Jeremiah 31:15-26.  We have been looking at a section of Jeremiah where the author seems to be trying to give hope to the people in Jerusalem and the exiles in Babylon.  In yesterday’s reading we saw that a lot of the hope had to do with the faithfulness of God and a promised future restoration of Israel (all the tribes to their land).  In previous reading we also saw a part of the hope involved a future king from the family of David.  That particular hope seemed to be very far in the future (even beyond the 70 years Jeremiah had been telling them the captivity in Babylon would last).   Today’s reading doesn’t start out very hopeful, and it does contain some stuff that shows that the people were depressed about their situation but it end on a good note.

In verse 15 we hear (or rather God, Yahweh, hears) crying in Ramah.  It is sad crying, very sad.  My translation says there was “lamentation and bitter weeping”.  That word “lamentation” means, “wailing”.  That is very desperate crying.   We are told that Rachel is crying for her children and she will not be comforted.  Jacob or Israel had two wives and two mistresses.  The twelve tribes of Israel were the twelve sons he had by these four women (God didn’t approve of these sorts of things, but if God only used perfect people none of us would have a shot)(see “The Twelve?”).  Rachel had two sons Joseph and Benjamin.  Joseph is identified later in the history of Israel through his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.  The Southern Kingdom, Judah, was composed of two tribes; Judah and Benjamin.  Benjamin was a rather small tribe and was located in somewhat vulnerable location.  Benjamin bordered the Northern kingdom but was grudgingly aligned with Judah.  Ramah was a town in Benjamin’s territory and may be the place where Rachel was buried.  The people of Benjamin certainly would identify with Rachel.  Here the reference to Rachel is probably a reference to the Southern Kingdom, Judah, and the children refer to the people taken as captives to Babylon.  At least that is what the people of Jeremiah’s day would have seen in this message.

In verses 16-17 God assures them that the children will come home from the land of the enemy.  Many scholars believe that this prediction was fulfilled at the end of the 70 years of captivity when many of the exiles returned home.  That part of the story is told in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.  I didn’t find any suggestion as to what “work” God is talking about in verse 16.

In verses 18-19 God is listening to Ephraim (Rachel’s grandson) and likes what he hears.  Ephraim seems to be very sorry for his rebellion against God.  Interestingly Ephraim was part of the Northern Kingdom (as was Manasseh).  Rachel forms sort of a bridge between these two kingdoms.  Judah always thought of themselves as the true kingdom, and in a certain sense they were.  But all the tribes were God’s people and that needs to be remembered.  By bringing a northern tribe into the message God is keeping the entire nation alive, at least prophetically.  Rachel might have been crying over exiled children from Benjamin, but there were also tears among her descendants in Ephraim; real God honoring tears.  It is interesting that 600 years later Jesus would have a discussion with a descendant of one of the ‘Northerners” left behind, the Samaritan woman.  That woman was still placing her hope in promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  She was looking for the Messiah, too.  Evidently she realized Jesus was that guy because in John 4:36 Jesus tells his followers that she is reaping rewards that include eternal life (see John 4:37-42).

So we see there is more to this section than just hope for the exiles in Babylon.  When the nation split in two the first king of the Northern tribes was a guy named, Jeroboam.  He was from the tribe of Ephraim.  In verse 20 we see God confirming that he has not abandon the Northern tribes represented by Ephraim. God still considers them his “children”.  Even though God has had to “deal” with their disobedience and disrespect he still loves them and wants a good relationship with them.  Because of that he will have mercy on them.

