We are in a series looking at familiar Bible verses that often get twisted to say something other than what they were meant to say. Today we are going to look at a verse that is often used on graduation cards, but you can also find it on mugs, magnets, pens, t-shirts and just about anything else you can put a Bible verse on. You may have heard it and my guess is that if you have heard it, then like me, you love it.
“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
I’ll be honest with you, I love this verse. It is one of my favorite verses in the Bible and I love it for all kinds of reasons, but does it mean what we think it means? It would be easy to hear this and think that God’s promise is that we will have a glorious future free of any kind of problems or persecution. We will be blessed, never be harmed, and have a wonderful future. To hear that our future will be free from any kind of problem or trial would be to twist what God is saying here. So what is God saying?
Through this series we have learned that there are three things that are important in understanding any verse in the Bible. The first is context. What is the context of the message? Who said it? To whom was it said? When was it said? What was the setting? Context is important.
The second is to interpret the verse in light of other scriptures. No Bible verse is supposed to stand on its own and the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible. What else does the Bible have to say about the message found in this one passage?
The third thing that helps us understand God’s word is to apply it. God’s word is not a document to study but a letter to be lived. We are not to be hearers of the word only, we are to be doers of God’s word, and as we do what it says, as we follow it with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, we learn more about it.
When it comes to Jeremiah 29:11, what really helps us understand it is the context. Jeremiah 29:1 gives us a lot of information.
This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Jeremiah 29:1
So Jeremiah was the prophet giving this message and he was giving it to the surviving Jewish leaders who were living in exile throughout Babylon. Jeremiah was writing after Israel had been defeated by the Babylonians and most of the people had been forced to live scattered all through Babylon. Jerusalem was in ruins, the Temple and city walls had been torn down, and with all of the Jewish leaders scattered, Nebuchadnezzar’s plan was to utterly destroy Israel so it would never rise up again as a nation.
It’s important to know that this promise was given from a place of destruction, devastation and hopelessness. The people were struggling and suffering, they were experiencing real harm and hardship and that persecution was going to continue for the foreseeable future. The promise God makes here can’t be that there is joy without pain, blessing without trials, and prosperity without problems because they are facing pain and problems. We can’t read this verse and think that we will never experience any kind of struggle because the promise was given to those struggling.
This message was given to people living in exile. They had been defeated and forced out of their homes and they were struggling to keep their faith and trust in God. But there is still more for us to understand when we look at the context of this verse. If we go back one chapter in Jeremiah, we read about a prophet named Hananiah who told the people that their exile would last for only two years and then they would be able to return home and rebuild Jerusalem. This sounded great. Their time of suffering was going to be short, and God’s prosperity and blessing was going to come quickly.
While it all sounded good, Hananiah was a false prophet giving people false good news. Jeremiah confronted Hananiah and told him that he was not speaking God’s word accurately and that the trials that God’s people were facing were going to continue for a much longer period of time. Because of his false teaching, Hananiah was going to die within the year.
Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’” In the seventh month of that same year, Hananiah the prophet died. Jeremiah 28:15-17
Hananiah was trying to tell the people that prosperity and peace were coming quickly, but that wasn’t God’s plan. Jeremiah told the people God’s plan.
This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. Jeremiah 29:10
Do you remember who Jeremiah is writing to in Babylon? The elders. The elders weren’t young men. The elders weren’t going to be around in 70 years. In fact, most of the people who heard the promise of a future with hope would not return and prosper in Israel. So while there is great hope and encouragement in this verse, it doesn’t mean what we think it might mean. No one hearing this was going to prosper back in Jerusalem. The hope for the future was literally for a future generation. The people first hearing this promise were still going to face problems and persecution in exile. God was not going to save them from all the trials they faced, but God would see them through it so their children and grandchildren could be blessed.
The context of this verse tells us something very different than what we read on the surface. God did have a plan to prosper His people, but that blessing wasn’t going to come for 70 years, long after all the people who first heard this were gone. This context needs to shape how we read this passage. Does God have a purpose and plan for our lives? Yes. Does that mean we will never experience problems and trials along the way? No. God’s promise isn’t to keep us from all trials but to see us through them.
