RESOURCES — SHORT ARTICLES

 

SHORT ARTICLES BY TOM ELSEROAD
	2020-06-03	I Know the Thoughts That I Think Toward You (Je.29:11)
		Jer 29:1 Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried away captive—to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. Jer 29:10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 is likely one of the most misapplied verses in all the Bible. Read by itself, without its context, it sounds like a wonderful promise to claim. And we know God loves us and does what is best for us, so this verse just sounds great! As soon as we apply this promise for Israel to ourselves we are taking it out of context. The verse starts out with the word “For”. For is used to connect what he is about to say with what he just said. In other words verse 11 must be connected to verse 10. Verse 11 is in the middle of a thought. It is interesting that no one wants to quote verse 10. If one did consider verse 10 it changes the thought altogether. You would recognize it is referring to the Jews who were currently in captivity. God promises to take them out of captivity. Even the 70-year duration is based specifically on Judah's disobedience of not giving the land its sabbath rest (Lv.25:1-7; 26:33-35; 2Ch.36:20-21). So the captivity is God's discipline upon Judah. In fact, this does not apply to the northern tribes of Israel. Who is the “you” in the verse? Answer, it is not us. It is the entire nation of Judah who are in bondage. Even before they went into captivity, God tells them He will restore them. This is a promise to someone else's generation back in 586BC. Allow me to illustrate the faulty logic in applying this verse to believers today. If you want to claim Jeremiah 29:11 as a promise to you, then when does your 70 year captivity begin? That is what the promise was about. God would deliver them specifically from the 70-year captivity in Babylon (Je.25:11-12). The purpose of the exile in Babylon was to teach Judah to come back to her God. We today want the promise without the problem. This is like saying I want God to do a miracle in my life but I do not want to need one. Most of those this was spoken to did not see the promise take place. They would not come back to the land of Israel. So most did not experience this promise in their lives, because they died during the 70-year captivity. The church has no land promises (v.10, “return to this place”). All our promises are spiritual in nature. When we apply verses specifically for Israel to ourselves we are embracing a form of replacement theology. Replacement Theology is the belief that God has no plan for Israel, and that all her promises now apply to the church. This is called “spiritualizing” the text. There are verses for Israel that do not apply to the church, and there are verses for the church that do not apply to Israel. We take Scripture seriously. There are many promises God made with Israel that have yet to be fulfilled. We believe they will be fulfilled in the future for Israel, and not for the church. We need to learn, with verses we really like, that the verses mean more when we keep them in context. Pastor Tom Elseroad

 

An Evangelical Free Church of America

23304 E Wellesley Ave. Otis Orchards, WA 99027 Church Office: 509.926.9552 Church Cell: 509.342.9145 Pastor Cell: 509.828.8843 tomelseroad@gmail.com