Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 31:1
At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
1. all the families of Israel ] the twelve tribes. Afterwards the Northern kingdom is dealt with (2 22), then the Southern (23 26), and then again both together (27 40).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Jer 31:1-9. See introd. summary to the section. Jer 31:1, virtually a repetition of Jer 30:22, should be joined to the previous ch.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
At the same time – literally, At that time, i. e., the latter day. mentioned in Jer 30:24.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 31:1
At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.
Religion in the home
The family is a primal and universal institution, which stands alone distinct and apart from all others. Men voluntarily create States or Churches, but God putteth men in families. The relations of husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, are altogether different in origin and character from those of the ruler and the ruled, whether in civil or religious society. They began when men was created. They cannot and will not cease until the race ceases to exist. They are recognised, therefore, and they are the only associations which are so recognised in the announcement of those fundamental precepts of moral law, which we properly separate from all the other rules given to the children of Israel through Moses, and call the Ten Commandments. But it is not even in these solemn commands that the sacred and impressive character of these relations is best gathered. It is rather their frequent employment in one form or other to illustrate the relation which the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ sustain to us, which invest them with peculiar sanctity and suggestiveness. As we find the mothers self-oblivion and undying love to her babe used to set forth the yet more enduring tenderness of God to us; so is the pity with which the father regards even his sinful children made the type of that inexhaustible compassion which pardons all human transgressions. As we hear our blessed Lord addressing us as His brethren, and are taught that in order to make His brotherhood complete He was tempted in all respects like as we are, or have the ineffable love with which He regards His Church, and binds it to Himself in loving fellowship represented by the union of the bridegroom and the bride, so is the family the image of that glorious fellow-ship to which all true souls belong–the family in heaven and earth called after the name of Christ.
I. The importance of the family relation. It is in the wise ordering of the home, the purifying of the affections in which all its relations and influences have their root, the upholding of the authority which ought ever to be maintained within it, that States and Churches alike have the best security for their peace and prosperity.
1. The feelings which are cultivated in well-regulated households and make men good sons, husbands, and fathers, are those which, when exercised in a different direction, make them good citizens and true patriots; whereas on the other side the selfishness which brooks no restraint, listens to no voice but that of its own passions, and seeks no end but their indulgence, is not more hostile to the peace and purity of the home than it is fatal to the order and progress of the nation. The most absolute collapse of a State which modern times has seen was preceded by a weakening of family ties and obligations, and the most extraordinary national development is that of a people whose loyalty to their country is not less remarkable than their devotion to their homes, and among whom, from the Emperor on the throne to the meanest of his subjects, attention to domestic duties is placed among the cardinal virtues, and the enjoyment of home happiness is esteemed one of the choicest blessings.
2. While the home is the best training-ground for the citizen, even more, if possible, ought it to be the best nursery for the Christian, and its teaching and discipline the right preparation for the Church. At all periods and in all countries where there has been any strong manifestation of the power of godliness, the family has been one of its centres It is not suggested that religious feelings can be transmitted. But it is manifest that the traditions, the associations, the beliefs and practices, and the reputation of a family may–where there is anything marked and distinctive–certainly will, materially affect each of its members. The piety of Lois and Eunice could not become the possession of Timothy, but who can doubt that he was affected by it? It must have done much, to say the least, towards creating the atmosphere by which his early life was surrounded, and so far have influenced his subsequent career. To be born into a family, where the love of God reigns is itself no small privilege. From the very dawn of intelligence one thus situated is in the midst of circumstances all tending to produce in him sentiments of reverence and devotion. He will not believe in Christ because father and grandfather believed before him, and if he were, on this account alone, to adopt a Christian creed and name, his faith would be as idle as the words in which it might be professed. He does not, caroler become a man eminent for goodness because the world or the Church looks to him thus to uphold the honour of the family name, and if he sought to do so inspired by no other motive, his life, with all the outward excellence he might discover, would be nothing more than a hollow pretence, himself no better than the whited sepulchres of the old Pharisaism. But with all this, who will undertake to deny the power which even the family traditions Of goodness, and still more the associations of the house set apart to God, must, in many cases, exert? They are as a chain of forts, which defend the acid against the assaults of sin. They are influences which predispose a man to listen to the truth, and if they may be resisted, even if by some they are hardly felt at all, they must surely place a man in a more favourable position than, if his first ideas of religion were of a tyranny to be resisted, a fanaticism to be pitied, or an hypocrisy to be despised, in every case a power which the soul should steadily resist. They are voices speaking to the heart, and appealing to many of its strongest motives and best affections.
II. The way in which family piety is to be cultivated.
1. Its foundation manifestly is parental influence. The influence which a parent exercises over his children may be composed of many elements, but the predominant one in the majority of cases must ye personal goodness. I met some time ago one, now himself the head of a household and the son of an excellent father, whose praise, as I personally know, had long remained in the church in which he was an office-bearer. As we were conversing of him, the son addressing me with strong feeling, said, It was my fathers life which saved me from being drawn away from the faith. I was, while yet a youth, throw into the society of those who made a practice of sneering at religion as a folly or a delusion, and at all its professors as hypocrites. I thought I knew my father better, but they talked so confidently that I resolved to watch. For two years I did watch with an anxious and ever-observant care, and in what I saw of my fathers holy life I found an answer to the taunts and doubts of my companions. It was a high testimony, and the truth of it was confirmed by the consecration of a large family to the service of Christ. The thought it suggests, indeed, may, in one aspect of it, be disquieting enough to parents. If the eyes of their household are thus continually upon them, and if its judgment on the Gospel be formed on the ground of what it sees in them, what reason is there for anxiety, even for trembling, lest the impression given be such as to prevent the truth from having its rightful power on the hearts of their children and servants! Children, of all others, are quick to detect a contrast, if such there be, between the outward deportment, especially in the presence of Christian friends or on religious seasons, and the predominant temper of the life; and the parent who thinks to atone for a prevailing worldliness by occasional outbursts of religious emotion, may at least be sure that his family will not be imposed on by these periodical fits of devotion. But if they will not give credit for a high degree of piety because of a few manifestations of spirituality which are out of accord with the general tenor of life, neither will they be led by occasional imperfections, and even inconsistencies, to ignore the evidence of spirit and character, supplied by daily conduct.
2. It must be manifested, however, in the whole conduct of the family, and perhaps in nothing more than in the ambitions which are cherished in relation to it and the means adopted for their realisation. Professions of supreme love to God, even though supported by many acts which are in accordance with them, will tell for very little if there is abundant proof that what a man desires, first and above all, for his children is not that they should be true Christians, but that they should be rich, or fashionable, or famous. Here is the secret of many failures, which at first seem almost unintelligible. There are parents who, to outward appearance, and to the best of their own belief, have trained their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; but the teaching has not been successful, and those who are disappointed in its results complain, or, at least, wonder, that the promise is not fulfilled. They have given instruction in the doctrines of the Gospel; they have led their children to the house of God; they have sought by precept and entreaty to influence them on Gods behalf–but without success. What can be the cause? If they would look deeper and with less prejudiced eyes, it would not be hard to find. Their children are what they have made them. I have heard of some who have been more anxious about the manners and deportment of their children or pupils; others more concerned about the society into which they can get admittance; others more intent on their outward prosperity than their religion. Ought they to be surprised if the young learn the lesson and act accordingly?
3. I include under one point family influences, whether in the way of instruction, or discipline, or worship. Two remarks only will I throw out.
(1) There should be a religion of the household; not only should the individual members personally recognise and seek to meet the claims of Christian duty, but there should be religious service rendered by the family as a whole. There should be the family gathering for daily worship, and the household, as a body, should present itself before God in His house.
(2) There comes a time when the authority of the parent can be enforced only by moral suasion, but in those earlier and more tender years, when children are not simply to be advised, but ruled, the wise head of a household will feel that he is but exercising the right which God Himself has given, or rather, let us say, discharging the trust which God has committed to him as a steward, when he gathers his children around him, whether at the family altar or in the family pew. But this raises the question of that parental rule which it was never more necessary to maintain than at the present time. If the Son of God Himself learned obedience by the things which He suffered. He has, by that submission, taught a great lesson, which neither parents nor children should forget. (J. G. Rogers, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXXI
This chapter continues the subject of the preceding in a
beautiful vision represented at a distant period. God is
introduced expressing his continual regard for Israel, and
promising to restore them to their land and liberty, 1-5.
Immediately heralds appear, proclaiming on Mount Ephraim the
arrival of the great year of jubilee, and summoning the people
to gather unto Zion, 6.
Upon which God resumes the speech; and makes such gracious
promises both of leading them tenderly by the way, and making
them happy in their own land, that all the nations of the world
are called upon to consider with deep attention this great
salvation, 7-14.
The scene is then diversified by a very happy invention.
Rachel, the another of Joseph and Benjamin, is represented as
risen from her tomb, in a city of Benjamin near Jerusalem,
looking about for her children, and bitterly lamenting their
fate, as none of them are to be seen in the land of their
fathers, 15.
But she is consoled with the assurance that they are not lost,
and that they shall in due time be restored, 16, 17.
To this another tender and beautiful scene immediately
succeeds. Ephraim, (often put for the TEN tribes,) comes in
view. He laments his past errors, and expresses the most
earnest desires of reconciliation; upon which God, as a tender
parent, immediately forgives him, 18-20.
The virgin of Israel is then directed to prepare for returning
home, 21, 22;
and the vision closes with a promise of abundant peace and
security to Israel and Judah in the latter days, 23-26.
The blessed condition of Israel under the Messiah’s reign is
then beautifully contrasted with their afflicted state during
the general dispersion, 27, 28.
In the remaining part of the chapter the promises to the
posterity of Jacob of the impartial administration of justice,
increasing peace and prosperity, the universal diffusion of
righteousness, and stability in their own land after a general
restoration in Gospel tines, are repeated, enlarged on, and
illustrated by a variety of beautiful figures, 29-40.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXI
Dr. Blayney has introduced this and the preceding chapter with the following excellent observations: –
“There are many prophecies,” says he, “in various parts of the Old Testament, which announce the future restoration of Israel to their own land, and the complete re-establishment of both their civil and religious constitution in the latter days, meaning the times of the Gospel dispensation. These two chapters contain a prophecy of this kind; which must necessarily be referred to these times, because it points out circumstances which certainly were not fulfilled at the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, nor have hitherto had their completion. For the people who returned from Babylon were the people of Judah only, who had been carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar; but here it is foretold, that not only should the captivity of Judah be restored, but the captivity of Israel also, meaning those ten tribes which were carried away before, by Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and who still remain in their several dispersions, having never returned, in a national capacity at least, to their own land, whatever some few individuals have done. But the terms of the prophecy entitle us to expect, not an obscure and partial, but a complete and universal, restoration; when God will manifest himself, as formerly, the God and Patron of all the families of Israel, and not of a few only. Again it is promised that, after this restoration, they should no more fall under the dominion of foreigners, but be governed by princes and magistrates of their own nation, independently of any but God, and David their king. But this was not the case with the Jews who returned from Babylon. They then indeed had a leader, Zerubbabel, one of their own nation, and also of the family of David; but both the nation and their leader continued still in a state of vassalage, and the most servile dependence upon the Persian monarchy. And when the Grecian monarchy succeeded, they changed their masters only, but not their condition; till at length under the Asmonean princes they had for a while an independent government of their own, but without any title to the name of David. At last they fell under the Roman yoke; since which time their situation has been such as not to afford the least ground to pretend that the promised restoration has yet taken place. It remains therefore to be brought about in future under the reign of the Messiah, emphatically distinguished by the name of David; when every particular circumstance predicted concerning it will no doubt be verified by a distinct and unequivocal accomplishment. There is no particular date annexed to this prophecy, whereby to ascertain the precise time of its delivery. But it may not unreasonably be presumed to have followed immediately after the preceding one in which the restoration of the people from their Babylonish captivity is in direct terms foretold. From hence the transition is natural and easy to the more glorious and general restoration which was to take place in a more distant period, and was designed for the ultimate object of the national hopes and expectations. Both events are frequently thus connected together in the prophetic writings; and perhaps with this design, that when that which was nearest at hand should be accomplished, it might afford the clearest, and strongest, and most satisfactory kind of evidence that the latter, how remote soever its period, would in like manner be brought about by the interposition of Providence in its due season. But though this prophecy relates wholly to one single subject, it seems naturally to divide itself into three distinct parts.
The first part, after a short preface, in which the prophet is required to commit to writing the matters revealed to him, commences with representing, in a style of awe and energy, the consternation and distress which, in some future day of visitation, should fall upon all nations, preparatory to the scene of Jacob’s deliverance, Jer 31:5-9. Israel is encouraged to confide in the Divine assurance of restoration and protection, Jer 31:10; Jer 31:11. He is prepared previously to expect a severe chastisement for the multitude of his sins; but consoled with the prospect of a happy termination, Jer 31:12-17. This is followed by an enumeration at large of the blessings and privileges to which the Jews should be restored upon their re-admission into God’s favour, Jer 31:18-22. Again, however, it ifs declared that the anger of JEHOVAH would not subside till his purposed vengeance against the wicked should have been fully executed; and then, but not till then, an entire reconciliation would take place between him and all the families of Israel, Jer 31:23; Jer 31:1.
The second part of this prophecy begins Jer 31:2, and is marked by a sudden transition to a distant period of time, represented in a vision, and embellished with a variety of beautiful scenes and images. God announces the renewal of his ancient love for Israel; and promises, in consequence thereof, a speedy restoration of their former privileges and happiness, Jer 31:2-5. Already the heralds have proclaimed on Mount Ephraim the arrival of the joyful day; they summon the people to re-assemble once more in Zion; and promulge by special command the glad tidings of salvation which God had accomplished for them. God himself declares his readiness to conduct home the remnant of Israel from all parts of their dispersion, to compassionate and relieve their infirmities, and to provide them with all necessary accommodations by the way, Jer 31:6-9. The news is carried into distant lands; and the nations are summoned to attend to the display of God’s power and goodness in rescuing his people from their stronger enemies, and in supplying them after their return with all manner of good things to the full extent of their wants and desires, Jer 31:10-14. Here the scene changes; and two new personages are successively introduced, in order to diversify the same subject, and to impress it more strongly. Rachel first; who is represented as just risen from the grave, and bitterly bewailing the loss of her children; for whom she anxiously looks about, but none are to be seen. Her tears are dried up; and she is consoled with the assurance that they are not lost for ever, but shall in time be brought back to their ancient borders, Jer 31:15-17. Ephraim comes next. He laments his past undutifulness with great contrition and penitence, and professes an earnest desire of amendment. These symptoms of returning duty are no sooner discerned in him, than God acknowledges him once more as a darling child and resolves with mercy to receive him, Jer 31:18-20. The virgin of Israel is then earnestly exhorted to hasten the preparations for their return; and encouraged with having the prospect of a signal miracle wrought in her favour, Jer 31:21; Jer 31:22. And the vision closes at last with a promise that the Divine blessing should again rest upon the land of Judah; and that the men of Judah should once more dwell there, cultivating it according to the simplicity of ancient institutions, and fully discharged from every want, Jer 31:23-26. In the third part, by way of appendix to the vision, the following gracious promises are specifically annexed: That God would in time to come supply all the deficiencies of Israel and Judah; and would be as diligent to restore as he had ever been to destroy them; and would not any more visit the offenses of the fathers upon the children, Jer 31:27-30. That he would make with them a better covenant than he had made with their forefathers, Jer 31:31-34. That they should continue his people by an ordinance as firm and as lasting as that of the heavens, Jer 31:35-37. And that Jerusalem should again be built, enlarged in its extent, and secure from future desolation, Jer 31:38-40.”
Verse 1. At the same time] This discourse was delivered at the same time with the former; and, with that, constitutes the Book which God ordered the prophet to write.
Will I be the God of all the families of Israel] I shall bring back the ten tribes, as well as their brethren the Jews. The restoration of the Israelites is the principal subject of this chapter.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
When the Lords anger shall turn, he having performed all the thoughts of his heart upon the wicked Israelites, he will declare himself not unmindful of the covenant which he made with Abraham and his seed, but will be their God, and they shall be the people of his favour, whom he will protect and bless. It is uncertain whether Israel here is to be taken in a more large sense, as it signifieth the whole twelve tribes, or only Judah, being that part of Israel which was before spoken of.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. At the same time“Inthe latter days” (Jer 30:24).
the God ofmanifestingMy grace to (Gen 17:7;Mat 22:32; Rev 21:3).
all . . . Israelnotthe exiles of the south kingdom of Judah only, but also thenorth kingdom of the ten tribes; and not merely Israel ingeneral, but “all the families of Israel.” Never yetfulfilled (Ro 11:26).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
At the same time, saith the Lord,…. The time of the Messiah, the Gospel dispensation, the latter days; when the Jews shall consider the prophecies of the Old Testament, and observe how they have been fulfilled in Jesus; and shall reflect upon their disbelief and rejection of him; and shall turn unto him, and serve the Lord their God, and David their king; see Jer 30:9;
will I be the God of all the families of Israel; not of some few persons only, or of one of a city, and two of a family, but of every family; and this will be when “all Israel” shall be converted and saved, and a nation shall be born at once; then will God show himself to them as their covenant God, manifest his love to them, and bestow the blessings of his grace upon them:
and they shall be my people; behave as such to him; own him to be their God, and serve and worship him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Salvation for all the Families of Israel. – Ewald has well stated the connection of this chapter with the conclusion of the preceding, as follows: “In order that the old form of blessing, found in the books of Moses, and here given in Jer 31:22, may be fulfilled, the whirlwind of Jahveh, which must carry away all the unrighteous, will at last discharge itself, as has been already threatened, Jer 23:19; this must take place in order that there may be a fulfilment of that hope to all the tribes of Israel (both kingdoms).” Jer 31:1. announces deliverance for all the families of Israel, but afterwards it is promised to both divisions of the people separately – first, in vv. 2-22, to the ten tribes, who have been exiles the longest; and then, in a more brief statement, Jer 31:23-26, to the kingdom of Judah: to this, again, there is appended, Jer 31:27-40, a further description of the nature of the deliverance in store for the two houses of Israel.
Jer 31:1-2 The deliverance for all Israel, and the readmission of the ten tribes. – Jer 31:1 . “At that time, saith Jahveh, will I be a God to all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Jer 31:2 . Thus saith Jahveh: A people escaped from the sword found grace in the wilderness. Let me go to give him rest, even Israel. Jer 31:3 . From afar hath Jahve appeared unto me, and with everlasting love have I loved thee; therefore have I continued my favour towards thee. Jer 31:4 . Once more will I build thee up, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel; once more shalt thou adorn [thyself] with thy tabrets, and go forth in the dance of those that make merry. Jer 31:5 . Once more shalt thou plant vineyards on the ills of Samaria; planters will plant them, and apply them to common use. Jer 31:6 . For there is a day [when] watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim: Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion, to Jahveh our God!”
The expression “At that time” refers to Jer 30:24, “in the end of the days,” which means the Messianic future. The announcement of deliverance itself is continued by resumption of the promise made in Jer 30:22; the transposition of the two portions of the promise is to be remarked. Here, “I will be a God to them” stands first, because the restoration and perfection of Israel have their only foundation in the love of God and in the faithfulness with which He keeps His covenant, and it is only through this gracious act that Israel again becomes the people of God. “All the families of Israel” are the families of the whole twelve tribes – of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, separated since the death of Solomon. After this announcement of deliverance for the whole of Israel, the address turns first to Israel of the ten tribes, and continues to treat longest of them, “because, judging from appearances, they seem irrecoverably lost – for ever rejected by the Lord” (Hengstenberg). Jer 31:2 is variously explained. Ewald, following Raschi and others, refers the words ‘ to the leading of Israel out of Egypt: once on a time, in the Arabian desert, the people that had just barely escaped the sword of the Egyptians nevertheless found grace, when Jahveh, as it were, went to make a quiet dwelling-place for them. The love which He displayed towards them at that time He has since continued, and thus He will now once more bring back His people out of the midst of strangers. This view of the passage is supported by the use of the perfects in Jer 31:2 and Jer 31:3, in contrast with the imperfect, “again will I build thee,” Jer 31:4, and the employment of the expression “in the desert;” cf. Jer 2:2; Hos 13:4-5. But “the people of those who have escaped the sword” is an expression that cannot be reconciled with it. Rashi, indeed, understands this as referring to the sword of the Egyptians and Amalekites; but the thought that Israel, led out of Egypt through the Arabian desert, was a people that had survived or escaped the sword, is one met with nowhere else in the Old Testament, and is quite inapplicable to the condition of the people of Israel when they were led out of Egypt. Although Pharaoh wished to exterminate the people of Israel through hard servile labour, and through such measures as the order to kill all male children when they were born, yet he did not make an exhibition of his wrath against Israel by the sword, neither did he show his anger thus at the Red Sea, where he sought to bring Israel back to Egypt by force. There God shielded His people from the attack of Pharaoh, as He did in the battle against the Amalekites, so that Israel was led through the desert as a whole people, not as a remnant. The designation, “a people escaped from the sword,” unconditionally requires us to refer the words to the deliverance of the Israelites from exile; these were only a remnant of what they had formerly been, since the greater portion of them perished, partly at the downfall of the kingdom, and partly in exile, by the sword of the enemy. Hence the perfects in Jer 31:2 and Jer 31:3 are prophetic, and used of the divine counsel, which precedes its execution in time. By using the expression “in the desert,” Jeremiah makes an allusion to Israel’s being led through the Arabian desert. The restoration of Israel to Canaan, from their exile among the nations, is viewed under the figure of their exodus from Egypt into the land promised to their fathers, as in Hos 2:16.; and the exodus from the place of banishment is, at the same time, represented as having already occurred, so that Israel is again on the march to his native land, and is being safely conducted through the desert by his God. There is as little ground for thinking that there is reference here made to the desert lying between Assyria or Babylon and Palestine, as there is for Hitzig’s referring to the sword of the Medes and Persians. – The inf. abs. is used instead of the first person of the imperative (cf. 1Ki 22:30), to express a summons addressed by God to Himself: “I will go.” See Gesenius, 131, 4, b, . ] The suffix in points out the object (Israel) by anticipation: “to bring him to rest.” in the Hiphil usually means to be at rest, to rest (Deu 28:65); here, to give rest, bring to rest.
Jer 31:3 The people already see in spirit how the Lord is accomplishing His purpose, Jer 31:2. “From afar (the prophet speaks in the name of the people, of which he views himself as one) hath Jahveh appeared unto me.” So long as Israel languished in exile, the Lord had withdrawn from him, kept Himself far off. Now the prophet sees Him appearing again. “From afar,” i.e., from Zion, where the Lord is viewed as enthroned, the God of His people (Psa 14:7), sitting there to lead them back into their land. But the Lord at once assures the people, who have been waiting for Him, of His everlasting love. Because He loves His people with everlasting love, therefore has He kept them by His grace, so that they were not destroyed. , to draw, keep, restrain; hence , prolongare gratiam , Psa 36:11; Psa 109:12, but construed with of a person; here, with a double accusative, to restrain any one, to preserve him constantly by grace.
Jer 31:4 Israel is now to be built up again, i.e., to be raised to a permanent condition of ever-increasing prosperity; cf. Jer 12:16. The additional clause, “and thou shalt be built,” confirms this promise. The “virgin of Israel” is the congregation of Israel; cf. Jer 14:17. A new and joyful phase in the life of the people is to begin: such is the meaning of the words, “with tabrets shalt thou adorn thyself, and thou shalt go forth in the dance of those who make merry.” In this manner were the popular feasts celebrated in Israel; cf. Jdg 11:34, Ps. 66:26.
