Ripped Out of Context: The Plans He Has For Us
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Our next passage is among the most cherished passages in Scripture of late, yet is also the most abused. simply reads, “‘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.’”
This verse shows up everywhere—on bookmarks, pictures on Facebook, bumper stickers, posters, graduation cards, signature lines in emails, even cross-stitched onto pillows and written in devotional books—cited as God’s personal promise to every believer who finds himself in severe straits. It is especially quoted among health and wealth preachers showing that God promises good health and financial security to Christians. It is a “feel-good” verse. It is one of those verses that we can very easily pull out of it’s context and think, this is God’s promise to me because of how the words make us feel… But is this what God intended for Christians to get out of this passage? Does this verse promise us as Christians the "American dream".
Let’s deal with this question like we dealt with the passage we looked at last week—by going into the context and by getting the full message of the context. To get started, let’s look at the entire promise, not just that portion commonly quoted.
“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. 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.” ()
WHO IS THIS PROMISE FOR?
Notice that this promise is directed to a specific group of people (“I will visit you”) in a peculiar set of circumstances (Babylonian exile), details already provided in the opening verse of the chapter: “Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. (29:1)”
Follow the flow of chapter 29 and you’ll discover boundaries the author places on the promise. Verses 2-7 show God’s intention to limit the promise to a precise set of circumstances in Judah’s history. Verse 10 identifies the exact time of the promise’s fulfillment (“When seventy years have been completed”). And verse 14 gives the specific content of the “plans for welfare” and the “future… hope”. He says, “I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you”.
Here in , then, God does not give a vague, generalized promise of prosperity for any believer in any age. It is a specific promise given to specific people at a specific time. And it wasn’t even necessarily for those who originally received the letter either. Just think about this for a moment… The original recipients of this letter who were in captivity could not even take this as an individualized promise for themselves… Jeremiah’s word was not for those individual captives—the elders, the priests, the prophets, the people—since almost none of them would be alive long enough to cash it in. It was a promise of future welfare for the nation based on repentance, not of prosperity for any particular person.
The promise of welfare and future hope was for those people at the end of the 70 years who repented before God and prayed for God’s mercy…God, in this passage, gives a specific assurance of particular benefit to a distinct group of people at a precise time. This is exactly how Daniel understood Jeremiah’s words 70 years later when he read this passage. He humbled himself in confession and repentance on behalf of the nation to trigger the pledged restoration ().
There’s something else I want you to notice: there are two predictions in this chapter for God’s people, not just one. The first is the familiar one, the encouraging promise of restoration, welfare, a future, and a hope. The second also gives an assurance, but of an entirely different kind towards Jerusalem because of the false prophets that the King there, and even the people in captivity, were listening to:
“Behold, I am sending upon them the sword, famine and pestilence, and I will make them like split-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness. I will pursue them with the sword, with famine and with pestilence, and I will make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a horror and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them” ().
Who wants to stitch that on a pillow or put that in a picture on Facebook or on a card? The “them” of this passage are also Jews—the ones who refused to obey Jeremiah and join those in exile, but instead followed the lead of the false prophets and stayed in Jerusalem.
records two distinct and opposing plans for God’s people: one for welfare and not calamity at the end of the 70-year captivity, the other for calamity and not welfare. For those looking for personal promises in this passage, which of these two applies to them? Why pick the part that comforts you as you read it and ignore the rest of the promises in the passage…?
Fortunately, this passage does not predict calamity for you or me. But neither does it predict welfare. Both predictions in this passage are for the Jews and for specific Jews.
There’s one other point we must not miss to see the meaning of this chapter: the larger context of God’s covenantal dealings with Israel. It’s right there at the beginning of the promise, but you might have missed it: “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…”
Sounds a bit like these plans God has in mind are actually things He’s mentioned before to Israel—not something new, but a reaffirmation of a prior promise. As it turns out, it is. In this passage, and in many other places in the book of Jeremiah, you see Jeremiah refer to or allude to God’s promises of blessings and curses in Deuteronomy, where God promises prosperity for obedience and cursing for disobedience. Jeremiah is writing to warn a nation in disobedience that they are about to suffer the consequences previously promised, but also to remind God’s people of His pledge to restore them to the land if they return to Him and obey His law.
Both blessing and cursing are in store for Jeremiah’s audience, then, precisely what God promised nearly a thousand years before. Listen to :
“So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you” ().
Many of the phrases in are repeated almost word for word in the promise of . There’s really nothing new here. God simply reaffirms His covenant faithfulness to His chosen people during a time of extreme chastisement. There are short-term plans for discipline, but long-term plans for prosperity. Both are completely consistent with the covenant God had made with Israel.
This passage has nothing directly to do with New Testament Christians. It is not a promise to the church today… The context of the passage shows this to us… Not only this, but saying that this promise is for Christians today brings one into contradiction to promises that are given to Christians in the New Testament… The New Testament promises of suffering and hardship guarantees just the opposite for us. Paul says to Timothy that all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus WILL suffer persecution… Life is not meant to be comfortable, easy, and free of problems and trials for God’s people. We will have trials in this life… Trials that are preparing us for eternity and conforming us to the image of Christ…
CONCLUSION
may not be a promise for us today, but this does not mean that there are not any principles for us in the passage or any points of application…
There are a few things we can learn about God in this passage:
· God is faithful to His covenant promises… Just as God was faithful in blessing Israel and bringing them back to the land after 70 years of captivity and chastisement, God will be faithful to His New Covenant people. He is a God who fulfills His promises, whether those mean blessing or punishment!
· The reason why Israel needed to come back to the land was so that God’s people could be prepared for an even greater blessing to come later on… Jesus Christ… Even this promise to Israel, which would be fulfilled 70 years after the beginning of the captivity, was not ultimately focused on their physical prosperity, but on the Messiah who was to come… Six chapters before this promise to Israel, they received another promise… “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”
With all of the lying prophets and terrible leaders that Judah had before going into captivity, they could look forward to a leader who would be righteous in His reign over Judah and Israel… We can have this same King – King Jesus, if we will submit our lives to Him to rule over us… If you submit your life to Christ, it may not always be physically comfortable or easy, but their will be great comfort and blessing for you. He will help you get through any trial you may go through in this life, and He will bless you with every spiritual blessing that is given to those who are in Christ Jesus… ().
· Here is what you need to understand: God’s plans to restore the Jews from captivity – so He could send His Son into the world – was His plans to prosper YOU. Those were His plans to prosper all who are in Christ Jesus. Because of their disobedience, many individual Jews were “prepared for destruction,” but God patiently endured them, “in order to make known the riches of his glory” to us who believe in Christ ().
If there is anything we can do for you today to help you know the Lord and to receive His mercy, why don’t you make your need known as together we stand and sing?