\u201cThe Twelve?\u201d<\/a>).\u00a0 Rachel had two sons Joseph and Benjamin.\u00a0 Joseph is identified later in the history of Israel through his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.\u00a0 The Southern Kingdom, Judah, was composed of two tribes; Judah and Benjamin.\u00a0 Benjamin was a rather small tribe and was located in somewhat vulnerable location.\u00a0 Benjamin bordered the Northern kingdom but was grudgingly aligned with Judah.\u00a0 Ramah was a town in Benjamin\u2019s territory and may be the place where Rachel was buried.\u00a0 The people of Benjamin certainly would identify with Rachel.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 At least that is what the people of Jeremiah\u2019s day would have seen in this message.<\/p>\nIn verses 16-17 God assures them that the children will come home from the land of the enemy.\u00a0 Many scholars believe that this prediction was fulfilled at the end of the 70 years of captivity when many of the exiles returned home.\u00a0 That part of the story is told in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t find any suggestion as to what \u201cwork\u201d God is talking about in verse 16.<\/p>\n
In verses 18-19 God is listening to Ephraim (Rachel\u2019s grandson) and likes what he hears.\u00a0 Ephraim seems to be very sorry for his rebellion against God.\u00a0 Interestingly Ephraim was part of the Northern Kingdom (as was Manasseh).\u00a0 Rachel forms sort of a bridge between these two kingdoms.\u00a0 Judah always thought of themselves as the true kingdom, and in a certain sense they were.\u00a0 But all the tribes were God\u2019s people and that needs to be remembered.\u00a0 By bringing a northern tribe into the message God is keeping the entire nation alive, at least prophetically.\u00a0 Rachel might have been crying over exiled children from Benjamin, but there were also tears among her descendants in Ephraim; real God honoring tears.\u00a0 It is interesting that 600 years later Jesus would have a discussion with a descendant of one of the \u2018Northerners\u201d left behind, the Samaritan woman.\u00a0 That woman was still placing her hope in promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.\u00a0 She was looking for the Messiah, too.\u00a0 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).<\/p>\n
So we see there is more to this section than just hope for the exiles in Babylon.\u00a0 When the nation split in two the first king of the Northern tribes was a guy named, Jeroboam.\u00a0 He was from the tribe of Ephraim.\u00a0 In verse 20 we see God confirming that he has not abandon the Northern tribes represented by Ephraim. God still considers them his \u201cchildren\u201d.\u00a0 Even though God has had to \u201cdeal\u201d with their disobedience and disrespect he still loves them and wants a good relationship with them.\u00a0 Because of that he will have mercy on them.<\/p>\n
So these verses should give home to the exiles in Babylon, and to the scattered people of the Northern Kingdom, but wait there\u2019s more.\u00a0 Remember that Samaritan woman in John 4.\u00a0 Samaritans were the descendants of Israelites left in the North but forced to marry outsiders.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But that woman was still waiting for the chosen one (the Messiah or Christ).\u00a0 God knew she was waiting and looking, maybe she was even grieving (like Ephraim in verse 18).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The LORD (Yahweh) then tells us something king of mysterious, a new thing in the earth; \u201ca woman will surround a man\u201d.\u00a0 From the context the woman is probably a symbol for Israel. \u00a0The word surround an often mean protect.\u00a0 The word for man is a word that contrasts the man from women or children, some believe the idea is strength or fighting ability.\u00a0 Some experts think that the idea here is that Israel, who has been protected by various strong nations would become the protector and provider.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But the real protection that Israel provides to the world is in Jesus.\u00a0 In Revelation 12 we see a battle between a woman who is going to give birth and Satan.\u00a0 The child who is born is clearly the messiah and the woman is Israel.\u00a0 Further investigation will show us that Jesus is that child.\u00a0 In his earthly life Jesus would have been protected and cared for within the Jewish nation.\u00a0 In that way the woman is the protector of the child who would \u201crule the nations with a rod of iron\u201d.\u00a0 But, as the \u201cmother\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0 had all the children in and around Bethlehem, 2 years and younger, in an attempt to execute Jesus (Matthew 2:18).\u00a0 Ramah would have been in the area of Bethlehem and clearly Matthew though that Jeremiah 31:15 applied to the situation.\u00a0 Here at the end of this section which seems to focus more on Ephraim than on the exiles God asks the \u201cfaithless daughter\u201d how long she will wander around looking, check out the new thing, the strong man who is protected by the woman.\u00a0 For the Samaritan woman at the well Jesus was that strong man, that savior of the world, and he is for us too.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 I think it is one of those predictions that would find fulfillment more that once.\u00a0 In any case the vision was a comfort to Jeremiah who seems to have been seeing it all in a dream.\u00a0 He woke up very happy.<\/p>\n
This stuff can be very involved but in the end the message is simple.\u00a0 God cares, God loves, God has a way back to him.\u00a0 Jesus is that way (John 14:6).\u00a0 But he is a strong warrior who will take over the world too and vanquish all who oppose him.\u00a0 He will protect us and provide for us forever.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 That is very cool, the creator of the universe caring for any who will trust him to.<\/p>\n
God thank you for caring.\u00a0 Thank you for caring even though we are wild and rebellious.\u00a0 Thank you for \u201cyearning\u201d for me.\u00a0 I am sorry for the times I offend you.\u00a0 Help me do it less.\u00a0 Thank you for protecting and providing for me.\u00a0 Let me become a better and better child of your. Thank you for that eternal kingdom.\u00a0 Let my life lead other to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jeremiah 31:15-26.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In yesterday\u2019s reading we saw that a lot of the hope had to do with the faithfulness of God and a promised future restoration […]<\/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-1784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784","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=1784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1785,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions\/1785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}