It has become increasingly popular in recent years for teachers of the Bible (myself included) to disparage people who apply Jeremiah 29:xi-13 to their lives. "You lot're not paying attention to the context!," they loudly protestation ( … as I have). This post will explore whether such disparagement is appropriate, and conclude that often information technology is not. I hope to model something about how to interpret the Bible at the same time.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 are favorite verses for many people:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a time to come and a hope. Then y'all volition call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear yous. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV).

People dear these verses because they find encouragement in the thought that God has skilful intentions for them even in the midst of suffering. They are heartened when they read that God hears their prayers. They are strengthened with the thought that when they seek the Lord with all their center they will find the Lord.

Just teachers of the Bible sometimes bespeak out that the firsthand literary context pertains to God's hope to bring back the people of State of israel from Babylon later on seventy years in exile (Jeremiah 29:x). Thus, these verses apply only to the exiled Israelites living in the sixth century B.C. — non to usa, or so it is claimed. "Pay attention to the context!" is the reminder they offer, and, truthfully, a reminder that all of us need to hear.

But I think that there is a bit more to consider in biblical interpretation. The dissenters are correct that the literary context (the verses surrounding these verses) connects the reader to a particular historical context, that is, return from the Babylonian exile. It can exist terribly frustrating (maddening, actually) to heed to people interpret the Bible who glibly ignore literary and historical contexts. Only are those ii contexts (the literary and historical contexts) the just 2 contexts you demand to pay attention to when reading Scripture?

No, at that place is another context that is crucial if you want to read the Bible well. That context is the canonical context, or, labeled differently, the whole-Bible context. The whole-Bible context is the context you work with to identify patterns and themes that run through (you guessed information technology…) the whole Bible and pay attention to whether such themes are also present in the verses y'all are trying to interpret. If whole-Bible themes run through the verses to which you are attending, then it is proper — even necessary — to telephone call out such patterns and themes — non as the master pregnant of the verses, simply as a proper broadening of the meaning that connects specific verses to the overall narrative and teaching of the whole Bible.

Are there such whole-Bible patterns and themes that appear in these verses from Jeremiah 29? Yes. There are at least four.

  1. God makes promises that are good, and intends to fulfill them (verse 11) (compare ane Kings eight:56; Psalm 105:eight-10; Jeremiah 32:42; Luke 24:49; Rom 11:29).
  2. God listens to his people when they pray (verse 12) (compare ii Chronicles 7:12-16; Psalm 34:15; Matthew seven:11; James 5:14-18).
  3. God allows his people to notice him when they seek him (verse 13) (compare Deuteronomy 4:29-31; 1 Chronicles sixteen:11-17; Isaiah 51:one-3; 55:6; Matthew seven:7).
  4. God repeatedly rescues his people out of exile (verse 14) (compare Exodus two:23; Psalm 144:11; Ezekiel 34:x-22; Colossians i:13; 1 Peter 1:1).

Whatsoever fourth dimension we fail to pay attention to the literary and historical contexts of Jeremiah 29:11-thirteen, we deserve the wrist-slap nosotros've been getting from teachers who complain that we have been misinterpreting these verses. Even so, it turns out that the principal ideas establish in these verses are consequent with the canonical (whole-Bible) context. Consequently, these verses practise communicate words of encouragement that God'southward people can draw upon for encouragement in their daily lives, not considering the verses offering such encouragement direct, only considering they practise then in chat with patterns and themes that course their way throughout the whole Bible.[i]

Notes

[1] Now, if people take this passage to mean that they individually will prosper (say, materially or vocationally), then that is a different kind of error altogether. I have left that event out of today'due south post to brand the betoken about the need to pay attention to the broader approved context of the Bible.

This postal service and other resource are available at Kindle Afresh: The Blog and Website of Kenneth Berding.