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Jeremiah 29:11 was written to people in Babylonian exile — people whose lives had been interrupted, whose original plans had been forcibly cancelled, who were living in circumstances they had not chosen. God did not tell them to deny where they were or pretend it was fine. He told them to build houses, plant gardens, and have children there (v.5–7) — to live fully in the reality they were in. And then he spoke about a future. Not from denial, but from inside honest reality.
Get These Verses Daily — Free“Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
God commands people in exile to stop looking backward — not because the former things didn't matter, but because the new thing requires forward attention. The new thing is not announced as a replacement but as something emerging that needs to be noticed.
“It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
Written from inside Jerusalem's rubble. The author makes no theological argument, no explanation of why. He holds onto one thing: morning mercy. Not abundant provision — just enough that we are not consumed. Sometimes that is the prayer.
“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.”
The Hebrew word for 'bindeth up' — chabash — is the word for bandaging a wound, wrapping it for healing. The healing of a broken heart is described in physical, medical terms. It is real, and it is God's active work.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
This promise was made to people in exile — people whose original plan had been cancelled. 'Expected end' in Hebrew — tiqvah — means hope, expectation, something to look forward to. The future is not cancelled by the interruption.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
The Greek verb synergei means to work together toward an outcome — multiple elements being coordinated. Paul does not say each thing is good. He says God is working across all of them. The divorce itself is not the good. What God is building through it may be.
Lamentations 3:22–23 was written from inside Jerusalem's complete destruction — the temple burned, the people exiled, everything lost. The author does not explain why God allowed it. He does not construct a theodicy. He holds onto one thing: "It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." The morning renewal of mercy is not a feeling. It is a theological claim made in the worst possible circumstances. Divorce recovery often means surviving one morning at a time.
Isaiah 43:18–19 tells a people stuck in their worst chapter to stop looking backward: "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing." The new thing is not described as better in all respects than the former thing. It is described as something that requires active perceiving: "shall ye not know it?" God is doing something new; the question is whether you will notice it.
Commentary is from a charismatic Protestant perspective, drawing on KJV text and public-domain sources including Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, and Matthew Henry.
Romans 8:28 — "all things work together for good" — has been used as a premature comfort that skips over real suffering. But Paul's claim is not that each individual thing is good. The Greek verb — synergei — means to work together with, to cooperate toward an outcome. The things themselves may not be good. God's activity is to work across them synergistically toward something good. This is not a bypass of the divorce's damage. It is a theological claim about what God is doing with it.
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