So these verses should give home to the exiles in Babylon, and to the scattered people of the Northern Kingdom, but wait there’s more.  Remember that Samaritan woman in John 4.  Samaritans were the descendants of Israelites left in the North but forced to marry outsiders.  The descendants of the people who eventually returned to the Southern Kingdom hated the Samaritans; they though of them as spiritual defectors and half-breeds; not 100% Israelite.  But that woman was still waiting for the chosen one (the Messiah or Christ).  God knew she was waiting and looking, maybe she was even grieving (like Ephraim in verse 18).  In verses 21-22 God tells the people of Israel to set up signs to direct themselves back to the land, and by extension back to him.  The LORD (Yahweh) then tells us something king of mysterious, a new thing in the earth; “a woman will surround a man”.  From the context the woman is probably a symbol for Israel.  The word surround an often mean protect.  The word for man is a word that contrasts the man from women or children, some believe the idea is strength or fighting ability.  Some experts think that the idea here is that Israel, who has been protected by various strong nations would become the protector and provider.  That idea is certainly true in that all the nations of the world will learn to honor the one true God and will honor him in Jerusalem.  But the real protection that Israel provides to the world is in Jesus.  In Revelation 12 we see a battle between a woman who is going to give birth and Satan.  The child who is born is clearly the messiah and the woman is Israel.  Further investigation will show us that Jesus is that child.  In his earthly life Jesus would have been protected and cared for within the Jewish nation.  In that way the woman is the protector of the child who would “rule the nations with a rod of iron”.  But, as the “mother”, of the messiah she would also be providing the one way all mankind could be protected from the wrath of God and find peace in eternity.

If we look back to verse 15 when Rachel cried for her children it is interesting that that verse was applied to the life of Jesus when Herod   had all the children in and around Bethlehem, 2 years and younger, in an attempt to execute Jesus (Matthew 2:18).  Ramah would have been in the area of Bethlehem and clearly Matthew though that Jeremiah 31:15 applied to the situation.  Here at the end of this section which seems to focus more on Ephraim than on the exiles God asks the “faithless daughter” how long she will wander around looking, check out the new thing, the strong man who is protected by the woman.  For the Samaritan woman at the well Jesus was that strong man, that savior of the world, and he is for us too.

Verses 23-25 could apply to the exiles as they return to Jerusalem from Babylon or they could apply to that time in the future when all Israel is restored to their land with their forever king.  I think it is one of those predictions that would find fulfillment more that once.  In any case the vision was a comfort to Jeremiah who seems to have been seeing it all in a dream.  He woke up very happy.

This stuff can be very involved but in the end the message is simple.  God cares, God loves, God has a way back to him.  Jesus is that way (John 14:6).  But he is a strong warrior who will take over the world too and vanquish all who oppose him.  He will protect us and provide for us forever.  In Romans 8:30 Paul tells us that those who God saw would turn to him he protected and provided for so that they could live for and honor him.  That is very cool, the creator of the universe caring for any who will trust him to.

God thank you for caring.  Thank you for caring even though we are wild and rebellious.  Thank you for “yearning” for me.  I am sorry for the times I offend you.  Help me do it less.  Thank you for protecting and providing for me.  Let me become a better and better child of your. Thank you for that eternal kingdom.  Let my life lead other to you.

Jeremiah 31:1-14.  Well I got a little bit of a late start today but here we go. Remember that we have just started a section of Jeremiah that focuses a little more on hope for the Israelite’s situation and less on the trouble they have gotten themselves into by defecting from God.  Back in Chapter 25 Jeremiah predicted judgment on several nations, in fact he predicted judgment on “all the inhabitants of the earth”.  Although some may see that prediction as being ”local” it’s pretty clear Jeremiah was seeing beyond his time into another.   Several other times in Jeremiah he has talked about things that were current (for the near future), but seemed to have a more distant part to them also.  When he talks of permanent hope for the nation of Israel or a king from the line of David (Jeremiah 23:5; 30:9) we know that those things are still future.  Some of the judgment scenes are still future too.  In chapters 26-29 Jeremiah (or Baruch) took a little side trip to look at problems with false prophets.  In chapter 30 I said we were starting a section about hope.  But there is also a return to this “distant” or maybe “double” fulfillment idea.  In yesterday’s reading I emphasized that the chapter (30) seemed to be about a time in the distant future.  That chapter involved restoration of all of the Israelite people to the land not just the people of Judah (Jews) who had been taken captive to Babylon.  The people in Jeremiah’s time probably would have tried to apply it to their own situation even though it didn’t really fit that, but he had told them the captivity would only be for 70 years.

