Straight Outta Context: Jeremiah 29:11 Series

The first half of Jeremiah 29 is a letter from Jeremiah to the Israelites currently exiled in Babylon. Starting with verse 4: “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.’”

In other words, “Be prepared, because you’re gonna be there for a while.” In fact, verse 10 specifies that they will be there for 70 years! Let’s pick it back up there: “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. 11For 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. 12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

Aha! There’s verse 11 right there in the middle. God is specifically telling the Israelites that he will restore them. This is a common thread throughout all of Scripture -- whenever God gives a judgement, a failure, or a brokenness; God always follows up with an offer of restoration! Jeremiah 29:11 says that, despite everything around them despite their fear and discouragement at becoming exiles in a foreign land, God still sees them and will still keep His promise. There is still hope!

But, like everything else in the Bible, this verse was written for the benefit of people living thousands of years ago. However, it’s not so closely tied to the original audience that it is no longer relevant today. This verse is still a very powerful piece of scripture -- it just doesn’t mean what a lot of people want it to mean.

God says in Jeremiah 29:11 that He has plans to prosper us. Whenever you see the word “prosper” in scripture, it’s easy to think that it’s referring to wealth. If you’re rich, you’re prosperous! Well, this is true, but “rich” and “prosperity” can mean vastly different things to different people. For example -- I don’t have a lot of money, but I have a loving family, a great job, and a loving and supporting church. I consider myself rich -- but I’m broke! Prosperity is the same way -- I never go hungry, and I always have a warm, safe, and dry place to sleep at night. I’m prosperous!

There is even an entire church movement devoted to this idea -- you may have heard of the “Prosperity Gospel”. People like Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, T.D. Jakes, and others are huge names in this area. The Prosperity Gospel says that it’s God’s will for us to be wealthy -- and they use Jeremiah 29:11 as one of the verses to help them “prove” this idea. Like the conspiracy theorists in 9/11, though, they conveniently ignore verses like James 2:5: “Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters. Hasn’t God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith? Aren’t they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who love him?” That’s interesting -- If God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith, then why would it be His will for us all to be financially wealthy? When Jeremiah 29:11 says that God’s plan is to “Prosper you”, it doesn’t mean we’re all going to be financially wealthy. It doesn’t say that we’re all going to be able to spend money all willy-nilly without needing some sort of steady income. What it does say is that, like the Israelites, we don’t need to worry about our situation because God’s in control. He will prosper us, yes -- but in His way and in His time. Remember, it took 70 years for this promise to come about -- that means that many Israelites died of old age before it happened. They didn’t prosper in the same way that their children and grandchildren did -- but if they were obedient, they still prospered in the end.