“For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.
“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” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Here we have a promise that God makes to His people, even before He sends them into His school of correction over in Babylon. He wants them to be assured that He will never forget them and that He will eventually bring them back to their homeland.
Not even His disappointment with their past behavior, even to the point of rebellion against His word, has turned Him against them: He wants only good things for them, and His will is for them to have hope for a better future after the captivity.
This tender expression is one of numerous examples in Scripture of God’s concern and love for His people, no matter the generation in which they live.
This loving, merciful nature is the reason He did not destroy mankind as a result of their acts of deliberate disobedience during the Patriarchal and Mosaic Ages and especially the reason for His willingness to sacrifice His only Son for the salvation of all who would submit to His will. Such extreme love demands our attention and our devotion to Him.
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