Jer 31:5 “The mountains of Samaria,” i.e., of the kingdom of Ephraim (1Ki 13:22; 2Ki 17:24), shall again be planted with vineyards, and the planters, too, shall enjoy the fruits in peace – not plant for strangers, so that enemies shall destroy the fruits; cf. Isa 62:8., Isa 65:21. The words “planters plant and profane” (i.e., those who plant the vineyards are also to enjoy the fruit of them) are to be explained by the law in Lev 19:23., according to which the fruits of newly planted fruit trees, and according to Jdg 9:27, vines also, were not to be eaten during the first three years; those of the fourth year were to be presented as a thank-offering to the Lord; and only those of the fifth year were to be applied to common use. This application to one’s own use is expressed in Deu 20:6 by , properly, to make common.
Jer 31:6 Jer 31:6 is attached to the foregoing by , which introduces the reason of what has been stated. The connection is as follows: This prosperous condition of Ephraim is to be a permanent one; for the sin of Jeroboam, the seduction of the ten tribes from the sanctuary of the Lord, shall not continue, but Ephraim shall once more, in the future, betake himself to Zion, to the Lord his God. “There is a day,” i.e., there comes a day, a time, when watchmen call. here denotes the watchmen who were posted on the mountains, that they might observe and given notice of the first appearance of the crescent of the moon after new-moon, so that the festival of the new-moon and the feasts connected with it might be fixed; cf. Keil’s Bibl. Archol. ii. 74, Anm. 9 see also the articles Mond and Neumond in Herzog’s Real-Encykl. vols. ix. and x.; New-moon in Smith’s Bible Dictionary, vol. ii.]. , to go up to Jerusalem, which was pre-eminent among the cities of the land as to spiritual matters.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Promises to Israel; Joyful Return from Captivity. | B. C. 594. |
1 At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. 2 Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. 3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. 4 Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. 5 Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things. 6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God. 7 For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. 8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. 9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
God here assures his people,
I. That he will again take them into a covenant relation to himself, from which they seemed to be cut off. At the same time, when God’s anger breaks out against the wicked (ch. xxx. 24), his own people shall be owned by him as the children of his love: I will be the God (that is, I will show myself to be the God) of all the families of Israel (v. 1),– not of the two tribes only, but of all the tribes,–not of the house of Aaron only, and the families of Levi, but of all their families; not only their state in general, but their particular families, and the interests of them, shall have the benefit of a special relation to God. Note, The families of good people, in their family capacity, may apply to God and stay themselves upon him as their God. If we and our houses serve the Lord, we and our houses shall be protected and blessed by him, Prov. iii. 33.
II. That he will do for them, in bringing them out of Babylon, as he had done for their fathers when he delivered them out of Egypt, and as he had purposed to do when he first took them to be his people. 1. He puts them in mind of what he did for their fathers when he brought them out of Egypt, v. 2. They were then, as these were, a people left of the sword, that sword of Pharaoh with which he cut off all the male children as soon as they were born (a bloody sword indeed they had narrowly escaped) and that sword with which he threatened to cut them off when he pursued them to the Red Sea. They were then in the wilderness, where they seemed to be lost and forgotten, as these were now in a strange land, and yet they found grace in God’s sight, were owned and highly honoured by him, and blessed with wonderful instances of his peculiar favour, and he was at this time going to cause them to rest in Canaan. Note, When we are brought very low, and insuperable difficulties appear in the way of our deliverance, it is good to remember that it has been so with the church formerly, and yet that it has been raised up from its low estate and has got to Canaan through all the hardships of a wilderness; and God is still the same. 2. They put him in mind of what God had done for their fathers, intimating that they now saw not such signs, and were ready to ask, as Gideon did, Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of? It is true, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me (v. 3), in Egypt, in the wilderness, hath appeared with me and for me, hath been seen in his glory as my God. The years of ancient times were glorious years; but now it is otherwise; what good will it do us that he appeared of old to us when now he is a God that hides himself from us? Isa. xlv. 15. Note, It is hard to take comfort from former smiles under present frowns. 3. To this he answers with an assurance of the constancy of his love: Yea, I have loved thee, not only with an ancient love, but with an everlasting love, a love that shall never fail, however the comforts of it may for a time be suspended. It is an everlasting love; therefore have I extended or drawn out lovingkindness unto thee also, as well as to thy ancestors, or, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee to myself as thy God, from all the idols to which thou hadst turned aside. Note, It is the happiness of those who are through grace interested in the love of God that it is an everlasting love (from everlasting in the counsels of it, to everlasting in the continuance and consequences of it), and that nothing can separate them from that love. Those whom God loves with this love he will draw into covenant and communion with himself, by the influences of his Spirit upon their souls; he will draw them with lovingkindness, with the cords of a man and bands of love, than which no attractive can be more powerful.
III. That he will again form them into a people, and give them a very joyful settlement in their own land, Jer 31:4; Jer 31:5. Is the church of God his house, his temple? Is it now in ruins? It is so; but, Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built. Are they parts of this building dispersed? They shall be collected and put together again, each in its place. If God undertake to build them, they shall be built, whatever opposition may be given to it? Is Israel a beautiful virgin? Is she now stripped of her ornaments and reduced to a melancholy state? She is so; but thou shalt again be adorned and made fine, adorned with thy tabrets, or timbrels, the ornaments of thy chamber, and made merry. They shall resume their harps which had been hung upon the willow-trees, shall tune them, and shall themselves be in tune to make use of them. They shall be adorned with their tabrets, for now their mirth and music shall be seasonable; it shall be a proper time for it, God in his providence shall call them to it, and then it shall be an ornament to them; whereas tabrets, at a time of common calamity, when God called to mourning, were a shame to them. Or it may refer to their use of tabrets in the solemnizing of their religious feasts and their going forth in dances then, as the daughters of Shiloh,Jdg 21:19; Jdg 21:21. Our mirth is then indeed an ornament to us when we serve God and honour him with it. Is the joy of the city maintained by the products of the country? It is so; and therefore it is promised (v. 5), Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria, which had been the head city of the kingdom of Israel, in opposition to that of Judah; but they shall now be united (Ezek. xxxvii. 22), and there shall be such perfect peace and security that men shall apply themselves wholly to the improvement of their ground: The planters shall plant, not fearing the soldiers’ coming to eat the fruits of what they had planted, or to pluck it up; but they themselves shall eat them freely, as common things, not forbidden fruits, not forbidden by the law of God (as they were till the fifth year, Lev. xix. 23-25), not forbidden by the owners, because there shall be such plenty as to yield enough for all, enough for each.
IV. That they shall have liberty and opportunity to worship God in the ordinances of his own appointment, and shall have both invitations and inclinations to do so (v. 6): There shall be a day, and a glorious day it will be, when the watchmen upon Mount Ephraim, that are set to stand sentinel there, to give notice of the approach of the enemy, finding that all is very quiet and that there is no appearance of danger, shall desire for a time to be discharged from their post, that they may go up to Zion, to praise God for the public peace. Or the watchmen that tend the vineyards (spoken of v. 5) shall stir up themselves, and one another, and all their neighbours, to go and keep the solemn feasts at Jerusalem. Now this implies that the service of God shall be again set up in Zion, that there shall be a general resort to it, with much affection and mutual excitement, as in David’s time, Ps. cxxii. 1. But that which is most observable here is that the watchmen of Ephraim are forward to promote the worship of God at Jerusalem, whereas formerly the watchman of Ephraim was hatred against the house of his God (Hos. ix. 8), and, in stead of inviting people to Zion, laid snares for those that set their faces thitherward, Hos. v. 1. Note, God can make those who have been enemies to religion and the true worship of God to become encouragers of them and leaders in them. This promise was to have its full accomplishment in the days of the Messiah, when the gospel should be preached to all these countries, and a general invitation thereby given into the church of Christ, of which Zion was a type.
V. That God shall have the glory and the church both the honour and comfort of this blessed change (v. 7): Sing with gladness for Jacob, that is, let all her friends and well-wishers rejoice with her, Deut. xxxii. 43. Rejoice, you Gentiles with his people, Rom. xv. 10. The restoration of Jacob will be taken notice of by all the neighbours, it will be matter of joy to them all, and they shall all join with Jacob in his joys, and thereby pay him respect and put a reputation upon him. Even the chief of the nations, that make the greatest figure, shall think it an honour to them to congratulate the restoration of Jacob, and shall do themselves the honour to send their ambassadors on that errand. Publish you, praise you. In publishing these tidings, praise the God of Israel, praise the Israel of God, speak honourably of both. The publishers of the gospel must publish it with praise, and therefore it is often spoken of in the Psalms as mingled with praises,Psa 67:2; Psa 67:3; Psa 96:2; Psa 96:3. What we either bring to others or take to ourselves the comfort of we must be sure to give God the praise of. Praise you, and say, O Lord! save thy people; that is, perfect their salvation, go on to save the remnant of Israel, that are yet in bondage; as Psa 126:3; Psa 126:4. Note, When we are praising God for what he has done we must call upon him for the future favours which his church is in need and expectation of; and in praying to him we really praise him and give him glory; he takes it so.
VI. That, in order to a happy settlement in their own land, they shall have a joyful return out of the land of their captivity and a very comfortable passage homeward (Jer 31:8; Jer 31:9), and this beginning of mercy shall be to them a pledge of all the other blessings here promised. 1. Though they are scattered to places far remote, yet they shall be brought together from the north country, and from the coasts of the earth; wherever they are, God will find them out. 2. Though many of them are very unfit for travel, yet that shall be no hindrance to them: The blind and the lame shall come; such a good-will shall they have to their journey, and such a good heart upon it, that they shall not make their blindness and lameness an excuse for staying where they are. There companions will be ready to help them, will be eyes to the blind and legs to the lame, as good Christians ought to be to one another in their travels heavenward, Job xxix. 15. But, above all, their God will help them; and let none plead that he is blind who has God for his guide, or lame who has God for his strength. The women with child are heavy, and it is not fit that they should undertake such a journey, much less those that travail with child; and yet, when it is to return to Zion, neither the one nor the other shall make any difficulty of it. Note, When God calls we must not plead any inability to come; for he that calls us will help us, will strengthen us. 3. Though they seem to be diminished, and to have become few in numbers, yet, when they come all together, they shall be a great company; and so will God’s spiritual Israel be when there shall be a general rendezvous of them, though now they are but a little flock. 4. Though their return will be matter of joy to them, yet prayers and tears will be both their stores and their artillery (v. 9): They shall come with weeping and with supplications, weeping for sin, supplication for pardon; for the goodness of God shall lead them to repentance; and they shall weep with more bitterness and more tenderness for sin, when they are delivered out of their captivity, than ever they did when they were groaning under it. Weeping and praying do well together; tears put life into prayers, and express the liveliness of the, and prayers help to wipe away tears. With favours will I lead them (so the margin reads it); in their journey they shall be compassed with God’s favours, the fruits of his favour. 5. Though they have a perilous journey, yet they shall be safe under a divine convoy. Is the country they pass through dry and thirsty? I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, not the waters of a land-flood, which fail in summer. Is it a wilderness where there is no road, no track? I will cause them t walk in a straight way, which they shall not miss. Is it a rough and rocky country? Yet they shall not stumble. Note, Whithersoever God gives his people a clear call he will either find them or make them a ready way; and while we are following Providence we may be sure that Providence will not be wanting to us. And, lastly, here is a reason given why God will take all this care of his people: For I am a Father to Israel, a Father that begat him, and therefore will maintain him, that have the care and compassion of a father for him (Ps. ciii. 13); and Ephraim is my first-born; even Ephraim, who, having gone astray from God, was no more worthy to be called a son, shall yet be owned as a first-born, particularly dear, and heir of a double portion of blessings. The same reason that was given for their release out of Egypt is given for their release out of Babylon; they are free-born and therefore must not be enslaved, are born to God and therefore must not be the servants of men. Exo 4:22; Exo 4:23, Israel is my son, even my first-born; let my son go that he may serve me. If we take God for our Father, and join ourselves to the church of the first-born, we may be assured that we shall want nothing that is good for us.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JEREMIAH – CHAPTER 31
A NEW COVENANT
This chapter continues to speak of restoration, peace and prosperity for Israel – both North and South. Verses 1-22 deal basically with the North (Ephraim); Verses 23-26 with Judah. Verses 27-40 envision a reunited kingdom with the prospect of a glorious future. Many regard this chapter, and its promise of a New Covenant, as the high point of Jeremiah’s prophecy.
Vs. 1-6: REDEEMING LOVE
1. “At the same time”, in verse 1, is the same as “in the latter days” of Jer 30:24; thus, in the latter days Jehovah will be the God of a reunited Israel (all the families), and will once more acknowledge them as His people, (comp. Gen 17:7-8; Isa 41:8-10; Rom 11:26-28).
2. “The wilderness” (vs. 2) should be regarded as a prophetic figure for the land to which the northern kingdom has been exiled (comp. Hos 2:14-16); even in their present extremity the grace of God reaches out to the need of those He loves – waiting, that He may give them rest and peace, (comp. Exo 33:14; Jos 1:13).
3. “Of old” (vs. 3) may be better tendered “From afar” – even from His heavenly dwelling, (comp. Exo 3:7-8).
a. He assures them that His love for them is “everlasting”; not merely beyond time, but beyond their comprehension, (Deu 4:37; Deu 7:8; Eph 3:17-19; Hos 14:4-8).
b. Because this is true, He has dealt with them in absolute fidelity (hesed) to the covenant that He made with their fathers at Mt Sinai, (Psa 36:7; Psa 63:3; Psa 89:33; Jer 9:24; Jer 32:18; Hos 2:19).
c. Thus has He “drawn” them – faithfully and lovingly leading, guiding, directing, and developing them according to their particular need.
1) Sometimes by embracing them and drawing them near to His heart.
2) Again, in thrusting them from Him – holding them at arm’s length and charting their paths through trouble, travail, agony and pain; but, always “with loving kindness”, because this was essential to their spiritual wholeness.
4. The Lord will again build this people into a nation characterized by purity, stability, permanence, gratitude and joy, (vs. 4; Jer 24:6; Jer 33:7).
5. Verses 5-6 describe a time when the breach between Israel and Judah is healed; reunited and fruitful, in the land of their fathers, they will, together, “go up to Zion” to worship Jehovah, their God, (Isa 65:21; Eze 28:25-26; Jer 3:18; Jer 50:4-5; Isa 2:3-4).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.Vide on chap. 30. These two chapters form an unbroken prophecy, a triumphal hymn of Israels salvation. The former chapter pledges the recovery from captivity of both Israel and Judah; this addresses all the families of Israel, then distinctively the ten tribes; and finally returns with separate assurances to Judah, then to Israel and Judah together.
Geographical References.Jer. 31:15. Voice heard in Ramah, a city of Benjamin, near where Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, was buried. Jer. 31:38. Hill Gareb, to Goath. Gareb means the hill of lepers, and must have been outside the old walls of Zion, towards the south-west. The tower of Hanameel was at the north-east corner of Jerusalem. Of Goath nothing is known; the Targum translates it cow-pool. Jer. 31:40. Valley of the dead bodies, &c.: i.e., the valley of Ben-hinnom.
Personal Allusion.Jer. 31:15. Rahel weeping for her children. As the mother of Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, Rachel is here regarded figuratively as weeping for the scattered ten tribes of Israel.
Natural History.Jer. 31:5. Vines upon the mountains of Samaria. The mountains of Samaria produced specially good vines; see Jdg. 9:27. Jer. 31:12. For wheat, and wine, and oil, &c. suggestive of the fertility and richness of the land of Canaan. Jer. 31:29. Eaten a sour grape. A proverb; see Eze. 18:2.
Manners and Customs.Jer. 31:4. Adorned with tabrets. Usual for the women to go forth with timbrels and dancing in times of public joy and festivity (Exo. 15:20; Jdg. 11:34, &c.). Jer. 31:19. Smote upon my thigh: an action indicating extreme astonishment and sorrow (Eze. 21:12). It is represented as having this significance by several classic authors. Jer. 31:24. Husbandmen and they that go forth with flocks. Referring to the pastoral life of their ancestors, when every one was literally a husbandman and shepherd in consequence of the allotment of land which he was forbidden to alienate. They should return to a similar pastoral life of simplicity and security.
Literary Criticisms.Jer. 31:2. The people left of the sword. This description points, not back to Israel in the wilderness of Sinai, for it would not describe their condition then, for they were not then a people left of the sword; but to Israel in captivity, after the sword of those who now carried them captive had ceased its destructive work. How then interpret found grace in the wilderness? what wilderness? Their Babylonish captivity may well be described as a wilderness condition. Or the allusion may be to the desert lying between Assyria and Palestine. And may be taken as a prophetic future. And the words, When I went to cause him to rest, do not really point to past time; for the verb, , is the infinitive absolute, lit., a-going. It has, however, the force of an imperative: Let me go; or, I will go to cause Israel to rest.
Jer. 31:3. Of old. Henderson urges that expresses here distance of time not of place; but most commentators prefer the latter: from afar. See Jer. 30:10. To a Jews thoughts, Gods dwelling was in Zion; and hence, when His mercy reached them in Assyrian exile, it came from afar (2Ch. 6:20; 2Ch. 6:38).
With loving-kindness have I drawn thee. is rendered as prolonged, continued (Psa. 36:11; Psa. 109:12); I have prolonged loving kindness to thee. But Hitzig, Fuerst, and Naegelsbach prefer rendering it respited: in loving-kindness have I respited thee.
Jer. 31:5. Eat them as common things: rather, shall freely enjoy the fruit; no injunction being placed upon the enjoyment. See Lev. 19:25; Deu. 20:6.
Jer. 31:7. Shout among the chief, &c.: rather, shout because of the chief of the nations, i.e., Israel.
Jer. 31:8. A great company shall return thither: no, hither. Not to exile, but to Palestine.
Jer. 31:18. A bullock unaccustomed: lit., an untrained calf.
Jer. 31:22. A woman shall compass a man. Variously rendered. Dr. Payne, Dr. Wette, Umbreit, &c., The female shall protect the strong man. Eward, The woman shall be changed into a man. Naegelsbaeh, The woman shall turn the man, becoming the stronger of the two. Wordsworth, with the Fathers, see in these words a hint of the miraculous conception of Christ. But Henderson gives the sense that Jehovah would make the feeblest of them [the woman] more than a match for the most powerful of their foes.
HOMILIES AND OUTLINES ON CHAPTER 31
Jer. 31:1. Theme: THE GOD OF FAMILIES. At the same time will I be the God of all the families of Israel.
There is one solid Rock on which the hope and happiness of the moral universe may rest amidst all the vicissitudes of time; and that whatever dark appearances may surround the interests of the Church, like clouds which obscure the face of the heavens, the sun shall yet shine forth again with unquenched lustre and unabated strength. The mountains may depart, the hills must be removed, but Gods loving kindness never shall depart, the covenant of His peace can never be broken.
To this topic Jeremiah had recourse in the troublous times in which he lived, when he was called to deplore the fallen greatness of the Church, and to witness the dissolution and the breaking up of the Jewish state and monarchy. He looks back upon what God did for His Church in the captivity of Egypt, as the pledge and pattern of what He will do for it in the captivity of Babylon (Jer. 31:2-3). So David teaches us to argue from the same principles when he says, Oh, how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that fear Thee. What is laid up in Gods promises, and what is laid out for them in Gods providences, form an equal ground of encouragement and hope. Paul in like manner ascends up before the springs of time: Blessed be the God and Father, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy.
I. Some of the truths which this promise implies.
II. Some of the encouragements it presents.
III. Some of the duties it involves.
I. Some of the truths which this promise implies. I will be the God of all the families of Israel. Not of the two tribes only, Judah and Benjamin, the royal tribes, but the ten tribes. Not of the house of Aaron only, and the families of Levi, but of all their families; not only of their state in general, but their particular families.
1. A deep interest in their welfare. That God takes a deep interest in family religion, and delights to see the succession of piety kept up in the dwelling-places of the righteous, is evident both by the tenor of His promises and by the train of His dispensations. No sight is more pleasing to man than that of a well-ordered family. The safety and well-being of a country must necessarily depend upon the moral training of the families of which it is composed. No less important is it to the well-being of the Church. Families are the nurseries of the Church. God therefore, in determining upon the stability of the Church, looks with watchful and tender eye upon the prosperity of families.
God delights to speak of Himself as standing in a domestic relation: Like as a father. The image most frequently used: If ye being evil your heavenly Father, &c.
2. He calls your children His children. He makes distinguishing promises to them. The very first promise was made to Eves offspring. The covenant with Abraham incorporated his childrens name as well as his own: I will be a God to thee and thy seed after thee. He promises to David, Instead of the fathers, the children; to Isaiah, This is the covenant I make with thee: I will pour out My Spirit on thy seed.
3. Remember that Jesus Himself became a little child. He rose, not like Adam, in the fulness and meridian of His strength, but passed through the intermediate states of infancy and childhood. When the wise men came from afar they saw the young Child and Mary His mother. He did this that He might consecrate the state of infancy as well as the state of manhood; and assure parents that He can sympathise with the weakness and infirmities of childhood and youth, as well as those of riper years. He was a lover of children (Mar. 10:13-16; Mat. 18:3-14).
4. Do not omit to remark what a gracious aspect all this has upon the salvation of infants; and what comfort it affords those who have lost their offspring, that they are gathered to the fold of the Good Shepherd. In Gods world there is no waste of existence. Millions of infant souls compose the family above. David said, in reference to the loss of his child, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. And if he reasoned thus under the darkness of that dispensation, surely our faith need not be less strong under the brightness of this. If that which was done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is rather glorious.
II. This promise encourages Christian parents in their endeavours to train their offspring in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Great duties devolve upon you; great anxieties perpetually occur in connection with your own responsibility; and great consolations are furnished in the Word of God.
1. No greater inducement can be furnished to avail yourselves of all means for their religious improvement than the thought that God sympathises with you both in the affections you cherish and in the difficulties with which you are surrounded. If it be true that God takes so deep an interest in the progress of religion in familiesis concerned for the salvation of the youngif it be true that He builds up His Church chiefly from the families of His people, then it follows that great duties devolve on parents and heads of families, and it becomes them to seek the grace and blessing of God.
2. These promises should be earnestly pleaded in prayer, should encourage watchful effort. They are not given as a premium to indolence, but as an inducement to the faithful discharge of known duty.
3. God has made the love of parents to their children proverbially strong; for moral objects, that their interests for both worlds may be secured. There never was a Christian parent, touched with the love of God, who was not anxious for his children, anxious to lead them to the Saviour he loved and the heaven he sought; anxious that they who are partakers of all their hopes on earth should be partakers of all their joys in heaven.
4. Education is the great care with which you are entrusted. If negligent, on you as well as them the reproach and misery will fall. You may be regardless of your sons morals, but you may live and die miserable from his want of them.
Think of the happiness of meeting them in a future world. Guide them to Christ. Endear the Bible, and the Sabbath, and the Saviour to them.
Remember the temptations they are exposed to, and how many fall into the snares of the wicked.
III. Some of the duties this promise involves
1. Prayer for early conversion of children.
2. Training of families in godliness and faith.
3. Public dedication of our children by baptism, to God.
4. Recognition of Gods laws, and providence, and honour in all family plans.
5. Consecration by young persons of themselves to God.
6. Maintain domestic worship around the family altar.
7. Let families, in their entirety, come together to Gods sanctuary, and be united in the fellowship of the Christian Church.
See Homilies on chap. Jer. 3:18.
Jer. 31:2. Theme: SPARED THROUGH GRACE. The people left of the sword found grace in the wilderness.
