1 00:00:02,690 --> 00:00:13,660 Speaker 1: Life Audio Hello, thank you for listening to your daily 2 00:00:13,700 --> 00:00:16,860 Speaker 1: Bible verse, the podcast that examines one verse each day 3 00:00:17,300 --> 00:00:19,660 Speaker 1: to learn more about God and His will for us. 4 00:00:20,340 --> 00:00:23,050 Speaker 1: I am your host, Tara Sullivan, and after this short 5 00:00:23,110 --> 00:00:26,670 Speaker 1: word from our sponsors, we'll dive into today's Bible verse, 6 00:00:27,050 --> 00:00:44,420 Speaker 1: Jeremiah 29, 11. Today's Bible verse is Jeremiah 29 11. 7 00:00:44,420 --> 00:00:47,260 Speaker 1: For I know the plans I have for you, declares 8 00:00:47,340 --> 00:00:50,620 Speaker 1: the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. 9 00:00:51,180 --> 00:00:55,200 Speaker 1: Plans to give you hope and a future. If the 10 00:00:55,270 --> 00:00:58,530 Speaker 1: license plate ministry was a thing, it would be a 11 00:00:58,630 --> 00:01:01,910 Speaker 1: thriving one where I live. No matter where you go, 12 00:01:01,990 --> 00:01:05,539 Speaker 1: you're likely to come across a personalized license plate with 13 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,660 Speaker 1: a message of some sort on it any given day. 14 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:12,100 Speaker 1: One day while visiting a friend who just had a baby, 15 00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:15,420 Speaker 1: I came across one of those messages. There it was, 16 00:01:15,780 --> 00:01:19,580 Speaker 1: indented in metal on a parked car in a parking garage. 17 00:01:20,180 --> 00:01:31,890 Speaker 1: Four letters. H-O-P-E. Hmm, hope. I slowed my stride to 18 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,190 Speaker 1: examine the word, thinking how thoughtful of this person to 19 00:01:35,230 --> 00:01:38,529 Speaker 1: commit to driving around with hope tagged to their car. 20 00:01:39,209 --> 00:01:41,770 Speaker 1: Seeing that I was visiting my friend at the hospital, 21 00:01:41,910 --> 00:01:45,300 Speaker 1: I also considered how perfect of a place to stumble 22 00:01:45,330 --> 00:01:48,360 Speaker 1: across this message. If there was ever a place that 23 00:01:48,420 --> 00:01:52,920 Speaker 1: people needed hope, it would be there. Now, though I 24 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:55,920 Speaker 1: entered the building to celebrate new life, that wasn't the 25 00:01:55,940 --> 00:01:59,020 Speaker 1: case for the majority of those who would encounter this word. 26 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:03,000 Speaker 1: on the back of that car. I'd imagine visitors ranged 27 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:08,270 Speaker 1: from friends and families visiting loved ones struggling with life-threatening 28 00:02:08,490 --> 00:02:14,829 Speaker 1: illnesses and those battling with diagnoses that seemed hopeless. For them, 29 00:02:15,010 --> 00:02:19,940 Speaker 1: that message was definitely on dime. Those four letters that 30 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 1: make up this big word, hope, it is defined as 31 00:02:24,820 --> 00:02:29,010 Speaker 1: the feeling that What is wanted can actually be had 32 00:02:29,130 --> 00:02:32,330 Speaker 1: or that events will turn out for the best. Whereas 33 00:02:32,470 --> 00:02:37,450 Speaker 1: hopeless or hopelessness is quite the opposite. These words carry 34 00:02:37,490 --> 00:02:43,030 Speaker 1: with them the weighty feelings of despair, desperation, anguish, sorrow, 35 00:02:43,490 --> 00:02:48,720 Speaker 1: and discouragement. When toting feelings like these due to life circumstances, 36 00:02:49,070 --> 00:02:52,620 Speaker 1: a message of hope is a lifeline when you need 37 00:02:52,660 --> 00:02:56,180 Speaker 1: it the most. This is where we find God's people. 38 00:02:56,580 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: who were taken into Babylonian captivity in 586 BC. With 39 00:03:02,419 --> 00:03:06,639 Speaker 1: hopelessness hovering over them, a message of hope from the 40 00:03:06,700 --> 00:03:11,750 Speaker 1: familiar verse in Jeremiah 29 11 meets them. But how 41 00:03:11,820 --> 00:03:15,889 Speaker 1: did they even get here? Well, God's people were called 42 00:03:15,930 --> 00:03:19,890 Speaker 1: to reflect his glory to the surrounding nations, but instead 43 00:03:19,950 --> 00:03:23,070 Speaker 1: they adopted the ways of the godless nations around them 44 00:03:23,550 --> 00:03:27,470 Speaker 1: and chose to disobey God and worship other gods. Their 45 00:03:27,550 --> 00:03:32,340 Speaker 1: punishment included the Babylonian captivity, where they were exiled, driven 46 00:03:32,380 --> 00:03:35,480 Speaker 1: away from their land, and forced to live in a 47 00:03:35,580 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: foreign place. This wasn't a willful surrender. No, no, no. 48 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:44,380 Speaker 1: It was one filled with trauma, tears, and intense grief. 