Does God want you to prosper? How can you go about answering that question?<\/p>\n
Jeremiah 29:11 reads:<\/p>\n
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. (NIV)
\nAfter reading that, you might be tempted to conclude: \u201cOK! God wants me to be prosperous!\u201d<\/p>\n
Numerous churches teach such a doctrine. One website puts it this way:<\/p>\n
The Bible is the greatest book ever written on motivation, success and prosperity. It is the original source book for discovering the keys to successful living through the power of kingdom principles.
\nBy studying the Scriptures, you will come to understand that the prosperity of God is multi-dimensional. It is God’s will for us to prosper financially, to be in health, and for our souls to prosper (3 John 2). This is the three-part blessing of being obedient to His will and commands. God’s success plan for man encompasses the prospering of the spirit, soul and body with both spiritual and material blessings.
\nIs there anything wrong with this? Doesn\u2019t God want to bless His people financially as well as spiritually? In particular, doesn\u2019t Jeremiah 29:11 say explicitly that God plans to prosper us?<\/p>\n
Over the course of the next three weekly devotions, we will look at this precious verse. While we won\u2019t try to address the entire topic, the exposition of this verse will show clearly the direction we should take in understanding all such promises. Our goal as always is to learn what God is telling us through His Word, and thus to take to heart His very precious promises \u2013 promises that, as we shall see, are quite different from what they might appear to be after a casual reading.<\/p>\n
We want to \u201crightly divide the Word of Truth\u201d (2 Timothy 2:15), rather than to misinterpret that Word. How can you tell if someone is misinterpreting a verse? How can you be careful not to misinterpret verses yourself?<\/p>\n
Consider these three helpful (but not exhaustive!) rules:<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s do that for this verse.<\/p>\n
Read the Context<\/strong> Seven years later, in 598-7 BC, Nebuchadnezzer returns, after the Judean king foolishly stops paying tribute. This time he deposes the king, sets up his own puppet from the Judean royal family, and takes thousands more into exile. Jeremiah remains in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s text is part of a letter Jeremiah wrote to the exiles in Babylon three years later. False prophets in Babylon and Jerusalem were claiming that the captivity was going to be very short \u2013 that God would break the power of Nebuchadnezzer and send the captives back to Jerusalem soon. In effect, they were saying, \u201cGod will prosper both you exiles and Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n In chapter 29, Jeremiah clearly says, \u201cNo! God is not going to prosper Jerusalem during the next several years. Don\u2019t think you\u2019re coming back soon \u2013 live out a normal life in Babylon!\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s a little bit of context \u2013 which alone calls into question the \u201cGod wants to prosper us\u201d interpretation.<\/p>\n Check the Translation<\/strong> \u201cProsper you\u201d in the NIV becomes \u201cwelfare\u201d and \u201cwholeness\u201d in the other two translations. According to Webster\u2019s, \u201cprosperity\u201d means \u201cthe condition of being successful or thriving; especially economic well-being.\u201d That is certainly not what \u201cwholeness\u201d means, and even \u201cwelfare\u201d has quite different connotations. In general, an interpretation that is based solely on one translation is likely to be suspect.<\/p>\n This indicates that learning the specific Hebrew word might be helpful. As it turns out, in this case the Hebrew word is one you may already know:\u00a0Shalom<\/em>. Normally this word is translated \u201cpeace\u201d, but it has a much wider range of meaning than the English word \u201cpeace\u201d. The\u00a0Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament<\/em> describes\u00a0shalom<\/em>this way: : \u201cCompleteness, wholeness, harmony, fulfillment. . . . Unimpaired relationships with others and with God.\u201d<\/p>\n So our English word \u201cprosperity\u201d is not a good match for\u00a0shalom<\/em> in this context. For in English, the primary meaning of \u201cprosperity\u201d is economic well-being, with some overtones of happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction. But for\u00a0shalom<\/em> the primary meaning is being in good relationships with others and with God, with some overtones of other sorts of welfare: absence of war, economic success.<\/p>\n So the biblical context and the historical context as well as the meaning of the Hebrew word all serve to undermine the interpretation that God wants all of His people to have economic prosperity.<\/p>\n Next week we\u2019ll ask the question: To whom is God promising\u00a0shalom<\/em>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Does God want you to prosper? How can you go about answering that question? Jeremiah 29:11 reads: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNebuchadnezzer, King of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem for the first time in 605 BC. The king of Judah paid tribute and promised future payments to entice him to withdraw. The Babylonian did so, but took some exiles away to Babylon. Shortly before Nebuchadnezzer attacked, Jeremiah prophesied that it would happen, and that the exiles would remain in Babylon for 70 years (Jeremiah 25).<\/p>\n
\nBut what about translation? Obviously knowing the original language helps, but everyone can look at different English translations. Consider these three translations:<\/p>\n\n