Prosperity in Context: A Closer Look at Jeremiah 29:11

So far in the Verses in Context miniseries, we’ve taken a look at three verses from the New Testament (Philippians 4:13, Romans 8:28, and 2 Timothy1:7). Today, we’re turning to the Old Testament to examine another verse that is frequently claimed as a “life verse,” printed on journals, or hung on walls in isolation with no regard to the context in which it was written. Probably the most well-known translation for this verse is the New International Version, which reads:

“‘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.’” Jeremiah 29:11

Many people have leaned on this verse for comfort and encouragement that God has a plan for their lives, and not just any plan, but a plan that will bring them general prosperity and safety. But is that what this verse is saying? Who is the “you” to whom God is speaking?

When we look at this verse in its context, we see that it is actually part of a letter written by the prophet Jeremiah to a specific group of people at a specific point in time. By Jeremiah 29, the Babylonians have invaded the kingdom of Judah (made up of the two southern tribes of Israel), captured the people, and taken many of them to Babylon, leaving only the poorest in the land. The first verse of the chapter tells us who the audience of this letter is:

“These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar [the Babylonian king] had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon” Jeremiah 29:1 (ESV).

So basically, everyone who had been exiled was the intended recipient of Jeremiah’s letter. Verse 2 tells us when the letter was sent, and verse 3 tells us by whom it was sent. The letter begins in verse 4: “‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:’” (ESV) Notice that God is the one who has sent the people into exile. Even though the Babylonians were the ones who invaded, this verse tells us that they did so at God’s allowance. God used them to punish the southern Israelites for their disobedience, as He had warned again and again that He would do.

In verses 5-7, God, speaking through Jeremiah, tells the people to put down roots in Babylon—to build houses, start families, “seek the welfare of the city,” (ESV) and pray for it. Apparently, the people had been hesitant to do this because they had been listening to false prophets (as described in verses 8-9) who made them think they wouldn’t be in Babylon for very long. In the preceding chapter, Jeremiah 28, we see that one of these false prophets, Hananiah, told the people that God would destroy Babylon within two years and the people would be free from their exile. God made it clear, though, that Hananiah was not speaking on His behalf, both through the words of Jeremiah and through Hananiah’s death (see Jeremiah 28:12-17).

So after God warns the people to stop listening to these false prophets in verses 8-9, He tells them the true length of their exile in verse 10—they would be in Babylon for seven decades: “‘For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place’” (ESV). And this is when we get to verse 11, which you may have noticed starts with our connecting-word friend “for”: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear 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 I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile” (vv.11-14, ESV).

God was essentially telling the people, “These ‘prophets’ think they know what my plans are, but they’re lying. I know what my plans are for you. You will be in exile for much longer than they’re telling you, but you won’t be in exile forever. I have promised to bring you home, and I keep my promises. My justice is not without mercy. When the time of your consequences is completed, I will bring you home, and when you truly seek me with your whole heart, you will find me, and I will bring you back.”

So that is the context of Jeremiah 29:11. The prosperity/welfare that God was promising was that of delivering the people from the poverty of exile and returning them to their homes. The absence of harm/evil was a promise that they would not be captives forever; God had not abandoned them to their enemies. The future and the hope that was in store for them was that of restoration of their land and of restoration of their relationship with God. And we see in other parts of the Bible (Ezra 1:1, etc.) that God fulfilled that promise. The Babylonian Empire fell to the Medo-Persian one, and, as the Persians had a different policy of dealing with captives and occupied lands than the Babylonians did, they eventually sent the Jewish people home (70 years after they had been taken to Babylon, just as God had said).

But does it follow, then, that there is nothing in this verse that is applicable for us today? Just because this verse has a specific meaning for a specific people at a specific point in history and the promises it made were fulfilled, does that mean we can’t claim its promises now for our lives? Does God not know the plans He has for us in the 21^st-century? Has He not given us “a future and a hope” too?