In today’s reading the author continues to focus on that “distant” future.  In verse 1 starts out “at that time” meaning the time that was talked about in Chapter 30; the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).  In that verse we see that “all the clans (a word that means tribes or families)” of Israel will turn back to Yahweh and they will be his people.  There is a real emphasis on people here.

Verse 2 seems to be a reference to the “wilderness wanderings”.  The “Clans” of Israel had started out as just a few people (70, Deuteronomy 10:22).  After about 400 years in Egypt they had grown to a “nation” of more than 2 million people (See Numbers 26:1-2, 51, 62.  Those numbers do not include women, children under 20 except v. 62, and for v. 62 second, third, etc. children nor female children).  The Egyptian king (Pharaoh) was hostile toward the Israelites and used them as slaves.  Yahweh (the one true God, God of the Israelites (and us too)) decided to fulfill his promise to Jacob to give them their own land.  Through a variety of miraculous events the Israelites left Egypt and headed for Canaan (the land we know as Israel and Palestine, Parts of Jordan too).  When it came time to take over the land the Israelites disobeyed God and told him they didn’t think they could do it (there were giants in the land, real giants).  God sentenced the whole generation over the age of 20 to die in the wilderness, the Sinai Peninsula.  For the next 40 years the Israelites wandered around the territory until that generation all died (except for Caleb and Joshua).  This was the time of the “wilderness wanderings” that Jeremiah is referring to here.  According to Jeremiah that group “survived the sword”. Although they would fight several battles with inhabitants of the wilderness over the course of the fourty years the reference to surviving the sword may refer to one battle they tried to fight after God sentenced the one generation to die in the wilderness.  The generation who was sentenced (Men over 20, the warriors) changed their mind and went back and tried to take the land anyway and lost badly.  Many were probably lost to the sword that day.  The loss wasn’t due to the strength of the enemy but because God was not with the Israelites that day (Numbers 14:39-45, Deuteronomy 1:41-44).  The rest of the people got the message and turned back to the “wilderness” where they spent the next 40 years as nomadic shepherds.  During that time of “wandering” the people were cared for by Yahweh (LORD).  They were fed with a miraculous food, manna, directly from God.  And led by a miraculous display of God’s power.  According to Deuteronomy 2:7 they lacked nothing as God was constantly with them. Jeremiah tells us that they found “grace” in the wilderness.  That word can also be translated “favor” or “mercy”.  In English the word “grace” has the idea of giving you something you don’t deserve, like a teacher giving you grace on a test and letting you retake it instead of making you take the “F” you got the first time.  Mercy is the other side of “grace”; it’s the not giving you the “F”.  This word has both ideas.  These people got more that a second chance, they disobeyed and rebelled many times over the 40 years and got many “second” chances.  They truly found “grace” in the wilderness.  And at the end of it all they did enter into the land promised to their ancestors.  In verse 3 we see that God came to this people and loved them with an everlasting love.  God also “drew them to himself with lovingkindness”.  In this phrase we see the nature of our relationship with God.  Jeremiah has already told us that Yahweh (LORD, God) is the maker of all that is (Jeremiah 10:16).  That gives God complete authority over the whole universe, Bible scholars like to use the word “sovereign” for this idea, it relates to the absolute power of a king.  God has the right to force us to do whatever he wants but in Jeremiah 31:3 we see God “drawing” us.  That word can mean to “drag” but here we see that God is “drawing” us with “lovingkindness”.  In Hebrew the word is “hesed”.  It is a very big word that contains the ideas of love, faithfulness, loyalty, and steadiness.  It’s about God’s promises and his love for us.  One scholar says it is about belonging together.  There is no room in that word or the idea of la loving relationship for a choke chain and a leash.  The consisting picture in the bible is one of God using his goodness, kindness, and mercy (all parts of hesed, too) to convince us to “return” to him (Check out Hosea 2:14-20 to see hesed in action).

