“I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: Eat, O friends; Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. I sleep, but my heart waketh: It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, My dove, my undefiled: For my head is filled with dew, And my locks with the drops of the night. I have put off my coat; How shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; How shall I defile them? My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, And my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved; And my hands dropped with myrrh, And my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, Upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved; But my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: My soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. The watchmen that went about the city found me, They smote me, they wounded me; The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, If ye find my beloved, That ye tell him, that I am sick of love.”
Song of Solomon 5:1-8 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/sng.5.1-8.KJV
The Best Plans
Jeremiah 29:11 is a popular verse that’s often slapped onto journals, etched into coffee mugs, and printed on t-shirts.
“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 29:11 NIV
And God does have a plan for you.
God does want to bless you.
God does want to give you hope and a future.
But, we should also pay attention to the original context …
In this case, God was speaking through the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Judah—people who’d recently been exiled to Babylon for 70 years.
The Jewish people were banished to a foreign land because of their insatiable appetite for sin. In fact, for 23 years Jeremiah had been warning them to stop rebelling against God or prepare to face the consequences.
God is patient, but He is also just.
In other words, the Jews were sent to timeout. And as you can read in the preceding chapters, God made a case against His ...