Jeremiah 29:11

We are Continuing Our Sunday Night Series “Twisted Scripture”

We are Looking at Different Verses Throughout the Old and New Testaments That are Commonly Twisted/Misinterpreted

Sometimes We Will Run Across Individual Verses That Seem to Be Teaching Something Very Clear

But Often if We Keep the Verse in It’s Proper Context, We Discover it to Mean Something Quite Different

Tonight We are Looking at Jeremiah 29:11

Jeremiah 29:11 (NASB)

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

NIV = “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”

I’ve Seen this Verse On So Many Graduation Cards

This Verse is Often Used to Encourage the Graduate That God Has a Wonderful Plan for Their Life

It’s Also Sometimes Used to Console a Person Who is Grieving or Going Through a Hard Time

It’s Used to Say, “Don’t Let This Time in Your Life Get You Down. God Has Promised Wonderful Blessings to You.”

We Use it as if God Has a Very Specific and Personal Plan For Us Individually

And When We Treat Verses of the Bible in that Way…

When We Pull a Verse Out of it’s Context and Believe it is a Promise From God Directly to Me…

We are Going to Walk Away From Our Bibles Believing Things That are Most Likely Not the Case

If I Tell My Mom After Service, “Come With Us to Get Dinner, I’ll Pay for Your Food.”

… And You Overhear Me Saying That…

You Shouldn’t Just Automatically Believe it Applies to You

My Words Had a Context and a Specific Audience

We Need to Remember That as We Look at Our Passage

Let’s First Look at the Greater Context, and Then We’ll Zoom in and Look at the More Immediate Context

Greater Context

Jeremiah Became a Prophet in the Years Prior to Babylon Taking Over Judah

And He Would Continue Prophesying Throughout the Years of All 3 Babylonian Exiles of the Jews

He Had 2 Primary Messages for the People of Judah

That They Needed to Repent of Their Sinful Behavior

And That Babylon Was Coming and Overtake Them

Jeremiah Told the People and the King to Surrender to Babylon and Things Would Be Much Easier On Them

But They Refused to Repent

They Chose to Listen to False Prophets Who Were Preaching to Them Messages of Hope and Peace

We See One Example of the False Prophets in Jeremiah 28, Named Hananiah

He Prophesied That the Exile Would Only Last 2 Years

God Caused Him to Die Because of His Lies

So Eventually the Time Came When Babylon Took Over

They Took the First Round of Captives, Which Included Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah

The False Prophets Continued Their Messages of Hope and Peace

Then the 2nd Round Round of Captives Were Taken, Which Included Ezekiel

The False Prophets Continued Their Messages, Saying that the Exile Wouldn’t Last Long

Even the False Prophets Who Were in Babylon Continued to Say that They Would Get to Go Back Home Soon

Immediate Context

Jeremiah Decides to Write a Letter to the Exiles in Babylon

Jeremiah 29:4 (NASB)

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,

There Was Something in this First Line of the Letter That the Exiles Desperately Needed to Understand

“I Have Sent into Exile”

They Needed to Understand That Their Captivity Wasn’t a Short-Lasting Inconvenience Brought On By the Wicked Babylonians That God Would Soon Save Them From

God Sent Them into This

Because of Their Lack of Repentance, God Caused This to Happen

Jeremiah 29:5 (NASB)

‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce.

They are Told to Invest in Things That Take a Considerable Amount of Time

Build Houses and Settle Down

Plant Gardens to Sustain You For Long Periods of Time

Treat This Like a Permanent Stay

For Most of Them it Would Be

Jeremiah 29:6 (NASB)

‘Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease.

Get Married and Have Children

Marry Your Children Off so They Can Bear Grandchildren

Don’t Hold Off on Any of These Things, Believing You’d Be Better Off to Wait Until You Get Back Home in Judah

If You Want a House, Food, Spouse, and Family…

You Better Start Working On it in Babylon Because You Don’t Have Any Other Options

Jeremiah 29:7 (NASB)

‘Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.’

The Hebrew Word for “Welfare” in this Verse = shalom

shalom Conveys All Aspects of Peace, Safety, Security, Welfare, and Prosperity

Jeremiah Commanding the Jewish Exiles to Pray For Such Peace Upon Their Enemy’s Homeland Would Have Been Shocking and Offensive to Them

But the Success and Prosperity of the Exiles Depended On the Success and Prosperity of Their New Home in Babylon

This is Essentially What Paul Told Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:1-2

1 Timothy 2:1–2 (NASB)

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

I Live in America, But America is Not My True Nation

I’m Just Exiled Here Until Jesus Returns

My True Nation is His Kingdom

But I Still Pray That America Succeeds and is Prosperous and Secure

Why?

