Jeremiah 29.11.
Jeremiah 29.11 NIV - “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the L
ORD , “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Whenever English-speaking Christians quote this verse, I tend to hear the New International Version translation most often. Oddly, not the been-around-way-longer King James:
Jeremiah 29.11 KJV - For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the L
ORD , thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
I suspect it’s ’cause the words “prosper” and “hope” and “future” are in the
’Cause we do. Like the evangelists tell us, “God has a wonderful plan for your life,” and this verse brilliantly affirms it: God thinks warm, wonderful things about us. He has a good, fine plan, with a good future.
Some of us figure this future is heaven, and some of us figure it’s all the worldly success the American Dream can offer.
Like many
Jeremiah 29.11 KWL - “Because I know the intentions I plan over you,” the L
ORD states. - “Intentions of peace, not evil. To give you a proper ending, and hope.”
The verse is about what God has in store for his people. He plans good, not evil. (Especially not secret, behind-the-scenes evil stuff, like natural disasters and wars; whereas in public he maintains moral superiority. I know
Thing is: The people God addressed in this prophecy are the Hebrews of southern Israel, the tribes which the writers of the Old Testament collectively call “Judah.” (These’d be the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Simeon; plus Levites and various members of other tribes who lived in the cities. Collectively, “Jews.”) Jeremiah prophesied it between the years 586 and 581
But we’d sure like it to be us, wouldn’t we? And that’s why we claim it for ourselves.
God doesn’t change, we figure.
And let’s post this verse on our walls someplace. Underneath some nice Thomas Kinkade paintings of a house lit up as if by a kitchen fire. Or something otherwise inspirational. Let’s recite it to ourselves whenever we’re feeling down, or overwhelmed, or like we’ve lost one of the many minor battles in life.
Here’s what it’s really about.
The context of this verse is spelled out at the beginning of the chapter:
Jeremiah 29.1 KWL - These words are from the scroll the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem
- to the remaining elders, captives, and priests:
- All the people Nebuchadnezzar sent from Jerusalem to Babylon, into exile.
It wasn’t a message for just anyone who grabs a bible and quotes it as if it’s to us. It’s for these people: Displaced refugees who survived Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon’s conquest and destruction of their city, who lost their possessions and positions, who were dragged away to Iraq and never expected to see their homeland again. (What there was of their homeland after the Babylonians fired it.)
These folks had incorrectly and blindly assumed God was on their side. They were certain the L
To their minds, none of these things should’ve happened to them. None. They were devout Jews, saved by God’s grace. Sure they sinned; everybody sins. But once they were done exploiting the weak and needy, they took advantage
Jeremiah’s rants against their abominable behavior aside, they counted on the L
Got their mindset in your head? (Shouldn’t be hard. Lots of Christians already believe likewise.) Now imagine their utter shock and horror when the L
Depression, despair, denial, doubt, and various other emotions which don’t begin in D, were all going through these folks’ minds. Why’d God permit this to happen? Even after some of them repented (but obviously not all); even after all the “promises” in the bible which “guaranteed” he’d come through for them in the end (obviously taken out of context). Was God powerless before the Babylonians and their gods? Were they worshiping a fake god or something? What happened?
There were also those in denial: Hebrews who put together a resistance to fight the Babylonian military governors. Hebrews who wanted to flee their exile and go home to Palestine. Hebrews who figured the L
So what was the L
Jeremiah 29.4-14 KWL - 4 “The L
ORD of War, Israel’s God, says this - to all the captives who were exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon.
- 5 “Build houses. Live there. Plant gardens. Eat their fruit.
- 6 Get women. Beget sons and daughters.
- Get your sons women. Give your daughters to men. They can beget sons and daughters.
- Be many there. You can’t be few.
- 7 Seek the peace of the city where I sent you into exile.
- Pray to the L
ORD for it. Its peace is your peace.” - 8 For the L
ORD of War, Israel’s God, says this: - “Don’t let your prophets in your midst trick you.
- Don’t share the dreams you dream with your fortune-tellers.
