“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.
Wow! Is God speaking to me in this verse? He has a plan for my life, and I should not let my struggles discourage me from understanding that he is working things in my life for the greater good.
What I have just provided in a few short sentences is the contemporary Christian interpretation of one single passage from the Old Testament. But is this the way we should interpret the text? If you ask me, it seems rather self-centered. If you believe in God and if you believe that God has a plan for you, I do not wish to discourage you from this line of thought; what I would like to do, however, is correct the way we approach this verse from a modern perspective.
I will be the first to say it, and I will be rather blunt: Jeremiah 29:11 was not penned with you in mind. It is in the Bible and it may provide practical knowledge for navigating your life on earth, but the purpose of this passage is not the gratification of 21st century readers. Its purpose is not to construct a theology of a God who intercedes on your behalf when you mess up or make the wrong decision. Like the rest of the Bible, it was written in a specific time, for a specific people, as part of the message of one of the biblical authors.
I’ve discussed the problems with isolating single verses before. When we do this, we ignore the greater context of the book and interpret it in the way we want to, rather than what it was written for. Again, I will use the trail-mix analogy. To read the Bible, you cannot pick out the pieces that you like and want and discard the rest. You have to take the whole scoop and process every part. Otherwise, you are doing yourself and the Bible a great disservice. You are seeing things only the way you want to, rather than for how they really are.
What Does the Text Say?
Jeremiah was written around the time of the Babylonian exile in 586 BCE. At the time of composition, the Northern Kingdom of Israel had fallen along with much of Judah.1 The nation is in a dire state of suffering and continues to reject the teachings of the prophets, who preached repentance. The general message of Jeremiah is that Judah is going to be destroyed by Babylon if the nation does not repent; however, it will eventually recover, and Babylon will later be destroyed.2 Jeremiah is attempting to wake the nation up so that they will not face doom, but the hearts of his audience are stone cold.
Now, let’s zero in on Chapter 29. Jeremiah 29:1-32 contains three letters. I will only deal with the first letter here, which comprises verses 1-23. It is believed that this letter was sent after the deportation of exiles around 597 BCE.3 Interestingly, there is no opening salutary superscription with this letter, leading many scholars to believe that what we possess in 1-23 is not a verbatim copy of the letter, but a general summary.4 Additionally, you will notice that the letter is preceded by an editorial superscription which describes the circumstances of the letter, what it concerned, who wrote it, and who delivered it.
In the letter, we find that God has orchestrated the exile (he has caused the suffering of Israel). He encourages the exiles to participate in the welfare offered by the land they have been sent to (29:7). He also warns them of false prophets active in the land, pleading with them to reject these teachings (8). He then explains that Babylon’s rule will only last seventy years, then he will fulfill his promise of returning them (10).
And then we have the verse in focus. God is aware of the plans he has made for these people, and he intends to bring them into fulfillment. After this promise, he continues to promise that he will listen when they pray, they will find him when they seek him, and, lastly, he will reverse their exile (12-14). And then, as is customary of the God of the prophets, he will incite violence against the Babylonians.
The promise of Jeremiah 29:11 is a specific promise. Does this mean that modern believers cannot find practical application of this text? Absolutely not. In the following section, I would like to offer my personal exegesis of this.
Personal Note
I have long noticed a very individualistic drive within the church when we interpret the Bible. Christians, including my former self, tend to ask “What does the Bible say to me?” It may not sound like there is anything wrong with asking this question, but there is. It promotes an individualistic worldview. It robs the Bible of its original context. And, most importantly, it promotes complacency.
When we read Jeremiah 29:11 from the perspective of the self, we fall into the trap of assuming “it’s just me and God; nothing else matters.” We lose sight of community. Our will to help others, and to be helped by others, diminishes. We become focused on the struggles of ourselves and reject that everyone is hurting. The Christian. The agnostic. The atheist. The pagan. Everyone is hurting. And while it is more than okay to be hopeful for ourselves, we need to think about how we can give hope to others. It doesn’t have to be religious hope. I am ABSOLUTELY NOT asking you to go converting people. Accept that there are differences and show love.
The Old Testament is the foundation of the three major Abrahamic religions. What Jeremiah 29:11 says will read differently to the Jew than the Christian, or the Christian than the Muslim. What I love about studying the Bible from a historical (and not religious) perspective, is that I find universal truths within it. I do not find truths confined to the church. This does not mean my view is greater than someone who reads it in a Christian or Jewish light, but it shows what I can apply from this text as a nonreligious person. And what I find is that there is something we can all agree on.
Lastly, and this point touches on a religious rendering of the text, I believe modern interpretations of Jeremiah 29:11 promote complacency. If God has a plan for me, then I do not have to do anything! Whether I love or hate, whether I attend church or don’t, whether I am active in my community or not, God has plans and he will bring them into fruition. This is dangerous. What will this do to minimize the prevalent suffering in the world? Nothing! If God has a plan for you, then he has a plan for the other person. For the Jew. For the Christian. For everyone. It is okay to believe that there is a god who has a plan for you, but please; do not become complacent.
Make a difference in this world. Every action, no matter how big or small, makes a difference. Make it a good one! Again, we all have trials. But let us not become so tied up in those or our hope to escape that we fail to help others in their suffering. God may have a plan for them, and that plan could be you.
1. Henry H. Halley, Halley’s Bible Handbook, 24th edition, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1965, 307
2. Ibid., 308.
3. Kaiser, Jr., Walter C.. Walking the Ancient Paths : A Commentary on Jeremiah, Lexham Press, 2019, 242.
4. Ibid., 245.