Daily Devotional For Saturday, January 6, 2024

Throughout my life, especially as a teen and a college student, my youth pastor and college leaders would give us verses to claim and apply to our lives. And what I discovered is that there were times I misused that verse because I totally did not understand the context of it. Going to seminary helped me with this. Having to learn the original languages of Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament, as well as biblical backgrounds, gave me a better basis to see my error and the error of others. 

Take for example a verse that was shared with me when I hit a low point in life. Depending on which translation you use, you can draw a different perspective.

• Jeremiah 29:11,  "I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for." (Good News Translation). -- "Prosperity? How much prosperity?" On the surface, how would you read this for your life?
• Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (The Living Bible). Protection from all evil? On the surface, how would you read this for your life?
• Jeremiah 29:11,"I will bless you with a future filled with hope—a future of success, not of suffering" (Contemporary English Version). -- no suffering at all? That certainly never matches my experience of growing up in a violent, abusive alcoholic home. On the surface, how would you read this for your life?
• Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (English Standard Version). What kind of welfare? On the surface, how would you read this for your life?

As you can tell reading each of these different translations, you can draw all kinds of conclusions. This is where knowing and understanding the context helps. The context of this promise from God was given to Israel after God had destroyed them for their sin. God allowed the Assyrians in 722 BC to conquer them under Sargon II and then Shalmanezer V. And when Israel would not repent, God then allowed Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar to conquer Assyria and Israel in 3 major campaigns in 606 BC, 589 BC and then 586 BC. Thousands were forced to walk across the desert from Israel to Babylon. A distance of 500 miles. Many died in the desert. Not one Babylonian soldier wept nor cared.

In Ezekiel 37, God gave a vision and prophecy to the prophet Ezekiel that allowed him to see the rotting corpses or bones of these dead Jews. God told Ezekiel that one day God would bring life to these bones -- meaning -- one day God would restore Israel. In 539 BC Persia conquered Babylon and in 537 BC, Persia allowed Jewish exiles to start returning to Israel and Judah. It would be another 400 years before "these dry bones" would have life. 

In 137 BC, a Syrian king named Antiochus IV, upon conquering Judah, when he entered Jerusalem, he slaughtered a pig on the Altar of the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. This so enraged the Jews, especially a Jewish family called the Maccabees, to lead a revolt and defeated Syria and won their independence back. A revival broke out as Jews were repenting. They remained a free state until 63BC, when Rome conquered them. Why? They rebelled and sinned against God. The point that Jeremiah 29:11 is making is that God is our future and our hope. Do you believe this?

Jeremiah 29:11 is the fulfillment of the revolt led by the Maccabees. This verse is not some all-kind of heavenly promise of prosperity, happiness, riches, wealth and no suffering and complete protection from evil. It was a prophecy about a revolt and a revival God knew would take place nearly 400 years later in the future. God has not called us to experience the rich, joyful, stress free American dream. In fact, sometimes it will include suffering, loss, death, grief, pain, and hardship. Sometimes, this may exceed the number of those stress free moments of joy, happiness, and living as if we do not have a care or worry in the world. So, how would you respond to these questions?:

1. God has not promised us a rich life, which is the lie from those wealth, name-it-claim-it, preachers. But God has promised us a redeemed life. What is the difference and how does this affect your relationship and trust of God?
2. God does know the plans He has for you, are you willing to live with that, even if it includes suffering?
3. 1 Peter 2:19-21 says, "For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. (20) For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. (21) For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps" (ESV). What does it mean to you ". . .  so that you might follows in His steps" and why?
4. One of the misunderstandings that Jeremiah 29:11 creates is that it if we are not careful, we are prone to evaluate God and His promises solely by earthly standards, not heavenly ones. If you have been a victim of some of the dangers from these misunderstandings, how did you handle it and what was the final outcome?
5. One of the things God has promised us that when we are suffering, in pain, experiencing hurt, and going through the storms of life, He has promised to help us find a future and hope where we reside IN HIM. Emphasis on "IN HIM!" How does this help you?

Read what King David affirms in this Scripture: Psalm 139:13-18, "For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother's womb. (14)  I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well. (15)  My frame was not hidden from You, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. (16)  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (17)  How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! (18)  If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with You" (ESV). 

David's point is that since God is Creator, He does have plans for us and a future for us, and those plans and future are more about how our relationship to God and our salvation should take precedence over any wealth, fame, success and riches. What are some Bible verses that you have struggled with in your walk with God. Will you trust God? Will you accept God's plan for your life if it includes suffering? 

Scripture to Meditate On: Philippians 3:10-11, "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death, (11) that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead" (ESV).

Prayer To Pray: "Dear Jesus, the point you are making in Philippians 3:10-11, is that You are more interested in developing my character rather than keeping me comfortable. Whatever future you have for me, whatever Your hope you have planned for me, I accept it, even if it includes suffering. I want my character to resemble Your character. I do not want to resemble my culture, but I want to resemble the person that Luke 9:23 says: "One who is denying himself, taking up his cross daily, so I can follow You." Thank You, in Jesus' name, Amen!"