- 9 Because they prophesy to you with lies in my name.
- I don’t send them,” the L
ORD states. - 10 For the L
ORD says this: “Within 70 years, Babylon is done. I’ll visit you. - My good word will rise over you, to return you to this place.
- 11 Because I know the intentions I plan over you,” the L
ORD states. - “Intentions of peace, not evil. To give you a proper ending, and hope.
- 12 You call me. You come and pray to me. I’ll listen to you.
- 13 You seek me. You’ll find, because you’re seeking me with all your heart.
- 14 I’ll be found by you,” the L
ORD states. - “I return your captives. I gather you from all the nations, all the places I drove you,” the L
ORD states. - “I return you to the place I removed you.”
The rest is about the horrible things that were gonna happen to any fake prophets who told the Jews otherwise. There were a bunch.
The L
We kept Jeremiah’s writings because that’s precisely what happened. In 539
God wouldn’t have sent this prophecy if the Jews hadn’t been thinking and plotting otherwise: Putting off their lives, planning an insurgency, listening to any nut who told them, “God wills it!” and sent them into a crowd of Babylonians with a bomb vest… oh wait; wrong century. But though weapons may have changed, human nature sure hasn’t.
And God’s nature hasn’t changed either. He still wants peace. And our obedience. And to give people a proper ending, and hope.
Problem is, it’s for this reason Christians love to claim this verse applies to us too.
Here’s what it’s not about.
Three facts:
- God’s character doesn’t change.
- Human nature can absolutely change… but won’t till we turn to God.
- When it won’t, history repeats itself.
Jews weren’t the only people who’ve ever gone into exile. And the Babylonian exile wasn’t the only time they went into exile. Currently they’re back from exile… and they’ve since gone back to the very same attitude they had in Jeremiah’s day, and assume God will never let anyone drive them from their land again. I sure hope they’re right, but I sure don’t take the idea for granted.
Because history repeats itself. And because our history has a lot of parallels with this history, you’re gonna find a lot of Christians who figure historical context doesn’t matter: This verse sounds like it could apply to us, so it’s precisely how they’re gonna apply it. God knew the plans he had for them, right? He knows the plans he has for everyone. Why wouldn’t he plan to likewise prosper us, and not harm us?
After all, doesn’t that jibe with what he said through Paul?
Romans 8.28-30 KWL - 28 We know that for those who love God, for those who’re invited by his proclamation,
- everything works together into a good outcome:
- 29 Those whom God foreknew,
- whom he already decided would share the image, the likeness, of his Son
- —him being the firstborn of many sisters and brothers—
- 30 those whom God already decided, he also invited.
- Those invited, he also justified. Those justified, he also glorified.
Oh wait; the “all things” which work together for our good have to do with salvation, not success and comfort and material prosperity. Dammit, doesn’t anybody quote the bible in context?
Well no. No we don’t. Because we covet those things so very much. We want unchallenging, happy, peaceful lives. Jesus may have warned us tribulation is coming, but
Jeremiah’s prophecy was written to captives in exile. Is that our condition? Are we living as refugees, without homes, waiting for our exile to end quickly? Are we destined to live in Babylon for the next seven decades, and then return to Jerusalem? Do we have fortunes for God to restore?
Well, if you treat all that history as if it’s allegory—our “exile” and “Babylon” is the sinful world we live in, our “Jerusalem” is New Jerusalem, our “fortunes” are our place in
We can learn from this story, just like we can learn from everything in the bible. We can learn how God always has a plan, even after disaster knocks away everything we’ve ever known. We can learn God wants his people to live in hope, not despair. We can learn God keeps his promises, since we already know the outcome of this situation: God did bring his people back to rebuild Jerusalem. And we can also remember fake prophets and fortune-tellers are always gonna be around to capitalize on desperate people.
But if you wanna claim God has plans for you, and that they’re good plans, you have no business quoting Jeremiah. Quote Romans—but remember, that chapter 8 part is about your salvation, not your wealth and worldly success. Quote John, where Jesus states he overcame the world
