It's Not You, It's Me

I was recently reading Deut. 33 and in it is detailed many blessings and curses for those that are obedient or disobedient. The obedient were on the receiving end of all kinds of positive things. The disobedient got all kinds of promises of disease or death, pestilence, etc.

It made me think of the way that many folks take a promise of God out of context and try to apply it to their own life. We would not dare take the curses as promises for us, because it is clear, looking at the context, that it is not for us (plus it is negative). If we would not accept the negative promises of God as our own, why do we accept the positive promises as our own without the same consideration?

I wonder if it is because we think we deserve all the blessings of God because we are so good, and God would surely not punish our disobedience to His holy, righteous law because of all the good we usually do.

I was thinking also of the promises to the Israelites for the promised land. We like to claim the promises for the promised land for ourselves, but not the promises to Moses, that he will not make it into the Promised land because of his disobedience. I think the same applies with Jeremiah 29, that I've addressed before...We like Jer. 29:11, where God has a good plan for us, but shouldn't also claim Jer. 29:17- thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Behold, I am sending upon them a sword, famine and pestilence, and I will make them like split-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness.

Can we have it both ways? Can we claim promises of God that seem to be for someone else entirely? If we can, why not the promises of destruction for our disobedience also?

I wish we could claim some of these things as our own, but I am not at liberty to take something out of context and apply it to myself, no matter how encouraged it makes me feel...But we are called to rightly handle the Word of God and I don't think this does it.

Jeremiah 29:11 as a Life Verse?

This is a good look at using Jer. 29:11 as a life verse for us. I am not advocating that we cannot learn something from all Scripture, but we certainly must be careful to read ourselves into passages, especially in light of real life. Otherwise, our life may look like God does not keep His "promises". The martyrs' lives may look like God does not keep His promises. When God promises something, He will most certainly keep His Word.

DB

JEREMIAH 29:11 AS A LIFE VERSE?
by Lisa Robinson July 18th, 2012
(Lisa Robinson)

As a follow to this post on life verses, I’ve been reminded that Jeremiah 29:11 is a fairly common one claimed as a personal, individual promise. But is Jeremiah 29:11 a promise for us today or was it related to a particular situation at a particular time? Was it an individual promise or a corporate promise?  Voddie Baucham has some interesting things to say in this 6 minute clip. (Although I wish he would have left out the God killing part given controversy over recent statements).



Examining vs 11 in context of the entirety of what Jeremiah tells a different story than how the verse has been claimed. It’s why I wrote here that we have to careful when turning narrative or prophetic discourse into a personal prescription for today. As Baucham points out, it can have very harmful consequences.
What do you think? I would be interested to hear a defense for using it today.