I. Spared, though others perished.
Many were cut off for their iniquities; some by the Amalekites (Exo. 17:8), some by the hands of their brethren (Exo. 32:28).
The destroyed around us witness to our like deserts.
II. Spared through sovereign grace.
1. To Gods praise. The living, the living, they shall praise Thee, as we do this day.
2. Witnessing to His compassion and patience.
III. Spared to inherit favours.
1. Conducted by Him into the promised land of rest.
2. Spared to enjoy all the fulness of covenanted privilege.
3. Blessed with prolonged realisation of Divine goodness and bounty.
See Homilies on chap. Jer. 2:2.
Jer. 31:3. Theme: PROGRESS OF MANS SALVATION.
A condensed view of the origin, progress, and consummation of mans salvation.
I. The feeling with which God regards each of His people: I have loved thee.
II. The kind of love with which God has regarded His people: Everlasting love.
III. The visible operation and effect of this love: I have drawn thee.
(a.) A change of position or state.
(b.) A change accomplished by God: I have drawn thee.
(c.) A change not accomplished without resistance: Drawn.
IV. The means which God employs in drawing His people: Loving-kindness.Rev. James Stewart, Aberdeen, 1862.
See Addenda: EVERLASTING LOVE.
Theme: DRAWN WITH EVERLASTING LOVE.
God has often appeared to man. In His visible creation He reveals Himself, lavishing the wealth, garniture, and beauty of nature upon a sinful race. In His daily providences He appears to man; fresh fountains of mercy spring up at my feet. But especially God appears in the mystery of grace and redemption, showing the fulness of His mercy in Christ Jesus.
Thus, in Creation we discern the print of His footsteps; in Providence we behold the operations of His gracious hand; but in Redemption we are allowed to see the very movements and purposes of His all-gracious heart.
I. View this love of God in its far-reaching compass and largeness. Of old, as to time; but more correctly from afar, as to place. Gods love reaches out to the exiles far removed from Zion.
1. To the banished onescaptive and exiledremoved afar.
2. To those estrangedspiritually at a distance, alienated from the life of God, wilfully afar.
3. To men everywhere. Gathers in all with a world-wide embrace.
II. View this love of God in its absolute directness and inalienable purpose. Yea, I have loved thee.
1. Its positiveness. Yea, I have Not equivocal, and conjectural, or conditional.
2. Its intensity. I have loved. Great-hearted affection.
3. Its personality. I have loved thee. The Lord knoweth them that are His.
4. Its conscious reality. God Himself felt and realised that He had loved Israel. It was a conscious passion to God Himself. He yearns with strong ardour over the objects of His great affection.
III. View this love of God in its ceaseless constancy. With everlasting love.
1. In retrospect it is everlasting. Not recent, but vastly remote in its origin.
2. In covenant fidelity it is everlasting. Not vacillating, not insecure as was theirs!
3. Amid their changeful history it is everlasting. Whether they were in Zion, or afar in exile; whether they as a nation maintained His worship, or became lost to their own identity and to their holy religion, He loved and would cherish them still.
4. Throughout all future ages it is everlasting. Gods nature is not variable; the thoughts of His heart are to all generations.
IV. View this love of God in its gracious action and powerful attractiveness. Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.
1. Hence, with God begins the work of alluring souls into reconciliation. It is not the sinner who commences; Gods grace draws him, and thus he is made willing, made nigh.
2. The force which draws the soul is love. As all the coin of the kingdom bears the image of the sovereign, so all the blessings of salvation bear the stamp of love. With loving-kindness have I drawn thee.
3. When the heart rests in Gods love, it finds its own love for Him to be the result of and response to His love for us. We love Him because He first loved us.
4. All drawings of God should be yielded to with gratitude, wonder, alacrity, and joy.
Note
(a.) This is a MOST TOUCHING AND SUBLIME ASSURANCE. When we look at ourselves we wonder that God can love us at all. And if His love had to be caused by anything in us, He could never find occasion for His love. But the love which God has for us comes not from us to Him, but from Him to us. He loves us, not because we are lovable, but because He is loving.
(b.) This everlasting love is A MOST STUPENDOUS THOUGHT TO GRASP. Before we had any objective existence; before we stood out as individuals of the human race, He loved us. The moment we were born into the world, that moment we began to live in the love of God.
The ray of light from a star has been running down the measureless path of space long, long centuries before earth was peopled by man; but before the wave (which made the starlight shine in the heavens) was started in the ether by the pulsations from that distant star, God was loving me. Oh, that vast eternity of love!
If that love was from everlasting, shall it not be to everlasting? Yes.
(c.) There is A PROPHETIC SWEEP OF HOPE IN THIS FACT. Can that end which had no beginning? Shall we fear that a fountain which flows perennially and freely can at some far-off age run dry? Ages have not exhausted it. It is everlasting love. Surely this both wins and shall hold our love to God.
Infinite Goodness! Thou art dear
To Thy poor creatures heart;
It blesses Thee that Thou art God,
That Thou art what Thou art.
Theme: EVERLASTING LOVE.
I. Sovereign in its character.
II. Costly in its manifestation.
III. Glorious in its results.
Jer. 31:6. Theme: THE WATCHMENS CALL. There shall be a day that the watchmen upon Mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God.
I. Gods heralds. Watchmen, stationed on eminences (not on one mountain only, but the whole mountainous region of the ten tribes), see the auspicious hour, call to the alien and exile tribes. Type of the preacher of the Gospel:(1.) Elevated above the people; (2.) Discerns their gracious opportunity; (3.) Summons the wanderers and outcasts home.
II. Reunion in Zion. The ten tribes are here called to go up to the annual feasts at Jerusalem, and there join with the tribes of Judah in keeping the appointed festivals of Zion. The schism between the twelve tribes was healed.
1. Those who were estranged one from the other become united in fraternity and fellowship in Zion. See Isa. 11:13.
2. The sacred festivities and privileges of the Church of Christ cast all human divisions and differences into oblivion. Many members, but one body. Many nations, but one kingdom. The world gets back to unity again, away from its feuds and strifes, when it gets into and becomes the Church.
III. God sought. Unto the Lord our God.
1. From whom we formerly revolted. Now again our God; accepted, desired, and sought.
2. In whom we again unite. The Lord; none but He. No rival deity; God all in all. All one in Christ Jesus.
Note
Cowles remarks: Gods grace loves to triumph over the most inveterate prejudices. No words could represent a greater or more benign change in national feeling than these: Samaria saying, through her spiritual watchmen, Let us go up to Zion to worship, for our God is there.
Jer. 31:7-9. Theme: RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. Gods command that the males of all the twelve tribes should go up thrice a year to worship the Lord at Jerusalem.
We may conjecture what such a concourse will take place, in due season, from every quarter of the world.
In reference to the restoration of the Jews, we have here
I. A command to us. God enjoins us
1. To take an interest in the welfare of His people. Sing with gladness for Jacob, &c. We ought to keep in view Gods gracious designs respecting them, so as to have our hearts filled with joy in the contemplation of the blessings awaiting them.
2. To express that interest in every suitable way. Publish it to Jew and Gentile alike: praise ye God for it, and in fervent prayer seek God on their behalf. Say, O Lord, save Thy people, &c.
II. A promise to them. This promise includes
1. Their restoration to God (Jer. 31:8), however distant they are from Him, or however discouraging their circumstances. A great company shall return thither.
2. The manner in which it shall be effected (Jer. 31:9). With weeping, &c., as in Zec. 12:10. Under gracious Divine leading: I will cause them to walk by rivers, &c. He will guide them by His counsel, strengthen them by His grace, and comfort them by His Spirit, till He bring them in safety to His glory.
3. The pledge that it shall be surely accomplished. For I am a Father to Israel, &c. When Moses urged Pharaoh to liberate Israel, he enforced his request by the plea that they were Gods firstborn. In this light He still regards them, and will prove Himself their Father (Jer. 31:37, with Isa. 54:9-10).
Application
1. Look well to it that you are yourselves restored to God.
2. Endeavour to help forward the restoration of others.C. Simeon, M.A.
Jer. 31:9. Theme: PILGRIMS TO ZION.
They shall come with weeping, &c.
The text unites the dispensation of God to His people with the affections which they cherish towards God. It refers to the deliverance of the Church from the captivity of Babylon, and to the feelings which they cherished on their return; and the same principles are developed in the experience of all who are born of God and bound for glory. Zions pilgrims are distinguished
I. By the various emotions which they cherish. Come with weeping.
II. By the safe-conduct under which they journey: I will lead them.
III. By the high alliance they are permitted to claim. I am a father.
IV. By the prosperous issue of their eventful pilgrimage. Sing in Zion.
I. The various emotions which they cannot but cherish. Weeping and supplication not unmixed with joy. The return from Babylon was a season of joy and congratulation, yet productive of mixed feelingthey came with weeping and supplication. Great events in life often produce opposite emotions. The moment of transition is a critical onecalls up many recollections of the past, many anticipations of the future. The prisoner has been known to sigh at leaving his dungeon; the bride trembles at the altar; the prince receives the crown not without emotion; the Christian takes upon him the vows of God under mingled impressions. Tears and prayers do well together. There is no entrance into the path of life but through the valley of weeping; and repentance characterises the Christian all his journey through. Tertullian said of himself that he was born to nothing but repentance. It was the saying of a godly minister that, if he were to die in the pulpit, he should like to die preaching repentance; and if out of the pulpit, he would wish to die practising repentance. This is always needful, and especially when we go to seal a covenant with God, or to seek the witness of the Spirit with ours. When did Jacob find God in Bethel but when he wept and made supplication? When did Mary meet with Christ but when she sought Him sorrowing? When did angels minister to Christ but after strong crying and tears in the garden? Behold the print of the footsteps of all the cloud of witnesses in this road. They come.
They weep and pray under the1. Consciousness of their sins. Unprofitable.
2. The remembrance of their captivity. Remembering affliction and misery.
3. The difficulties of their course. A rough journey, many impediments.
4. The sorrows of those with whom they are associated. Sympathy.
5. The mourning over those they have left behind in Babylon. It was only a remnant, two tribes at most came from Babylon. They were attached to Babylon, had many connections, and filled important posts there, and Zion in her ruins was forgotten. The Christian is not careless of the state of his relations and friends yet strangers to God. Bunyan makes it a heavy part of Christians sorrow that he could not persuade his wife and children to travel with him.
It is to mourners that promises are made: Come unto Me. The influences of the Spirit are quite as likely to produce contrition as joy.
II. The safe-conduct under which they journey. I, says God, will lead them; or they would never attain their journeys end. I will gather them; or they would never be collected. I will cause them to walk; or they would never have the inclination. God brings us into the way of truth, God protects us in it, God furnishes us with adequate support, and God brings us to the termination of our career in peace. We may doubt as to the reality of our religion, but if we are conscious of possessing it we cannot doubt to whom we owe it. Who hath saved us.
The guidance of mortal spirits into the paths of holiness and to the perfection of heavenly rest has been a favourite object with God from the beginning. He teaches to walk in a strait waypreserves from fallinggoing backkeeps feet.
By the rivers of waternot without refreshmentnot without happinessnot without a constant sense of obligation. It denotes both refreshment and supply, and these are granted where least expected, and to those who could not perform the journey without guidance and assistance not their ownthe blind and lame. Grace triumphs over all obstacles.
III. The high alliance they are permitted to claim. I am a father. This wandering band, outcasts to the world, may call the Sovereign of the universe a Friend and Father. This title indicates the richness of Gods condescension and the Principle whence salvavation flows.
IV. The happy issue of their eventful pilgrimage. Height of Zion (Jer. 31:12).
Come to Zion. 1. Blissful. 2. Restful. 3. Fruitful.
Application
1. Strangers to prayer and penitence are not on the path to heaven.
2. Those who trust their own resources may expect to wander, to faint, or to fall.S. Thodey, 1825.
See Addenda: TEARS OF PENITENCE; and also Homilies on chap. Jer. 3:21-22.
Jer. 31:10-14. Theme: GODS PROCLAMATION OF GRAND PURPOSES FOR HIS PEOPLE. Jehovah would have the nations know
I. How He guards His people with fostering care. Though He chastises themscattered themyet He cherishes and fosters them with watchful care and purposes of restoration; and will suffer no harm or loss to them, for He shepherds them constantly.
II. How mightily He has wrought for His peoples redemption.
Jer. 31:11. With outstretched arm, travailing in the greatness of His strength, mighty to save.
1. Past rescues. These have proved Gods almightiness and all-sufficiency.
2. Pledge of future redemption. No foe can stay His hand.
III. How luxuriant are the blessings with which He will crown and enrich their future (Jer. 31:12).
1. Religious and ecclesiastical privileges. To the heights of Zion.
2. Divine beneficence. To the goodness of the Lord.
3. Abounding fulness of enjoyment, Sing; for wheat, &c.
4. Sadness lost in blessedness. Their soul as a watered garden; and sorrow no more at all.
IV. How all-inclusive shall be these sacred delights of the Church.
1. Every sex and age shall have full share of holy bliss (Jer. 31:13).
2. Priests and people alike satisfied with the goodness of the Lord (Jer. 31:14). Both he that soweth and they that reap shall rejoice together.
Jer. 31:12. Theme: THE FUTURE OF BELIEVERS. And their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more. What is to be the future of the true Israel of God?
I. One of spiritual faultlessness and perfection. Beautiful as a garden; fertile, well graced, rich in fragrance and fruit.
II. One of boundless resources. Of joy, for they shall sorrow no more. Of satisfaction, for no inward lack shall give them distress. Of rest, amid the blessedness of happy employ.
III. One of vast possessions. So that their soul is filled with the treasures of spiritual good; filled as a garden stored with choicest blossoms, fragrant with richest perfume.
Jer. 31:12. Theme: SOUL FERTILITY. Their soul shall be as a watered garden.
This was really fulfilled in the Jews, who returned to Jerusalem after the miseries they had suffered in Babylon; many of whom (see Ezra and Nehemiahs records) were men of eminent piety and zeal for God. Having rebuilt the Temple, and thus opened the wells of salvation, they drew thence the waters of consolation and spiritual life.
But in the Gospel times we see these words fulfilled in every pious soul when in a flourishing and prosperous state.
I. Thoughts suggested by a comparison of a pious soul with a garden.
1. A garden is a spot of ground upon which extraordinary cultivation is employed. Thus the souls of believers are the garden of the Lordthe objects of His peculiar care and cultivation (Isa. 5:1-2).
2. A garden is generally stored with productions of either a useful or ornamental order. So from the soul springs up every Christian virtue and heavenly grace which is either pleasing to God or useful to man (Isa. 41:19-20; Isa. 55:13).
3. A garden does not arrive at its full perfection and glory at once. The Christians course is progressive.
II. Consider those Divine influences by which this spiritual garden is watered.
1. The influences of the Spirit of God are imparted to every real Christian, and produce effects that resemble those which warm and refreshing showers produce upon a garden (Isa. 64:3). If these are withheld, how does the garden droop! It is the office of the Holy Spirit to shed the love of God abroad in our hearts, &c.
2. These influences are enjoyed and conveyed to the soul by the means of Gods Word and ordinances (Isa. 55:10-11). It is in the exercise of reading and hearing Gods Word, and in prayer, that the communications of Gods Spirit are enjoyed.
III. Mark how this happy state and those enriching influences are to be desired by every soul.
1. Till we attain these, we are in a desolate, wild condition (Heb. 6:8).
2. It is only by attaining this state that we can arrive at true happiness either here or hereafter (Heb. 6:7).
3. Unless we are in this state we cannot glorify God, nor be useful to our fellow-creatures, as we ought. When we are fruitful in every good word and work, God is pleased with us, &c.
Learn: The need we have daily to ask for Divine influences.Rev. J. Sewell, Thaxted, A.D. 1842.
Jer. 31:13. Theme: GOD OUR COMFORTER. And I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
In Greenland, when a stranger knocks at the door, he asks, Is God in this house? And if they answer Yes, he enters.
Let me knock at the door of your hearts and inquire, Is God in this house? Are you frequent at His throne? Do you love and belong to Christ? Are you living in the daily exercise of faith and repentance? Do you sorrow for sin? Are you aspiring to heaven? If so, you are the persons to whom this promise is made.
I. The particular character which God here assumes. The Comforter. I will comfort them.
Not only after it but from it. Their joy takes a lustre from previous sorrow, as the brightness of morning from the darkness of night.
1. This is a much-needed office, for there are many mourners. The voice of weeping is often heard in our land. Our earth teems with mourners who are seeking a sad asylum from the sorrows of life in the darkness and silence of the grave.
Many mourners here. Some under the afflictions of life; some under the disappointment of their hopes of happiness from the world; some under the baseness of deceitful friendship; some under the loss of near and dear connections; some under the straits and difficulties of a trying path; and some under the burden of sin.
Spiritual sorrows are specially referred to in the text. They shall come with weeping. The Christian life begins with sorrow, ends with joy. Some sorrow after a godly sort: over evil habits; weakness of faith; decline of hope.
2. This is an office to which God only is equal. As when the sun is set none but God can cause it to rise again; so when hope is lost and comfort gone, none but God can restore it. Hence David prays, Restore to me the joy, &c. Jeremiah could not do it. He could only speak the comfort to others which God spake to him; but God can convey the consolation direct to the heart.
God speak of Himself as the Hope of Israel and the Consolation thereof. Jesus is described as the Consolation of Israel. The Holy Spirit is another Comforter. Thus all the Persons in the Godhead conspire in this most needed and most delightful work.
God only can do it, because He only knows what the trial ishow heavily it pressesand how to apply to the burdened spirit the needed relief.
All creatures might shrink from the task and say, Am I in Gods stead?
3. This is an office which God delights to exercise. He delighteth in mercy. It is His nature and property always to have mercy. It is not more natural for the sun to shine, or for the fountain to pour forth its streams, than for God to show compassion. He is the Father of mercies, the God of all consolation. As one whom his mother comforteth, &c.
4. It is an office in which the Father of mercies has had large experience. All the tears wiped from human faces have been removed by His hand. All the hopes awakened in penitent bosoms have been inspired by His mercy.
II. Some of the methods He employs for this purpose. The instrumentality is various, the Agency is One. Sometimes by friends, sometimes ministers, sometimes ordinances, sometimes by strangers, sometimes by enemies. But God is the Source of all these streams. He makes us rejoice from sorrow.
1. By the application to the mind of the sense of pardon and acceptance by Christ. Thus, by Nathan, He restored to David the joy of His salvation: The Lord hath put away thy sin. Thus, by Isaiah, He comforted Hezekiah. Thus, by Ananias, He comforted Paul.
In various ways He enlarges our perception of the fulness and freeness of redeeming love, shows us His covenant, teaches us out of His law, enables us to apply the promises. My thoughts are not your thoughts.
2. By the teaching and influence of His Spirit. We read of the comfort of the Holy Ghost; and we cannot doubt that that blessed Agent has direct access to the human mind, in stirring us up to prayer, in strengthening holy purposes and resolutions, in giving efficacy to religious ordinances and especially to the Word received and preached.
3. By the agency of His providence, in removing afflictions when their end is answeredas in bringing Israel out of Egypt and back from Babylon. So He can turn again our captivity, raise up friends, make our path straight, disperse the clouds.
4. By translating the soul from earth to heaven.
III. The course of conduct we should pursue.
1. Seek consolation by prayer.
2. Avoid whatever tends to bring the spirit to bondage.
3. Be comforting.
4. Cherish hopehappy thoughts.
Seek to be acquainted with higher rules of self-denial, and charity, and mortification of sin, than you have yet known. Beg of God to teach you what you know not of the spirituality of the law and exactness of the rule.
Jer. 31:14. Theme: THE SATISFYING NATURE OF GODS GOODNESS. And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, saith the Lord.
Our subject contains a striking prediction of the ingathering of the Jews, and the joyous events which should distinguish the occasion. Among the rest this is one, that they should be satisfied, &c. The text is capable of a general application, and belongs equally to all the household of faith and family of God. Let us, then, consider
I. The character. My people. Gods people were not always such. I have made you a people, &c. Once afar off, aliens, &c. They became Gods people by the attractive power of the Gospel, by the influence of the grace and Spirit of God, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They repented of sin, and fled by faith to the hope set before men in the Gospel. Many are the distinguishing features of Gods people.
1. They are separated from the world. Not of the world, Come out, &c. Thus, too, they are united to His Church. We will go with you, &c. This people, &c. They profess, and confess Christ before men.
2. They reflect the image of the Saviour; are partakers of His nature and spirit; and hence are likeminded with Christ, renewed into His holy and blessed likeness.
3. They are obedient to Christs authority. As His sheep, &c. As His pupils, &c. They follow Christ, and hear His commandments to do them. They call Him Lord, and do the things, &c. Whoso doeth the will of My Father.
II. The declaration. Shall be satisfied, &c. Sin began by dissatisfaction. This is one of the constant exhibitions of evil in the world. The general inquiry is, Who will show, &c. The soul in the midst of the riches, honours, pleasures, &c., is still unsatisfied; formed for an infinite good, God alone can meet its desires; but God is holy and just, and the soul trembles and flees. Gods goodness, then, comes down to the capacities, &c., of the soul. The soul is satisfied with
1. Gods goodness in the dispensations of His grace. Gods love in Jesus Christ, infinite and overflowing. The soul is melted by it, constrained, subdued, saved; exclaims with rapture, Who loved me, &c.
2. Gods goodness in the arrangements of His Providence. This is ever connected with the other. We are first reconciled, and then admire His doings, works, and ways. It is the same goodness in both providence and grace. It never fails nor changes. It is always goodness, in adversity as well as prosperity, in sickness and health, in sorrow and joy. It is always rich, free, and adapted.
3. Gods goodness in the consummation of glory. I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.
Application.1. Are we the characters? 2. Have we the satisfaction? 3. It is our privilege.J. Burns, D.D.
Jer. 31:15. Theme: RACHELS LAMENTATION. A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping: Rahel weeping for her children, and refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
I. A poetic figure representative of the woes of the exiled tribes of Israel. Jeremiah, foreseeing the coming captivity of his people and destruction of their national life, vividly and dramatically represents Rachel (as if stirred from her grave by the tearing of her children from their natal soil) weeping for her offspring about to be slain by the Chaldean sword. As the mother of Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, she is alluded to as if to her belonged all the ten tribes.
1. A mothers grief over her slaughtered sons.
2. Exile from Zion and God is an evil as dreadful as if they were slain. They were not! (chap. Jer. 9:1).
3 A mothers heart has no room for comfort when her children are perishing from lifeand from the living God.
II. A prophetic vision of the massacre of the Bethlehem children at the Saviours birth. Its primary fulfilment was the murder of Rachels children by the Chaldeans. Its typical significance received realisation in Herods slaughter of the Innocents (Mat. 2:17-18).
1. The inhumanity of man brings destruction on innocent victims and anguish upon tender hearts.
2. In Gods foreseeing gaze, all deeds of outrage on those He loves (Israel and children) are kept in faithful record. Whoso toucheth them toucheth the apple of His eye.
3. Out of events, woeful and cruel, purposes of good are divinely evolved. Rachels children were carried into exile, yet God wrought redemption for His captive people. Bethlehem children were slaughtered by Herod, yet the Divine Babe was at hand, to become the Redeemer of humanity, and to fold all childhood life within His arms and raise children into eminence in His earthly and heavenly kingdom.
Jer. 31:16-17. Theme: CONSOLATIONS AND HOPES. Refrain thy voice from weeping: there is hope in thine end.
Two points in this connection: Rachel weeping for her sons, and Ephraim weeping for his sins; and to both classes the voice of sympathy and commiseration is addressed.