For those of us who have turned from our sin, trusted in Jesus and what He did on our behalf, and thus become adopted children of God, we are His people. Just as the ancient Israelites were chosen by God as a picture of what it meant to be God’s people and were given promises as part of that special relationship, so too, followers of Jesus, i.e. “the Israel of God” (see Galatians 6:16), those who are “a people for his own possession,” who “were not a people, but now […] are God’s people” (see 1 Peter 2:9-10), have been given promises as well.

Throughout the New Testament there are many references to the plans God has for us, to the future and the hope that we have in Him. In Philippians 1:6, we see that God will finish “the good work He began” in us (think that sounds like He has a plan for us?). In John 14, Jesus tells His disciples (including His future ones), that He is preparing a place for us and will come back to take us to that place to be with Him (see the echoes of Jeremiah 29:10-14? “I will bring you back to the place”). As we saw in Romans 8:28, followers of Jesus have the promise that even suffering and hardship are redeemed by God and used for our good (remind of you Jeremiah 29:11? “plans for welfare and not for evil”). Colossians 1:5 speaks of the “hope laid up for [us] in heaven” (see the future and the hope there?).

And Ephesians 1:3-14 speaks to all of these things:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (ESV, emphasis added).

Do you see how much that passage speaks to the plans of God, to the prosperity/welfare that is ours both now (spiritual blessings) and in the future (an inheritance), to the lack of harm/evil in store for us because of the gracious redemption and forgiveness God offers, to the hope that we have in Jesus and the future that is stored up for us, as guaranteed by the Holy Spirit?

So if we as Christians want to claim, ponder, or cling to verses that remind us that God has a good plan for our lives, we have a wealth of ones to choose from without needing to use Jeremiah 29:11 outside its context. But that doesn’t mean Jeremiah 29:11 is left with no encouragement for us. The way in which God dealt with the ancient Israelites shows us His character—both His justice and His mercy, His sovereignty and His love, His wisdom and His kindness. Just as the Israelites’ rebellion was not strong enough to overpower the love of God or to keep Him from fulfilling His promises, so too His love for us overcame our rebellion, and His promises to those in Christ stand secure. Just as He kindly and graciously returned them to their home, He will one day kindly and graciously bring us to our ultimate home. Just as their relationship with Him was restored, so we can enjoy a restored relationship with Him because of Jesus.

Jeremiah 29:11, as it fits in the context of the history of the Israelites, reminds us that God is a loving, merciful God who never changes and who does what He says He will do—God, who is the same One to whom we belong. And that, my friends, is something worth holding onto.

PC: Teresa Cantrell. Used with permission.

The Perfect Translator

On Sunday afternoons, I typically meet with my tutor to study the Arabic language. She assigns homework for me to complete each week, and not too long ago my assignment was to write a paragraph in Arabic using my vocabulary words for the week, which happened to be present-tense verbs. That got us into a discussion about verb tenses, of which there are only three in Arabic (past, present, and imperative). English has twelve (sixteen if you count the conditional tenses).[i]

You can imagine my frustration as I was trying to express specific ideas related to time that were natural to my native way of thinking only to discover that there is generally no frame of reference for such conceptions of time in the Arabic-speaking mind. The sentence هي تكتب )heeya taktabu( can be translated “She writes” or “She is writing.” There is no difference between those two concepts in Arabic that can be expressed by simply changing the verb. Extra words would have to be added to indicate that “she is writing now” or “she writes all the time,” for instance.

Conversely, there are concepts that come naturally to the Arabic mind that are difficult for the English mind to grasp, e.g. making adjectives plural. For example, in English whether we’re talking about one person or multiple people, we refer to them as “happy,” but in Arabic there is a plural form of “happy” that has to be used when talking about more than two people (there’s a dual form used when only two people are referenced). My English brain can’t comprehend how it’s possible for an adjective (a non-thing) to be plural, but to Arabic brains it makes perfect sense, perhaps because adjectives are considered nouns (another mind-boggling fact for my English brain).

All of this got me thinking about how language is more than just a way to communicate ideas. It can shape the very way in which we think about the world, the capacity we have to understand certain concepts. (To see what I mean, check out this short but fascinating TED talk that my tutor sent me on the topic.) Our native language equips us to evaluate the world in a certain way, and when we encounter a new language, we aren’t just hearing a new grouping of sounds to communicate meaning; we’re confronted with fundamentally different ways of evaluating the world.

