Greater Plans

“But even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not make a full end of you.”
(Jeremiah 5:18, ESV)

When I was a teen, my dad and I got into surf fishing in a big way. One of the things he did was to purchase a Jeep Wagoneer so we could drive onto the beach. One day he decided to make a box to fit into the back of the vehicle for our tackle and other things necessary for fishing. It so happened that we had a coffee table that I guess my dad thought was past its prime. So, he decided to use the top of the table for the top of the box. While the table was at the end of its usefulness for the house, my dad decided not to put an end to it but to repurpose it.

In this verse, the Lord was about to bring upon Judah a conquering army. The Babylonians were going to attack and destroy the city. Yet the Lord was not yet done with the nation of Israel. Thus, He indicated that though the Babylonians would lay siege to Judah, its cities, and the capital city of Jerusalem, He would not put an end to the nation. He would preserve a remnant for a greater purpose in the future.

What was the greater purpose of God for Israel? To understand this, we must look back to the covenants that the Lord God made with Abraham and David. This will give us a better picture of what God was to do.

First, God gave a promise to Abraham of a land for his descendants, the Promised Land, Caanan. It was to be a permanent possession for the nation. Moreover, in the covenant, God promised that through a seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed. If Israel had been wiped out completely, there would be no descendant of Abraham to fulfill this covenant promise and no Israelites to eventually take possession of the land.

Second, God made a covenant with David, Israel’s second king. The promise was that one of his descendants would reign forever on the throne on which David reigned as king of Israel. This meant that the line of Judah, David’s lineage, needed to be preserved. That also meant that the nation could not be wiped out completely.

The seed of Abraham and the one who would eternally reign as king were one and the same person. Jesus Christ who was of the lineage of David is the seed of Abraham through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed and would reign on the throne as king forever.

Thus, God’s greater purpose demanded that a remnant of Israel would be preserved forever. Otherwise, Christ would never have been born, lived a sinless life, died on the cross to atone for man’s sin, been raised up from the grave, and ascended to heaven. In heaven Christ serves today as our royal high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Furthermore, Jesus is coming back to establish His kingdom on earth.

Here is the point. God has great plans, infinitely great ones. Sometimes we go through struggles and do not understand why. Perhaps we never will. Yet rest assured, we who have believed, as His children, are a preserved remnant to join in His greater plans. We are destined for the throne. We will reign in the Lord’s kingdom with Him. The Lord our God has greater plans for us.