Jer 29:11, Vol. 1. Does God have a plan for you?

I have begun my study of Jer. 29:11 in earnest. For those who don't know, I am working on two papers for an academic conference in March. One of them will be an exegetical study of Jer. 29:11, asking "What does Jer. 29:11 mean?" The other will look at how Jer. 29:11 has been used in the church, in various ministries, and by individual Christians. I have intentionally written Jer. 29:11 several times in this first paragraph because I wanted to represent the ubiquitous nature of Jer. 29:11 in today's evangelical church. In coming weeks, I will probably address the verse several times in the blog, as well as in my sermon at Cypress Oaks Church on January 1. 


So, my question for today, "Does God have a plan for you?" Well, it depends. I suppose that we could read many scriptures to support the teaching that God has a plan. God's sovereignty demands at one level that God has a plan, theoretically. The problem here is what Walter Brueggemann calls individualization of scripture. You see, the "you" in Jer. 29:11 is plural, not singular. (In modern English, we do not distinguish second person in form, only in usage.) The promise in this verse was not to an individual, it was to the people of Israel, particularly to those in exile because of sin, but that will be another blog. We have a tendency to individualize everything in our culture. For instance, many people reading this blog believe that the Bible says to God, "Who am I, that you are mindful of me?" Actually, Psalm 8 says, "What is humanity, that you are mindful of him?" Again, we have taken a word about humanity in general and made it about the individual. And, Psalm 8 is not a promise at all, rather the psalmist is marveling that God would have any care about humanity. Why would the majestic, creator God, after all, care about this puny little mammal on a small seemingly insignificant planet in a huge universe? But, this blog was about Jer. 29:11, not Psalm 8, wasn't it? I ramble sometimes. ("Oooh, shiny!") 


To conclude, whatever Jer. 29:11 is about, I must believe that Jer. 29:11 is not a promise to every individual that God has a plan for his or her life. It may be true that God has a plan, but this is not the promise of Jer. 29:11. It just isn't. Well, more to come.