49 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 1: The only hope they could probably muster at that time 50 00:03:47,940 --> 00:03:51,750 Speaker 1: was a hope to be rescued soon. But that hope, too, 51 00:03:52,250 --> 00:03:55,630 Speaker 1: would be denied. When the letter from the prophet Jeremiah, 52 00:03:55,690 --> 00:04:00,490 Speaker 1: the messenger of God, sharing a message from God was read, 53 00:04:00,930 --> 00:04:06,700 Speaker 1: confirming that they would live exiled for 70 years. Can 54 00:04:06,740 --> 00:04:13,060 Speaker 1: you envision the sadness after hearing those words? Oh, have 55 00:04:13,100 --> 00:04:18,260 Speaker 1: you ever experienced or received news of something that hit 56 00:04:18,300 --> 00:04:20,600 Speaker 1: you so hard that you didn't know what to do? 57 00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:25,340 Speaker 1: I suppose this could describe their feelings. In the midst 58 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:29,540 Speaker 1: of the devastating news, in the verses that proceeded, are 59 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:33,080 Speaker 1: actually instructions provided by God on how his people were 60 00:04:33,100 --> 00:04:37,850 Speaker 1: to operate in this foreign place. In essence, in spite 61 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:42,050 Speaker 1: of how dark and dismal things seem to be, they 62 00:04:42,230 --> 00:04:48,030 Speaker 1: are advised and invited to live. The instructions given expose 63 00:04:48,089 --> 00:04:52,110 Speaker 1: that They were facing something that God did not intend 64 00:04:52,150 --> 00:04:56,430 Speaker 1: for their ultimate destruction. God's thoughts for them, however, were good, 65 00:04:56,529 --> 00:05:00,529 Speaker 1: and he still planned to fulfill his promise for their future. 66 00:05:01,150 --> 00:05:04,300 Speaker 1: When viewed against this backdrop, our key verse reveals this. 67 00:05:04,660 --> 00:05:08,560 Speaker 1: In addition to hope, this message also has within it 68 00:05:08,620 --> 00:05:13,880 Speaker 1: God's mercy, his grace, his compassion, and love, even to 69 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:19,240 Speaker 1: those in exile. Theologian Walter Brueggemann addresses this as the 70 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:22,960 Speaker 1: pathos of God and his work, a commentary on the 71 00:05:23,060 --> 00:05:27,110 Speaker 1: book of Jeremiah, exile and homecoming. When it comes to 72 00:05:27,150 --> 00:05:31,890 Speaker 1: God's judgment, he highlights, God is not rejoicing, nor is 73 00:05:31,970 --> 00:05:36,760 Speaker 1: he removed from his people's suffering. He is emotionally connected, 74 00:05:37,020 --> 00:05:41,159 Speaker 1: even in a judgment that he administers. Because of God's 75 00:05:41,220 --> 00:05:45,480 Speaker 1: love for his people, The purpose of the exile, Brueggemann notes, 76 00:05:45,650 --> 00:05:49,700 Speaker 1: is to ultimately draw them back to himself, not to 77 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:54,380 Speaker 1: utterly destroy them. If we think about this, this message 78 00:05:54,520 --> 00:06:00,020 Speaker 1: is echoed throughout scripture in books like Proverbs, Hebrews, and Revelation. 79 00:06:00,740 --> 00:06:05,960 Speaker 1: We hear messages that reminds us that God disciplines those 80 00:06:06,260 --> 00:06:10,190 Speaker 1: he loves. The good news of this hard episode in 81 00:06:10,370 --> 00:06:15,460 Speaker 1: Israel's history, though, though they face consequences for their disobedience, 82 00:06:15,580 --> 00:06:19,990 Speaker 1: God never left them. They could truly find hope in him. 83 00:06:21,130 --> 00:06:24,130 Speaker 1: And that is the message for us today. You and 84 00:06:24,210 --> 00:06:29,290 Speaker 1: I can resonate with experiencing situations that seem utterly hopeless, 85 00:06:29,930 --> 00:06:33,900 Speaker 1: whether it be tragedies in the world, disappointments in our 86 00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: personal lives, diagnosis that break our hearts, dis-ease about the future, 87 00:06:41,270 --> 00:06:46,429 Speaker 1: deep pain from losing someone or something we deem significant, 88 00:06:46,850 --> 00:06:52,200 Speaker 1: or even feelings of despair over our very own disobedience 89 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:56,780 Speaker 1: and the consequences we live with because of them. Whatever 90 00:06:56,820 --> 00:06:59,539 Speaker 1: the situation may be, you and I can find hope 91 00:06:59,880 --> 00:07:04,520 Speaker 1: when hopelessness threatens to swallow us up by holding tight 92 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:08,460 Speaker 1: to the words from today's focus passage, for I know 93 00:07:09,100 --> 00:07:12,320 Speaker 1: the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans 94 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,760 Speaker 1: to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to 95 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:19,840 Speaker 1: give you hope and a future. We could hold tight 96 00:07:19,900 --> 00:07:24,030 Speaker 1: to those words and we could even hold firm to 97 00:07:24,070 --> 00:07:29,870 Speaker 1: the God who spoke them. Will you join me in prayer? Lord, 98 00:07:29,890 --> 00:07:34,350 Speaker 1: there are times in life that can leave us utterly discouraged, 99 00:07:35,230 --> 00:07:38,860 Speaker 1: but thank you for sending a message of hope to 100 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:43,900 Speaker 1: meet us in those moments. Thank you, Lord, for your 101 00:07:43,940 --> 00:07:47,950 Speaker 1: help to hold tight to your word. I pray that 102 00:07:47,990 --> 00:07:51,790 Speaker 1: you would even help us to hold tight and hold 103 00:07:51,890 --> 00:07:55,560 Speaker 1: firm to you. In the name of Jesus, I pray 104 00:07:55,580 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: these things. Amen.