The thing about Christian book shops is that they sell an awful lot of other things besides books. I realise they exist in a very competitive market and that they have to diversify in order to survive; it’s a tough world out there.
However, I’ve never been a great one for Christian CDs and such like. When asked my favourite Christian artist, I tend to reply J. S. Bach, which confuses some people. I think they wonder whether he is a new singer-songwriter that they haven’t come across yet.
Likewise, I don’t really have much time to posters of beautiful scenes with inspirational quotes written across them. I prefer my landscapes unadorned by typography. Time won’t allow me to comment on Bible key rings, religious place-mats and the like. That being said, if other people like these things and are willing to part with their hard-earned cash in order to buy them, that’s fine. Especially if it means that bookshops can survive and continue to sell Bibles, good books and such like.
However, I couldn’t resist making a comment about this mug which I recently found in an emporium selling Christian wares. Let it be said, it looks a fine mug; big enough to keep even me supplied with tea at breakfast time. However, I do find Jeremiah 29:12 to be a strange bible verse to put on a mug. I wrote about this verse earlier this year:
This verse is often quoted to indicate that although an individual or group of people might be going through a tough time, everything will work out all right in the end. The problem is, this passage wasn’t written to that particular individual or group, it was written for an entirely different bunch of people altogether and there is nothing about this passage which says that it can be applied generally. What’s more, this is only a partial quote. The preceding verse indicates that the nation of Judah will be in exile for 70 years before God’s plans come into effect. Almost everyone to whom this encouraging passage was originally addressed would be dead long before the encouragement came true.
I do hope that people who drink from this particular cup won’t find themselves living in exile for seventy years!
29 replies on “Tea and Exile”
Guess the message about taking scripture out of context hasn’t ‘percolated’ down to the masses yet!
@kouya maybe an updated translation of Jer 29:5? Built houses…plant gardens…eat…and make tea?
Looking around the bookstall at Spring Harvest this year I was staggered as to how much “Christian” tat there is for people to buy.
Hi Ed,
I would just like to put the case for the defence on this one – not the mugs, but the verse. Especially since we have just stuck it up in our church entrance!
Jeremiah spoke into a specific moment in the history of God’s people. So his promise was literally true for them, given the caveat of a 70 year exile. So how do we apply it today? I think it shows the character of God and his purposes for his people; it’s a wonderful alternative way to express John 3:16 – he gives sinners from every tribe, tongue and nation, a hope and a future. So Jeremiah 29 parallels NT gospel promises; you even get an exile – the gap between my effective call to repentance and faith and walking through them pearly gates!
So while we do need to be careful how we use a verse like this, I think it is still a legitimate way to encourage believers today, especially if (as we have done) you include the rest of the sentence, ‘If you seek me, you will find me, if you seek me with all your heart’.
In my experience (and I have had a lot recently) anyone who has done Hermenutics 101 feels they have a right to have a pop at Christians using this verse. Most hermeneutics teachers seem to use this verse as a classic of it’s kind; a common exegetical error. I disagree!
Thanks for the comment, though and please order me half a dozen of those mugs; in Sunderland, we need all the hope we can lay our hands on!
There’s another way to look at this, chaps.
Forgive my ignorance, but surely, on that premise, we might as well not apply any of the bible to our lives as it is all written historically and to the people of that time? Amanda
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Thanks for the comment, Dave. I thoroughly agree with you that this whole passage does prefigure the New Testament promises, but we’ll have to disagree about whether it is appropriate to extract this segment and put it on a mug or church entrance.
Amanda, we always have to read Scripture in context and understand it from the background against which it was written. Above all, this means reading it in the large chunks (a technical term used by those of us who have done hermenuetics 101 🙂 ) that it was originally written in. The message in Jeremiah is a complex one that shows both the mercy and justice of God; but this only emerges if you read the context.
His plans for your mug.
Again, I was kind of surprised to hear this verse quoted at me when I was catching up w an elderly Christian man at my church recently when he was offering me sympathy for my health issues. If I had a penny (no, pound) for every time I’ve had this verse quoted at me in the last few years…
Dave could be right; maybe we’re about to experience the wrath of God! Of course we shouldn’t worry too much because He knows the plans He has for us..!
I’m going to be frank, chaps. Though the verse was spoken to Jerusalem all those years ago, it neatly sums up God’s promises to us in the gospel today. The older Christian quoting these words to encourage may have more spiritual nous than the fine-tuned exegete..
I don’t disagree with the first part of what you say Dave and I would also agree that there are times when it is appropriate to use Scripture out of context (Jesus did, after all). However, we’ll just have to disagree about making this a generalisation.
Thanks Eddie..I agree we need to know it all in context, however, if it does not speak and apply to us today, then there is absolutely no point in reading it at all, apart from gaining historical knowledge.
Dave, this verse was “given” to the son of a friend of ours who was killed only a few days later in the 7/7 bombings. It caused his mother a considerable amount of anguish before God until someone pointed out to her that it was given to the people of Israel as a group. The best we could do would IMO be to apply it to the Church. It is difficult from context to apply it to individuals.
Dave is right in a sense: in a general way God does tell us to settle down and make a home in a land not our own, with confidence that God has a better future planned. But, on the other hand, as Ian noted, it won’t do to speak such verses over individuals because that kind of specificity does violate the context, and besides, as Ian’s example shows, who could possibly know what’s in store for a given individual anyway!?
Only to be given to exiles.
Aren’t we all in exile at the moment?
I think we probably are…
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I think we are all agreed on a number of things: First, that some Christians can use scripture ‘fortune cookie’ style and that this is unhelpful/wrong/dangerous/upsetting or all of the above. Second, God spoke those words to Jeremiah for Israel and that they have something in them for us too. Third, we arenot sure what that is!
So here’s my take as explained to 150 school kids who visited our church last week. ‘We put this verse in the entrance to our church for a reason’ ‘The people of Jerusalem though they had no future, they lived in a wrecked city and had no hope. God spoke to change their view of the future. We live in a ruined city – Sunderland – and I bet most of you think it’s rubbish compared to Newcastle or Durham. Well we think this city has a future, and the message of Jesus is the key to it: the gospel gives us hope in hopless times and, as Jeremiah says, ‘If you seek me you will find me if you seek me with all your heart’.
How did I do?
Dave, that is a great application because you are applying it to a group of people and not to an individual. Can I borrow it? 🙂
For what it’s worth I think you did very well. But I don’t think it’s a given that every OT passage etc. must have such a specific application today. It’s part of the big story; it teaches something important about the way God engages with the world and his people, but there’s no intrinsic reason to think that we must find a perfect counterpart for every passage today. We can appreciate it and take comfort/hope in the kind of God we have and then get on with making our own way in the character and spirit of the scriptural record. (In my humble opinion.)
I like what you did with the passage, Dave. I think it respects the full context of restoration from suffering and exile. The fact that you interpret it this way within the context of a church is very different to the depersonalised mugs. I also love the message of hope for Sunderland.
I think the discussions here will probably result in another blog post at some point in the near future.
I know there’s a ton of stuff online about this but I found this article helpful http://qideas.org/articles/oh-the-places-youll-go-basic-instructions-for-exile/
I’m not sure about exile. Is ‘exile’ really the best analogy to describe our present circumstances as the people of God? Surely exile suggests punishment, discipline, alienation? A life less than God’s best?
Ian, of course you can use it. Just ket me have your email so I can invoice you. Nev, I think you are right.