The history refers to the captivity. Rachel was the common mother of Benjamin and EphraimBenjamin representing here the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which were united into one under the house of David; and Ephraim the ten tribes, commonly called Israel. Rachels tomb was in Ramah, confines of both, on the border of Judah or Benjaminon the border of Ephraim or Israel.
By a beautiful figure, the sorrows of the captivity are described as raising Rachel out of her grave to weep for the desolations of her sons. At Ramah Nebuzaradan called a council of war, and brought before him the captives. It seems to have been the first halting-place in the journey to Babylon. Jeremiah was present and witnessed the grief of the mothers of Israel; and, with the eye and imagination of a poet, calls Rachel from her grave to join the general grief, and ministers to them support and consolation by the promise of their return. And as their grief (parent-like) was more for their children than themselves, so the promise particularly respects their restoration and return. Thy children shall come again, if you do not; just as though the fathers fell in the wilderness, the children entered Canaan. There is hope in thy posterity.
I. The consolations which the Gospel affords in this world.
II. The hopes which it furnishes for a better.
I. The consolations which the Gospel affords in this world.
1. It is a world of weeping, of disappointment, vicissitude, and trial; and afflictions are sent by God, not from severity and harshness, but to produce results nothing else could. It is the death of the sin, and not the death of the soul, God contemplates.
2. The Gospel only furnishes consolation. The world cannot. All the sounds of sympathy and tenderness come from another world. The only available consolation must bear this inscription, Thus saith the Lord. I said, Rachel was described as weeping for her sons, and Ephraim for his sins: these two constitute the great divisions of the sorrows of life: worldly, spiritual.
i. Under worldly calamity, the Gospel provides consolation. Losses, crosses.
1. The God that sends the trial sends the support with it, and often proportions the consolation to the distress. When He sends Rachel into captivity He gives her a promise to carry in her bosom.
2. The doctrine of Gods providence is a greater support, and especially when we view the system of Providence as part of the plan of grace.
3. The promises of grace afford consolation, and show how minutely observant of the interests of His children God is.
4. The Christian is assured that there shall be no more suffering of any kind under the Divine government than is absolutely necessary to the well-being of His people. He doth not afflict, etc. While to the eye of bystanders the sufferer seems to have reached the extremity, an unseen Hand assuages the grief with unsuspected mitigations.
ii. Under spiritual distress. The sorrow for sin. I have heard Ephraim, &c. No one else heard him or would have noticed him. But God did. Ephraim felt himself unobserved and alone. The sin that was heaviest upon his heart was the non-improvement of Gods afflictive dispensations. We are first turned, and then repent.
Under these apprehensions the Gospel brings relief, by leading us to Christ, the sin-atoning Lamb. Behold the Lamb; Who is a God like, &c. The Gospel proclaims pardon, reveals a full and ample relief.
II. The hopes the Gospel furnishes of a better life. There is hope in thine end. As Israel was delivered from their captivity, so we shall be from ours. The ransomed shall return. The Gospel ministers largely to hope. It tells us the hour of conflict is succeeded by eternity of triumph. Here we are in a state of exile and bondage. Heaven is complete deliverance
i. From the captivity of sin. Here we are often in bondage to the power of evil; there, sin shall have no more dominion. A state of perfect holiness and perfect love.
ii. From the captivity of Satan. Wicked are led captive. Christians are exposed to his temptations; feel the mark of chain and fetter. Christ conquered Satan for us on the cross, shall dispossess him finally at death.
iii. From the captivity of sorrow. All tears wiped away.
iv. From the captivity of death.Anon.
Jer. 31:18. Theme: DISCIPLINE. I surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn Thou me, and I shall be turned: for Thou art the Lord my God.
There are chastisements in life which cannot be classed amongst great afflictions. There are little checks, daily disappointments, irritations, defeats, and annoyancesshadows which chequer what else would be a sunny waythings which themselves cannot be treated with dignity, yet they tease and wear the heart.
I. Human life is established upon a disciplinary basis. There is a yoke everywherein sin, in repentance, in grace. No one can have everything just as he wants it. Man is made to feel that there is somebody in the world besides himself. He conceives a plan, and is laughed at for his pains; he tells his dream, and men suspect his vanity; he points out his high tower, and whilst his finger is lifted the mocking wind hurls the boasted masonry to the ground. So we are jostled, pulled back, and mortified. We are made to feel that our very life is a vapour, and that every respiration is but a compromise with death. We should ask ourselves the meaning of these things. Discipline touches the whole scheme: boy at school, going from home, bodily affliction, oversights and miscalculations, losses, &c.
II. The value of discipline depends upon its right acceptance. We may become desperate under it: as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Men may mourn, complain, rebel; they start arguments against God; they justify themselves; they become lost in secondary agencies and incomplete details.
Then there is a better way. Ephraim bemoaned himself, repented before God, and said, Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned. In this state of mind see(1.) Self-renunciation. (2.) Devout and joyful confidence in Gods sovereignty and graciousness.
Application
1. There is a yoke in sin. The way of transgressors is hard.
2. There is a yoke in goodness. It is often difficult to be upright, noble, holy.
3. God helps the true yoke-bearer: My yoke is easy. We must bear a yoke; say, shall it be the bad yoke, or the yoke of Jesus Christ?Dr. Joseph Parker (Pulpit Notes).
Jer. 31:18. Theme: ON CHASTISEMENT RESULTING IN PENITENCE.
I. These words contain an acknowledgment. Thou hast chastised me, &c.
1. This expression we conceive to denote the inefficacy of former corrections.
2. Though corrections are calculated to produce amendment, though such is their tendency and design, it is evident, from observation and experience, they often fail in accomplishing the effect.
3. Ephraim is here represented as reflecting upon it. (Proximate causes of the inefficacy of correction by itself).
4. Inattention to the hand of God, and, as a natural consequence, their neglecting to pass from the contemplation of their sufferings to their sins. Religion begins with consideration.
5. In the serious purpose of a religious life, formed under afflictive dispensations, too many depend entirely upon resolutions formed in their own strength.
To such purposes may be applied the beautiful image of Nahum: And as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known.
II. The prayer. Turn thou me. This may be enforced by such arguments as these
1. The plea of necessity. There is no other resource.
2. To entreat God to turn is not to ask an impossibility. The residue of the Spirit is with Him.
3. It is worthy of His interposition. The turning of the heart is a fit occasion on which Omnipotence may act.
4. The plea may be enforced by precedents. It implies no departure from His known methods.
5. We may force it by a reference to the Divine mercy.Robert Hall.
Jer. 31:18. Theme: EPHRAIM BEMOANING HIMSELF. Heathen described their fabled deity, Jove, as sitting far aloft, regardless of the common affairs of this lower world. Not such is Jehovah: I have surely heard Ephraim!
Conceive the nearness of God to every mourning soul. He is the greatest of Comforters, and also the most approachable. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer. See here
I. A sinner bemoaning himself.
1. He was bowed down with a peculiar grief. Not as Rachel for her children; for nothing outside of himself, but bemoaning himself. Inward sorrow, true repentance.
2. Such godly sorrow is well-founded sorrow. Over guilt, outrage on Gods goodness and grace, &c.
3. This sorrow is humble sorrow. Not excusing himself, or flattering himself, or making new resolutions; but bemoaning himself. Self-abhorrence. I have sinned!
4. A thoughtful sorrow. For Ephraim reviews his past life: Thou hast chastised me. What came of it? I was chastised, and that was all! See, hence, that affliction, providences, &c., will not save your soul; you need effectual grace.
5. A hopeless, yet a hopeful, sorrow. Ephraim says, Lord, it is useless to chastise me, I only get worse; but do Thou turn me, and I shall be turned.
Then think of
II. The Lord observing him. Some hide yourselves when pricked in your consciences. But the Lord finds you out. Mothers! how quickly you find out, even in the night, if your child is ill.
1. God heard all Ephraim had to say. It may be but a stammering cry; but broken prayers are the best prayers.
2. God delights in the broken heart and contrite spirit. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself. If He should not hear the music of heaven, He certainly would hear the prayers of penitents.
3. Our God is full of compassion. He gave Ephraim what he asked. Ye shall not seek His face in vain.
III. The Lord working in His effectual grace.
1. The only turning in the world that is saving and divine, is the turning of the heart.
2. The Lords way of turning men varies in each case
(1.) A distinct sight of wrath to come stops a sinner.
(2.) Or the awakened conscience is led to see the real nature of sin.
(3.) The grand turning-point is a sight of Christ on the cross.
(4.) One of the most blessed ways by which God makes a sinner turn is He manifests His everlasting love to him.
(a.) Are you bemoaning yourself?
(b.) Breathe the prayer, Turn me, O Lord.C. H. Spurgeon, 1867.
Jer. 31:18. Theme: TRUE REPENTANCE. I surely heard Ephraim, &c.
I. What feeling it expresses on the part of the returning penitent.
1. Mark the depth and intensity of his penitential emotions.
2. His total absence of all attempts at self-justification.
3. The promptitude and decision with which he acts up to his own convictions (Jer. 31:19).
4. His concern to surrender himself to those Divine influences to which he already owed so much: Turn Thou me.
II. What illustrations it exhibits of Gods revealed character. It accords with other Scriptures: I, even I, am He that blotteth out, &c.; As I live, I have no pleasure, &c.
1. The essential and inherent compassion of the Divine nature.
2. His knowledge of the constitution of the human mind: attracted by kindness; repelled by severity.
3. His minute and condescending regard to the growth and progress of religious emotion. I have heard.
4. His infinite readiness to receive and pardon the returning sinner.
5. He reinstates the penitent in those privileges which sin had forfeited.
Jer. 31:18-20. Theme: A PENITENTS REFLECTIONS AND GODS REFLECTIONS OVER HIM.
A wide difference between ostentation and true piety. The sincere penitent desires privacy. God here declares how acceptable is such repentance.
I. The reflections of a true penitent over himself.
1. The beginning of his repentance. He
(1.) Reflects on his incorrigibleness in the ways of sin.
(2.) Pleads with God to turn and convert his soul.
2. The progress of his repentance.
(1.) He reflects upon the advancing distress of his soul. Amazedsmote on thigh; then ashamed; then even confounded.
(2.) But he gives the glory of his advancement to God alone. It all resulted from the fact that I was turned.
II. The reflections of God over a true penitent. The penitent finds no words too severe against himself; but
1. God accounts no honour too great for such a person. He owns him to be a dear and pleasant child.
2. He expresses His compassionate regard for him. My bowels are troubled for him.
3. He grants him all he himself could desire. I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.
Can God testify of us as of Ephraim? If not, we must expect shame and confusion (Mat. 13:49-50). If He can, happiness will be ours here and hereafter (Psa. 126:5-6).Claudes Simeon.
Jer. 31:18-20. Theme: THE STUBBORN SINNER SUBMITTING HIMSELF TO GOD.
I. A description of the feelings and conduct of an obstinate, impenitent sinner while smarting under the rod of affliction. He is rebellioustill subdued.
II. The new views and feelings produced by affliction through Divine grace.
(a.) Convinced of guilt and sinfulness; (b) praying; (c) reflecting on the effects of Divine grace in his conversion.
III. A correcting and compassionate God watching the results, &c.
(a.) As a tender Father, mindful of His penitent child; (b.) Listening to his complaints and petitions; (c.) declaring His determination to pardon.Payson.
See Addenda: CONFESSION.
With Jer. 31:18-19, comp. Homilies on chap. Jer. 3:21-25.
Notes on Jer. 31:18-20.
i. THOU HAST CHASTISED ME, AND I WAS CHASTISED. In the first clause the chastisement itself is meant; in the second, the beneficial effects of itin teaching the penitent true wisdom.
ii. AS A BULLOCK UNACCUSTOMED (cf. stiffnecked Act. 7:51; Exo. 32:9), an image from refractory oxen. Before my chastisement I needed the severe correction I received, as much as an untamed bullock needs the goad (cf. Act. 9:5, where the same figure is used of Saul before he was converted).
iii. TURN THOU ME, AND I SHALL BE TURNED; by Thy converting Spirit (Lam. 5:21).
But why does Ephraim pray for conversion, seeing that he is already converted? Because we are converted by progressive steps, and need the same power of God to carry forward, as to originate, our conversion (Joh. 6:44; Joh. 6:65; cf. Isa. 27:3; 1Pe. 1:5; Php. 1:6).
iv. AFTER THAT I WAS TURNED I REPENTED. Repentance in the full sense follows, not precedes, our being turned to God by God (Zec. 12:10). Repentance is the tear that flows from the eye of faith turned to Jesus. Himself gives it; we give it not of ourselves, but must come to Him for it (Act. 5:31).
v. AFTER I WAS INSTRUCTED, I SMOTE UPON MY THIGH. Made to learn by chastisement. Gods Spirit often works through the corrections of His providence. Smote, &c. (Eze. 21:12): a token of remorse, shame, and grief because of past sin.
vi. I DID BEAR THE REPROACH OF MY YOUTH. The punishments I bore were the just punishments of my scandalous wantonness against God in my youth; alluding to the idols set up at Dan and Bethel immediately after the ten tribes revolted from Judah. His sense of shame shows he no longer delights in his sin.Jamieson.
Jer. 31:20. Theme: GODS TENDER MEMORY OF THE SINNER. Is Ephraim My dear son? is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore my bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.
See Homily on chap. Jer. 2:2 : AN UNFORGOTTEN PAST, pp. 41, 42, and Noticeable Topic, EARLY PIETY THE BEAUTY OF YOUTH, p. 50.
These questionsIs Ephraim, &c.imply that a negative reply might naturally follow. Oh! who could have imagined that, after all this undutifulness, the Father could still regard him as a pleasant child?
I. Our sin is enough to estrange the heart of God from us.
II. Yet the Divine heart is tenacious of its cherished child. How can I give thee up? I do earnestly remember him still.
III. Human alienation from God is not oblivion with God. Ephraim might be indifferent to the God he had revolted from and wronged: God not in all his thoughts; but God could not forgetI do earnestly remember. God cannot bury in forgetfulness the child He loves. He so loved the world, &c.
IV. Infinite grace is intent upon the recovery of the alien child.
1. My bowels are troubled. Gods restless yearning for his return.
2. I do earnestly remember. While he was yet a great way off the father saw him.
3. I will surely have mercy. Quick to relent the moment he repents. God is in no doubt as to how He will receive the sinner. The father ran, and had compassion upon him, and kissed him.
Jer. 31:21. Theme: SHEWING EXILES THE WAY HOME. Set up way-marks.
Keep the lights burning. Lift up the cross! Preach the Gospel still. Declare the precious promises.
I. Way-marks would be needed. For they should return from exile.
It is a prophecy. Souls who go astray may return; many shall.
II. Way-marks would be helpful. For their long banishment might obliterate the path and obliterate their remembrance. For long absence from God does make the way of right difficult to find.
III. Way-marks would be remembrancers, testimonies that God promised their return; for, seeing these way-marks, they would recall His promises and rejoice in His faithfulness and grace.
Jer. 31:21. Theme: A RIGHTLY DIRECTED PURPOSE. Set thine heart toward the highway.
I. There is but one way back to God. I am the Way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by Me.
II. Misleading paths decoy the steps astray. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, &c.; ways of self-reform, sacramental efficacy, &c.
III. A heart intent upon the way marked out for our return to God.
Determined to tread it. Resolute to walk in none other. Earnest to be found therein quickly.
Jer. 31:22. Theme: A NEW-CREATED WONDER: THE MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION OF CHRIST. The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall compass a man.
For other interpretations of the words, see Lit Crit. supra.
The words naturally and easily read thus:Why longer go about looking everywhere, anywhere for helpers, as if crying, Who will show us any good? leaning on any helpful contingencies which may perchance offer themselves? Stay your hopes on Jehovah; for He has not exhausted His wonderful resources for Israel and humanity. A new era approachesof grace in Christ Jesus. A new creation shall mark that erathe Incarnation of Christ; when the Virgin Woman shall compass a Man, and give birth to the Man Christ Jesus.
The ancient Jews acknowledged this interpretation, and applied the words determinately to the Messiah.
Augustine and most of the Christian fathers regarded the verse as predicting the event of the Virgin Mary compassing Christ in her womb.
i. The event was to be WHOLLY UNPRECEDENTED. A new thing in the earth, and a special Divine creation. Thus Mary was found with child of the Holy Ghost (Mat. 1:18-20). It was an event out of the ordinary course of nature.
ii. PROPHECY HARMONISED with the fact described. The first evangelical promise described Christ as the Seed of the woman, not of man. So Isa. 7:14, A Virgin shall conceive.
iii. There is a SPECIFIC PERSONALITY in the words, A womana man. Both distinct; not any woman, not an ordinary man; but definite, solitary. The Hebrew rendered here woman means an individual, and is not the word for woman collectively and in plurality. So the Hebrew rendered man is properly mighty MAN, the Geber; and Christ is called in Isa. 9:6, El Gibbr. (See also the word in Deu. 10:17; Zec. 13:7; and cf. Psa. 45:3.).
iv. The LOCALISATION OF THE EVENT helps this interpretation. A new thing in the earth; literally, in the land, viz., of Judah, where Christs conception occurred (cf. Luk. 1:39; Luk. 1:41).
v. An occult allusion to the SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS IN BETHLEHEM associates this prediction with the Incarnation. See on Jer. 31:14.
vi. Such a Messianic promise more fully explains the LONGING OF THE EXILES TO RETURN TO THEIR LAND, because Emmanuel should be born there.
vii. The prophets vision is through all these verses DIRECTED ON TO THE GOSPEL AGE, when the new covenant (Jer. 31:29 seq.) shall dawn upon the world, of which the Incarnate Christ should be the Alpha and the Omega.
Jer. 31:23-24. Comp. Homily on chap. Jer. 3:17-18.
Jer. 31:25. Satiated the weary soul. Comp. Jer. 31:14.
Jer. 31:26. Theme: SWEET VISIONS OF HUMAN GOOD. My sleep was sweet unto me. My sleepmy prophetic dream. It was a rare experience with Jeremiah to have visions so sweet; for usually his messages concerning the Divine intent were pensive and sad.
i. Happy outlooks for a woestricken world are sweetest to the Divine seer.
ii. There are gleams of day glory breaking the grim night of the worlds distress.
iii. It is in Gods purposes of grace, as distinct from mans conduct of sinfulness, that these glad visions of good are possible.
Jer. 31:29-30. Theme: EATING SOUR GRAPES: PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Popular sentiments, though crystallised into proverbs, may be misleading. Therefore prove all things, &c. Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah mention this as a proverb in currency. See, with Jer. 31:29, Eze. 18:2-4.
A law on Sinai that God would visit the sins of the fathers upon their children.
In distinction from the old covenant, a new dispensation was coming in which INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY should prevail as the law.
I. Facts in the Divine economy and procedure warranting this prevailing sentiment. The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the childrens teeth are set on edge.
1. Mans inherited misery through Adams fall (Rom. 5:12-14; Rom. 5:18-19).
2. Great calamities were allowed to engulf the children in the ruin merited only by the fathers.
The Deluge; overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah; destruction of families of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, together with themselves. So, for Davids sin in numbering the people, 70,000 of his subjects were slain, himself spared. Manasseh (2Ki. 23:26-27; 2Ki. 24:3-4). On the Jewish nation too (Mat. 23:34)
3. In civil and social relations the conduct of governors and parents casts its results on the children.
II. A spirit of sinful repining which cast blame upon God. The Jews intended to
1. Exonerate themselves for their misfortunes. They implied that for no sin of their own were they suffering.
2. Reflect on the wisdom and justice of God. But surely God punishes us less than our iniquities deserve (Ezr. 9:13). Even the lost souls must own God just (Rev. 16:7). And the day of retribution will prove itself to be a revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Rom. 2:5).
III. A new era announced of individual responsibility and judgment.
1. God declares what shall be His settled rule of procedure (Jer. 31:30). (1.) National and all-embracing judgments shall cease. (2.) Each soul shall stand on its own merits and bear its own responsibility.
2. This law of individuality is to be verified(1.) In this life (Gal. 6:5); (2.) In the future world (Gal. 6:7-8).
IV. The awful burden of inevitable personal guilt.
1. Every man must give account of himself, and meet his just condemnation. For
2. There is none who can stand before God without sin. And
3. Every sinner shall die his due death (Jer. 31:30).
4. Can there be found no Sin-Bearer? Yes verily; Christ died the Just for the unjust (1Pe. 3:18); was made sin for us (2Co. 5:21). And so we lose our individual curse in the atonement and substitution of Calvary.
Jer. 31:31-34. Theme: SALVATION TAKEN INTO GODS OWN HANDS. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they brake; though I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord; but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
It is useful to contemplate the duties devolving on us as agents, and the hopes arising from the agency of God. Our text refers to the latter. The old covenant was made with the Hebrews at Sinai, the covenant of grace under types; not an absolute but a conditional covenant, and in this it resembled the law. As a consequence, it is added, which covenant they brake. But it pleased God to promise a new covenant. In this He shows His own agency on the heart, and takes salvation into His own hands to accomplish it Himself: They shall be My people and I will be their God. Had a covenant of works been held out offering salvation upon perfect obedience, or a covenant offering pardon to man unassisted, none would have been saved. Both were tried, in Eden and at Sinai. The covenant made with Abraham still exists. Let us show
I. According to the plan of grace revealed in the Gospel, GOD HAS TAKEN THE WORK OF SALVATION INTO HIS OWN HANDS.
II. THIS LAYS THE ONLY FOUNDATION FOR HOPE.
I. According to plan of grace in Gospel, God has taken the work of salvation into His own hands. The great design originated in the mind of God, it was His own choice and purpose, induced by a regard for His own glory and compassion for a sinful world. He organised the plan alone. Eternal ages before man was, the covenant of redemption between the Sacred Persons was formed, and all circumstances relating to the salvation of the world were settled. Man was then made, and fell; when an intimation of the purpose was made to him. Jesus Christ came in due time to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He rose from the dead for our justification. All this was done by God independently of His creatures. The Holy Spirit was sent out to subdue as many as the Father had given Christ. Through human instrumentality the world was enlightened by the preaching of the Word. The creation, care, support, and enlargement of the Christian Church was undertaken by the Trinity. In like manner God takes the salvation of every believer individually into His own hands.
II. That God has taken the work of delivering His own people into His own hands, is the only foundation of human hope. This doctrine is sweet to the Christian, but opposed by the proud; for had not God contrived and executed this plan, no provision could have been made for the salvation of man; and, beset as he is from without and within, he can only find help from the God of his salvation.
1. The Christian who feels his own weakness, and discerns the power of his enemies, resorts to this truth as the only ground for hope. The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord, and they feel that God can shield them from every enemy.
2. Those who would rather trust themselves than God, reject this truth; while the only encouragement for Christians to work out their own salvation is that God worketh in them.
3. This doctrine also affords encouragement to the Church generally. While looking upon the many who know not God, we can be sustained by nothing but the trust that the work of saving men is Gods work alone. In commending our loved ones to God, we feel peace in the knowledge that God has taken their salvation into His own hands. Ministers of Gods people, be content to leave their salvation there; it is His work and His cause. Pious and trembling ones, dwell upon this truth to your comfort; and to the unrenewed I would say, remember you are in Gods hands. Return unto the Lord, for He will have mercy upon you, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.Ancient MS.
Jer. 31:32. Which covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them. Comp. Homily on chap. Jer. 3:14.
Jer. 31:33. The new covenant. Comp. Homily on chap. Jer. 3:16.
Jer. 31:32. Theme: Is THE OLD COVENANT ABANDONED? Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.
