Jeremiah 31:1-14.\u00a0 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\u2019s situation and less on the trouble they have gotten themselves into by defecting from God.\u00a0 Back in Chapter 25 Jeremiah predicted judgment on several nations, in fact he predicted judgment on \u201call the inhabitants of the earth\u201d.\u00a0 Although some may see that prediction as being \u201dlocal\u201d it\u2019s pretty clear Jeremiah was seeing beyond his time into another.\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Some of the judgment scenes are still future too.\u00a0 In chapters 26-29 Jeremiah (or Baruch) took a little side trip to look at problems with false prophets.\u00a0 In chapter 30 I said we were starting a section about hope.\u00a0 But there is also a return to this \u201cdistant\u201d or maybe \u201cdouble\u201d fulfillment idea.\u00a0 In yesterday\u2019s reading I emphasized that the chapter (30) seemed to be about a time in the distant future.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The people in Jeremiah\u2019s time probably would have tried to apply it to their own situation even though it didn\u2019t really fit that, but he had told them the captivity would only be for 70 years.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s reading the author continues to focus on that \u201cdistant\u201d future.\u00a0 In verse 1 starts out \u201cat that time\u201d meaning the time that was talked about in Chapter 30; the time of Jacob\u2019s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).\u00a0 In that verse we see that \u201call the clans (a word that means tribes or families)\u201d of Israel will turn back to Yahweh and they will be his people.\u00a0 There is a real emphasis on people here.<\/p>\n
Verse 2 seems to be a reference to the \u201cwilderness wanderings\u201d.\u00a0 The \u201cClans\u201d of Israel had started out as just a few people (70, Deuteronomy 10:22).\u00a0 After about 400 years in Egypt they had grown to a \u201cnation\u201d of more than 2 million people (See Numbers 26:1-2, 51, 62.\u00a0 Those numbers do not include women, children under 20 except v. 62, and for v. 62 second, third, etc. children nor female children).\u00a0 The Egyptian king (Pharaoh) was hostile toward the Israelites and used them as slaves.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 When it came time to take over the land the Israelites disobeyed God and told him they didn\u2019t think they could do it (there were giants in the land, real giants).\u00a0 God sentenced the whole generation over the age of 20 to die in the wilderness, the Sinai Peninsula.\u00a0 For the next 40 years the Israelites wandered around the territory until that generation all died (except for Caleb and Joshua).\u00a0 This was the time of the \u201cwilderness wanderings\u201d that Jeremiah is referring to here.\u00a0 According to Jeremiah that group \u201csurvived the sword\u201d. 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Many were probably lost to the sword that day.\u00a0 The loss wasn\u2019t 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).\u00a0 The rest of the people got the message and turned back to the \u201cwilderness\u201d where they spent the next 40 years as nomadic shepherds.\u00a0 During that time of \u201cwandering\u201d the people were cared for by Yahweh (LORD).\u00a0 They were fed with a miraculous food, manna, directly from God.\u00a0 And led by a miraculous display of God\u2019s power.\u00a0 According to Deuteronomy 2:7 they lacked nothing as God was constantly with them. Jeremiah tells us that they found \u201cgrace\u201d in the wilderness.\u00a0 That word can also be translated \u201cfavor\u201d or \u201cmercy\u201d.\u00a0 In English the word \u201cgrace\u201d has the idea of giving you something you don\u2019t deserve, like a teacher giving you grace on a test and letting you retake it instead of making you take the \u201cF\u201d you got the first time.\u00a0 Mercy is the other side of \u201cgrace\u201d; it\u2019s the not giving you the \u201cF\u201d.\u00a0 This word has both ideas.\u00a0 These people got more that a second chance, they disobeyed and rebelled many times over the 40 years and got many \u201csecond\u201d chances.\u00a0 They truly found \u201cgrace\u201d in the wilderness.\u00a0 And at the end of it all they did enter into the land promised to their ancestors.\u00a0 In verse 3 we see that God came to this people and loved them with an everlasting love.\u00a0 God also \u201cdrew them to himself with lovingkindness\u201d.\u00a0 In this phrase we see the nature of our relationship with God.\u00a0 Jeremiah has already told us that Yahweh (LORD, God) is the maker of all that is (Jeremiah 10:16).