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| Photo Credit Seph Robinson |
"A penny saved is a penny earned."
"Good things come to those who wait."
"It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."
Ah, we have all heard a million proverbs and sayings and feel good expressions. They comfort us and give us insight. Sometimes they just make things easier to explain or they defend a point we are trying to make. "Anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger", is a particular favorite of mine.
As Christians we have our own set of verses that we use as clichés and platitudes. We use these verses without really thinking about what they mean, where they come from or whom they were originally meant for. And we don't just use these verses as sayings we claim them as promises.
What I am wondering is when we "claim" "promises" from the Bible, do we really know what the passage means? And is it really a promise for us?
For example what about the well loved and prosaic Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord. 'They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."? We as Christians love this verse.
Someone having a bad day? A bad week? A bad year? Well here is Jeremiah 29:11!
Someone struggling to find God's will for their life? Jeremiah 29:11!
Someone graduating from High School/College? Jeremiah 29:11!
Someone going through a loss? Jeremiah 29:11!
It is handy, encouraging and poetic, how can we not love this verse? How could it possibly not apply to us in our current situation? It has to be talking about me because I want it to be talking about me, right?
Now before you get angry or think I'm being flippant let me explain I am not necessarily saying that this verse doesn't apply to the above situations... I just wonder why we assume it does instead of researching it ourselves.
We should know the Bible and its context instead of taking one pretty verse here and one pretty verse there and sprinkling them around like fairy dust and happy thoughts.
Can you tell me what the rest of Jeremiah 29 says? (some of you are shouting, "Yes I can actually!" which is great, but I certainty couldn't have). So for those of you who don't know (like I didn't), Go read Jeremiah 29:1-23. It is a letter from Jeremiah "to the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar."[1]
Basically at this time, much of Israel has been exiled by a heathen King and are no longer inhabiting the Holy Land, there are a bunch of false prophets and such telling the Israelites what is going on, but Jeremiah is writing to them to set the story straight, [2]
So this passage is a letter to exiled Israel, God's chosen people.
This letter does a few main things. It gives a great deal of instruction as to what Israel should do while in exile, it gives warnings to the nation of Israel (false prophets remember), it tells of Israel's future, and it gives Israel promises.
The promise part is the passage we like to quote. The "I know the plans" and the "future and a hope" parts. But what about the rest? Why is it that we assume Jeremiah 29:11 is talking about us, right now, in the 21st century?
If this passage is talking to us shouldn't we also obey the commands given in it? Shouldn't we "build homes, and plan to stay", "Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce" shouldn't we "marry and have children." and "multiply!". [3]
Not that these are bad things at all, but are we, right now, in the 21st century being commanded to do these things?
What about the prophecies in Jeremiah 29? Are we going to "be in Babylon for seventy years" before our exile ends? That doesn't even make sense for us today, so we skim over that part.
What about the parts of the letter talking about the kings of the day or the prophets it mentions by name? This is a very detailed letter written to a very specific people in a very distinct time. So why do we assume the good parts apply to us? Why do I think God is telling me right now that He is going to prosper me?
I'm not saying this verse isn't meant for us now, I am just honestly asking why we assume it does when the rest of the passage is clearly talking to exiled Jews living in 625-536 BC? Do we claim this verse because of course God has a future and a hope for us? Or because we are modern day Israel? Or because Christians have always used it this way?
I don't mean to pick on this verse alone. It was the first example I thought of when it came to taking particular verse and using it because it sounds good. I am wary of taking a verse or so of scripture that is part of a fuller passage and using it to mean what I hope it means.
I guess I understand if you believe this verse is meant for us because God having a future and a hope for us is true to His character. Of if you know this verse is backed up by other verses and references to God's love and plans for us. That's good, that means you are studying the whole of God's words instead of picking at it like a child only eating the parts of the meal she likes.
See I sometimes struggle with God's plans for my life so I want to know that God's promises to in His word are for me because I've studied them. I want to know what verses are really meant for me because God intended it, not just because Christians like to use them as taglines or clichés.
What about you? Don't you want to know what God is telling you from His word? Instead of what people are telling you God is telling you from His word? I guess in the end, I think it is okay to question the Christian cliché, because God's word is meant to be so much more than that.
** Side note: I wrote this at a very late hour... or early depending on how you look at it, so please ignore the ramblingness of it and the typos.
