Understanding Historical Context
Within American Christianity, there is something called the health and wealth gospel. It is not self labeled but labeled by opponents, like myself, against this theology. It is a theology that states that anyone who is a believer and has enough faith can overcome everything in this life. Their life will be pain free and prosperous.
Anyone who has been a Christian for more than three days knows that God does not promise a pain free life for us. You know it because, as a christian, you have experienced pain. So, why do so many people buy into this false theology?
One passage that gets twisted to meet this faux theology is Jeremiah 29:11. It says, “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 hope.”
There are some who believe in “name it and claim it theology. This states that if you say “God please do it” He will do whatever you ask. Those who are “name it and claim it” Christians take this verse to mean that if they just have enough faith, they can claim this verse to overcome anything.
Those that take this passage this way miss something big right off the bat. A question that we should be asking ourselves when studying God’s Word is, “what is the historical context?” That might not have bearing on the passage, but it does a lot. To understand this question, we can ask several smaller questions. Who is this passage written to or about? Where are they at? What are their circumstances? And lastly, how did they get there?
In Jeremiah 29 the context is that Israel was enslaved by Babylon. They were not in Israel but held captive in Babylon. They were there because they had greatly sinned against God. Because of these circumstances, the promise of a future of hope and not evil is directly for this group of Israelites, which means it’s not specifically given for us.
The other thing to note is the surrounding context. What do the verses before and after this verse tell us. If we go back just one verse to Jeremiah 29:10 we will see that before the verse of hope, there was a verse of a curse. The prophet Jeremiah was telling them that they would be enslaved for 70 years before they would be free and have hope. This happened because at this time in history they had rejected God for about 500 years.
All of a sudden that verse that seems like a “name it and claim it” promise for us, is not at all. In fact it falls flat on its face with the health and wealth crowd. The historical context is important. People that don’t understand the context will miss that there are “consequences to health and wealth gospel as we have written before.
Now, we can still take principles from this passage. We can see that God will eventually bring His people back to Him. We see that even in our pain, whether it is present here on Earth or in the eternal state to come, He will make all things right one day. Revelation 21:5 talks about this. We just need to understand that this verse in Jeremiah isn’t a promise of a quick fix, or name it and claim it gets out of pain right away.
Think About It
Do you think about historical context when you are studying a passage?
Do you realize that not all promises in the Bible are directly for us?
Do you realize while this passage isn’t directly for us, God is for us and is working to overcome all evil one day?
If you are a Christian, do you believe He will make all things right for us one day?