A Future and a Hope

A Future and a Hope

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

1st of all I am not a Hebrew or Aramaic scholar so I feel inadequate to start.

2nd I am fully aware this verse is pulled from a larger context. In context, this verse is about deliverance from Babylon. The Hebrews were in captivity in Babylon for 70 years. This whole Passage breaks in on the doom and gloom of their dark night with rays of hope beckoning a new dawn.

3rd To take this verse out of context and apply it in some personal sense with a devotional thought is something that irks me at times. I feel like it is sloppy hermeneutics.

4th I have softened my stance in recent years based on the concept of Reading Communities. In effect, the NT churches were Reading Communities. They would receive encyclicals, Epistles making the rounds. They would study the encyclicals and then they would pass them onto the next congregation. The goal was to interpret Scripture properly, no doubt. But a 2nd goal was to apply the Word to the local congregation. In other words, what is this encyclical speaking to us as a local body of believers? In this way, the overarching truths of Scripture are not forgotten, but local and personal meanings are established.

5th In light of Reading Communities I think it is okay to apply Jeremiah 29.11 personally. I have heard it preached and taught this way all my life.

6th Question: Could this promise be just as true for me today as it was for the Israelites who were hoping to be delivered from Babylon?

Sara Bareilles
Dear Hope

Answer: If we understand NT Reading Communities as a type of hermeneutic, then the answer is yes.

I have a future…

and a hope.

I have this, not of my own doing or because of my striving for success.

I have a future and hope simply because the Lord has called it into existence.

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