If you ask Christians in Singapore about their favourite Bible verse, chances are Jeremiah 29:11 will pop up.

“… For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

In fact, it was among Singapore’s most-shared verses in 2023.

It is not difficult to see why. A cursory reading of this verse makes us feel good because we walk away thinking: God has a great plan for my life.

But what if we have not truly understood Jeremiah 29:11? What we have been applying it all wrong?

Using this popular verse as a case study, Elvin and Esther Foong, co-founders of Kidmin Singapore (KidminSG), shared with almost 500 children’s ministry leaders and volunteers the importance of reading Scripture accurately.

“We need to recognise that right application only comes when we have a correct understanding of what God’s Word is saying. And correct understanding only comes when we learn how to read the Bible in a way that is faithful to what it is meant to say,” said Elvin. 

Speaking at KidminSG’s Equipping Workshop on Biblical Literacy held on 26 April at Singapore Bible College, Elvin gave a recent example that a parent recounted to him.

Mother and child were at a supermarket when they were given a lucky draw coupon. As the mum was completing the form, her daughter turned to her and said: “Mummy, Jeremiah 29:11 says, ‘God knows the plans He has for us; He wants to prosper us.’ So you fill this in, we will win right?”

As funny as that might sound, she is likely not the only one to have misinterpreted Jeremiah 29:11.

“We, knowingly or unknowingly, take the surface-level meaning of the verse and apply it to the situations that we face in life,” observed Elvin.

How then should we read the Bible in a way that we understand what it really means?

Elvin demonstrated how a simple framework of Read, Understand and Apply can be used to study the verse.

Read

“A lot of the time, the way we consume Scripture is very bite-sized. But context matters,” said Elvin.

Often just reading a little before and after would give you an idea of the focus of the chapters and the book that the verse is from.

For example, by looking at the 10 verses that come before Jeremiah 29:11, we know that this was a letter written by the prophet Jeremiah to exiles in Babylon with instructions on what they were supposed to do while being imprisoned in a foreign land.

“There is also a warning against false prophets who are rising up in the midst of the exiles, trying to tell them that it’s okay, that God is going to deliver them very quickly,” Elvin pointed out.

Instead, this is what the Lord said in verse 10: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfil my good promise to bring you back to this place.”

Understand

While readers often jump straight to the encouraging words found in Jeremiah 29:11, many miss the full meaning of the prophet’s message.

“The main message is judgement for disobedience, but also the promise of restoration, hope and a new covenant with God,” Elvin explained.

With some further reading and research, one would be able to learn that the people of Israel had brought judgement upon themselves.

They were idolatrous, even participating in child sacrifice rituals to foreign gods. They had also not been taking care of the marginalised among them.

In addition, the discouraged exiles were “tempted to believe that there was easy restoration” because of the false prophets who were feeding them lies.

With that in mind, what is Jeremiah 29:11 really about?

“When we read about the plans that God has, the plans are not just for future restoration, but include remaining in exile,” explained Elvin.

“The ‘you’ used is also not a singular ‘you’. It’s not meant to be an individualistic application of the promise of God. It’s corporate – it’s to the people of God.

“Lastly, the future and the hope are still there – there is still the promise of restoration in due time, but only if the people of God would repent and trust Him.”  

Apply

After understanding what this passage meant to the original audience, we can now move into what it means for us today.

Sharing his takeaway, Elvin said: “When we sin and experience God’s discipline, and we go through a time when God is perhaps punishing us in His love in the hope that we would repent, then we should actively repent.

“And we should trust that God would restore the repentant in His good time.”

The encouragement from Jeremiah 29:11 is to repent, persevere and trust that God has a good plan for us.

“We can trust in God’s timely restoration when we submit to His loving discipline,” summarised Elvin.

Finally, this should lead us to ask: How does knowing this change the way we live today?

“When we read the Word of God, we’re not just looking for something that makes us feel good about ourselves,” said Elvin.

“We’re asking God: ‘What are you doing in my life? How do you want me to live in a way that honours and glorifies you?”

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Dr Peter Ho, Academic Dean of Singapore Bible College’s School of Theology (English), also posed a sobering question in reference to Judges 2:10. “After all our efforts, would another generation arise who does not know Jesus Christ?”

How can we teach the Bible to children?

Using the same framework, the Foongs then demonstrated how this verse could be taught to three age groups.

“Knowing the children we serve is so important,” said Esther. “Children engage in Scripture differently based on age, cognitive development as well as even their social awareness.”

Preschoolers (3–6 years old)

Read

“I would not give them the whole passage of Scripture because they won’t understand,” said Elvin.

Here are some simple points preschoolers can be taught:

• God’s people disobeyed Him.
• God punished them by letting them be captured by their enemies.
• But there is a message of hope. God promised to forgive and rescue them if they were truly sorry.

Instead of using words such as “repent”, choose words that a three- to six-year-old would understand, advised Elvin.

“I also don’t think they need to know who are the Babylonians,” added Esther. “Enemies” is enough.

Understand

“What is one simple truth? I’ve distilled it to this: God disciplines His people because He loves them,” said Elvin.

