What Does Jeremiah 29:11 Really Mean?
We tend to embrace the quote, but dismiss the context. That’s what happens when you take a small message, isolate it, and begin to explain it without knowing the context. It’s like reading someone’s mail. The passage I'd like to read from this morning is just like that. This is a letter that the prophet Jeremiah wrote to the Israelites who actually survived their captivity and exile in Babylon. Jeremiah 29:11 is a famous passage that is part of a specific message to a specific people. So I want to be careful when approaching any passage, but especially with texts like this, to work hard at tilling the ground around a gem like Jeremiah 29:11 so that when we unearth it, we see it in its true light. So...
About 600 years…
About 600 years (594-593 BC) before the birth of Christ, the Israelites are suffering through captivity and exile in Babylon. They had undergone the expulsion from the land that God had promised them because of their constant disobedience to Him. When we hear this, we might conjure up pictures in our minds about an angry man in the sky who strikes people down because they don't listen to him. But that is not true about the God of the Bible.
Israel was not innocent, yet God was still merciful. How true is that of you and I?
2 Chronicles 36:15-16 – "The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy."
This was the role that Jeremiah played; as a messenger of God to the people of God to point them back to God.
Jeremiah 25:3-4 – “For twenty-three years… the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets,"
Now the prophets of that day did not like the message of Jeremiah. They preferred the seemingly more hopeful and happy message of men like Hananiah. Does this sound familiar?
Jeremiah 28:1-4 – Hananiah said, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. I will also bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, declares the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”
You might be wondering, What's the problem with that message? If God really said... The problem is that God did not say. God did not speak to Hananiah. Yet this false prophet is speaking on behalf of God. Church, can we agree that it’s a dangerous business to speak on behalf of God… Especially when God has never even spoken to you?
So what did Jeremiah say?
Jeremiah 29:4-12 – “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But 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 find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord. “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. 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."
There are two popular kinds of people when reading passages like this:
They embrace this as their life verse because it is motivating.
They dismiss this because too many take it out of context.
I want to remind you church that Jeremiah 29:11 is in the Bible for a reason. Though this message was not written to us, it is reflective of the character of God. It shows us that if God was faithful to Israel then, He will be faithful to His church now.
Three Observations From Jeremiah 29:11
1) God Is The One With The Plan
We don't like that. We like our plans better than God's plans. It's easy to buck against God's direction because the world has pressed this ideology of individualism. Who can care more about me than I do? The answer is God. He cares more about you than you do. Like a good parent who does not let his child have candy for breakfast, chips for lunch, and ice cream for dinner every night. Of course God cares about your joy, but He is concerned about your eternal joy.
2) Prosperity Does Not Mean Success
Let's think about this logically:
God cannot lie (Titus 1:2)
God promised Israel prosperity
Israel lived in exile for 70 years
Therefore, prosperity cannot mean physical, emotional, and financial success.
The Hebrew word for welfare is shalom which is often translated to peace. This speaks about a holistic peace, or completeness. God is not promising Israel a perfect life. He is promising peace in the midst of that life. We don't see the Israelites having an immediate success in their endeavors. The disciples were some of the closest people to Jesus with great faith and yet their lives were marked by suffering, not success. Nowhere in Scripture does God promise a pain-free life; but He does promises peace in the midst of whatever pain that may pass.
3) There Is A Greater Hope
The Bible promises us an even greater hope and future than just being healthy, wealthy, and happy. Should we feel bad for being happy, healthy, and wealthy? No. Those are gifts that God gives. However, they should not be strived after above relationship with the Lord. Not only that, but they are not evidences of God's favor on your life.
→ Don’t you want a greater hope?
→ Don’t you want to know that whether your business fails or flourishes, you’ll be okay?
→ Whether the test comes back positive or not, that God has not failed you?
→ That if you go through years of depression and anxiety, you are still in God’s hands?
If you know Him, you know hope. Conversely, if you don't know Christ, you are unable to obtain the hope that you need... Because it is in Christ alone that we can receive the promises of God.
2 Corinthians 1:20 – “All the promises of God find their Yes in [Christ]."
Romans 8:32 – “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
So has God promised us a prosperous future? Yes absolutely. But we have to make sure that our definition of prosper is the biblical one. Because there are far too many pastors and preachers who are abusing the biblical promise of blessing and calling it the Prosperity Gospel, that God promises health, wealth, and happiness and it is always the will for believers.
John Piper said this about the implications of the prosperity gospel:
“When was the last time [anyone] ever said Jesus is all satisfying because you drove a BMW? Never. They'll say, did Jesus give you that? Well, I'll take Jesus. That's idolatry! That's not the gospel. That's elevating gifts above Giver. I'll tell you what makes Jesus look beautiful. It's when you smash your car and your little girl goes flying through the windshield... And you say, through the deepest possible pain, God is enough. God is enough. He is good. He will take care of us. He will satisfy us. He will get us through this. He is our treasure. Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth there is nothing that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart and my little girl may fail but You are the strength of my heart and my portion forever. That makes God look glorious. As God, not giver of cars or safety or health.” (Watch video here)
I'm not saying this to dig into a wound or to be dramatic or to disturb you. But because it's real. Difficult, disastrous things happen and if we don't understand Jeremiah 29:11 as a promise of hope through suffering, then we'd be tempted to view every less-than-satisfactory situation as a sign of God's absence.
What then shall we do?
Worship through the worry.
Praise Him through the pain.
Lean on Him through the loss.
Obey Him through the obstacles.
Trust Him through the trials and tragedies.
Let us tuck this one into your hearts:
2 Corinthians 4:8-10 – “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies."
He is good, satisfying, and for our eternal joy.
Not only that, but He is calling you today.
And we, like the Israelites, may live our entire lives in exile, longing for the day where we can obtain this glorious promise. We must never lose hope. Like the Israelites, we ought to build houses and families because we’re going to be here for a while. All the while, clinging to this promise that in Christ, we have eternal life.