What Does This Text Mean? Jeremiah 29:11
The following is a conversation between Costi Hinn and Andrew Curry:
“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Costi Hinn:
Andrew, many people will put Jeremiah 29:11 somewhere in their homes or on their social media because it's got some amazing words that God has plans to prosper us. All of these good things it seems God is promising to do for us. So many people say, "Well, that's for me. That's my life verse." Now, you're going to step on some toes here, but I think this is helpful. We want to understand the promises of God. God's blessing and prosperous ways are good. We want to accept His good gifts. But how should, Americans especially, approach Jeremiah 29:11 and what it's saying? Are there promises and principles of God doing good things for us and prospering us?
Andrew Curry:
Yeah, it is a wonderful verse. I think it's even more wonderful when we understand the world that it's being spoken into. Jeremiah is called "the weeping prophet" because he ministers amid apathy and the judgment that is falling upon Israel. If we can get into that world and read around that particular verse, it's a devastating section of Scripture. It's all about destruction, pain, and hopelessness that has resulted because of a right punishment that God has brought upon the people. Yet, amid that justice of God, Jeremiah is saying, "this is not the end".
God is telling the faithful who are amid the desolation of the nation, "God's promises have not been removed. They've not been snatched away. The God who said He would bring them back to the land, He will bring them back." And sure enough, later on in God's revelation, He will, after the 70 years of exile.
However, that doesn't change the pain and the difficulty. It's not a time of prosperity and that tomorrow night, Jeremiah is going to sit down and eat steak. That's not what's being talked about. It's a way bigger and more wonderful thing than that.
It's the fact that our sin and stubbornness that have resulted in Him having to punish us here and now, haven't whitewashed the promises of God. They still stand, and God will still bring all of the fullness of what He has said to the Old Testament nation of Israel.
So if we can see that and then bring that point into our world, I think that's tremendous. You think of our world today, you look at the media, you look at everything that's going on and how anti-God it all seems to be. And the breakdown of ethics and the brokenness that we feel all the time in our communities around us. It's hard. We should be weeping prophets like Jeremiah. We should have heavy hearts about the nature of the world that we're in.
But we are not hopeless. Why? Because His kingdom will come. God will accomplish all that He wants to accomplish. All who Christ has died for will be saved. And so ours is not a hopeless world. Our world may look very hopeless and broken right now, and yet we can have all confidence that every promise God has given to us for the church at this time will come to pass. For the promise-making God is a promise-keeping God. That's the point of Jeremiah.
Costi Hinn:
Amazing. So not so much about the American Dream now and having more material goods, thinking God's going to bless me with a beautiful home, a great family, two and a half kids, and a white picket fence. But more so, looking forward to the eternal promises of God and spiritual gifts that can never be taken.
Andrew Curry:
It has nothing to do with the sports car that you want to get. It has everything to do with the kingdom that will come and Him using us, making us ready, and preparing His people for that great event.
