Jeremiah 30-31

Jeremiah 30
1-24 Restoration Promised for Israel and Judah

• God to Jeremiah: Put my words in a book, for the days are coming when I will restore my people back to their land.

[In poetry format:]
5-7 We have heard a cry of terror. Men bend over in pain like women in labor. It is a distressful time for Judah, but he will be rescued from it.

[Prose format:]

• On that day, says the LORD, I will release my people from their bonds, and they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king.

[Poetry format:]
10-11 Don't be dismayed, Judah and Israel, for I will save you from your captivity, but you will not go unpunished.
12-17 Your hurt is incurable, for there is no one to heal your wounds. I have wounded you like an enemy would because of your numerous sins. All your enemies will [eventually] go into captivity themselves, and I will heal your wounds.
18-22 I will restore Judah's fortunes, rebuild her city, establish her congregation. Her prince will be one of her own. You shall be my people, and I will be your God.
23-24 The LORD has sent the storm in his wrath. It is a part of his plan. In the latter days, you will understand.

Jeremiah 31
1-26 The Joyful Return of the Exiles

1-6 Just as the people found grace in the wilderness, so as an expression of my love I will build you again, and you shall be merry, plant vineyards, enjoy your fruit and receive visitors from other regions.
7-9 Sing aloud with gladness, for I will bring the remnant of Israel from the farthest parts of the earth, including the blind and the lame. They will come weeping, and I will console them, lead them by brooks of water, for I have become their father.
10-14 Declare it on the coastlands that he who scattered Israel will gather him into his flock, will redeem him from stronger hands, and they will rejoice again in their fertile land. The young women will dance, the young and old men will be merry, all the people satisfied with their bounty.
15-17 Messianic prophecy: Rachel is weeping for her children (Matthew 2:17-18). Keep from weeping, for there is a reward for your work, hope for your future.
18-20 Ephraim has repented and is pleading for mercy. Even as I speak against him, I remember him, and I will have mercy, says the LORD.
21-22 Set up road markers so you know the way to return. Return to your cities, O virgin Israel, "for the LORD has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encompasses a man." This is a strange phrase, referring either to the church (weak in number at first) encompassing the world as a weaker woman would overcome a stronger man, or to the virgin Mary bearing her holy son.

[Prose format follows]

• The LORD says: Once more those in the land of Judah will say "The LORD bless you, O abode of righteousness, O holy hill!"
• Judah's towns, farmers and shepherds will live there together; I will replenish the faint.
• Jeremiah: "I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me." I think this is Jeremiah speaking, though it doesn't exactly say so. If so, it means that at least this prophecy has come to him in a dream, and he is comforted by the promises it holds.

27-30 Individual Responsibility

• Says the LORD, I will plant the seeds of people and animals in the lands of Israel and Judah that I have chosen to overthrown because of their evil.
• I will also watch over them and plant.
• They shall no longer say, "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." But all shall die for their sins. When I read this, I just knew I had read it somewhere other than Jeremiah. Sure enough, it's also in Ezekiel 18. Of course, this appeals to our New Testament mindset; it's the justice we're used to. Maybe that's why we are so appalled by the Old Testament stories of innocents being slaughtered for the sins of their fathers.

31-34 A New Covenant

31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt - a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband,says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Note: I quote this in its entirety because of its significance to us. We are recipients of the blessings of this new covenant, in which the law is not written on stone but in our hearts as we read it and ingest it. We aren't physically born into a relationship with God but come to know Him and His will by learning and by making the conscious decision to become one of His.

[Poetry format follows]

35-37 Says the LORD, As long as the fixed order of my creation – the sun, moon, stars and sea – exist, so shall the offspring of Israel exist. Says the LORD, if the heavens and foundations of earth can be measured, then I will reject the offspring of Israel. Though it is true that the physical descendants of Israel are scattered through the world and still retain their identity (though because of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 they can't prove their heritage), since this closely follows the prophecy of the new covenant and speaks of its eternal nature, I interpret "the offspring of Israel" as the church of God, the church of Christ. Regarding his church, Christ said that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).

38-40 Jerusalem to Be Enlarged

• Says the LORD, the days are coming when the city will be rebuilt and extended further.
• The whole valley of "dead bodies and the ashes" will be sacred to God.
• It shall never again be uprooted or overthrown. (See Revelation 21 for a description of the heavenly Jerusalem.)