We continue in Jeremiah 29 where we find Israel living in exile and captivity in Babylon. This is ultimately a judgment that God has allowed to fall on them due to their own idolatry, false worship, and refusal to follow Him. As you can imagine, if you are being held in captivity, hundreds of miles from your territory, your life, your worship, and your heritage, then you would have a deep desire to return home. And along the way, if someone begins to preach and make promises of returning home quickly (two years), then you can imagine that they would become fairly popular. At this time there were many false prophets preaching this message and in steps Jeremiah to give Godly truth; hard truth (70 years). As we learned in week one, there is a message to continue to live life and do so for the Lord. Build homes, plant gardens, marry, do life in this place/time, and while doing so, seek the welfare of the city in which He has placed you into exile; pray to the Lord on its behalf. What we see as we enter into 29:11-14 is a message to trust the Lord; to return to Him during this time. It can be easy to read this and think that it is about trusting the plans of the Lord; however, this is much greater. The hope is in the God who holds the plans, not the plans themselves.