Jeremiah 29:11 is a wonderful Scripture even when isolated but when we understand it in the place where it originally belongs, we see why the Lord said what He said to Israel and not specifically to NT believers. Although it will have implications later on.
Jeremiah 29:11-14 (NKJV)
"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.
Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive."
It's a 100% guarantee that anyone that used this text never read chapter 28.
There's nothing wrong with isolating a text so long as the isolation doesn't take you on a wild goose chase. You stay within contextual boundaries and not create an inharmonious narrative.
Harmony and balance of the Scriptures must be maintained.
When isolating this text, it's connected to chapter 28. Usually when we're dealing with chapters and verses, sometimes the next chapter gives the appearance of a different train of thought. This is why sometimes, certain texts are isolated and it gives a different understanding.
That's why it's always good to read a few verses above and then read a few verses below unless, comprehensively, there's definitely a new train of thought.
Just before we get to chapter 28, I did a little study about chapters and verses. The OT is different than the NT and the Jews have a system where certain Scriptures in the OT could be located. Jews reject the NT because they consider Christ Jesus as not the true Messiah. The Lord Jesus is known to the Jews as the God of the Christians because the Lord our God is One, but this is another subject.
From Wikipedia ............"The first English New Testament to use the verse divisions was a 1557 translation by William Whittingham (c. 1524–1579). The first Bible in English to use both chapters and verses was the Geneva Bible published shortly afterwards by Sir Rowland Hill[22] in 1560. These verse divisions soon gained acceptance as a standard way to notate verses, and have since been used in nearly all English Bibles and the vast majority of those in other languages."
In the OT,
"Passukim....In Masoretic versions of the Bible, the end of a verse, or sof passuk, is indicated by a small mark in its final word called a silluq (which means "stop")."
Parashot..........The Masoretic Text also contains sections, or portions, called parashot or parashiyot. The end of a parashah is usually indicated by a space within a line (a "closed" section) or a new line beginning (an "open" section).
Sedarim............Another division of the biblical books found in the Masoretic Text is the division into sedarim. This division is not thematic, but is almost entirely based upon the quantity of text.[citation needed] For the Torah, this division reflects the triennial cycle of reading that was practiced by the Jews of the Land of Israel."
So the next obvious question is...........what's "The Masoretic Text[a] (MT or 𝕸; Hebrew: נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, romanized: Nūssāḥ hamMāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible(Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism."
I didn't know this.
Armed with this information, we could see why people misunderstand Jeremiah 29:11.
When we don't study the text in light of the other texts, or we deliberately isolate the text, it's easy to misunderstand what the text really means. I understand why we do it.
Everyone else does it to sound "DEEP."
Many preachers and teachers, including myself, have isolated verse 11 and taught it in such a way that it only means about me and God's plans and purposes for my life.
But if you were to read Ephesians chapter 1, the NT believer can see that the Lord preplanned and predestined our lives before the foundation of the world to be manifested AFTER we have come into Christ just for His glory ALONE.
Ephesians 1:3-11 (NKJV)
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will,
according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.
In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will..."
Before we were in Christ, we were dead in trespasses and sin.
But now Paul said in Ephesians 2:1-3 (NKJV) "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others."
But now being that we're in Christ because of His grace and mercy.........
Ephesians 2:8-10 (NKJV) "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
Contrast this with what took place in Jeremiah 28.
A false lying prophet that the Lord didn't send told the children of Israel that the Lord would return the children of Israel from the land of Babylon in two years after breaking the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar. Hananiah spoke lies and he paid for it with his life. Then the Lord spoke through the real prophet that was sent and reminded the children of Israel that they would remain in Babylon for 70 years.
If we were to understand the Babylonian captivity, it's the place where the end time timeline would be established. In Daniel chapter 9 we see the complete timeline of Israel that reveals the complete timeline of the whole world.
Daniel 9:1-2 (NKJV) "In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem."
In Jeremiah 25 and Jeremiah 30 we see that 70 years is ordained as the plan for Israel.
From 586 BC to 515 BC, the children of Israel were exiled to Babylon. 2 Chronicles 36 and Jeremiah 52 reminds us why the children of Israel were exiled to Babylon.
After Daniel prayed, Gabriel showed up and said these words.
Daniel 9:24-27 (NKJV) “Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.
“Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.
“And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate.”
So if you're wondering where the 7 year time of trouble came about, it's encapsulated in these verses. 70 weeks is the plan. But notice that the angel Gabriel said that there would be 7 weeks and 62 weeks. In Bible prophesy parlance, a week is 7 days, which is interpreted to be 7 years. 62 + 7 is 69. Then there would be one week that remains which is the 70th week.
The Messiah being cut off is the crucifixion of Christ.
The 7th week that's missing is the final week when the prince will establish a covenant with many but in the middle of the week (3.5 years), he will cut off sacrifice and offering. This 7 years or final week is a combination of "time, times, and half a time" X two. or 1,260 plus 1,260 or days, or 42 months plus 42 months. This is none other than the Book of Revelation chapters 5 through 19 coming to pass.
The middle of the week is the abomination of desolation that the Lord Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24 and it's called "great tribulation," which is further expounded upon in Revelation 13:11-18.
So the next time you read Jeremiah 29:11, make sure you do your homework and read Jeremiah 28.
The plan that the Lord has for Israel is what the Lord is speaking of.
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