That’s why I have found it so important, when learning a new language, to have a teacher who understands both the language I’m trying to learn and my native language, because she can help point out the differences in the way I think now when I speak English and the way I need to think when I speak Arabic. So too, the best translators are those who are intimately familiar with both languages and can translate whole concepts from one to the other instead of just words.

As human beings, we are in need of such a translator when it comes to the things of God. Our natural way of viewing the world is fundamentally different from the way in which God views it. There are concepts of a God-honoring life that are foreign to our native understanding (forgiving those who have wronged us, thinking of others before ourselves, seeing suffering as a means of good, using difficult circumstances to bring praise to God, etc.). And without a teacher and translator, we have no way of recognizing that there is a different way of thinking from our own, no way of internalizing this foreign language of the spiritual life.

But thanks be to God, He has given us the best and most equipped translator—the Holy Spirit Himself. This is exactly what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 2:

“Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,

‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

                             nor the heart of man imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love him’—

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (vv. 6-14, ESV)

I had read this passage countless times, but it wasn’t until I started learning Arabic and recognized the things I discussed above that I realized the profound significance of its truth and the depth of our need for the Holy Spirit. Look at how many times the idea of understanding/comprehending is mentioned in these few verses. They tell us that the things of God are so foreign to us that we are not able to understand them without being taught, but that the Holy Spirit understands them perfectly because He is God.

He understands the thoughts and ways of God because they are His native language. But He also understands our native language because He is our Creator, and being all-knowing, He understands how the Fall has affected our way of thinking. So He is fluent in the language we need to learn, and He understands our native language well enough to be able to point out the differences between the way we think when we live outside of Christ and the way we need to think when we are in Christ. And it is this Holy Spirit whom God has given to us as our teacher and translator.

What a joy to know that God has made it possible for us to understand spiritual truths! What a comfort to know that He has not thrown us into a foreign world without a translator but instead has given us His very Spirit. What an encouragement to know that He has not left us to learn a completely new way of life and new way of comprehending the world on our own but instead has given us a teacher who is Wisdom itself. Living the Christian life is a lot like learning a new language, but thanks to God, we have a Native Speaker inside us to help us every step of the way, and He’s the most perfect translator of all.

 

PC: Betsy Traylor. Used with permission.

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[i] Past, Present, Future, Past Perfect, Present Perfect, Future Perfect, Past Progressive, Present Progressive, Future Progressive, Past Perfect Progressive, Present Perfect Progressive, and Future Perfect Progressive [Conditional, Conditional Perfect, Conditional Progressive, Conditional Perfect Progressive]. Bonus points if you can count how many tenses were used in this blog post! :D And if you’d like to learn more about English verb tenses, you can watch a fun video here.

Fearlessness in Context: A Closer Look at 2 Timothy 1:7

In this third installment of the “in Context” miniseries, we’re diving into another of Paul’s letters, but this time, instead of a letter to a whole church as we saw with Philippians and Romans, we’re dealing with a letter to an individual—Paul’s mentee Timothy. In the first chapter of 2 Timothy, we find a verse that is often plucked from its context and used in isolation. You’ll likely recognize it:

“for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7, ESV).

Or perhaps you’re more familiar with another translation:

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (NKJV).

This verse has been used as a pep talk for people facing situations that make them afraid, whether that fear falls on the mild or the paralyzing end of the spectrum or anywhere in between. But while the statement “God has not given us a spirit of fear” is true for believers across the board, Paul’s intent, as we will see from the context, was not to make a blanket statement about Christians never being afraid of anything.

To use an extreme example, I think we could all agree that quoting this verse to ourselves as we jump out of an airplane to convince ourselves that we shouldn’t be afraid is a questionable application. Some types of fear are healthy and prompt us to take wise, precautionary steps—like putting on a parachute and making sure we know how to use it before we jump out of the airplane. Using the verse “God has not given us a spirit of fear” to rationalize reckless behavior does a disservice to Scripture.