I. The covenant God made at the first with His people is not contradicted and destroyed by the new.
1. God had not changed His purpose, as if he had forgotten His faithfulness. The first covenant with Abraham was inviolable.
2. The law was a confirmation of, and based upon, that covenant. Consequently, God can make no new law inconsistent with the old.
3. Christians, under the new covenant, are partakers of that old and original Abrahamic covenant, are called children of Abraham; will be gathered into Abrahams bosom; and shall come from the east and west, &c., and sit down with Abraham, &c.
These considerations show that God never abrogated the covenant made with Abraham and confirmed by and to Moses.
II. In what sense God has made a new covenant with His people. Here premising that
1. The substance, or doctrine, remains the same; for God in the Gospel brings forward nothing but what the law contains. But
2. In the form, or expression of the doctrine, all is new. Thus Christ, as substitute; Holy Spirits renewing grace; and the whole method of teaching men Gods will: these are new.
(a.) Thus, God made a new covenant when He accomplished through His Son what had been foreshadowed forth under the law.
(b.) Further, it was a new thing that God, by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, made the covenant, not only strike the ear, but penetrate the heart.
(c.) The outward mode of teaching is also new; for, comparing the law with the Gospel, we find that God speaks to us openly now, as it were face to face (2Co. 3:13); for the veil is removed, and God in the face of Christ presents Himself to be seen by us.Arranged from Calvin.
Jer. 31:33. Theme: MY LAW IN THEIR HEARTS.
No longer a Sinaitic code of morals, external to man and enforced upon him; but an inner force, an inspiration of love, constraining the soul into sweet consent. The sermon on the mount is the old Mosaic lawbut transfigured by love; speaking to the very heart of man in tones of mighty tenderness.
I. If Gods commandments are to sway the whole being of a man, they must move the inmost affections.
1. Laws, which only speak to the ear, and demand an unwilling attention, can affect men but feebly. But the voice of God is powerful in a soul when it finds its way inward to the affections, and speaks in tones which stir the keenest and strongest emotions.
2. The new covenant laws are voices of love from God, full of infinite tenderness and grace, and go deeper into the soul than commandments; they are more penetrating than a mothers words. God speaks to the heart in the Gospel.
3. These laws of loveThou shalt love the Lord, &c.; for God is lovewhich constitute the Gospel covenant, do rule the soul from within by the impulses and affections which they awaken. We love Him, because He first loved us. His laws are impressed upon our very hearts.
II. If mans obedience to God is to be completethe obedience of a willing soul, glad to obeythe inmost affections must move him thereto.
1. Duty is cold and hard as an inspiration to conduct. It awakens no enthusiasm, no delight, no eager volition in the soul. It enforces itself upon us, not awakens response within us.
2. But laws (interpreted and emphasised as they are in the life of Jesuscalling us to obedience for love of Him, and inspired with grandeur as they are in the cross of Christdeclaring the infinite importance to the sinner that he should not sin, but should obey and live)laws of God thus enforced cast their pathos upon the heart of even the disobedient and stir to response.
3. The affections won by Christs personally obedient example and substitutionary death for mans disobedience, prompt the soul to willing anxious concern to do the will of God with fervour and delight. His laws are obeyed from the heart.
III. Hence, love awakened within a soul is a grander force and a surer guarantee of full obedience to law than the sense of duty however majestically enforced.
1. The cross raised on Calvary is therefore a grander motive than the tables of stone given on Sinai.
2. Humanity can be drawn into allegiance to God more effectually and surely by the allurements of love than by the demands and threatenings of law.
3. The new covenant, therefore, supersedes the reign of penalty, with its appeals to duty and fear, by the reign of grace, in which the heart is won to glad obedience, inspired by gratitude and love.
Jer. 31:34. Theme: UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.
1. Its primary application is to the enlightenment of Israel. They shall know Christ as the Lord (Isa. 54:13).
2. Its secondary reference is to all believers, who come to see Christ for themselves as their Saviour, Lord, and God (Joh. 6:45; 1Co. 2:10; 1Jn. 2:2; 1Jn. 2:20).
3. Its widest meaning is the ingathering of all people to the one faith (Psa. 2:8).
I. By a Divine plan of instruction men shall be taught.
1. It is slow and feeble work this winning men by mans teaching.
2. Not that the office of teaching will cease under the Gospel dispensation.
3. But the Divine Spirit will become the worlds Teacher, showing Christ to men.
4. And a purer light will by that Spirit shine in upon the human conscience, revealing to the sinner more clearly his state, his need, and the remedy of the cross.
II. With an all-embracing inclusiveness men shall be taught.
1. National barriers and distinctions shall no longer limit the spread of true religion. The Gospel shall be unto all people.
2. Social and educational divisions shall be utterly disregarded in the Divine diffusion of light. Things despised will be equally blessed with Divine lightthe least of them as things mightythe greatest of them. For God is no respecter of persons.
3. Childhood shall gather under the lustre of Christian knowledge as much as maturity; for Christ shall enfold the lambs, and the little ones shall be in the kingdom of heaventhe least of them.
III. Into a clearer knowledge of God men shall be led. All shall know Me.
1. Sinais revelations and Prophecys dim teachings failed to reveal God fully to the soul. They were but faint gleamings (Exo. 33:23).
2. The Person of ChristHis life, teachings, character, and deathunveils God clearly to man (Joh. 1:18).
3. By the Spirits illumination a familiar, happy, and satisfactory realisation of God is brought to each believing soul (1Jn. 2:27).
Jer. 31:35-37. Theme: GODS GUARANTEE TO HIS CHURCH. In prophecy we see the purposes of God unfolded, and, comparing past and passing events, see God so ordering every incident for the fulfilment of His purposes. Note
i. With what majesty and glory the Almighty describes Himself!
ii. With what solemnity He enforces His declarations, equivalent even to oaths!
iii. And all this in order to assure His people of His exhaustless and inalienable mercy!
I. Contemplate the grandeur of these assurances of Jehovah to His people.
1. In their historic reference to Israel literally.
(1.) Their imperishable security; they shall always be under His care. So that, while other nations have become obliterated, they shall never be. Though their sins provoked Him to utterly cast them off, they should be restored to His favour as of old.
(2.) Gods infinite resources on their behalf. The Lord, which giveth the sun, &c.; the almightiness of Jehovah; the Lord of Hosts is His name.
(3.) The inviolability of Gods covenant with them. If impossibilities can be, the heavens be measured, &c., then this impossibility may happen, that God would sever His people from Himself, the people He betrothed in an everlasting covenant!
Note:History confirms these ancient assurances of God to Israel. During their captivity in Babylon the nation kept its nationality intact, and were restored to Canaan. And even now, though for 1800 years Israel and Judah are scattered, God preserves them a peculiar people; and signs are not wanting that the lost ten tribes are still in distinct existence.
They are still beloved for the fathers sake; and Gods gifts and calling are without repentance (Isa. 54:7-10).
2. In their larger application to the Church of God spiritually.
(1.) Guarded by the unfailing care of the Lord. The gates of hell shall not prevail; Not one of them shall be lost.
(2.) All the guarantees of Deity are pledged to its security. My Father who gave them to Me is greater than all, and none shall pluck them out of My Fathers hand: I and My Father are one!
(3.) With inviolable fidelity Christs people are bound to Him. Not a jot or tittle of His word shall fail: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away. Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.
II. Ponder the value of these assurances of Jehovah to His people. To Israel indeed literally belongs these covenants and promises; yet Christians have a joint heritage in them; for Paul assures us that God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us (Heb. 6:17-18).
1. By whom, then, may these assurances be appropriated? All the promises of God are in Christ, Yea; and in Him, Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Only those who are in Christ themselves can inherit the promises which are assured in Him.
2. For what purposes should these assurances be appropriated? For our enduring consolation amid all distresses, persecutions, &c. (Rom. 8:35-39); yet not for delusive self-security and presumption. Unless we keep ourselves distinct from the world, as do the Jews as a nation, but distinct for our piety (2Co. 6:17; Jas. 1:27), we forfeit all part in the assurance that God will keep us perpetually before Him as His people.
3. In what spirit, then, should these assurances be appropriated? With faith in Gods word (Joh. 14:1); with joyous hope (Rom. 5:2); with lowly watchfulness (Rom. 11:20).
Compare with the above Simeons Outline, on which this is based.
Jer. 31:38-39. Theme: THE REBUILDING OF JERUSALEM, BOTH LITERALLY AND SPIRITUALLY.
Wordsworth here points out
I. The city is here said to be built to the Lord (Jer. 31:38). It is dedicated to Him. The Church () is the house of the Lord. It is called by His name, consecrated to His glory and service. Its name is Jehovah Shammah, The Lord is there (Eze. 48:35).
II. Taken in its literal sense, this prophecy foretels that Jerusalem shall be rebuilt in all its extent, from the tower of Hanameel, on the north-east (see Neh. 3:1; Neh. 12:39) to the gate of the corner, on the north-west (2Ki. 14:13; 2Ch. 26:9). Comp. Zec. 14:10. This was effected by Nehemiah.
III. But this was figurative of the greater rebuilding, when Jesus Christ built up the ruins of our fallen nature, and raised up the walls of the spiritual Jerusalem, His universal Church.
1. The names Hanameel and Gate of the Corner have a symbolical sense, suited to this fulfilment. Hanameel = graciously given by God. The building of the spiritual Jerusalem (so Jerome suggests) begins with the free grace of God (Tit. 2:11-14; Tit. 3:4-8), and extends to the gate of the Corner, Christ being the elect Corner-stone; for He is the Corner in which the walls of both peoplesJew and Gentilemeet in one, cemented together in Him (Psa. 118:22; Isa. 28:16; Mat. 21:42; 1Pe. 3:6).
2. Similarly the names hill Gareb and Goath have a symbolical significance. These names are nowhere found in Scripture, and have no actual localisation; the reason, therefore, for the choice of such names is that we should not look to the letter but to the spirit[!] Mystical names were thus sometimes used by prophets (Son. 2:17; Son. 6:12; Jer. 25:26; Eze. 39:11, &c.)
But Gareb means a leper, and leprosy was a type of sin; while Goath is supposed by some to be the same as Golgotha or Calvary. Leprosy is the ban of death; but Christ by death abolished death, whereas on Calvary was opened the fountain for sin, and so sin and death found a remedy in Christ.
Thus the Christian Church, which has its origin and centre in Zion, extends its walls with a living and gracious energy to enfold the hill Gareb, and even Goath itself.
IV. Further, in Jer. 31:40, it is affirmed that the whole valley of the dead bodiesthe loathsome and idolatrous valley of Hinnom, and even all the fields unto the brook Kidronto which all the abominations of idolatry were brought and burned (2Ki. 23:4-6), i.e., all things most unclean by nature and by human corruption, will be purged from all impurity, and cleansed by the blood of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit of holiness in the Christian Church, and so be made holy unto the Lord (Zec. 14:20-21; Joe. 3:17; Isa. 52:1, &c.)
This has been fulfilled, and is in course of fulfilment in the transformation of heathen basilicas and temples (as the Pantheon of Rome and the Parthenon of Theseus at Athens) into Christian Churches, and the conversion of heathen cities and nations unto Christ. The cross of Christ stands in the Colosseum, where Christian martyrs were formerly cast to the lions; and it surmounts the obelisks of Egypt; and human nature, once the stronghold of Satan, has now become the shrine of Deity by the incarnation of the Son of God,Wordsworths Commentary.
Note.Dr. Payne Smith remarks: The main point in Jeremiahs description of the New Jerusalem is not its great extent, though it would have covered somewhat more space than the old city, and much more than Nehemiah included within his walls, but that it took in and consecrated spots which previously had been unclean. If we compare this with Zec. 2:4, the conclusion seems evident that Jeremiahs words are to be spiritually understood. His city is one that renders what was before unclean holy unto Jehovah. (Comp. with this Johns New Jerusalem, especially Rev. 21:27.)
Jer. 31:40. THE PERPETUITY OF THE SPIRITUAL JERUSALEM. It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down any more for ever.
Calvin comments: The promise of perpetual favour is added; for it would not be sufficient to have Gods mercy promised us for a short time. The city indeed was again destroyed by Titus, and at length wholly demolished by Adrian; but God gave some taste of His favour, in the external aspect of the city, till Christ came; but after Christ was manifested, the heavenly Jerusalem became the object to be sought, and then all types and shadows ceased.
This promise pledges the perpetuity of the Church; for though God may permit it to be terribly shaken, and Satan and all the world may daily threaten its ruin, yet the Lord will preserve it to the end, so that it shall never perish.
ADDENDA TO CHAP. 31: ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer. 31:3. EVERLASTING LOVE. A father, whose affluence was considerable, mourned over a reckless son, whose misconduct brought shame upon himself and family. From home the prodigal went into another country, and for years he was lost to his relatives. A chance occurring, he sent by a friend this message, should he meet his boy, Your father loves you still. The bearer sought him long and in vain. At last he saw him enter a house of vice, and called him; and there, at a late hour of evening, he delivered this message. The dissolute gamblers heart was touched. The thought that his father still loved him, and wished to forgive him, broke the spell of Satan. He abandoned his profligacy and returned to his father. Oh! the power of such a message of inalienable love from God!
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
Were the whole world of parchment made,
Were every single grass a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade:
To write the love
Of God above
Would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll
Contain the whole,
Though stretched from earth to sky.
Not as the world loves doth God love. They love to-day and hate tomorrow, wearing their friends like flowers, which we may behold in their bosoms whilst they are fresh and sweet, but soon they wither and then are laid aside. Whereas the love of God to His people is everlasting, and He wears them as a signet upon His right hand, which He will never part with.White.
Jer. 31:9. TEARS OF PENITENCE. A saints tears are better than a sinners triumphs. Bernard saith, Lachrym pnitentium sunt vinum angelorum: The tears of penitents are the wine of angels.Secker.
Jer. 31:18. CONFESSION: Bemoaning himself. If I am working beside a man, and I see that he tries to shirk his work upon me, I am angry with him. But if he says to me, I am ill and cannot work, then the thought comes to me at once, You shall not work; I will help you. And so, if a man says to us, I know I did wrong, but I am weak; blame me as little as you can, but help me out as much as you canthe very confession disarms us, and we think better of him than we did before. Therefore it is that God so exhorts us to confess our sins to Him.
H. Ward Beecher.
All-powerful is the penitential sigh
Of true contrition; like the placid wreaths
Of incense, wafted from the righteous shrine
Where Abel ministered, to the blest seat
Of Mercy, an accepted sacrifice,
Humiliations conscious plaint ascends.
Hayes.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
D. The purposes of a Sovereign God Jer. 30:23 to Jer. 31:1
TRANSLATION
(23) Behold, the tempest of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a sweeping tempest! It will whirl upon the heads of the wicked. (24) The fierce anger of the LORD shall not turn back until He has done it, until He has accomplished the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you shall understand it. (1) In that time (oracle of the LORD) I will be the God of all the tribes of Israel and they shall be My people.
COMMENTS
The three verses[253] of this paragraph serve to point to the purpose of God in history. Jer. 30:23-24 are almost identical with the threat made against the false prophets in Jer. 23:19 f. Here the words apply to the Gentile enemies of Israel and particularly wicked Babylon. The wrath of God like a whirlwind goes forth to execute the intents of His heart. He will not relent until (a) evil has been punished and (b) the families or clans of Israel acknowledge His lordship. Only in the latter days, after the judgment against Babylon has been accomplished, will the people of God fully comprehend the sovereign purposes of God. The latter days as envisioned by the Old Testament seers commenced with the coming of Jesus Christ.[254]
[253] The Hebrew chapter division places Jer. 31:1 as the last verse of chapter 30.
[254] See Heb. 1:1; Act. 2:16-17; 1Ti. 4:1; 2Ti. 3:1; 1Jn. 2:18.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXXI.
(1) The God of all the families of Israel.The union of the ten tribes of Israel and the two of Judah is again prominent in the prophets mind. He cannot bear to think of that division, with its deep lines of cleavage in the religious and social life of the people, being perpetuated. Israel should be Israel. This is the crown and consummation of the promise of Jer. 30:24.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
RESTORATION FOR ALL THE FAMILIES OF ISRAEL, Jer 31:1-40.
1. At the same time Namely, in the “latter days” of Jer 30:24, when God’s anger shall light on his enemies. Then shall men be made to “discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” Mal 3:18. Will I be the God, etc. An all-comprehending promise, carrying in its bosom all possible good safety, success, victory, glory. And this he will be, not to Judah alone, and not to select and fortunate individuals and families, but to all the families of Israel.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
SECTION 2 ( Jer 26:1 to Jer 45:5 ).
Whilst the first twenty five chapters of Jeremiah have mainly been a record of his general prophecies, mostly given during the reigns of Josiah and Jehoiakim, and have been in the first person, this second section of Jeremiah (Jer 26:1 to Jer 45:5) is in the third person, includes a great deal of material about the problems that Jeremiah faced during his ministry and provides information about the opposition that he continually encountered. This use of the third person was a device regularly used by prophets so that it does not necessarily indicate that it was not directly the work of Jeremiah, although in his case we actually have good reason to think that much of it was recorded under his guidance by his amanuensis and friend, Baruch (Jer 36:4).
It can be divided up as follows:
1. Commencing With A Speech In The Temple Jeremiah Warns Of What Is Coming And Repudiates The Promises Of The False Prophets (Jer 26:1 to Jer 29:32).
2. Promises Are Given Of Eventual Restoration And Of A New Covenant Written In The Heart (Jer 30:1 to Jer 33:26).
3. YHWH’s Continuing Word of Judgment Is Given Through Jeremiah And Its Repercussions Leading Up To The Fall Of Jerusalem Are Revealed (Jer 34:1 to Jer 39:18).
4. Events Subsequent To The Fall Of Jerusalem (Jer 40:1 to Jer 45:5).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Part 1). Anguish And Restoration ( Jer 30:1 to Jer 31:40 ).
Part 1 is divided up into two Sub-parts (A and B) by the introductory words, ‘thus says YHWH (of hosts), the God of Israel’ (Jer 30:2; Jer 31:23). Sub-part A describes the coming restoration, but with continued flashbacks to the present miserable state of Judah/Israel, while Sub-part B emphasises the absolute certainty of the fulfilment of God’s final purpose for His people, including a glorious spiritual renewal.
Sub-part A). ‘Thus says YHWH the God of Israel.’ Commencing with a promise of coming restoration, Jeremiah, in a series of three brilliant contrasts moving from one extreme to the other (Jer 30:8-11; Jer 30:12-17; Jer 31:15-20), seeks to draw out in chapter 30 the miseries of the present in contrast with the hopes of the future, bringing out in the process the great necessity for the chastisement of the people prior to restoration. Jer 31:1-22 then follows with expanded descriptions of that restoration, intermingled with a pathetic description of ‘Rachel’ (Jacob’s wife as representing Judah/Israel) weeping over the loss of her children (Jer 31:15), a reminder that the joy of the future will arise out of the misery of the present.
Using Jeremiah’s own markers we may divide up this sub-part as follows:
Analysis.
An initial promise of restoration (Jer 30:3).
‘Thus says YHWH.’ The period of ‘Jacob’s trouble’ is coming on them, a time of trembling and fear, a day so great that there will be none like it (Jer 30:4-7). This will be followed by deliverance from the yoke of bondage and establishment ‘under YHWH their God and David their King’, for YHWH will act to bring them back to the land, finally dealing severely with their enemies, but sparing Judah/Israel, although this will only be once they have suffered necessary chastening (Jer 30:8-11).
‘Thus says YHWH.’ Meanwhile Judah/Israel’s current state is like that of a fatally wounded warrior because of the greatness of their sins (Jer 30:12-15). But in the end their enemy will be devoured and become a prey, and will themselves go into captivity, while Judah/Israel will be restored and healed in consequence of the derision of the nations at their seeming total rejection (Jer 30:16-17).
‘Thus says YHWH.’ Full restoration is now described, with cities being rebuilt and joy and thanksgiving arising, as they are established under their own appointed rulers who will respond to YHWH, and they will be His people and He will be their God (Jer 30:18-22), and all this will be due to the tempest of YHWH as He goes forth in wrath, not turning back until He has accomplished His will (Jer 30:23-24). In consequence it is repeated that He will be their God and they will be His people (Jer 31:1). (It will be emphasised again in Jer 31:33).
‘Thus says YHWH.’ The survivors are seen as like Israel in the wilderness, beloved of YHWH and having escaped from the Egyptian/Babylonian sword, whom YHWH will now restore to great rejoicing and fruitfulness, so that once more they will go up to Zion, to YHWH their God (Jer 31:2-5).
‘Thus says YHWH.’ A paean of praise arises over the glory of YHWH’s deliverance of His people as they return with weeping to YHWH their Father, and are delivered in a similar way to that in which Israel were delivered as they had once marched through the wilderness (Jer 31:6-9). Let the nations witness how YHWH has restored His people so that the land blossoms and His people rejoice and make merry, and the firstfruits and tithes abound (Jer 31:10-14). Note the continued emphasis on joy and merriment (Jer 30:19; Jer 31:13) in stark contrast with what now follows.
‘Thus says YHWH.’ A voice is heard in Ramah, Rachel weeping for her children (Judah/Israel) because they are no more (Jer 31:15). The future is sure but it must develop by God’s grace out of the present misery.
‘Thus says YHWH.’ But weeping may now cease because there is hope for the future. Ephraim, having confessed to their sinfulness, have turned back to YHWH in repentance, pleading to be brought back and restored. And YHWH will receive them back as a father his child because He loves them and will be merciful towards them (Jer 31:16-20). They must thus set up the road signs that will bring them back to the land, and not hesitate because YHWH is doing a new thing (Jer 31:21-22).
Sub-part B) is also introduced by the words, ‘Thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel,’ and a feature of this sub-part is the phrase ‘the days are coming, says YHWH, when –’ (Jer 31:27; Jer 31:31; Jer 31:38), with its emphasis on the glorious future for God’s people. It may be analysed as follows:
The fortunes of Judah and its cities will be restored and they will rejoice in YHWH’s holy habitation. Both town and country will rejoice together, for YHWH will satisfy all hearts (Jer 31:23-26).
‘The days are coming, says YHWH, when’, rather than being broken down and destroyed, both the house of Israel and the house of Judah will be watched over by YHWH and built up and planted, with individuals responsible for their own sins. In other words they will no longer be a nation with joint responsibility for the covenant and suffering accordingly, but individuals each accountable for themselves (Jer 31:27-30).
‘The days are coming, says YHWH, when’ He will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not one like the old covenant which they broke, but one written in their hearts so that He will be their God and they will be His people. And all will know YHWH and enjoy total forgiveness (Jer 31:31-34).
‘Thus says YHWH.’ The continuation of Israel is as certain as the arrival of the sun by day and of the moon and stars by night and as YHWH’s control of the seas (Jer 31:35-36).
‘Thus says YHWH.’ The fact that Israel will not be cast off for what they have done is as certain as the fact that the heavens cannot be measured, and the foundations of the earth explored (Jer 31:37).
The days are coming, says YHWH, when’ the city will be rebuilt for YHWH, and the whole area, even the unclean valley of Hinnom, will be sacred to Him. They will be established for ever (Jer 31:38-40). Something only possible in the eternal kingdom.
One question that will arise as we consider these passages is as to if and when YHWH is speaking of the northern kingdom only, under the name of Ephraim, or when reference is being made to the whole of Israel/Judah as ‘Ephraim’ in order to bring out their fallen state, with Ephraim being intended to be symbolic of a fallen people. It is not quite as simple a question as might at first be thought.