In verses 4-6 we see a time of goodness and peace with the people back in the land.  There will be times of music and dancing (v. 4), time to sit back and enjoy the fruit from our gardens (v. 5), and time to go hang out with God.  A couple of things to notice.  First God uses the name Israel, this is about the whole group not just the Northern or Southern Kingdoms.  Second Israel is a “virgin”.  The idea behind that word is one devotion and dedication; the idea of being separate, or pure.  These people had been cheating on God; they had been “running around” on Him; passed around (by their own actions).  In the Bible Israel is sometimes called a “harlot” that is an old word for prostitute.  In fact in Hosea, that prophet is told to act our the relationship between God and Israel.  Hosea represents God and he is told to marry a prostitute, one who cheats on him after they are married.  The wife represents Israel.  Hosea is told to take her back after she cheats.   The verses above give us a picture of how he gets her back.  God doesn’t see Israel as a prostitute; she is his virgin.  She is young and devoted, singing and dancing.    This time of peace and goodness is long lasting.  In verse 5 the planter plants a vine and eats from it’s fruit.  That is multi-year process.  In the Law of Moses the first three years of fruit could not even be picked, the fourth year the fruit was dedicated to God and only on the fifth year could it be eaten (Leviticus 19:23-25).  That doesn’t even take into account how long it takes for the vine to start producing (maybe the first year).  By the way did you notice that the vine grower was in Samaria.  That was a part of the Northern Kingdom that was dispersed by the Assyrians in 722 BC.  We also see the Northern Kingdom in verse 6, the hills of Ephraim were a part of that kingdom too.  But here we find the people of Ephraim planning a trip to Jerusalem to honor Yahweh their God.  Zion refers to either the mountain that the Temple was built on or the cithy of Jerusalem, either way they are in Southern territory now.    We see here a reunited nation of Israel.

In verses 7-10 God tells the Israelites to sing and pray.  Their prayers (talking to God) are supposed to be thankful and wishful. The people are told to praise or honor God for what he is doing for them and they are also supposed to ask him to do what he is already in the process of doing, saving them or bringing them back home.  That is the wishful part.  By that I don’t mean that they are trying to control God or that they are unsure of what will happen.  I think it’s like when a guy proposes to a girl.  “Will you marry me?”  He certainly hopes so, it is his wish, but hopefully he is already pretty sure of the answer.  It’s an act of respect for the woman as a person.  God wants us to acknowledge him and respect him in our prayers; He wants us to ask Him and he most certainly will say, “Yes.”

In verses 8-9 we have the answer, God is going to resort his people; he will bring them back to the land from all over the earth.  There will be no discrimination (the blind and lame).  We also see how determined the people will be to get back home, even women who are pregnant and in labor will make the journey.  Most women who are pregnant don’t really want to travel very far, they are uncomfortable and concerned that they might go into labor.  The only place women in labor want to go is somewhere to have the baby.  For these women to travel tells us there must be something very special at the end of the trip.  We also see that many people will make the journey back to the land.

In verses  10-14 we get more of the good picture of the restored nation.  The people are so happy to be back that they cry tears of joy.  The nations who had been oppressing them will now be their guardians (v. 10).  In verse 11 we see that this is all the doing of Yahweh (LORD).  The other guys were bigger and meaner but God is bigger yet.  In verse 12 the people are very happy about all the good that Yahweh has given them.  Their fields and vineyards and heard will all be strong and healthy.  Their life will be like a watered garden, they will never suffer again.  In verse 13 more youthful partying but even the old people are going to join in.  What ever might have been sad or depressing in their minds God will comfort and bring joy to.  This isn’t going to be some wild evil party though.  Even the priests will be spiritually satisfied.  Remember priests would talk to God for the people.  They made offerings to show God the people were serious about what they had done wrong and were serious about God in general.  Clearly they will feel that the people have finally turned back to God.  Everyone will be satisfied with the good Yahweh (LORD) has provided.  Certainly the goodness here would remind them of the goodness of God in providing for the people in the wilderness wandering mentioned earlier.  The people of Jeremiah’s time should have seen the faithfulness and “hesed” of God in this message  But I think there might be more; the image of a well watered garden and a close relationship with God seems to hint, at least slightly, back to the garden of Eden before Adam and Eve disobeyed; all was well they had a close relationship with God and lived in an ideal environment.  We get a very similar picture in the end of Revelation.  After the description of the time of Jacob’s Trouble in Revelation 4-19 there is a chapter where those who rejected God invitation into eternity with him are tried and banished.  Revelation 21-22 use language similar to what we see here in Jeremiah to describe what eternity with God will look like; in part it sounds like a restoration to what the garden of Eden was like and more.