But even less dramatic examples of applying this verse stretch it to cover situations that are not implied in Paul’s letter. We have a big exam coming up, and we’re nervous about how we’ll do. We’re about to give a speech, and the butterflies are having a heyday in our stomach. We try to talk ourselves out of the nerves by telling ourselves, “God has not given us a spirit of fear,” or the derivative paraphrase, “Fear is not from God,” but we forget that nerves are not always equivalent to fear. Certainly they can be rooted in fear and at other times can turn into fear, but nerves in and of themselves are not always a bad thing. Sometimes they can be a gift, because they show us what we find important and can be harnessed into helpful energy.

There is ample evidence in Scripture to support the statement that “fear is not from God” (aside from the type of reverent fear that we should have of God Himself, of course). Time and time again, in the Old Testament and the New, God tells people, “Do not be afraid.” David talks about trusting in God when fear assails him (Psalm 56:3), and Jesus tells His disciples not to be afraid or troubled because He gives peace (John 14:27). So it’s not wrong to lean on the peace and strength of God in times when we are fearful, but pulling out 2 Timothy 1:7 for any and every situation in which we find ourselves uneasy does miss the very specific point that Paul was trying to make.

As we saw with Romans 8:28, 2 Timothy 1:7 is not written in isolation. The biggest clue that this verse is part of a larger whole is the very first word. “For” is a conjunction, a joining word, that usually connects one idea to another by using the second idea to provide a reason for the first. So to get the full idea that Paul is expressing, we have to go back to verse 3: “I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:3-7, ESV).

Timothy, who was discipled by Paul, now serves as pastor over a local church, and Paul is writing to remind him “to fan into flame the gift of God.” Why? Because “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” But what is this “gift of God” and why does it require fearlessness to be cultivated? The answer to those questions lies in what follows verse 7.

Paul continues the chain of thought with another link: “Therefore.” Because we have a spirit of power and love and self-control rather than one of fear (v. 7), we should be bold in proclaiming the gospel and experiencing the suffering that doing so inevitably brings (v. 8). “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,” (2 Timothy 1:8, ESV). Paul was encouraging Timothy not to be timid in sharing the good news of Jesus.

In fact, the word for “fear” in verse 7 is only used this one time in the whole Bible, and it means cowardice.[i] Paul isn’t telling Timothy that God won’t give us feelings of uneasiness; he’s telling him that God hasn’t made us cowards. And more specifically, he’s telling Timothy not to be cowardly when it comes to telling other people about Jesus, even if it leads to hardship.

The concept of hardship doesn’t only appear once in this letter, though. Instead, it’s a bit of a theme, popping up again and again throughout the entire book. Paul’s mention of suffering in verse 8 is the first of thirteen such references in the four chapters of 2 Timothy:

        “I suffer” (1:12)

        “Share in suffering” (2:3)

        “I am suffering” (2:9)

        “I endure everything” (2:10)

        “if we endure” (2:12)

        “patiently enduring evil” (2:24)

        “there will come times of difficulty” (3:1)

        “my persecutions and sufferings” (3:11a)

        “which persecutions I endured” (3:11b)

        “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (3:12)

        “endure suffering” (4:5)

        “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed” (4:18)

So we see that Paul was seeking to strengthen Timothy, to remind him of the power of God that dwelt within him that would enable him to step out in boldness for the cause of the gospel rather than shrink back in timidity. And that same power that God gave to Paul and to Timothy, He has given to followers of Jesus today, through the Holy Spirit.

How often we are quick to claim 2 Timothy 1:7 to help us overcome difficult or intimidating tasks, and yet when it comes to doing what the verse actually references—telling others about the good news of Jesus—we leave it behind and let fear rule the day. May God help us remember, just as Paul reminded Timothy, “to fan into flame” the light within us that is “the gift of God,” and to do so with boldness and confidence, with power and love and a sound mind, because that is the type of spirit God has given us. May we “not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord” and “share in suffering” with Him, doing so with the spirit of fearlessness that only He can provide.

PC: Rose Creger Tankard. Used with permission.

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[i] Greek: deilia. See https://biblehub.com/greek/1167.htm