Coming to a greeting card near you

In our first hermeneutics class, we learned that context is key. Too often verses and even phrases within a verse are yanked out of their natural habitat and made to stand alone. While we may glean some benefit, there's a good chance we're in danger of losing the author's original meaning and unintentionally misusing the verse because we aren't connecting it to the surrounding verses, chapters, book, and ultimately the whole Bible.

I ran across one such verse in my daily reading:

“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27

Now wouldn't that be perfect for a greeting card? (In the NLT, of course.) The cover would have soothing pastel watercolors or a lovely nature photo. But if you continue reading beyond that one verse, it's not so positive and encouraging.

"Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it. The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods, to provoke me to anger.  For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth. The children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the Lord.  This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, so that I will remove it from my sight because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. " Jeremiah 32:28-32

How about this greeting card?

There's nothing too hard for the Lord. What He has purposed will come to pass even if it includes pouring judgment on His people for apostasy. By the way, it's coming. Have a nice day!

Somehow, I don't think this would sell very well.

I'm not against deriving comfort from the word of God, but I spent too many years reading the Bible for motivational snippets as though its main purpose is to give me a daily Hallmark® moment. Perhaps we would get more help by seeing the big picture of who God is and what He is doing throughout history, above and beyond ourselves and our circumstances.  It would certainly put our focus in the right place.

To make this text¹ mean something God did not intend is to abuse the text, not use it. To avoid making such mistakes one needs to learn to think exegetically, that is, to begin back then and there, and to do so with every text. 

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, Zondervan, 2003, pg. 25.
1. Fee and Stuart were referring to a misuse of 1 Thessalonians 5:22.