\u00a0 That gives God complete authority over the whole universe, Bible scholars like to use the word \u201csovereign\u201d for this idea, it relates to the absolute power of a king.\u00a0 God has the right to force us to do whatever he wants but in Jeremiah 31:3 we see God \u201cdrawing\u201d us.\u00a0 That word can mean to \u201cdrag\u201d but here we see that God is \u201cdrawing\u201d us with \u201clovingkindness\u201d.\u00a0 In Hebrew the word is \u201chesed\u201d.\u00a0 It is a very big word that contains the ideas of love, faithfulness, loyalty, and steadiness.\u00a0 It\u2019s about God\u2019s promises and his love for us.\u00a0 One scholar says it is about belonging together.\u00a0 There is no room in that word or the idea of la loving relationship for a choke chain and a leash.\u00a0 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 \u201creturn\u201d to him (Check out Hosea 2:14-20 to see hesed in action).<\/p>\n
In verses 4-6 we see a time of goodness and peace with the people back in the land.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 A couple of things to notice.\u00a0 First God uses the name Israel, this is about the whole group not just the Northern or Southern Kingdoms.\u00a0 Second Israel is a \u201cvirgin\u201d.\u00a0 The idea behind that word is one devotion and dedication; the idea of being separate, or pure.\u00a0 These people had been cheating on God; they had been \u201crunning around\u201d on Him; passed around (by their own actions).\u00a0 In the Bible Israel is sometimes called a \u201charlot\u201d that is an old word for prostitute.\u00a0 In fact in Hosea, that prophet is told to act our the relationship between God and Israel.\u00a0 Hosea represents God and he is told to marry a prostitute, one who cheats on him after they are married.\u00a0 The wife represents Israel.\u00a0 Hosea is told to take her back after she cheats.\u00a0\u00a0 The verses above give us a picture of how he gets her back.\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t see Israel as a prostitute; she is his virgin.\u00a0 She is young and devoted, singing and dancing.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0This time of peace and goodness is long lasting.\u00a0 In verse 5 the planter plants a vine and eats from it\u2019s fruit.\u00a0 That is multi-year process.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t even take into account how long it takes for the vine to start producing (maybe the first year).\u00a0 By the way did you notice that the vine grower was in Samaria.\u00a0 That was a part of the Northern Kingdom that was dispersed by the Assyrians in 722 BC.\u00a0 We also see the Northern Kingdom in verse 6, the hills of Ephraim were a part of that kingdom too.\u00a0 But here we find the people of Ephraim planning a trip to Jerusalem to honor Yahweh their God.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We see here a reunited nation of Israel.<\/p>\n
In verses 7-10 God tells the Israelites to sing and pray.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 That is the wishful part.\u00a0 By that I don\u2019t mean that they are trying to control God or that they are unsure of what will happen.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s like when a guy proposes to a girl.\u00a0 \u201cWill you marry me?\u201d\u00a0 He certainly hopes so, it is his wish, but hopefully he is already pretty sure of the answer.\u00a0 It\u2019s an act of respect for the woman as a person.\u00a0 God wants us to acknowledge him and respect him in our prayers; He wants us to ask Him and he most certainly will say, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 There will be no discrimination (the blind and lame).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Most women who are pregnant don\u2019t really want to travel very far, they are uncomfortable and concerned that they might go into labor.\u00a0 The only place women in labor want to go is somewhere to have the baby.\u00a0 For these women to travel tells us there must be something very special at the end of the trip.\u00a0 We also see that many people will make the journey back to the land.<\/p>\n