Elaborating that we can link this concept to key developmental stages of a child and their life experiences, Esther explained: “We can tap on their empathy. We can ask questions like, ‘How do you think your parents feel when you disobey or make bad decisions?’

“We’re breaking it down by relating it to their world of their relationship with their parents. A parent has to discipline a child because the mother or the father loves the child.”

Apply

Playing a game that relates to the concept of punishment and forgiveness could help them to reinforce their understanding, suggested Elvin.

“When the teacher calls ‘time out’, they ‘freeze’. But when the teacher taps on them, they get to go home and experience restoration,” suggested Esther.

Another idea is to teach them to fold a simple origami heart and memorise a phrase to say to their parents, eg “Dear Mummy and Daddy, thank you for teaching me to be better because you love me.”

At the event, KidminSG shared a checklist that takes into consideration key developmental milestones of a child.

Lower Primary (7–9 years old)

Read

For this older age group, “don’t just tell the story”, said Elvin. Give more context.

As their language skills are more developed at this stage, they also like engaging content, said Esther, adding that some dramatisation of the story would be helpful.

While the central ideas you communicate would be the same as what you share with preschoolers, one additional point can be introduced: God’s desire is for people to repent and to obey Him.

“At this age, they understand cause and effect, but we also want to let them know there is a resolve,” said Esther.

Understand

By asking questions such as “Why do you think God allowed this to happen?”, we can make them think a bit deeper, said Elvin.

Though still young, “they are capable of thinking”, he emphasised.

But to help them understand the concept better, they might still need something experiential, said Esther, sharing an example of an activity.

• Ask the children to use an oil-based permanent marker to write the word “sin” on a piece of paper.
• Give them a bag of tools to do whatever they can to remove the word.
• The key idea here is even if they manage to get some of the “sin” off the paper, the paper would have been irreversibly changed.

“Then we can teach them one of the central ideas earlier, which is that our sin has consequences,” said Elvin. “We can tie in (with the fact) that there is no such thing as easy restoration.”

Apply

Having learnt the key ideas, the children can then be led into a time of thinking, said Elvin.

One question you could ask is: “Are there ways that we have disobeyed God even though we know they are wrong?”

Finally, having some “actionables” such as a pledge card or a short prayer for them to memorise could also help to drive home the points, said Esther.

Elvin and Esther also showed how response cards can be used in teaching.

Upper Primary (10–12 years old)

Read

After giving the context, there is no need to read Scripture word for word, said Elvin.

“They are more interested in discovery at this age, so let them discover. Let them be the ones to investigate.”

For instance, you could print out the passage and omit some information, then let them work in groups to analyse clues and come up with a conclusion of what is going on.  

“Their ‘Read’ would look more interactive,” underscored Esther. At this age, they want to be heard.

“Sometimes, we underestimate this group and how they can be involved in the learning of Scripture,” she noted. “They are more capable than we think they are.”

Understand

As the children are already forming opinions and engaging in moral reasoning at this stage, allowing space for discussion is helpful, said Esther.

By asking questions that are related to the topic, we could encourage them to think: What does this have to do with me?

Here are a few suggested by Elvin.

• “The Bible is full of stories about sinfulness and wickedness of people. Why do you think a book about God has these stories in them?”
• “Imagine a world where all evil goes unpunished. What do you think it would look like?”

Apply

At this age, they are able to see how things connect.

“This is where we have the opportunity to link this to the bigger story of the Bible and draw connections to the Gospel. We can point them to Christ confidently,” said Elvin.

For example, we could trace this to the fall of man in the beginning of time and explain that we live in a world that has been broken by sin.

“You and I are also like the people in Jeremiah; we’re also in exile,” continued Elvin, outlining how he would explain this.

“We no longer experience the closeness that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden. However, the Good News is that God sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins so that we can be forgiven.

“God’s rescue mission has already begun. One day we will be with God again in the new creation. But meanwhile, while we’re still here on this earth in exile, we should continue to love and obey God and live in a way that honours Him.”

When teachers move into a time of application, children perceive not only what is taught as a story in the Bible, but also how it relates to their lives today and how they can see Jesus in all of God’s Word.

You are not alone

Wrapping up their workshop, the Foongs emphasised a few key points.

“Scripture has always been something people do in community. They read it together, they memorise it together, they live it out together,” said Elvin.

Check in with one another. “Don’t feel like you have to do biblical interpretation by yourself.”

There are also many resources available that can help you along your journey. Here are just a few recommendations.

• How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: Fourth Edition by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart
• How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart
• Asking Better Questions of the Bible: A Guide for the Wounded, Wary, and Longing for More by Marty Solomon
• Introduction to Biblical Interpretation: Third Edition by William Klein, Craig Blomberg, Robert Hubbard Jr

“The Bible has always been a communal text,” reminded Elvin.

At the end of the day, all of this is important because our understanding of the Bible influences the way we teach the Bible to children.

“When we misunderstand it, we will come up with wrong applications. This is important for us, especially as people who are teaching the next generation about who God is,” said Elvin.

“The way we read Scripture shapes the way we think about who God is.

“The way we think about who God is shapes the way we teach Scripture to the next generation, which will then shape the way they think about who God is.”

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