If, as some claim, this prophecy was written in the days of Josiah, the question would not arise. During his reign there were no exiles from Judah, and therefore the exiles of northern Israel alone would be in mind, and ‘Ephraim’ would simply indicate them. This would certainly be a good explanation for the four references to Ephraim in Jer 31:9-20. But there are good reasons for in fact seeing that what is written here was written later than the reign of Josiah. For example, in Jer 30:3 reference is made to ‘the captivity (exile) of My people Israel and Judah’ which is clearly referring to a period later than Josiah when there were also Judean exiles resulting at least from the activities of Nebuchadrezzar in 605 BC and 598 BC. Furthermore this ties in with the fact that there are other verses which must be seen as undoubtedly all-inclusive. Jer 30:4, for example, introduces what YHWH spoke ‘concerning Israel and concerning Judah’ and refers to both under the joint title ‘Jacob’ (e.g. in Jer 30:7; Jer 30:10; Jer 30:18). Jer 30:21 refers to the setting up of a new authority, honouring to YHWH, which in the context suggests one connected with the house of David (see Jer 30:9), and that must include Judah. Jer 30:22 is most naturally seen as referring to Israel/Judah as one people. That would suggest that Jer 31:1 must therefore also be using ‘all the families of Israel’ in an all-inclusive way (it is underlining what has been said in Jer 30:22). Up to Jer 31:1 then there are good reasons for seeing both Israel and Judah as in mind as becoming one people.
In Jer 31:2; Jer 31:4 ‘Israel’ and ‘the virgin of Israel’ are then spoken of as comparable with what happened in the wilderness at the Exodus. This again suggests all-inclusiveness because in the wilderness ‘Israel’ included Judah. The fact that they will once more plant vineyards ‘on the mountains of Samaria’, while certainly demonstrating that the exiles of the northern kingdom are included, must not necessarily be seen as exclusive of seeing the deliverance as applying to all. It is simply indicating that Israel will once more be part of the whole. The use of ‘Ephraim’ in Jer 30:6 is merely speaking of an area known as ‘the hills of Ephraim’, and is seemingly indicating the reconciliation of Israel and Judah as joint worshippers of YHWH at the Temple. Meanwhile ‘Israel’ and ‘Jacob’ are used indiscriminately (Jer 31:2; Jer 31:4; Jer 31:7; Jer 31:9-11) as those who will sing in the height of Zion. Furthermore ‘Rachel’ (Jer 31:15) combines Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh (compare Psa 80:2 where these three represent the whole of Israel) and thus includes both kingdoms. All this points to both kingdoms being in mind throughout, seen as one people.
We are therefore left with three references to consider which might be seen as suggesting otherwise:
The reference in Jer 31:9 to ‘Ephraim is my firstborn’, seemingly as a part of Israel, or more likely paralleling ‘Israel’.
The reference to Ephraim as repenting in Jer 31:18.
The reference to Ephraim as YHWH’s ‘dear son’ in Jer 31:19.
It is certainly obvious from these references that Jeremiah wants it clearly recognised that the northern kingdom is included in the coming restoration, and as being equally precious to YHWH, but the question is, are we therefore to see Judah/Benjamin as not in mind in them? On the contrary, we have seen that the reference to ‘Rachel’ (mother of both Joseph and Benjamin) would appear to emphasise that the southern kingdom are also in mind.
The first problem requiring solution is as to what ‘Ephraim is my firstborn’ signifies. Can this be seen as referring only to the northern kingdom, or is there good reason for seeing it as applying to both? For the fact is that Ephraim was neither the firstborn of Jacob/Israel, nor of Joseph. The only way in which he could have been seen as YHWH’s firstborn, unless ‘Ephraim’ was a synonym for ‘Israel’, would be because YHWH had chosen him to be above his brother (Gen 48:10-12), i.e. had declared him to be His firstborn in status. But if that was in mind here it would mean that here Ephraim was being seen as distinguished from the rest of Israel, which would appear to be unlikely. The alternative is either to see ‘Ephraim is My firstborn’ as paralleling the wider ‘Israel is My son, My firstborn’ which is found in Exo 4:22, which included all the tribes, with ‘Ephraim’ thereby indicating all the tribes, including Judah and Benjamin, or to see it as signifying that ‘Ephraim is an essential part of my firstborn’ with ‘firstborn’ indicating Israel/Judah’s status as ‘chief among the nations’ (Jer 31:7). Either way we must see ‘my firstborn’ as all-inclusive. But it may be asked, if that is so, why then alter ‘Israel’ to ‘Ephraim’? We may well see as the answer to that question that YHWH was by ‘Ephraim’ seeking to signify an ‘all-inclusive Israel in its fallen state as illustrated by Ephraim’. Everything then would seem to point to Ephraim here as, in one way or another, signifying all-inclusive Israel.
This interpretation would appear to be supported by the fact that it is extremely unlikely that YHWH could have been intending to give Ephraim as the northern kingdom a superior position to Judah, for it was from Judah that the supreme ruler was to come. And the same can be seen as applying to His reference to Ephraim as His dear son (Jer 31:19). Again He was certainly not intending thereby to exclude Judah. Rather He was emphasising that the northern kingdom were included along with Judah as His son, and will share the same ruler (and the same Temple). Note also how the virgin Israel’s cities in Jer 31:21 become the cities of Judah in Jer 31:23-24. Thus we may see both Israel and Judah as being equally in mind in all references although with different emphases being made at different points.
If then we take the whole passage as a united prophecy (which Jer 30:2 suggests) then it would appear to have been made after the monarchy had ceased in Judah, for reference is made in it to the restoration of the Davidic king (Jer 30:9; Jer 30:21). An alternative possibility is that the prophecies occurred towards the end of the reign of Zedekiah, with troubles pressing upon them and the coming destruction now certain, and with Zedekiah being looked on as only really a regent, and as Nebuchadnezzar’s appointee. The idea would then be that Jehoiachin in Babylon was still seen as king and as the true Davidic representative chosen by the people, who needed to be restored (an idea, however, that Jeremiah has previously rejected – Jer 22:30).
Note. Attempts to relate these prophecies to the current position in Palestine totally ignore the fact that modern self-named Israel did not return in repentance but in belligerence, are not ruled by a son of David, and are in fact the unbelieving part of Israel which was ‘cut off from Israel’ because of their rejection of the Messiah and their continuing unbelief (Mat 21:43; Rom 11:17-28). In God’s purposes they are thus no longer Israel, although any who wish can become Israel by truly responding to the Lord, Jesus Christ (Rom 11:23), for ‘there is no other Name under Heaven given among men by which we can be saved’ (Act 4:12).
The passage here is therefore rather describing the building up of the land after the return from exile, resulting in the true combined Israel, which is finally summed up in Jesus Christ (and came out of Egypt in Him – Mat 2:15), and in the true Jewish remnant which responded to the Messiah when He came. It is those who responded to the Lord Jesus Christ who were the true Israel, ‘the Israel within Israel’, the repentant remnant. They were then supplemented by believing proselytes from among the Gentiles who united with them in Christ, and are together called the ‘Israel of God’ (Gal 6:16), and the ‘Israel within Israel’ (Rom 9:6). This new Israel in which Jews and Gentiles have been made one is established on Jesus Christ and His Apostles and Prophets (Eph 2:11-22; Rev 21:10-27). In other words it is the ‘true congregation of Israel’ referred to in Mat 16:18, the ‘true Vine’ of Joh 15:1-6, which was being established by Jesus Christ as making up the true remnant of Israel. It is the olive tree, named as such by God (Jer 11:16), and with amplifying details described in Rom 11:17-28, which is now the true Israel..
End of note.
A). We will now consider sub-part A. verse by verse.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
SECTION 2 ( Jer 26:1 to Jer 45:5 ). (continued).
As we have seen this Section of Jeremiah from Jer 26:1 to Jer 45:5 divides up into four main subsections, which are as follows:
1. Commencing With A Speech In The Temple Jeremiah Warns Of What Is Coming And Repudiates The Promises Of The False Prophets (Jer 26:1 to Jer 29:32).
2. Following The Anguish To Come Promises Are Given Of Eventual Restoration, Central To Which is A New Covenant Written In The Heart (Jer 30:1 to Jer 33:26).
3. YHWH’s Continuing Word of Judgment Is Given Through Jeremiah, And Its Repercussions Leading Up To The Fall Of Jerusalem Are Revealed (Jer 34:1 to Jer 39:18).
4. Events Subsequent To The Fall Of Jerusalem Are Described (Jer 40:1 to Jer 45:5).
We have already commented on Subsection 1). in Jeremiah 4. We must now therefore consider subsection 2). This subsection, with its emphatic promises of hope for the future, is the most positive subsection from a long term view in his prophecy.
Subsection 2 ( Jer 30:1 to Jer 33:26 ). Following The Anguish To Come Promises Are Given Of Eventual Restoration, Central To Which Is A New Covenant Written By YHWH In The Hearts Of His People, Together With The Establishment Of The New Jerusalem As The Eternal City ( Jer 30:1 to Jer 33:26 ).
This Subsection places a great emphasis, not only on the coming anguish, but even more on the glorious restoration that will follow. It presents a final picture of a wholly restored nation which has been spiritually transformed.
It may be seen as divided up into two parts on the basis of the phrase ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 30:1; Jer 32:1). (Jer 33:1; Jer 33:19, on the other hand, open with ‘and’ (waw), signifying continuation rather than a new part). The first part deals with promises of glorious restoration and spiritual renewal ending up with the establishment of a new Jerusalem as the eternal city (compare Rev 21:1 to Rev 22:5). The second part contains an acted out prophecy in which Jeremiah purchases a piece of hereditary land in order to demonstrate his confidence in the final future of Judah, and gives further assurances of restoration.
Part 1). ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 30:1). Out of the anguish of Israel/Judah is to come restoration, when YHWH will bring His people from all the places of exile to which He has scattered them, and will replant them and build them up in the land, establishing with them a new covenant, written not on stone but in their hearts. All will know Him and all will be made holy, and God’s holy city will be established for ever (Jer 30:1 to Jer 31:40).
We will now consider this part in detail.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
‘Jacob’ Is To Be Restored To Its Former Glory By The Awesome Power Of YHWH. They Will Be His People And He Will Be Their God ( Jer 30:18 to Jer 31:1 ).
The restoration of ‘Zion whom no man seeks after’ is now abundantly guaranteed. The city and palace will be rebuilt, thanksgiving and merriment will ring out, and their numbers will multiply. But above all, and in one way or another it will be repeated three times (Jer 30:22; Jer 31:1; Jer 31:33), He will once more be their God and they will be His people. And all this will be accomplished by the tempestuous power of YHWH.
Jer 30:18-19
‘Thus says YHWH,
“Behold, I will turn again the captivity of Jacob’s tents,
And have compassion on his dwelling-places,
And the city will be built on its own hill,
And the palace will be inhabited after its own manner.
And from them will proceed thanksgiving,
And the voice of those who make merry,
And I will multiply them, and they will not be few,
I will also glorify them, and they will not be small.”
The picture here is of complete restoration for Judah/Israel through the activity of YHWH. ‘Jacob’s tents’ (the places where they dwelt) would be ‘turned again’ and restored to their former glory. YHWH would have compassion on their forsaken dwellingplaces. Each city would be built on its own hill (tel, mound), especially Jerusalem, the symbol of them all, and the palace-complex would be re-inhabited as a palace, presumably signifying the restoration of the Davidic house. And from both city and palace would arise thanksgiving and merriment, the sign of a people restored both spiritually and physically. And their numbers would grow more and more so that they would not be few, and He would glorify them (by fruitfulness and prosperity) so that they would not be insignificant.
The fulfilment of this would take a century and more, commencing with the ‘few’ who would return from Babylon, and growing as more and more exiles returned. A great landmark along the way would be the establishment of the Temple, and finally Jerusalem’s own glory would be established by Nehemiah. Jerusalem would once again rule proudly as an independent city, with eventually their own rulers in their own palaces. What followed Nehemiah is mainly hidden from us, only to re-emerge, firstly in the successes of the Maccabees, and the reign of the Hasmonean kings, and then in a prosperous Judaea and Galilee in the time of Jesus, by which time ‘Israel’ were a numerous people. And then the final Son of David came and established the true Israel and the beginnings of the everlasting Kingdom.
Jer 30:20
“Their children also shall be as beforetime,
And their congregation will be established before me,
And I will punish all who oppress them.”
All would be as before. Their young would again flourish and play in the streets as they had of old (Jer 9:21), and the whole of the people (their ‘congregation’) would be established before Him, while all who oppressed them would be punished. A new Israel would arise out of the old, but this time a chastened and at least partially responsive Israel. It was such a ‘congregation’ that Jesus promised to establish, founded on the words of Peter about His Messiahship as the Son of the living God (Mat 16:18).
Jer 30:21-22
“And their prince shall be of themselves,
And their ruler will proceed from the midst of them,
And I will cause him to draw near,
And he will approach to me,
For who is he who has had boldness,
To approach to me?
The word of YHWH.”
And you will be my people,
And I will be your God.”
Their rulers would be those whom they themselves chose from among them, and would be home-born, and would be one of themselves. And these rulers would approach YHWH directly. This would be something totally new for in previous times the king would approach through the priests. We can contrast how it was said of Joshua, “he shall stand before Eleazar, who will enquire for him in a matter of Urim before YHWH” (Num 27:21), and how even David and Solomon could not approach into the immediate presence of YHWH to ask His will, but stood outside the Sanctuary. However, the prerogative of the priests of YHWH would now also belong to those who ruled in Israel. This found a remarkable fulfilment in the Hasmonean priest-king rulers (it is noteworthy that this particular prophecy did not mention David), and even moreso in the twofold ministries of Jesus Christ, especially as portrayed in Hebrews. In Him we have the Priest-Ruler Supreme, One Who was from among themselves and Who had full access into the presence of His Father.
The question ‘who is He who has had boldness, to approach to me?’ can be seen as similar to the later question of Jesus to the rich young ruler, ‘Why do you call Me good?’ It is not denying that the One questioned about is good, or has the right to approach, but rather asking for all to consider the unique credentials of the One about Whom the question was asked.
And the end result will be that the true remnant of Judah/Israel will be His people and He will be their God. This could only ever be so for the remnant who returned to Him in repentance and trust, for all through the Old Testament it was they who formed the true Israel, the Israel within Israel. Thus there are always two Israels in balance, nominal disobedient Israel and true believing Israel. And the final promises are always to true Israel, not to cast-off Israel. The coming of Jesus would bring things to a climax, and the new believing Israel would arise out of the old, with the old cast off (Mat 16:18; Mat 21:43; Joh 15:1-6; Rom 11:17-28; Gal 3:29; Gal 6:16; Eph 2:11-22; 1Pe 1:1; 1Pe 2:9; Jas 1:1).
Jer 30:23-24
“Behold, the tempest of YHWH,
Wrath is gone forth,
A sweeping tempest,
It will burst on the head of the wicked.”
The fierce anger of YHWH,
Will not return,
Until he has carried it out,
And until he has performed the intents of his heart,
In the latter days you will understand it.”
For these words compare Jer 23:19-20. All that was being described would be accomplished by ‘the Tempest of YHWH’ as His wrath went forth, both against His own disbelieving people, and against their adversaries. Like a sweeping tempest it would burst on the head of the wicked, and it would not return or cease until He had carried out the intents of His heart. And towards the end, as it was coming into fulfilment, they would understand it. ‘The latter days’ indicates the latter days of this period in which all this would happen. We, as God’s people, of course understand it more fully for we have seen the arrival of the King, and await the everlasting kingdom.
Jer 31:1
“At that time,
The word of YHWH,
I will be the God of all the families of Israel,
And they will be my people.”
And the final consequence of all this, and this was the assured word of YHWH, was that YHWH would be God of all the families of Israel (an all-inclusive description taking in both Israel and Judah) and they would be His people. It would be true in the inter-testamental period of all who returned to the land from all the tribes of Israel, coming with a new trust in YHWH, and was seen also as true by the exiles who remained in ‘the dispersion’. God was seen as having re-established Himself as the God of His people. But there was still among them, certainly in the later days prior to Jesus’ coming, (and within His days), bitter fighting and rivalry. It thus became even more true that God was the God of His people when out of the Old Israel a New Israel was born (Mat 21:43; compare 2Co 6:16-18), founded on the Apostles and Prophets, its beginnings found in the continuingly expanding believing remnant of Israel in Judaea and Galilee, expanding further to the believers among the dispersion, and then bursting forth in the incorporating of Gentiles into ‘the household of God’ as ‘fellow-citizens’ (Eph 2:11-22), all making up ‘the families of Israel’.
Note. It is, of course, a myth to think of Israel as ever having been made up only of actual descendants of Jacob. From the beginning it included servants and retainers of the patriarchs. This was further added to by the ‘mixed multitude’ (Exo 12:38) who were incorporated into the families of Israel at Sinai, and other foreigners who joined with them in terms of Exo 12:48. And ‘Israel’, continued to gather up foreigners into the family of Israel all through its long life (e.g. Uriah the Hittite). The idea of ‘descent’ was seen as very flexible, and was on the whole by adoption. Israel was therefore very much a cosmopolitan entity even in the time of Jeremiah, united by its rather frail belief in YHWH, than by ties of descent. The times of exile would result in many ‘Israelites’ being lost to Israel, as they merged into the nations among whom they settled, and thus Israel was constituted more from then on of those who remained loyal to the concept of Israel’s God, both in Palestine and among the dispersion. Thus when the Messiah came the whole of Israel was faced up to its final choice, and a new Israel was born out of those of Israel who truly believed and responded to Him. The rejection of the old while they were still in unbelief was signified by the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and made clear by Jesus Christ Himself (Mat 21:43) and by Paul (Rom 11:17-28). The true Jerusalem was now the Jerusalem that was above (Gal 4:21-31), which was now ‘the city of the living God’ (Heb 12:22), and the Temple was now Jesus Christ (Joh 2:19) and His people (1Co 3:16 and often). They were now the true Israel, believing Israel, and as always ready to accept into ‘the families of Israel’ all who truly believed, whether Jew or Gentile.
End of note.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 31:2 Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
Jer 31:2
Jer 31:23 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.
Jer 31:23
[25] Benny Hinn, “ Partners in Ministry Monthly Newsletter,” (February 2009) (Irving, Texas: Benny Hinn Ministries), 4.
Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 31:31
Mat 26:28, “For this is my blood of the new testament , which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:33
Scripture Reference Note the following Scripture references:
Eze 36:27, “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”
Joe 2:28, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:’
Jer 31:35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
Jer 31:35
Job 38:33, “Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Decree Of Restoration and its Execution
v. 1. At the same time, saith the Lord, v. 2. Thus saith the Lord, The people which were: left of the sword found grace in the wilderness, v. 3. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, v. 4. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel, v. 5. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and shall eat them as common things, v. 6. For there shall be a day that the watchmen upon the Mount Ephraim, v. 7. For thus saith the Lord, Sing with gladness for Jacob, v. 8. Behold, I will bring them, v. 9. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them, v. 10. Hear the Word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, v. 11. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he, v. 12. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, v. 13. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, v. 14. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Jer 31:1-6
The promise of Jer 30:22 is expressly declared to apply to both sections of the nation. Jehovah thus solemnly declares his purpose of mercy, and dwells with special Madness on the happy future of Ephraim.
Jer 31:2
The people which were left of the sword, etc.; literally, the people of those left of the sword. The expression clearly implies that the Jews at the time spoken of had escaped, or were about to escape, in some great battle or some other kind of slaughter. Hence the finding grace in the wilderness cannot refer to the sequel of the passage through the Red Sea, and we must perforce explain it of the second great deliverance, viz. from the Babylonian exile. This view is strongly confirmed by Jer 51:50, where the Israelites who escape the predicted slaughter at Babylon are called “escaped ones from the sword,” and exhorted to remember Jehovah and Jerusalem “afar off.” The “wilderness” of the present passage, like the “afar off” of Jer 51:1-64. (and of the next verse) seems to mean Babylon, which was, by comparison with the highly favoured Judah, a “barren and dry land” (comp. Psa 63:1), a spiritual Arabia. It may be objected that the tense here is the perfect; but there is abundance of analogy for explaining it as the prophetic perfect. The restoration of the chosen people to favour is as certain in the Divine counsels as if it were already an event past. Even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest; rather, when I went to cause Israel to rest (literally, to cause himIsraelto rest; but the pleonastic pronoun need not be represented in the English). Another possible and perhaps preferable rendering is, I will go to cause, etc. “Rest” could only be had in the consciousness of God’s favor. With all the outward property of many of the Jews in Babylon, there was no true “rest.” Comp. Jer 16:1-21, “Ask for the old paths.; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls” (the same verbal root in the Hebrew for “rest” in both passages).
Jer 31:3
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me. The Church of the faithful Israel is the speaker. “From afar” (so we ought to render, rather than “of old”) she sees Jehovah, with the eye of faith, approaching to redeem her; comp. Isa 40:10 and Isa 59:20 (only that in these passages it is to Jerusalem, and not to Babylon, that Jehovah “comes” as the Redeemer); also the promise in Jer 30:10, “I will save thee from afar,” and Jer 51:50, quoted above. Saying, Yea, I have loved thee, etc. “Saying” is inserted to make the connection plainer. The genius of Hebrew does not require such a distinct indication of a change of speakers as our Western languages. For other instances of this, see Gen 4:25; Gen 26:7; Gen 32:31; 1Ki 20:34. With loving kindness have I drawn thee; rather, do I continue loving kindness unto thee. “To continue” is literally, to draw out at length. The idea is the same as that in the great prophecy which follows that of the suffering Saviour, “With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee” (Isa 54:8; comp. Isa 54:10).
Jer 31:4
I will build thee. A nation, like a family, is frequently compared to a building (so Jer 12:16; Jer 24:6; comp. Eph 2:22). O virgin of Israel. The people of Israel is personified as a virgin (comp. Jer 14:7). Adorned with thy tabrets, The expression will not, of course, bear to be logically criticized, for it was not the whole people who went out with “tabrets” or “timbrels,” but the “damsels,” who, it is true, formed an important part of religious processions (Psa 68:25), and doubtless of secular ones also (comp. Jdg 11:34). Joyousness is an essential part of the Biblical ideal both of religion and of a normal state of society: “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Jer 31:5
The mountains of Samaria. “Samaria” is used, equally with Ephraim, for the northern kingdom. Shall eat them as common things; rather, shall enjoy the fruit. The word, however, literally means shall profane them. The more common phrase, “shall eat the fruit,” occurs in Isa 65:21, where the same promise is given. The law was that newly planted fruit trees should be left alone for three years; that in the fourth year their fruit should be consecrated to God; and that in the fifth year their fruit might be “profaned,” i.e. devoted to ordinary uses (comp. Deu 20:6; Deu 28:30).
Jer 31:6
The termination of the schism between north and south will be shown by the anxiety of the Ephraimites (see on “Samaria,” Jer 31:5) to take part with their brethren in the festival of the new moon. It was the custom, at any rate in later times, to station watchmen at elevated points to give notice of the first appearance of “the slender sickle, which shines so brightly in the clear Oriental heaven” Let us go up. Not with reference to the physical elevation of Jerusalem, for the phrase, “to go up,” is used of an army withdrawing from Jerusalem (Jer 21:2; Jer 34:21). This seems to indicate that the term was sometimes used in a weakened sense, to which parallels might easily be given. These words, “Arise ye, and let us go up,” etc; were, at a later period, the formula with which the leader of the pilgrims from any particular district summoned the members of his caravan to fall into the procession.
Jer 31:7-14
The restoration of Israel; its blessedness and joyousness.
