Context, Context, Context

One of the first rules of Biblical interpretation is "what did the text mean in it's original setting".  It's all too easy to take passages of scripture out of their context.  For example, I recently received a note from someone where they quoted from Jeremiah, and the wonderful words:


Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
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.

What is to not like about those words.  They are hopeful promises that seem to say "hang in there, God will make it all ok...he's on your side."  Now, it's not as if I believe God is against me...it's just that this is not the main purpose of those words in their context.

Jeremiah was writing to a group of people who had been taken into captivity by the Babylonian armies - date, around 590 b.c.  What's interesting is that Jeremiah is writing to these people because he had previously written to them that they were going to go into captivity because of their disobedience.  Reading a passage in context is never optional to good interpretation...in fact, it's absolutely necessary!

Here's the context of those words in vs 11...read it all and notice the purpose of what he's saying.

Jeremiah 29:1-19 (NIV)
¹ This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
² (This was after King Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.)
³ He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It said:
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.
⁶ Marry 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.
⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."
⁸ Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have.
⁹ They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them," declares the LORD.
¹⁰ This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.
¹¹ 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.
¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
¹⁴ I 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."
¹⁵ You may say, "The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,"
¹⁶ but this is what the LORD says about the king who sits on David's throne and all the people who remain in this city, your countrymen who did not go with you into exile--
¹⁷ yes, this is what the LORD Almighty says: "I will send the sword, famine and plague against them and I will make them like poor figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.
¹⁸ I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth and an object of cursing and horror, of scorn and reproach, among all the nations where I drive them.
¹⁹ For they have not listened to my words," declares the LORD, "words that I sent to them again and again by my servants the prophets. And you exiles have not listened either," declares the LORD.

In the middle of the exile realities, God speaks to both explain the reasons, rebuke the false prophets who are saying 'this will all be over with soon', and make it clear that the time of exile will be kept.

Does God know the times?  Certainly.  But the cause of these problems clearly is the result of the nation's disobedience...not because God was arbitrary in purposing judgment.
Does God have plans for us?  Certainly.  Yet we are the ones who either cooperate with those plans or work against them...it's our choice.

Context, Context, Context...always absolutely necessary.

Peace