That is the message of hope we hear throughout the Bible. God doesn’t save us from all trials. God doesn’t keep all harm and hardships away, but He will see us through them. The Apostle Paul even said that we will face problems in life.
You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 2 Timothy 3:10-12
God’s purpose and plan can’t be life without harm when we are told that if we follow Jesus we will be persecuted. Jesus even told His disciples that while their future would be glorious, because He is victorious over all things, there will still be trials.
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33b
This is also the message we hear in the Old Testament. In another very familiar passage we hear that even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we don’t need to be afraid because God is with us. Psalm 23 tells us we have a future with hope; God will prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies, and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, but we will still have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
Jeremiah 29:11 doesn’t mean we will never face problems in this world, but it does mean that in the end, in the final victory, we will overcome it all. This promise of blessing, and a future with hope, doesn’t mean God will keep us from all struggles, but it does mean God will save us from our sin. The ultimate prosperity, purpose and plan God has for us is salvation. God’s desire is that we will all be saved and that we will dwell with Him in His kingdom forever. When we couldn’t make that plan work because of our sin, God made the plan possible through the gift of His son Jesus.
We will all face moments when we will have to read this promise and understand that the blessing and prosperity will only come in the kingdom of God. Some problems might never be overcome here and now, but with God, there is always the hope of eternity. God makes us that promise.
God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:4
No matter what we are going through now, through Jesus there is the hope of a glorious future. The Apostle Paul, who faced all kinds of persecution and problems, boldly tells us that none of those problems can separate us from the love of God.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35, 37-39
Does God promise to keep us from all harm? No. Does God promise that no harm can keep us from His and power? Yes.
And with our faith and trust in Jesus, even our sin can’t separate us from that future with hope.
What is great about Jeremiah 29:11 is that not only does it give us God’s promise, but it tells us how we can experience that promise.
“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. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13
This tells us how to apply the passage. How do we experience God’s blessing and the purpose, plan, and future God has for us? Call on God. Cry out to God. Pray to God. Seek God with the confidence that if you seek God with all your heart you will find Him. Actually, the truth is that God will find you.
That God is there for us when we call and that God comes to find us in times of need is what we hear all through scripture. In what is to me one of the most powerful passages of the Old Testament, we hear that when we cry out to God, God not only hears us but He comes to rescue us.
In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears.
The earth trembled and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because he was angry.
Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.
Psalm 18: 6-9, 16-19
We call on God, and God comes to rescue us. We turn to God and God is there to save us. We seek God with all our heart and we will not only find God but we will find that His love and power will walk us through all the storms we go through.
To read Jeremiah 29:11 and believe that we will never face another problem is to twist what is being said. Don’t misunderstand, God does have a purpose and plan for us, and God will see us through any storms we face as that plan is fulfilled. If we turn to God in faith and trust, we will find Him, and if we cry out to Him in times of need, He will help us. Trouble may come but our future is secure. Trials may come but there is always hope because God is with us and always will be.
Next Steps
Twisted - I know the plans I have for you…
Read Jeremiah 29:11.
● When have you read or heard this promise of God?
● What did it say to you then?
● What does it say to you now?
● Do you think this promise means we will never experience harm or hardship? Why or why not?
Context
● What does Jeremiah 29:1 tell us about this promise?
● Was the promise for a specific group of people or for all people of all time?
● What does Jeremiah 28 and the competing messages of Hananiah and Jeremiah tell us about how to interpret this promise of God?
In Light of other Scriptures
What do the following scriptures teach about this promise?
● Jeremiah 29:10
● 2 Timothy 3:10-12
● John 16:33b
● Revelation 21:4
● Romans 8:35, 37-39
Apply It
● How does Jeremiah 29:12-13 teach us to experience this promise?
● Read Psalm 18:1-19. When have you called on God and found Him there?
● When has God found you before you turned to Him?
