Ask Pastor Scott - Jeremiah 29:11
I have many questions asked, emailed, or texted to me regularly. I always try to reply to these questions. However, if one person is asking the questions, others of you might be wondering the same thing without taking the time to ask. Because of that, I'm going to start occasionally publishing the question and my response to it on our website! I pray that this will be a blessing to you! (To protect the confidentiality of the person asking the question, some details of the original question or response may be changed.)
“How do we understand Jeremiah 29:11? It seems like it’s often used by those teaching a “prosperity gospel” to say that God wants to prosper us. Is that promise just for the Israelites who received Jeremiah’s words? or can it be applied to us today?”
"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
This is a great question! Jeremiah 29:11 certainly is one of the most common passages to be misquoted or misapplied. I find it very helpful to think of it in terms of the immediate or primary audience. It's very common for Old Testament verses and promises to be run afoul here. Generally, the misapplication of the verse will skip the immediate or primary audience and try to apply the same exact promise to us, who are merely a secondary audience.
Given within the Old Covenant, a particular promise or declaration may have been conditional upon the Hebrew peoples’ obedience. And, the blessing and “prospering” was, generally, not for the people themselves, but as part of God’s plan to bring the savior of the world through Israel. God was promising to “prosper” the Hebrew people, NOT primarily for their enjoyment, but so that there would be a faithful remnant through whom Jesus would come.
2 Corinthians 1:20 reminds us that all of God’s promises from the past find their “Yes in Christ”. They were all pointing forward to him. So the Christian hears a promise like Jeremiah 29:11 and doesn’t say, “If I behave, God will bless me and make me succeed at everything.” Instead, we say, my true and eternal riches are in Christ — I’m a co-heir with him. I’ve been made a child of God, something far better than an Israelite could have hoped for. But it’s all based on the obedience of Christ. In the old covenant, Israel had obligations. In the new covenant, Christ has fulfilled all that is necessary and we are included based on his credentials, merit, and righteousness.
We don’t pretend like we are the recipient of the prospering that God promised to Israel, because we have something far better in Christ. Though now for a “little while” as Peter says, we may suffer and experience testing and trouble, we await our true and final union with the one to whom Jeremiah 29:11 points.
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