Jer 31:7
Sing with gladness, etc. It is not stated who are addressed; but we may doubtless understand, from Isa 66:10, “all ye who love him,” whether Jews or Gentiles. The latter, too, are interested in the restoration of Israel, because Israel is as it were a “priest” or mediator for the other nations (Isa 61:6). Among the chief of the nations; rather, because of the chief of the nations. Israel is called the “chief of the nations” (so, with a cognate word for “chief,” in Amo 6:1) because Jehovah has” chosen” it as his peculium (to use the language of the Vulgate), Deu 7:6, and because no other nation “hath God so nigh unto them,” and “hath statutes and judgments so righteous,” as Israel (Deu 4:7, Deu 4:8).
Jer 31:8
The weakest among the Israelites will share the blessings with the strongest, even the blind and the lame (comp. Isa 33:23, “The lame take the prey”). Elsewhere we are told that, in the Messianic age, “the eyes of the blind shall see,” and “the lame man shall leap as an hart” (Isa 35:5, Isa 35:6). Shall return thither; rather, hither; i.e. to Palestine, where Jeremiah writes this prophecy. The word for company is hahal, the proper word in the Pentateuch for the Israelitish national “congregation.”
Jer 31:9
With weeping; i.e. with a joy dashed with sorrow at the thought of the sin which has rendered such an interposition necessary (comp. Jer 31:18). Cause them to walk by the rivers of waters. The reference here is primarily to the homeward journey of the exiles, which shall be free from the trials of the first Exodus, but not exclusively (see on next verse). The question arises how this prediction is to be reconciled with facts. For, as Kimchi has remarked, we find no reference to miracles performed for the Jews who returned from Babylon. A twofold reply seems admissible. We may say either that to those who enjoy a vivid sense of the favour and protection of God no trial is grievous, no circumstances exclude an undercurrent of joy (comp. Psa 23:1-6.); or that the prophecy is still waiting for its complete fulfilment, Israel having still a great future reserved for it upon its recognition of the true Messiah. In a straight way; or, in an even way, i.e. one free from hindrances. Comp. Ezra’s prayer (Ezr 8:21), and Psa 107:7, in both of which passages “right” should probably be “even.” Ephraim is my firstborn. It is doubted whether this simply means that Ephraim (i.e. North Israel) shall be in no respect inferior to Judaha strong form of expression being chosen, on account of the longer continuance of Ephraim’s captivity; or whether it implies a restoration to the tribes of Joseph of the prerogative conferred upon the sons of Joseph (1Ch 5:1, 1Ch 5:2; comp. Gen 48:15). The former view seems hardly consistent with the dignity of a prophetic writer. “Forms of expression,” i.e. rhetorical phrases, may be admitted in poetical passages, but hardly in solemn prophetic revelations. It was true that Judah had “prevailed above his brethren;” but the original “gift of God” to Ephraim was “without repentance.” With regard to the fulfilment of this prediction, we must remember that the remnant of the northern tribes whose faith was strong enough to induce them to profit by the edict of Cyrus, was smaller than that of the southern. Hence the outward signs of God’s favour to Ephraim could not be so great as they would have been had the moral conditions of the fulfilment of the promise been more fully complied with.
Jer 31:10
The isles; i.e. the distant countries of the West (see on Jer 2:10). So great an event as the restoration of the chosen people would be of worldwide importance. He that scattered Israel will gather him, etc. “The Israelites were the flock of Jehovah (Psa 77:20; Psa 80:1), but during the Captivity a scattered and miserable flock. Jeremiah says that his eye ‘shall run down with tears, because the flock of Jehovah is carried away captive’ (Jer 13:17). The change in the fortunes of the Jews is compared by the prophets to a shepherd’s seeking his lost sheep, and feeding them again in green pastures (Jer 31:10; Jer 1:19; Eze 34:11-16). The reference is not so much to the homeward journey of the exiles as to the state of temporal and spiritual happiness in which they would find themselves on their return. The same figures occur in a psalm, where a reference to the return from exile is excluded by the pre-exile date, ‘ feed them also, and carry them forever’ (Psa 28:9)” (from the writer’s note on Isa 40:11).
Jer 31:12
Shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord; i.e. the Ephraimites, after praising God on the holy hill, shall spread themselves over their own territory like an overflowing stream, and enjoy the “goodness” or good gifts of Jehovahthe corn (not simply the wheat), the wine, the oil, etc. (comp. Deu 8:8). Sorrow; rather, languish. As Dr. Payne Smith well says, “It expresses the poverty and helplessness of exiles unable from homesickness and want of confidence to do anything with spirit. Restored to their homes, they will be as full of vigour as a garden irrigated with water under a Southern sun.”
Jer 31:13
Young and old, men and women, shall give themselves up to joy and merriment, the centre of the mirth being the maidens with the timbrels (Jer 31:4). Both young men and old together; rather, and young men and old (shall rejoice) together.
Jer 31:14
And I will satiate; literally, water (same word as in Psa 36:8). The “fatness” means the fat parts of the thank offerings, which were given to the priests (Le Jer 7:34). Satisfied. “Satiated” would be a happier rendering. The word is different from that rendered “satiate” just above.
Jer 31:15-22
From this glorious prospect Jeremiah’s eye turns to the melancholy present. The land of Ephraim is orphaned and desolate. The prophet seems to hear Rachel weeping for her banished children, and comforts her with the assurance that they shall yet be restored. For Ephraim has come to repentance, and longs for reconciliation with his God, and God, who has overheard his soliloquy, relents, and comes to meet him with gracious promises. Then another voice is heard summoning Ephraim to prepare for his journey home. This verse is quoted by St. Matthew (Mat 2:17) with reference to the massacre of the innocents, with prefixed. The latter formula of itself suggests that there was a previous fulfilment of the prophecy, but that the analogy of the circumstances of the innocents justifiesnay, requiresthe admission of a second fulfilment. In fact, the promise of the Messianic age seemed in as much danger of being rendered void when Herod wreaked his fury on the children of Bethlehem, as when the tribes of Israel were scattered in exile. Dean Stanley finds a geographical inconsistency in the two passages. “The context of Jer 31:15 implies that the Ramah of the prophet was in the northern kingdom, probably Ramah of Benjamin. The context of Mat 2:18, on the other hand, implies that the Ramah of the evangelist was within sight of Bethlehem”. But this remark involves the assumption that the quotation was not intended merely as an application.
Jer 31:15
A voice was heard; rather, is heard. It is a participle, indicating the continuance of the action. In Ramah. In the neighbourhood of which town Rachel was buried, according to 1Sa 10:2 (“the city” where Samuel and Saul were1Sa 9:25appears to have been Ramah). Rachel weeping for her children. Rachel (“Rahel” is only a Germanizing way of writing the name), being the ancestress of the three tribes, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, is represented as feeling like a mother for all the tribes connected with those three. Her “weeping” is no mere figure of speech. Jeremiah believes that the patriarchs and holy men of old continue to feel an interest in the fortunes of their descendants (comp. Isa 63:16).
Jer 31:16
Rachel is admonished to cease from weeping, because her work has not really been in vain; her children shall be restored. Thy work shall be rewarded. Like the Servant of the Lord, Rachel had said (though with the voiceless language of tears), “I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nought and in vain;” and like the ocean mother of Zidon, “I have not travailed, nor brought forth children, neither nourished up young men, nor brought up virgins” (Isa 23:4). Rachel’s work had been that of rearing up the patriarchs, “in whose loins” the tribes themselves were, in a certain sense. From the land of the enemy; i.e. from the countries of Israel’s dispersion. But in the spirit of St. Matthew, we may fill the passage with a higher meaning, of which the prophet (like Shakespeare sometimes) was unconscious, namely, “from death;” and the passage thus becomes an undesigned prophecy of the Resurrection.
Jer 31:17
Hope in thine end; rather, hope for thy future (comp. on Jer 29:11). There is no occasion to render, with the Septuagint and Rosenmuller, “for thy posterity” (comp. Psa 119:13, Hebrew); for Rachel identifies herself by sympathy with her descendants.
Jer 31:18, Jer 31:19
The ground of this hope, viz. that Ephraim will humble himself with deep contrition.
Jer 31:18
As a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; literally, as an untaught calf (comp. Hos 10:11). Turn thou me, etc. Jeremiah has a peculiarly deep view of conversion. Isaiah (Isa 1:16-20) simply calls upon his hearers to change their course of life; Jeremiah represents penitent Ephraim as beseeching God so to prepare him that he may indeed “turn.”
Jer 31:19
After that I was turned, I repented; rather, after my turning away (as Jer 8:4), I have repented. It is a different kind of “turning” which is here meant, a turning away from God. I was instructed; literally, I was made to know; i.e. brought to my senses by punishment. I smote upon my thigh; rather, I have smitten, etc. Ephraim describes his present state of mind, and the symbols by which he translates it into act. Smiting upon the thigh was a sign of mourning (comp. Eze 21:17). I did bear, etc.; rather, I have borne, etc. The “reproach of Ephraim’s youth” is that which he brought upon himself in early times by his unfaithfulness to Jehovah.
Jer 31:20
The Divine speaker asks, as it were in surprise, whether Ephraim, who has so flagrantly sinned against him, can really be his dear (or, precious) son, his pleasant child (literally, child of caressing, i.e. one caressed). The latter expression occurs in a remarkable passage of Isaiah (Isa 5:7). Since I spake against him; rather, as often as I spake against him; i.e. as often as I pronounced sentence against Ephraimsuch a sentence as is recorded in Isa 9:8-21 (where the future tenses should he perfects) and Isa 28:1-4. We must remember that, with God, to speak is to perform. Often as Jehovah punished Israel, he still remembered him in lovea love which was the pledge of his future restoration to favour upon his true repentance. I do earnestly remember; rather, I verily remembered. “To remember” is the Old Testament term for providential care (comp. Gen 8:1; Gen 19:29). My bowels are troubled; literally, sound, moan (so Isa 16:11; Isa 63:15). Something analogous to the thrilling sensation of deep human grief is predicated of Jehovah. Such is the “humility” of the God of revelation (Psa 18:35; comp. Hos 11:8).
Jer 31:21
Set thee up waymarks. The “virgin of Israel” is addressed. She is directed to mark out the road for the returning exiles. The command is obviously the. torical in form; the general sense is that the Israelites are to call to mind the road so familiar to their forefathers, though only known to themselves by tradition. The word rendered “waymarks” occurs again in 2 Kings 33:17 and Eze 39:15. It apparently means a stone pillar, which might be used either as a waymark or a sepulchral monument. The high heaps seem to mean much the same thing; “signposts” would be a better rendering. Set thine heart toward the highway; rather, turn thy thoughts, etc; for the heart is here evidently the symbol of the intellectual rather than the moral life. A passage in the Psalms (Psa 84:6) will occur to every one, in which a psalmist, longing at a distance for the services of the temple, pronounces blessed the man “in whose heart are the highways [to Zion];” here, it is true, “heart” has the double meaning of “mind” and “affections,” but “highway” has almost exactly the same sense as in the passage before us. To these thy cities. The unseen speaker is supposed to be in Palestine.
Jer 31:22
How long wilt thou go about? We must suppose the Israelites to be hesitating whether to set out on their journey or not. They are now admonished to put away their rebellious reluctance, and a special reason for this is added. The Lord hath createdi.e. hath decreed to createa new thing in the earth (or, in the land); comp. Isa 43:19 which suggests that a complete reversal of ordinary experience is indicated, as indeed the word create of itself prepares us to expect. And what is this promise granted as a sign to reluctant Israel? A woman shall compass a man; i.e. instead of shyly keeping aloof, or worse (as hitherto), Israel, Jehovah’s bride, shall, with eager affection, press around her Divine husband. The phrase, however, is extremely difficult. Of other explanations, the most plausible philologically is that of Schnurrer and Gesenius, “a woman shall protect a man” (comp. Deu 32:10). The part of a sentinel, pacing round and round his charge, seems most unfitted for a woman. When enemies are abroad, it is the men’s natural duty to perform this part for the women. But in the coming age, the country shall be so free from danger that the places of men and women may safely be reversed. But would a paradox of this kind be likely to be uttered in this connection? Surely a clearer statement would be necessary to remove the reluctance of the Israelites. Isa 43:19, Isa 43:20 suggest that Ephraim needed reassurance as to the attitude of Jehovah towards him. The promise of Isa 43:22, as explained above, would give precisely the needed strength and comfort. The exposition of St. Jerome and other Fathers, that the birth of Christ from a virgin is referred to, is altogether inadmissible,
(1) because the nouns which form the subject and the predicate respectively indicate sex, not age, and the first in particular cannot be tortured so as to mean “virgin;” and
(2) there is no article to confine the reference to any particular persons.
Jer 31:23-26
But the prophet would not have Judah suppose that Ephraim has supplanted her; she too shall be restored, and shall enjoy a happy pastoral and agricultural life.
Jer 31:23
As yet; rather, again (as Jer 31:4). Mountain of holiness. Does this mean simply Mount Zion, or the whole highland country of Judah (scrap. Isa 11:9)? The former view is the safer; it is by no means clear that “mountain” in Isaiah or anywhere else in the Old Testament means the Holy Land.
Jer 31:24
The ideal of outward life exhibited by the prophets is still the agricultural and pastoral. Jeremiah puts this more forcibly than the Authorized Version represents. Instead of, And there shall dwell in Judah, etc; he says, And there shall dwell therein (viz. in the land) Judah and all his cities together as husbandmen, and they shall go about with flocks, i.e. they shall attend to their ancient pursuits without let or hindrance from invaders (comp. Isa 32:20). “Go about” (literally, break up) is the regular word for the periodical journeying of the nomad life.
Jer 31:25
For Jehovah will have fulfilled every unsatisfied craving. I have satiated (literally, watered) means “I have decreed to satiate;” it is the perfect of prophetic certitude, which represents an event as already having taken place in the Divine counsels. Sorrowful; rather, languishing (see on Jer 31:12).
Jer 31:26
Upon this I awaked, etc. Who the speaker is here has been much debated. That Jehovah is meant is not an admissible view. A weak believer may say complainingly, “Why sleepest thou?” but God himself cannot be represented under the image of a sleeper. There seems, however, to be no reason why the prophet should not have used this language. The doubt is whether a real, physical sleep is meant, or merely an ecstatic condition resembling sleep. Hengstenberg decides for the latter. But there is no parallel for sleep in the sense of ecstasy, and, on the other hand, there is evidence enough for dreams as the channels of Divine revelation (Gen 31:10, Gen 31:11; 1Ki 3:5; 1Ki 9:2; Joe 2:28). As Naegelsbach points out, this is the only unqualifiedly comforting prophecy in the whole book, and may well have left a sweet savour in the prophet’s memory. Stern, indeed, was the reality which the moment of his waking brought back to him.
Jer 31:27-30
The physical side of the Messianic blessing. Its effect upon the heart of the pardoned sinners will be such that they will fully recognize the justice of the Divine judgments. There will no longer be any room for a certain favourite proverb; the death of a sinner will be universally acknowledged to be the reward of his personal sin (Keil).
Jer 31:27
I will sow, etc. The passage may be illustrated by Isa 26:18, where the Church of the restored exiles is represented as complaining that the land (of Judah) has not been brought into a state of security, and that inhabitants (in sufficient numbers) have not been begotten. Similarly here, only the tone of complaint is wanting. The thought has suggested itselfWill the Israelites of the latter days be sufficient to fill up the land? Yes, is the answer of revelation; for Jehovah will perform a wonder, and make the people and their cattle so prolific that it will seem as if children and young cattle grew up like plants.
Jer 31:28
As I have watched so will I watch, etc. The allusion is to the twofold commission given to the prophet (Jer 1:10), which was partly to pluck up and to destroy, partly to build and to plant. Jehovah has hitherto been “watchful” (another point of contact with Jer 1:1-19.; see on Jer 1:12) over the fulfilment of the destructive prophecies; he will now be equally zealous for that of the promises of regeneration.
Jer 31:29
Have eaten a sour grape; rather, sour grapes. The prophet (like Ezekiel, Eze 18:1-32.) condemns the use of this proverb, and declares that the sinner is the artificer of his own ruin. At first sight, it may seem as if Jeremiah opposes the second commandment, which describes how God “visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children” (Exo 20:5). This, however, cannot really be, for he endorses this declaration later on (Jer 32:18). The fact is that he is not so much condemning the proverb, as the blasphemous application of it made by the Jews of his time. It is an eternal truth that sin perpetuates itself (except by the miracles of grace) in the children of transgressors, and intensified sin leads to intensified punishment. But the children of transgressors do not cease to be responsible for their own share in the sin;this was the truth which Jeremiah’s contemporaries ignored. He does not deny the solidarity of the family or the race,but he superadds the neglected truth of the special responsibility of the individual. This is one among many evidences of the deepening sense of individual life in the later period of the Jewish monarchy. (A somewhat different view is offered by Delitzsch, ‘Messianic Prophecies,’ 50. According to him, Jeremiah looks forward to a time when the individual shall be liberated from the consequences of his solidarity with his race, and when personality shall be “invested with its rights.” But can the individual be thus liberated?)
Jer 31:31-34
The new covenant. A prophecy which stands out from the rest of Jeremiah by its evangelical character, in which it strongly reminds us of parts of the second half of Isaiah. The doctrine of the covenant is “the thread which binds together the hopes and the fears of the prophet, his certainty of coming woe, his certainty of ultimate blessing.” A covenant was granted of old, but that covenant had on man’s side been broken. Still “the gifts and calling of God are not to be retracted” (Rom 11:29); and Jeremiah felt that the very nature of God guaranteed the renewal of the covenant on a new basis. “Covenant” is, no doubt, an unfortunate rendering. The Hebrew word so rendered means, primarily, a decision or appointment, and there is a whole group of passages in the Old Testament which requires this meaning (see the present writer’s note, in ‘The Prophecies of Isaiah,’ on Isa 42:6). We retain it, however, as that with which the reader is familiar, and only remind him that God is everything, and man nothing, in fixing the terms of the transaction. The characteristics of the new covenant are three:
(1) The relation between God and his people is protected from all risk by God himself making the people what he would have them be.
(2) “Whereas, in the case of the old, the law of duty was written on tables of stone, in the ease of the new the law is to be written on the heart; whereas, under the old, owing to the ritual character of the worship, the knowledge of God and his will was a complicated affair, in which men generally were helplessly dependent on a professional class, under the new, the worship of God would be reduced to the simplest spiritual elements, and it would be in every man’s power to know God at first hand, the sole requisite for such knowledge as would then be required being a pure heart.” And
(3) “whereas, under the old, the provisions for the cancelling of sin were very unsatisfactory, and utterly unfit to perfect the worshipper as to conscience, by dealing thoroughly with the problem of guilt, under the new God would grant to his people a real, absolute, and perennial forgiveness, so that the abiding relation between him and them should be as if sin had never existed”. Comp. the abolition of the ark indicated in Jer 3:16.The inspired author of Hebrews tells us (Heb 8:6-13), speaking generally, that this promise delivered through Jeremiah was fulfilled in the gospel. But it must be remembered that the gospel has not yet taken form outwardly, except in a comparatively meagre sense. If the Jews as a nation (that is, the better part or kernel of Israel) should embrace the gospel, not necessarily in the logical expression familiar to the West, but in its essential facts and truths, we should see quite another embodiment of the promise, and feel the spiritual impulse in ourselves as we have not yet done. It seems appropriate, in conclusion, to quote a finely expressed passage from De Quincey’s exposition of the New Testament term . Without pledging ourselves to the absolute correctness of his explanation of that word, his language may be well applied to Jeremiah’s prophecy. “What would have been thought of any prophet, if he should have promised to transfigurate the celestial mechanics; if he had said, ‘I will create a new pole star, a new zodiac, and new laws of gravitation;’ briefly, ‘I will make new earth and new heavens’? And yet a thousand times more awful it was to undertake the writing Of new laws upon the spiritual conscience of man.”
Jer 31:32
Although I was an husband unto them. The translation of the Septuagint , is undoubtedly wrong, though adopted for consistency’s sake by the author of Heb 8:9. The phrase is the same as in Jer 3:14, where even the Septuagint has
Jer 31:33
After those days; i.e. after they have fully come; not, after they are over. I will put my law, etc. Of course, not the Pentateuch, but the principles of which the rules in the Pentateuch were the temporary application. It is not here denied that there were, or might be, some under the Old Testament dispensation who had the Divine Law in their heart (see some of the psalms), but speaking of the people as a whole, it must be said that the Law was an external dictator rather than a bosom friend, a mechanical rule rather than a (Jas 1:21).
Jer 31:34
On this verse, see note on the paragraph.
Jer 31:35-37
Guarantee of Israel’s national continuance. A marvellous promise, in the face of the Babylonian Captivity.
Jer 31:35
The ordinances of the moon; i.e. the moon in its appointed changes (comp. Jer 33:23). Which divideth the sea when, etc.; rather, which stirreth up the sea, so that, etc. This is one of the points of content Jeremiah with the latter part of Isaiah (see Isa 51:17; and comp. Job 26:12).
Jer 31:37
Thus edith the Lord. “It is not without meaning that the prophet so frequently repeats: ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ This formed the and ; his word was the sole ground of hope for Israel. Apart from it, despair was as reasonable as now it was unreasonable” (Hengstenberg).
Jer 31:38-40
The connection is not very clear. The main point of these verses is that Jerusalem, when rebuilt, shall be altogether “the Lord’s.” Its circumference shall even be extended with the single object of including spots at present unclean, but then to become holy like the rest of the city. According to Hengstenberg and Keil, Jerusalem is here a figure of the kingdom of God in the latter days.
Jer 31:38
The tower of Hananeel. This lay at the northeast corner of the city (Neh 3:1; Neh 12:39). The gate of the corner. At the north, west corner (2Ki 14:13; 2Ch 26:9). Both this and the tower of Hananeel are mentioned together again in the prophecy of the glorification of Jerusalem, in Zec 14:10.
Jer 31:39
Over against it upon the hill Gareb; rather, straight forward unto the hill Gareb. The hill of Gareb is not mentioned elsewhere; its meaning is probably “Leper’s Hill.” It must, of course, have been outside the city, and may be identified (after Schleussner and Hitzig) with “the fourth hill, which is called Bezetha” (Josephus, ‘De Bell. Jud.,’ 5.4, 2). To Goath; rather, to Goah. But the reading of the Peshito, “to Gibeah,” should probably be adopted.
Jer 31:40
The southern boundary of the city. The whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes; rather, even the dead bodies and the ashes. It is assumed by most that Jeremiah means the valley of Hinnom, which, after its defilement by Josiah (2Ki 23:10), had become a receptacle of rubbish and offal. It is, however, against this view that the word for “valley” is not gai (elsewhere connected with Hinnom), but emek, i.e. “deep lying plain.” The “dead bodies” are the corpses of men and animals, destroyed by the judgment of God, and lying unburied; but where, seems uncertain. Ashes. Wood ashes are not here meant, but those of flesh and fat, which remained after the burning of a sacrificial victim (see Le Jer 1:16; and comp. Jer 4:12). The horse gate. Mentioned in Neh 3:28. Holy unto the Lord. The unclean spots in the neighbourhood having been transformed. The expression reminds us of Exo 28:36 (the legend on the forefront of the high priest’s mitre).
HOMILETICS
Jer 31:1
The close relations of God and his people.
I. THE OCCASION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CLOSE RELATIONS BETWEEN GOD AND HIS PEOPLE.
1. After chastisement. This and the other blessings promised in “the hook of consolation” are to follow the endurance of the Captivity. God often accords the choicest spiritual blessings to those of his children who are called to endure the bitterest trials.