[See Romans 8:19-22 where the creation suffered when God cursed it as a lesson to Adam and the creation wants to be restored with the “sons” or “children of God”.  Also notice in Luke 23:43 and 2 Corinthians 12:4 that Heaven (where God “lives”) is called “Paradise”.  Compare that with a description in Revelation 2:7 where that same “Paradise” contains the Tree of Life, last seen in the Garden of Eden].

Remember we are reading chapters in the middle of Jeremiah that are designed to bring hope to the Israelites.  Although Jeremiah was speaking to people of the Southern Kingdom, Judah, he seems to include all twelve of the tribes in this message.  That is a hint to us that the message has meaning beyond what the people of Judah might have gotten from it.  In fact in our reading today Jeremiah uses the name Israel (rather than Judah, which he uses other places) which was often used just for the Northern Kingdom.  He also mentions a couple of places in the Northern Kingdom by name; places that have a part in the restored nation.  But still the use of Israel, as we were told (v. 1), is referring to all twelve tribes.  As I mentioned yesterday Jeremiah is filled with a lot of doom and gloom.  It seems like these chapters were placed here in the middle to give the readers/hearers a little break from all the bad news (though there has been little pieces of good news in earlier chapters).  Today’s reading seems to be concerned with the distant future and promises about the whole nation.  You might think that doesn’t have much to do with the situation in Judah and Babylon during the time of Jeremiah.  If you have read “The Old Testament Connection” you know that the whole Old Testament and the history of Israel that is in it is for our benefit (Romans 2:14-15; 3:19-21).  The Old Testament sets the stage for the coming of Messiah, Jesus, and the rest of what happens in the New Testament (and beyond).  The fact that God was not abandoning his promises to Abraham and Israel should have been comforting to the people in exile in Babylon.  In tomorrow’s reading the assurance will get a little closer to home but it will still contain some of this distant future talk (maybe).  For now it is important to see that God knows what he has promised, that he knows the conditions he puts on his promises (if any), that he doesn’t forget (the first promise was to Eve (maybe as far back as 4000 BC), then Abraham (2200 BC), Jacob (1850 BC), David (1050 BC)), and that he will follow through.  We see from the already fulfilled predictions by all of the Old Testament prophets that God knows what he is talking about, the predictions He has give have all come true so far, we all should be confident that the rest will come true too.  The reminders in these chapters about what God has promised will come should have given comfort to the Jews of Jeremiah’s day and they should give us comfort to.  John told his readers that anyone who accepted who Jesus is (the infinite God-man) and what he did for them (allowed himself to be separated from God the Father as a substitution for us all(see “Three or One?”)) could spend eternity with God (be come children of God, part of His forever family)(John 1:12).  God has spent the total of our history working our his plan to keep as many people as possible out of Hell (that is the reality of being banished from God’s good and giving presence in his forever kingdom).  The question is will you respond to lovingkindness or reject his love?

God help many people find you, understand you, understand your love, understand who really messed up life.  Help many people respond to your proposal.  Help us all realize how we have offended you.  Thank you for your patience, thank you for your promises.  Help me be a good child of yours.  Thank you for forgiving me and thank your for taking my horrid punishment.