16 NIV)

God could not remain a just God and allow Judah to continue in their unfaithfulness without consequences. Yet Yahweh cannot remain a faithful God and abandon Judah to destruction like He did the northern kingdom, Israel. But God has a plan. After 70 years of exile He is going to restore His people to their land and to Himself.

We are never without hope because God is never without a plan. That's a good thing. "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God's plan is to give His people hope and a future. Before this verse was on a graduation card, it was God's message to His people.

The problem with God's plan, of course, is that it was a 70-year plan, not a 70-minute plan, like we would like. We want to know God's plans for us. We want to know the promise of hope and a future, even when the circumstances are hopeless and seem to have no future. But we don't always understand God's timing, and we are not always pleased that He chooses to work in our lives like a slow cooker, rather than a microwave.

Jeremiah's lament over the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of Judah is recorded in the Book of Lamentations. It is sorrowful and mostly a downer. But in the midst of the lament, Jeremiah expresses the hope that never dies:

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:21-23 NIV)

God is just and righteous, but He is also compassionate and merciful. We sometimes ask this question: Is God the God of wrath of the Old Testament, or the God of mercy of the New Testament? The answer is: Yes. God is completely just and completely gracious. This great truth finds its fulfillment in Jesus, the Word become flesh.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 NIV)

Full of grace and truth. Not half grace and half truth. Full of grace and full of truth. Full of mercy and full of justice. And this God who is both Holy and Love has a plan for our lives. His plan is Jesus. The sad fact is, we try most everything else but Jesus to fulfill our lives and find meaning and purpose. God gave Jeremiah a message that expresses the futility of that:

Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the LORD. “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (Jeremiah 2:11-13 NIV)

Seeking fulfillment in money, sex, power or fame is digging broken cisterns for ourselves that cannot hold water, while a spring of living water bubbles up just beside the cistern. The broken cisterns never satisfy, and they leave us empty and exhausted. Jesus has a better way. He is Living Water, and He satisfies our deepest desires. He says just that to the Samaritan woman at the well:

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14 NIV)

Jesus is living water. This is the living water of His Spirit, living in our hearts and refreshing us day after day. The full wrath of God was poured out on Jesus on the Cross so the full mercy of God could be poured out on us. Jeremiah not only offers hope to those going into exile in Babylon, he points to the ultimate hope we have in Jesus Christ. His lower story hope is a sign of God's upper story hope.

We are never without hope because God is never without a plan. Whatever we face, if we have Jesus, we have enough. Vertical Worship sings a song that expresses it so deeply. You can listen to "If I Have You" here.

If I have you, Jesus, and a lousy job or no job...I have enough.

If I have you, Jesus, and poor health...I have enough.

If I have you, Jesus, and I'm lonely or grieving...I have enough.

If I have you, Jesus, and it's a fight just to get out of bed...I have enough.

If I have you, Jesus, and nothing else...I have enough.

We are never without hope! Why? Because God is never without a plan! And His plan for us...is Jesus!