Thursday, 19 April 2012
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Plans to Prosper You? Jeremiah 29:11
[This is reposted as part of our Best-Of Revelife Week. It was originally posted on November 24, 2009.]After seeing the post about Matthew 18:19-20 I was reminded of another commonly misquoted and misunderstood verse, Jeremiah 29:11.
"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."
It's a beautiful verse, and many Christians say it to one another all of the time, but do they really know what it's about?If you read the book of Jeremiah or even the few chapters before chapter 29 you will see that Jeremiah is telling the people that they will be taken into captivity, for 70 years they will be in captivity in Babylon. And then when the 70 years are up they will be returned. Verse 11 is part of the promise that God hasn't abandoned them and when the 70 years are up he will return them.
This is a little bit of the context of just chapter 29, for a full understanding you have to read the whole book of course, but even if you read the few chapters before it becomes pretty clear.
This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them," declares the LORD. This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile." - Jeremiah 29:4-14 (NIV)
During the time of Jeremiah there were many false prophets saying that Babylon isn't going to take over and take them captive, and that God was going to deliver them immediately. Jeremiah calls the people out for their sin, calls out the false prophets, and tells the people that they are going to go as captives into Babylon for 70 years. In the passage above you can see that he tells them to build houses, marry, have kids, etc. because they're going to be there for awhile. The promise of Jeremiah 29 is telling the people that their descendants will be returned to Judah in 70 years, not those people now. So, it is a promise, just not directly for those whom received it but instead to their grandchildren.
While it is true that God does have plans for us, and those plans are for His good that isn't what this verse is about, and as Christians we need to use the Scripture properly rather than taking it out of context.
Sadly many people don't look at the context of passages in the Bible, or they hear it on the radio or see it on a t-shirt and trust without verifying the real meaning. Also the TV preachers are horrible for using this, and many other passages, to try to claim a gospel of financial prosperity, health, and wealth.
That link is to a great resource, I hope you'll take the time to watch it. Let me know what you think.
Do you think that this verse is misused? What is your response to the verse's explanation? How can we use the verse more appropriately?
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- From: MagisterTom@xanga
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Comments (8)
11 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.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Just think about how the Lord longed to bless His people and us today
Verse 13 is interesting . Now the message is for us, too.
If we are not fully committed, we won't find the true God.
Matthew 5:6 says: .
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
If I could rec this post a hundred times I would.
Yes, this verse is over used.. it seems to have become a Christian go-to phrase.. where for me it is much more meaningful when you leave it in context.
The other one that drives me nuts is the misuse of Eph 5:22.. another verse that should absolutely be left in context.
Some TV preachers, but yes this is a huge problem in the body of Christ, quoting scripture out of the context of the intended writer. This is why topical preachers are better.
This verse in particular could stand on its own. In my point of view, when there is a verse on what the Lord said in the bible I believe in my own heart that it means that he is not only referring to the people in that given time, but to the whole generations to come. Of course I'm not saying that some people don't use some verses out of context. Apparently, there are times when people twist words to serve their own purpose. The only way to combat this is to read the bible ourselves and give our own thoughts on the subject.
@ralrose@xanga - Twisting words out of context to suit their own purpose is the real story of Christianity. The bibe is a collectin of myths and words that were supposedly spoken by certain people 300 years AFTER the death of Jesus. It has been translated and refined to suit the authors purpose thousands of times over thousands of years. The latest "reinterpretation" as early as LAST YEAR!!
There are at least Three major editions of the bible in existence today and you probably quote the so called "king James version" all the time.Knowing these facts and in view of the fact that there is NO original version of the bible , unlike the Koran for instance, that anything the bible contains is the so called word od god or contains any truth?@ralrose@xanga - What you "believe in your own heart" is not the standard for biblical interpretation. One has to look at the context of the passage. Doing so, it is clear that this verse is meant for Israelites who are captive in Babylon. It doesn't apply to you, whether you believe it in your own heart or not.
"The only way to combat this is to read the bible ourselves and give our own thoughts on the subject." Yes, we should compare it to Scripture ourselves, but it isn't our own thoughts we trust! Look at the context, if the meaning isn't clear from there look to church history to see how the two thousand years of Christians before us viewed the verse. If your own interpretation doesn't match it then you change your mind and go with what has historically been taught, assuming that it is accurate.
@RobertLeeRE@xanga - "Some TV preachers, but yes this is a huge problem in the body of Christ, quoting scripture out of the context of the intended writer. This is why topical preachers are better."
I would assume you mean that is why expository preachers are better, rather than topical. Topical preachers are the ones who make the mistakes of using verses such as this one out of context.
@MagisterTom@xanga - No actually I meant
the opposite. Topical preachers read the paragraph before, paragraph after
quoting in the context of the book or letter in the context of the bible.
Expository preachers believe a verse can be quoted out the context of the
intended meaning as long as being led by what they call Holy Spirit led and as
long as the cross and risen savior are preached.
The easiest way to differentiate this would be J.Vernon Mcgee and his
through the bible in 2 years radio program. He is topical. He typically reads a
paragraph or two and then teaches in the historical context of what God and the
writer and what he thinks that scripture meant. In medical terms topical means
non internally, topically as in a lotion which is applied topically. American
Heritage Dictionary: Topic-The subject of a speech or conversation.
Topical--local, in medicine--localized. Topical Preachers is really a
theological term meaning a style of preaching. A good example of a boring
topical preacher would be a Sunday school teacher that just reads the bible word
for word.
Expository preachers would be David Wilkerson or John McCarthur. It
takes them much longer to get thru the bible because they will read only one
verse and expound on that verse. taking the verse out of the context of the
Author is thought okay by expository preachers as long as the cross and
salvation are offered and mentioned. They call this being led by the Holy Spirit
to a higher truth. During a period of five years McCarthur was only in the book
of Luke. They skip whole portions of the bible because there is never time to
cover the entire bible.
There are good and bad in both. It depends on the type of church. If it
has a real strong Sunday school program Expository is fine as long as not taken
of the context of the bible. The problem of course is that most preachers abuse
expository preaching by taking it out of the context of the original author's
intention. I think the real best are good at both able to combine them or switch back and forth.
By far the most commonly used method today is expository preaching, by
far the most commonly abused also. In my opinion the better id topical for they
stay on the word of God more often and cover things usually ignored by the
others. On the other hand there are some really good expository preachers when
done right.
God Bless,
Brother RobertLeeRE
@ralrose@xanga - There is no verse that stands on it's own in the entire bible. That is why God gave us the bible. I know this might be different than what you may have heard. That being said one has to only apply it to Christian history over the last 2 thousand years and see there are untold millions upon millions that were not prospered, were martyrs and died, yet they were blessed for they are in heaven today. Even today millions of Christians on a regular basis all over Africa and China are in prisons, are poorer than their atheist or Islamic rulers and die as martyrs yet they are also blessed for they are in heaven. We Christians in America and the west do not realize just how blessed we are while our brothers and sisters die in churches in African Muslim nations because some muslim extremist lobbed grenades into the church during worship service.
God Bless,
Brother RobertLeeRE