Promise of a Return
We don’t know when Jeremiah received this prophecy. You’ve surely noticed by now that the prophecies of Jeremiah aren’t in strict chronological order.
I think sometimes we imagine a WAY overly simplified process for how the scripture came to be. Raise your hand if you thought the biblical writers sat down at a desk and just started writing on parchment with like a feather 🪶 or something, and wrote their book in a matter of hours or days or weeks.
🤓🤚🏼
✋🏽😐
Philemon and John’s 2nd and 3rd epistles might’ve come about like that – minus the feather – but the rest of the Bible, not so much. Quill pens weren’t invented until about 600 AD. Jeremiah is 600 BC.
Jeremiah wrote these messages down independently over many years; probably on sheepskin scrolls with a reed stylus and carbon-based or iron-gall ink (a new-fangled technology picked up from the Assyrians). It’s very possible he (or someone else) later copied them onto tablets of soft clay with a reed stylus.
What we call the “book” of Jeremiah is a collection; a library; an anthology.
Chapters 30 and 31 are one of these “books.”
WHY this message?
“For behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.”
Jeremiah 30:3 ESV
- You heard it here first.
- It’ll give hope while they’re waiting.
To WHOM this message?
“These are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah:”
Jeremiah 30:4 ESV
😯 Wait… what? I thought Israel was toast. Out of the picture for good.
That’s not what God said. This message is for BOTH groups.
WHAT is the message?
Well, apart from God rhetorically asking in verse 6 if men can have babies… 🫃🏻(the answer is “no”)…
The message in chapter 30 is about the rescue of the descendants of Jacob and their restoration to the land.
Verses 7 and 8 use the loaded term “that day.” We have noted in previous posts that it usually carries a dual application to both the end of Judah as a nation and the coming Day of the LORD or the “Judgement Day”; here called “The time of Jacob’s Trouble.”
The hint about it being applicable to the future judgment is here:
“And it shall come to pass in that day, declares the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and foreigners shall no more make a servant of him. But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.”
Jeremiah 30:8-9 ESV
😏 Oh. Yeah. Pretty sure King David hasn’t been raised from the dead yet. That would be alllll over Tik-Tok.
Exactly. This seems to hint at the resurrection and reign of Christ. So, this prophecy was both for back then (freedom from the yoke of Babylon) and points to the future.
And why were they facing this judgement in Jeremiah’s time?
“For thus says the Lord: Your hurt is incurable, and your wound is grievous. There is none to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound, no healing for you.” Jeremiah 30:12-13 ESV
The sinfulness of Israel and Judah was a terminal illness. There are no treatment options available. The tribes being scattered into the lands of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires was the equivalent of going into hospice. Their old way of life (that whole generation) is going to die. And then the Lord is going to raise them back to life as a nation with a new generation. Ezekiel will get this same message in a vision of a valley of dry bones. 🦴 🦴💀
If this isn’t a picture of New Covenant salvation, I don’t know what is. Christians are people whose old life of sin is dead and buried in Christ. The LORD has raised us from sin and death to new life in Jesus.
“Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. Because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant, I have done these things to you.”
Jeremiah 30:15 ESV
The sinful nature (what the NT calls “the flesh”) cannot be reformed. It has to die.
“For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Romans 8:7-8 ESV
That’s why God had to bring the nation to an end. The sin was pervasive. You cannot reform that. The fleshly nature cannot be reformed. Please stop trying to reform it.
You gotta kill it.
“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Colossians 3:5 ESV
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5:24 ESV
I remember a chapel service in Bible college when one of the seniors gave a message about crucifying the flesh. She pantomimed being on a cross; first nailing her feet down, then with her right hand she “nailed” her left hand. That left her right hand free with no way to nail it down. And then she said,
“If we are going to crucify the flesh, we’re gonna need some help.”
This is where accountability and receiving correction and discipleship comes in. We need people in our lives who we allow to correct sinful behaviors and challenge our attitudes. We need the conviction of the Holy Spirit. But if (when) we ignore His Voice, we need people who will step in and correct.
This is where being in an imperfect community of believers comes in. You WILL be offended. You will receive blows. You will disagree. And you will have to practice forgiveness – even for people who are mean and nasty and rude and immature and don’t deserve it. This is how the final nail gets pounded in. By taking the blows that hurt the flesh – our pride and ego – and praying, “Father forgive them.” Forgive and cancel the debt. Release them.
The promise from Yahweh to the exiles is: I will bring you back.
This promise was true of the exiled people of Judah and Israel, but it’s also true for those today who, like Israel and Judah, have become outcast exiles because of sin. Jesus made the way to return to the Father’s House in the Promised Land. He’ll destroy the realms of sin that have held them captive. All they have to do is leave the wasteland and come home. That promise is going to spelled out in no uncertain terms in the next chapter. And it’s a brand new thing.
To The Reader 