In verses \u00a010-14 we get more of the good picture of the restored nation.\u00a0 The people are so happy to be back that they cry tears of joy.\u00a0 The nations who had been oppressing them will now be their guardians (v. 10).\u00a0 In verse 11 we see that this is all the doing of Yahweh (LORD).\u00a0 The other guys were bigger and meaner but God is bigger yet.\u00a0 In verse 12 the people are very happy about all the good that Yahweh has given them.\u00a0 Their fields and vineyards and heard will all be strong and healthy.\u00a0 Their life will be like a watered garden, they will never suffer again.\u00a0 In verse 13 more youthful partying but even the old people are going to join in.\u00a0 What ever might have been sad or depressing in their minds God will comfort and bring joy to.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t going to be some wild evil party though.\u00a0 Even the priests will be spiritually satisfied.\u00a0 Remember priests would talk to God for the people.\u00a0 They made offerings to show God the people were serious about what they had done wrong and were serious about God in general.\u00a0 Clearly they will feel that the people have finally turned back to God.\u00a0 Everyone will be satisfied with the good Yahweh (LORD) has provided.\u00a0 Certainly the goodness here would remind them of the goodness of God in providing for the people in the wilderness wandering mentioned earlier.\u00a0 The people of Jeremiah\u2019s time should have seen the faithfulness and \u201chesed\u201d of God in this message\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We get a very similar picture in the end of Revelation.\u00a0 After the description of the time of Jacob\u2019s Trouble in Revelation 4-19 there is a chapter where those who rejected God invitation into eternity with him are tried and banished.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
[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 \u201csons\u201d or \u201cchildren of God\u201d.\u00a0 Also notice in Luke 23:43 and 2 Corinthians 12:4 that Heaven (where God \u201clives\u201d) is called \u201cParadise\u201d.\u00a0 Compare that with a description in Revelation 2:7 where that same \u201cParadise\u201d contains the Tree of Life, last seen in the Garden of Eden].<\/p>\n
Remember we are reading chapters in the middle of Jeremiah that are designed to bring hope to the Israelites.\u00a0 Although Jeremiah was speaking to people of the Southern Kingdom, Judah, he seems to include all twelve of the tribes in this message.\u00a0 That is a hint to us that the message has meaning beyond what the people of Judah might have gotten from it.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He also mentions a couple of places in the Northern Kingdom by name; places that have a part in the restored nation.\u00a0 But still the use of Israel, as we were told (v. 1), is referring to all twelve tribes.\u00a0 As I mentioned yesterday Jeremiah is filled with a lot of doom and gloom.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 Today\u2019s reading seems to be concerned with the distant future and promises about the whole nation. \u00a0You might think that doesn\u2019t have much to do with the situation in Judah and Babylon during the time of Jeremiah.\u00a0 If you have read \u201cThe Old Testament Connection<\/a>\u201d 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).\u00a0 The Old Testament sets the stage for the coming of Messiah, Jesus, and the rest of what happens in the New Testament (and beyond).\u00a0 The fact that God was not abandoning his promises to Abraham and Israel should have been comforting to the people in exile in Babylon.\u00a0 In tomorrow\u2019s reading the assurance will get a little closer to home but it will still contain some of this distant future talk (maybe).\u00a0 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\u2019t 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The reminders in these chapters about what God has promised will come should have given comfort to the Jews of Jeremiah\u2019s day and they should give us comfort to.\u00a0 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 \u201cThree or One?\u201d<\/a>)) could spend eternity with God (be come children of God, part of His forever family)(John 1:12).\u00a0 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\u2019s good and giving presence in his forever kingdom).\u00a0 The question is will you respond to lovingkindness or reject his love?<\/p>\n God help many people find you, understand you, understand your love, understand who really messed up life.\u00a0 Help many people respond to your proposal.\u00a0 Help us all realize how we have offended you.\u00a0 Thank you for your patience, thank you for your promises.\u00a0 Help me be a good child of yours.\u00a0 Thank you for forgiving me and thank your for taking my horrid punishment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jeremiah 31:1-14.\u00a0 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\u2019s situation and less on the trouble they have gotten themselves into by defecting from God.\u00a0 Back in Chapter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1781,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780\/revisions\/1781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}