“I alone know the plans I have for you …” (Jer 29:11, GNB)
A few notes about this covenant people that God chose “for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you His people” (1 Sam 12:22), as the ASV states, “to make you a people unto Himself” (ASV).
In Deut 4:33-39 God spells out this peculiar position of the Jews, set apart from all the other tribes of the world – “Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him. Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.”
In Egypt, while in captivity, this chosen people had lost their calling, their identity. The other tribes had conspired against God’s tribe and plan – “For they have consulted together with one consent; they form a confederacy against You” (Ps 83:5).
Now is not the time to examine how God had allowed these slaves, with their slave mentalities, to wander around a desert in the hope of making them a nation again. We will later discuss the prototypical significance of that process for us today, also slaves in the wilderness, on our way to the Promised Land. But one thing is certain – Israel had left Egypt, but Egypt had not left Israel. A complete process of social engineering was needed, a re-education in all spheres of life, a re-orientation in terms of God’s blue print.
Thought you had problems? An American military quantifier had calculated that to get more than 3 million people through the desert one would need the following – + 1500 tons of food per day, 4000 tons of fire wood per day, 1 million gallons of water for daily use, with no toilets, or even any trees in sight. Remember: they were poor, had no schools, system of government, economy, land, military, industry, agricultural system or faith system. They had a welfare mentality, and a bad work ethic. They had been oppressed and victimized, functioning in a crippled social system. Landa Cope, who maps these elements out in The Old Testament Template then goes on to say that “They are, without a doubt, the largest, most undeveloped mass of people that has ever existed on the face of the earth.”
It is to this destitute group of wanderers that God says – I will make you a people. It is to them that He says, “I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for.” (Jer 29:11, GNB).
So that, through them, all the nations can turn to God, “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim 2:4)
- Sela: Dan 7:27 is exceptionally important within the context of this teaching. Consider it prayerfully.
- Read: Num 16; Dan 7; Ezek 17
- Memorize: Dan 7:27
- For a deeper understanding: Read Landa Cope’s An introduction to the Old Testament Template.