Because That Will Make Living Here Much More Decent and Pleasurable Until the Lord Returns

Jeremiah 29:8–9 (NASB)

“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream.

‘For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares the Lord.

The False Prophets Who Were in Exile in Babylon Were Deceiving the People By Claiming That God Had Spoken to Them About the Exile Being Short

God Makes it Clear That He Never Sent Them

Why is it Important For the Jewish People to Understand That God Sent Them into Exile for a Long Time?

Because They Were Being Punished

A Child Who Doesn’t Recognize That He is Being Punished, Isn’t Going to Change His Behavior

Especially if That Child’s Friends or Family Members are Giving Him False Hope By Telling Him that His Parents Aren’t Truly Angry With Him and That He Won’t Be Punished For Very Long

He Needs to Recognize that He is Being Punished, His Parents are Angry, and He Needs to Change His Behavior

The Jewish People are Being Punished and They Need to Recognize that it’s Not a Short, Minor Punishment

It’s a Long Exile

And It’s All Because of Their Sinful Behavior That They Refused to Repent of

But, Even in All of Their Sinful and Foolish Behavior, God Wasn’t Going to Leave His People Without Hope

Jeremiah 29:10–11 (NASB)

“For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

God Promises That After 70 Years in Babylon, He Will Bring Them Back Home

He Has Plans For His People

His Plans are shalom

His Plans are Peace, Safety, Security, Welfare, and Prosperity for His People

His Plans are Not Evil or Calamity Toward Them

But His Plans are to Give Them a Future

To Give Them Hope

This Was Not a Happy Little Message of Peace and Hope

This Was True Hope That Has Come Straight From the Mouth of God

It was a Sure Promise to His People

Jeremiah 29:12–14 (NASB)

‘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 search for Me with all your heart.

‘I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’

Their Punishment in Exile Will Bring the Jewish People to Repentance

They Will Begin to Call Upon God, Pray to Him, and Seek Him With All of Their Hearts

And God Promises That When They Do That, He Will Listen and They Will Find Him

He Will Restore Them and Bless Them and Bring Them Back Home

This Was All Foretold in Deuteronomy 30:1-10

The Immediate Fulfillment of Jeremiah’s Prophecy is:

The Jewish People Turn to God and They Come Home After the 70 Years

But the Ultimate Fulfillment is:

The Restoration and Blessings That are Promised By God Through Jeremiah and the Prophets of…

A New King From the Line of David (Jeremiah 23)

A New Covenant Where God’s People From All Nations Will Receive Complete Forgiveness of Their Sins (Jeremiah 31)

Those are the Plans That God Had For His People

And We are the Beneficiaries of Those Promised Plans

Jeremiah 29:11 Twisted

God Has Plans to Bless Each And Everyone of Us

Plans to Give Us shalom

Plans to Give Us Peace, Safety, Security, Welfare, and Prosperity

Plans to Give Us a Happy Successful Life

Plans to Give Us a Future

Plans to Give Us a Hope

Jeremiah 29:11 UnTwisted

God Had Plans to Bless His Exiled People Who Had 70 Years of Babylonian Captivity Ahead of Them

After Their Exile, He Had Plans to Give Them shalom

Plans to Give Them Peace, Safety, Security, Welfare, and Prosperity

Plans to Give Them a Future

Plans to Give Them a Hope

And Those Plans Come to Their Complete Fulfillment in Jesus Christ

We Shouldn’t Use This Verse to Give People False Hope of a Happy, Healthy, and Wealthy Future

Because That Was Never Promised to Any of Us

By Giving People Such False Hope, We are No Different Than the False Prophets of Jeremiah’s Day

They told the People That God Had Wonderful Things in Store for Them

When Actually God Had Spoken No Such Thing

We’re Doing the Same When We Use this Verse Out of its Context

But Here’s the Good News:

This Verse May Not Be Aimed at Each of Us Individually

But it is Aimed at Us Collectively as God’s People

Through Christ, We Have True and Everlasting shalom

In Christ, We Have an Everlasting Future

In Christ, We Have the Most Amazing Hope

We Have Been Promised By God Himself That Jesus is Going to Return

He is Bringing Restoration, Renewal, and Life That Never Ends in a Place of Perfect Paradise

What Does God Expect From Us to Receive Such Wonderful Promises?

The Same Thing He Expected From the Jewish People in Their Exile

To Repent and Seek Him With All of Our Hearts