Jeremiah 29:11 by type shows us how God commits to his promise to save and the hope of the resurrection and entrance into the true Promised Land. Today, he still addresses us by his Spirit. We know that in the Old Testament, God speaks to us in the Son. The Holy Spirit tells us through the apostolic memoirs and writing. Jesus knows Psalm 110 records the Father speaking to the Son (Matt 22:41–46). Paul knows Christ was the rock Moses struck (10:4). Jude knows that Jesus led Israel out of Egypt (v. Paul can even cite a relatively unknown law like “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain” and say: “It was written for our sake” (1 Cor 9:9–10). But I suspect this will suffice to show that the inspired authors of the New Testament see the triune God speaking in the Old Testament, which addresses us directly. I could cite passage after passage to prove the point. The living word lives because the Spirit speaks directly to us in the Old Testament. In fact, the well-known passage, Hebrews 4:12, particularly means that God’s word is living because the Holy Spirit speaks to us in the Old Testament, often under the persons of the Father and Son as Hebrews 1 and 2 demonstrate. He repeats the word today three more times to make his point (3:15 4:6, 7). After citing Psalm 95, he writes, “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 3:13). If that were not obvious enough, the author of Hebrews understands the phrase “Today, if you hear his voice” in Psalm 95:7 to mean, well, Today (his day). The Holy Spirit speaks to us directly in Psalm 95 now, today, in the present. When the author writes, “as the Holy Spirit says,” he uses the present tense. In chapter 3, we learn that Psalm 95 addresses us directly and that the Spirit speaks in this psalm. Hebrews 1 and 2 answer by citing the Old Testament relentlessly, and interpreting these passages as either the Father speaking to the Son or the Son speaking directly (with the possible exception of Psalm 8). But now, the author claims, God speaks to us in the Son (Heb 1:2). It opens by telling us that God spoke in the past in various ways and parts. To make the case plainer, consider the Book of Hebrews. #Bible jeremiah 29 11 how to#Christians identify with heaven while living here on earth.īased on these parallels and more importantly based on the reality that the Old Testament was written entirely for us upon whom the ends of the ages have come to show us how to live the Christian life (1 Cor 9:10 1 Cor 10:11 Rom 15:4 Heb 1:2), Jeremiah 29 speaks to us as Christians. Hence, we are called exiles whose true home and citizenship are in heaven (1 Pet 2:11 Phil 3:20). The New Testament models the Christian’s existence in the world after Israel’s exile to the nations. The Lord God then tells the exiles how to live as exiles and sojourners in the world. Jeremiah sent a letter to these exilic Israelites, which contained an address from God. While many Israelites lived in exile and awaited their return to the Promised Land under the Davidic King, they for a time sojourned among the nations. Rather, I am persuaded that the whole Scripture addresses Christians, including Jeremiah 29:11. Not because I think it wise to ignore the historical context of Jeremiah 29 nor because I am unaware of the land promise to Israel. We may learn some principal lesson here about God fulfilling his promises, but we should not claim for ourselves. So, as the argument goes, Christians should not share this as a promise for them. Jeremiah 29 is a letter from Jerusalem to exiles, and the promise relates to God’s plan to return the exiles back to Judea after 70 years (Jer 29:10). While almost everyone recognizes the good desire here to share a promise from God’s word, some criticize Christians for doing so. The words Jeremiah 29:11 often encourages believers who experience difficulty, and they in turn share the verse with others to give hope when much in this world seems hopeless. 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 (Jer 29:11).
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