2. After repentance. The people learned to grieve for their wickedness, and return to God in penitence and trust under the wholesome lessons of adversity. Then they were ready for reunion with God. Mere suffering will not lead to this. Suffering is useful just because it may he a means of leading us to humble ourselves and turn to God.
3. Accompanying a restoration of temporal prosperity. The glories of the restoration referred to in the last chapter are closely associated with the high spiritual privileges promised in the text. Earthly good things are of little use unless they are crowned by higher blessings. The difference between the prosperity of the wicked and that of true Christians is that the one is the highest good enjoyed, and thus tends to become an idol and a snare, while the other is subordinate to better things and purified by their pervading influence. Thus received, prosperity may be safely enjoyed.
4. Contemporaneously with the punishment of the wicked. “At the same time,” etc. God is discriminating in his judgments because he is calm and just, though we cannot discern his course and aim. The highest spiritual good is received only when our spiritual foes are overthrown.
II. THE PERSONS WHO ENJOY THESE CLOSE RELATIONS.
1. Israel. The promise was to the favoured nation, to the exclusion of others. Elsewhere prophets foretold the spread of the blessings of redemption to all nations, but always on the understanding that those nations entered into the Jewish covenant and became spiritual Israelites. The highest blessings are offered to all men, but with the condition that they who would receive them become his true children. The invitation is to mankind; the promise is to the people of God.
2. The families of Israel. God gives distinct family gifts, blessing children through their parents. Religion sanctifies the family. Family life is the largest and highest form of natural human life.
3. All the families of Israel. The privileges are not confined to certain selected familiesto those which had always remained faithful, to any spiritual aristocracy, to any priestly order; not Aaron’s family alone, nor Levi’s tribe, nor Judah to the exclusion of the ten tribes; but all are to be restored. All Christians are called to the free enjoyment of God’s peculiar people; spiritual privileges are confined within no exclusive limitations. All Christians are kings and priests; all can now enter the holiest sanctuary, enjoy the closest communion with God.
III. THE CHARACTER OF THESE CLOSE RELATIONS.
1. It has a human side: “I will be the God of all the families of Israel.”
(1) Jehovah is acknowledged. The people had followed Baal. They return to the true God. Christians who acknowledge God and Christ should frankly confess their faith.
(2) God is worshipped. If he is regarded by us as becomes his being and character, he must be honoured as well as acknowledged.
(3) God is obeyed. If he is admitted to be our God, he must be submitted to as our sovereign Lord.
(4) God is trusted. Our God is our supreme Helper. When we enter into right relations with God, we learn to confide in him.
(5) God is enjoyed. He is our God as our Portion.
2. The character of this relation between God and hi s people has also a Divine side: “And they shall be my people.” Religion is not only an exercise of human spiritual activities; it is also a sphere in which God works, influencing his people. Though his people are unworthy of God, he is not ashamed of them. He owns them. If God regards any men as his people, great consequences follow.
(1) He will prize them as his treasures, showing to them love, bestowing upon them favours, guarding them from harm..
(2) He will lay obligations upon them, call them to service, honour them with trusts. These two characteristics of the close relation of God and his people are nearly allied. God will not honour and protect us while we forget or disown him; but his great favours to us help us the better to own and serve him.
Jer 31:3
The everlasting love of God.
God appeared “from afar” to Jeremiah. When he seems to have forsaken us he is not loving us the less. In these dark hours he may give to us, as to Jeremiah, the richest assurance of his everlasting love.
I. CONSIDER THE WONDER OF THE FACT THAT GOD‘S LOVE IS EVERLASTING. There is a wonder about this fact, since there are so many things that might well be thought likely to limit and stay the love of God to such beings as we are, viz.:
1. Our unworthiness. God is holy, and must delight only in holiness; he is great, and can create innumerable beings of far higher powers than ours. Why, then, should he love such imperfect creatures as men?why love those who are corrupt and sinful?
2. Our indifference. Love looks for a return of love; but men have treated God’s love with neglect. Through the long ages during which God has been visiting his children with ceaseless loving kindness they have been coldly turning aside to their own ways, deaf to the entreaties of an infinite condescension.
3. Our unfaithfulness. For love to remain unbroken it is expected that it should be honoured by fidelity. Unfaithfulness is naturally regarded as a reason for withdrawing the privileges of affection. But God’s children have been untrue to him. They have forsaken his ways, abused his blessings, flung insult on his mercy. How, then, can he continue to love them? It is, indeed, a marvel that, through these long ages of the world’s wild wanderings, God should still follow his unworthy children with ceaseless love, never refusing to bless them, always entreating them to return to him. And it must be a marvel to us that, through all the years of our unworthy lives, he has shown the same long suffering, forbearing mercy to each of us. It is wonderful that God should ever love such unworthy creatures as we are, but it is “passing strange” that he should not cease to love us after all our provocations of his wrath, that he should love us with “an everlasting love,” and should “have continued his loving kindness unto” us.
II. INQUIRE INTO SOME OF THE REASONS WHY GOD‘S LOVE IS EVERLASTING. We must not look for these in any hidden merits of our own, which our modesty has passed over while God’s favour has been won by them. The secret of the love of God and of its eternal endurance is to be sought in his nature and in his relations to us.
1. The nature of God. “God is love.” He loves because he cannot but love, because he delights to love, because his love must be ever flowing and is so vast that it must needs flow out eternally in all directions. It is not the attraction of the object, but the character of the love, that accounts for its perpetual endurance. The earth is bathed in summer sunlight without having any peculiar attractions for lightonly because the vast stores of the sun must ever empty themselves by radiating out into space. The stream fertilizes the valley through no influence of the plants drawing it thither, but just because abundant springs pour forth their waters. And God radiates love, pours forth floods of blessing, because he is full of love, because love has its laws of diffusion. Such love is not destroyed by the unworthiness of the object. Closed shutters do not prevent the sunshine from playing about the house. Sandy deserts, in which the waters of the stream are lost, do not stay the torrents from flowing down the mountain-sides. It is the nature of true and perfect love to be eternal. “Charity endureth all things,” and “never faileth.” “Love is love forevermore.”
2. God’s relations with us. God is our Father. We are his children by nature, and can never cease to be so. The prodigal son was an unworthy child, yet in his degradation he could still think of his father (Luk 15:17). A parent’s love is not caused nor limited by the merits of his children. It has a deeper, a more unselfish source. It survives all the destruction of just claims. God’s love is the perfect parent’s love. A mother whose daughter had left the home years back always kept her door on the latch at night, that, if her poor child returned at any hour, she should never find it barred against her. Human nature is weak. A mother’s love may fail, but God’s never (Isa 10:1-34 : Isa 59:15).
III. NOTE THE PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES THAT FLOW FROM THE EVERLASTING LOVE OF GOD.
1. God will do all that is possible for our highest good. We may believe with William Law “that no creature can suffer from any evil from which infinite goodness can deliver it.” God has gone so far as to give his only begotten Son to die for us (Joh 3:16). We may be sure that he will do all else that is ever possible for the salvation and blessing of his children. May we not, then, well hope that an everlasting love will outlast and wear down all opposition of the stubborn but finite natures even of the worst of us, though it take vast ages to accomplish the result? At all events, he is a rash man who would set limits to the future triumphs of the “ceaseless, unexhausted grace” of God.
2. We should return to him with trust and love. The worst man living, if he repent, need not dread a harsh reception, for God’s love has outlived his sins. Here is infinite encouragement for penitence; here is hope for the lowest. God loves even him. Surely, therefore, God will welcome his unworthy child when he returns home. We have in this everlasting love of God inducements to urge us
(1) to repent and no longer abuse his goodness;
(2) to trust in him;
(3) to love him in return for his love;
(4) to find our rest and joy in him;
(5) to devote ourselves to his service (with love “all tasks are sweet”); and
(6) to love our brethren with God-like love for the sake of God’s love (1Jn 4:11).
Jer 31:15-17
Rachel weeping for her children.
I. RACHEL HAS NATURAL CAUSE NOR HER GRIEF. Sword, pestilence, and famine ravage the land. The invasion by Nebuchadnezzar desolates the old home of the family of Rachel, bringing death to those who cling to it and scattering the survivors in exile. Such a calamity was in itself most mournful; but the disappointment it brought to the cherished hopes of Israel in a golden future deepened the distress to despair. It looked as though it were the shipwreck of all the Messianic dreams of ancient prophecy. So also the “massacre of the innocents,” with reference to which these words of Jeremiah are quoted in the New Testament, was more than an ordinary disaster. It threatened Christ and his redemption. If earthly trouble is great, how far greater would be the destruction of the higher spiritual hopes of God’s people! We may be thankful that we have no such cause of distress as that of Rachel at Ramah and at Bethlehem. Though the Christian’s earthly fortunes may be tempest tossed, his highest hopes are founded on a Rock. No worldly trouble can touch these. It is noteworthy that Rachel, and not Jacob, is here represented as weeping for her children. It is the mother’s heart that breaks first when her children are taken from her. Even the savage tigress knows this natural grief. It is so bitter that no earthly consolation can assuage it.
II. RACHEL GIVES NATURAL VENT TO HER GRIEF. She weeps. She may thank God for tears; they are nature’s relief to a burdened heart. It is best not to hide a sorrow till it eats out the heart like a canker.
“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak
Whispers the o’erfraught heart and bids it break.”
Christ does not inflict harsh and unnatural restraints upon mourners, like those of Stoicism. At the grave of Lazarus “Jesus wept.” St. Paul invites sympathetic Christians to “weep with them that weep.” Yet it is well to convert our tears into prayers. If the bruised spirit cannot speak, cannot think, can but moan, yet it may make its inarticulate cry an utterance to heaven that the all-pitiful God will hear. The mistake of the mourner is not that she “refuseth to be comforted””comfort scorned of devils” may be but a mockerybut that while she weeps she forgets to bring her burden to him who has promised to sustain. It is natural to express sorrow; it is Christian to carry the sorrow to Christ.
III. RACHEL HAS DIVINE CONSOLATIONS FOR HER GRIEF. Human comfort is vain in such anguish as hers. Our little platitudes with which we would quiet the mourner are plasters that only irritate the wound they cannot heal. But God has his higher consolations. He does not bid the tears to stay without good reason. Rachel is to refrain her voice from weeping because there is hope for her in time to come. Jesus bade the widow of Nain not to weep because he was about to restore her son. God will wipe away all tears from his children’s eyes by giving them a real harvest of joy for their sowing in tears. The Christian is comforted by hope. He should not sorrow as those without hope. Israel was to be restored to Canaan. The Christian families shall be reunited in the home above.
Jer 31:18
Ephraim’s return.
I. THE MOST ABANDONED OF GOD‘S CHILDREN MAY RETURN TO HIM. Ephraim was unfaithful before Judah, and fell into greater wickedness. The northern tribes were punished for their sins by a scattering that destroyed forever their national existence as a separate kingdom. Yet even Ephraim is to return. No one of God’s childrenno one of the great human family, we of the New Testament revelation may sayis beyond God’s love. God loved Ephraim as well as Judah. Ephraim is a dear son (Jer 31:20). God loves the whole world. Therefore all may return; therefore we may be sure God has a way by which all can return. Christ, lifted up, will draw all men unto himself.
II. GOD LEADS HIS CHILDREN TO DESIRE TO RETURN TO HIM BY MEANS OF CHASTISEMENT. Ephraim says, “Thou didst correct me, and I received correction.” Herein is one of the chief ends of suffering; even when deserved for sin it is not to give penal deserts and only satisfy justice, but rather to urge the wrong doer to see his fault and repent. Chastisement leads to reflection, humbles, makes us feel our need and helplessness, shows the want of God and his consolations, and so inclines us to return to him. To profit us, however, it must be rightly endured. We must receive correction, not harden our hearts against it.
III. BEFORE RETURNING TO GOD, MEN ARE BOTH FOOLISH AND OBSTINATE IN SIN. Ephraim is like “an untaught calf.” Ephraim had worshipped calves; in course of time Ephraim degraded himself to the nature of his gods. We cannot rise higher than the object of our worship. Every man is made after the image of his God; but in all men this special quality of Ephraim is found so long as they remain away from God in sin.
1. They are foolish as the untaught calf. The wicked man may be worldly wise, but he is ignorant in spiritual mattersmust become a little child, and learn as a child, if he would enter the kingdom of heaven.
2. They are obstinate. Pride and self-will rule the unrepentant heart. Herein is the great hindrance to the wholesome fruits of chastisement.
IV. THE DIVINE LIFE IN MAN BEGINS WITH THE TURNING ROUND OF THE SOUL TOWARDS GOD. This “conversion” is the first step. It may not be suddenly discernible. It may not be indicated by any one epoch in our history. But it must take place. We have been wandering further and further from God. The most momentous step is the first step back to him. We have to learn the necessity of this; to understand that while we remain in the old way, however pleasant it may be, it is leading us away from God, our mission, and our home; to see the importance of a change, a revolution, a regeneration, a new creation. Religion cannot begin with a sinful man in a mere improvement, much less in a natural development. He must turn round.
V. GOD ONLY CAN TURN HIS CHILDREN BACK TO HIMSELF. Ephraim prays, “Turn thou me, and I will return.” We lack the desire to return until he “from whom all good desires proceed” implants the earnest wish in our hearts. We have not the strength to return. Old habits of sin are fetters that bind us down to the old life. The will is corrupt, and therefore we cannot will aright. But God does move us to return and give us power to return. The gospel is not only an invitation; it is the power of God. By his Spirit God gives us new birth and the free life of his children. Yet for this grace we must seek in faith and penitence. Ephraim prays that God will turn him. We cannot turn ourselves. God will not turn us against our will. If we seek his grace, he will turn us to himself.
Jer 31:25
Divine satisfaction.
There are always the weary who need rest, the sorrowful who need consolation.
1. Naturally we all have restless longing, large desires that go out beyond the present and the attainable. The soul has its appetites, its hunger, its thirst.
2. Sin and sorrow have deepened our need. The Jews in their calamities were a type of mankind in its sin and weariness.
I. NO EARTHLY SATISFACTION WILL MEET THESE WANTS. Food for the body cannot satisfy the soul. Man is not able to live by bread alone. The life is more than meat. We are too large for the world and its gifts, rich and abundant as they may be.
“We look before and after,
And pine for what is not;
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught,
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.”
(Shelley.)
Hence the restlessness and dissatisfaction we experience in the height of prosperity. Thank God for these feelings. They are indications of a heavenly birth, indications of immortality.
II. GOD OFFERS US FULL SATISFACTION. He will satisfysatiate.
1. God gives all we need. God does not keep his children on half rations. He has rich stores, and he offers freely. From our broken cisterns we turn to his ever-flowing fountains.
2. What God gives is of the kind we needtrue light, not mocking speculations; Divine consolations of hope and peace, not barren philosophic maxims, but full and free forgiveness. What God does he does perfectly. He does not call us to a bare salvation, but to a full satisfaction, meeting the peculiar and deep wants of the soul with the special satisfaction they need, and bestowing this to satiation.
III. THE FULL ENJOYMENT OF DIVINE SATISFACTION BELONGS TO THE FUTURE. Much may be enjoyed now. Larger faith would open at once more abundant stores. God’s hand is not shortened. It is we who limit our own enjoyment of his grace by unbelief and sinfulness. Still there can be no perfect satisfaction in this imperfect world. Heaven will be totally different from earth in the fact that here we are always reaching out to the beyond; there for the first time all needs will be satisfied. The hope of such a condition should lead to patience and a faithful following of the way of the cross now that leads to the home of rest hereafter.
Jer 31:29
Heredity and individual responsibility.
The passage before us is interesting as indicating a great advance in freedom and justice of thought from the old orthodoxy that was satisfied with the punishment of children together with their parents to a new and wiser doctrine of individual responsibility. But it is important to observe that it is more than a sign of advancing thought. It is a prophecy concerning facts, a prediction of a higher justice of the future. The old notion here condemned is not condemned because it is false; nay, it is treated as true for the present. The new idea is not substituted as a better interpretation of the facts of experience; it is a description of a higher order of facts not yet realized. The old doctrine applies with a considerable measure of truth to Judaism; the new is part of the larger justice of Christianity. For the Jewish religion was essentially a family religion; its advantages came to the individual through the nation, the tribe, the family; the first condition for receiving them was descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But Christianity is fundamentally individualistic. It elevates the family, it creates the Churchone grand family of Christian brethren; but it begins with individual faith and ends with individual responsibility. Nevertheless, we have not yet perfect justice. Jeremiah’s prophecy is still a prophecy to us. Let us examine the two conditions of life that are brought before us by the contrast of prediction with the present order of affairs.
I. THE PRESENT CONDITION OF HEREDITY. It is true now that if “the fathers have eaten some grapes the children’s teeth are set on edge.” Hereditary punishment and hereditary moral corruption are among the darkest mysteries of “all this unintelligible world.” But they are facts that follow necessary social and physiological laws.
1. Children suffer the punishment of their parents’ sins. Poverty, dishonour, disease, pass from parent to child. The child of a spendthrift becomes a beggar, the son of a thief is ostracized, the drunkard’s child diseased, perhaps insane.
2. Children inherit moral corruption from their parents. Where this is the case it may be thought to lighten the mystery of hereditary punishment. However that may be, it is itself a deeper mystery, a more horrible injustice. It is remarked that if God visits “the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation,” it is to generations of “them that hate” him. But if the wickedness that seems to justify the long lived punishment is also hereditary, is not the case the more hard? Now, Jeremiah teaches us that we are not to be satisfied with this as a final and equitable arrangement. It belongs to these present times that are out of joint, and it will be superseded by a better order.
II. THE FUTURE CONDITION OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. (Verse 30.) This was to come with the Messianic era. We have seen it beginning in the revelation of Christianity. It can only be perfected when Christ’s work is perfected by his second advent for judgment. A right social order may do something in this direction. Jeremiah anticipated a wiser, more discriminating exercise of justice in the restored nation after the Captivity. But the full realization must be left for a future dispensation of Divine justice. At the last every man will be called upon alone to answer for his own sins, and judgment will be swift and appropriate. Present inequalities will then be rectified. Meanwhile the injustice of hereditary punishment can be compensated, not only by future alleviations but by turning the punishment into a wholesome discipline, while the injustice of moral corruption will be corrected ultimately by judging a man according to the free choice of his willhow he behaved when he was free to act, how far he took new steps downwards, with all due allowance for natural weakness and hereditary tendencies.
Jer 31:31-34
The new covenant.
I. THE GRANTING OF A NEW COVENANT. Hitherto the Messianic era with all its glories has been regarded as the development and perfection of earlier ages. Here, for the first time, it is revealed as the realization of an entirely new order. This is the first clear indication of the difference between the Law and the gospel which grew more distinct as the latter was better understood, till St. Paul accomplished his great work of finally severing the two. In these verses we have the first justification for dividing religion into two dispensations and the Bible into two “Testaments.” They constitute a great landmark in the history of religious thought. To us who live in the Christian age they are further most practically valuable for the description they give of our high and peculiar privileges and the promises they contain of greater blessing yet to be unfolded. Still, it is important to observe that these privileges and blessings were not always enjoyed.
1. Truth is eternal, but the knowledge of truth is progressive. Hence the religious ideas of the race change, widen, rise to higher visions. The Bible is a progressive revelation. Theologythe human interpretation of Scripture and speculation on Divine thingsis also progressive. Christians must not be bound by the ipsissima verba of Old Testament texts. The Old Testament itself says that these shall be superseded. Christians of one age should not be fettered by the orthodoxy of an earlier age.
2. God is changeless, but his modes of action vary according to the varying conditions of men. The same principles of justice and love ever pervade his dealings with his creatures. But, like the parent who changes his domestic regulations as his family grows older, God has new dispensations for the later ages of the human family. He educates his children through different standards. There must ever be milk for babes and meat for strong men. Children need restraints and simple instruction, which gradually give place to more freedom and confidence and higher teaching. These changing requirements are met by the suitable adaptation of God’s revelation from age to age.
II. THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW COVENANT.
1. The Law written in the heart takes the place of the Law written on the stone tables. Religion becomes more internal, spiritual, personal.
(1) Real knowledge is enjoyed. The people might have the Law in writing, and never read it or fail to understand what might be to them mere words. The Law in the heart is understood, grasped, possessed in thought, not only in words.
(2) Principles take the place of outward ordinances. For a multitude of petty details, for a complication of rules, for a set of narrow maxims, men. are to have large principles in their hearts, such as truth, justice, purity, love to God, and love to man. This makes religion and morality more comprehensive, more deep, more real, and at the same time more free.
(3) Affection becomes the ruling motive. The Law is in the heart as a treasure, loved rather than feared, obeyed from healthy impulse instead of compulsion. It becomes part of a man’s very soul. Ultimately, from being a constraint to his will, it becomes identical with his will, transforming that to its own image.
2. The spread of the knowledge of the true God is to be universal.
(1) It is vouchsafed to the individual. The distinctions of the priestly class and of the prophetic order are abolished. All Christians are priests; all may enjoy a measure of prophetic inspiration (Joe 2:28, Joe 2:29; Rev 1:4). This is partly a result of the first principle. An outward, religion only can be corporate and representative. Thoughts are private; spirituality is personal; inward religiousness is individual.
(2) It is promised to all men. All nations are to enjoy the new, larger privileges. Christ breaks down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. This great fact is also partly a result of the first principle. National distinctions are mostly external. Questions of birth and geographical boundary that have much to do with a visible organization and the administration of external laws do not apply to spiritual conditions. It is right that an inward spiritual law should be universal. But the promise goes beyond the character of the new dispensation to an assurance of its universal acceptance. “All men shall know the Lord, from the least unto the greatest”young and old, simple and noble, foolish and wise, worthless and good, savage and civilized. Here is the great encouragement for Christian missions. They do not follow a mere desire of charity. They are realizing a promise of God.
3. These results follow perfect forgiveness of sin. This is the peculiarly Christian and evangelical element of the new covenant. The Law can only be written on the heart after the old sin has been washed out. The enjoyment of spiritual religious knowledge must follow a renewal of the spiritual nature. These privileges were impossible under the Law, because no outward ordinances, no “blood of bulls and goats,” could take away sin. But when Christ came as the perfect Sacrifice, “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,” and brought in perfect forgiveness, he made it possible for us to enjoy the inward vision and brought the privilege within the reach of all men.
Jer 31:35-37
Guarantees of perpetuity.
These words are a promise to the Jews, and plainly refer to the national existence of Israel; but the breadth and spirituality of file covenant they confirm warrants us in seeing in them the pledges of God’s faithfulness and the Church’s stability for all who enjoy the privileges of the covenant. These pledges are to be seen in the symbolism of nature. The God of grace is thee God of nature. Spiritual revelation throws light on the vague religion of nature; but nature sends back confirmations for the truths of the higher revelation. Two are named here.
I. THE UNIFORMITY OF LAW. This great doctrine has come to the forefront of modern science. By some it is thought to be a difficulty in the way of religious belief. But Jeremiah shows us how to regard it as an encouragement for faith. It proves to us the unchangeableness of God. Events shift and vary, but laws remain. The seasons come and go, but the sun still shines and rules them. Though the sea rages and roars, its wild waves are curbed by invisible reins, linked to heavenly motions, obedient to unvarying laws. So we may learn that amid the changing circumstances of life and the varying actions of God in providence the same great principles are maintained and the promises of God work out their blessed results unceasingly. This is true of God’s thoughts and will. It is true of our personal enjoyment of the privileges of his covenant. Israel is to endure. The Church is founded on a rock. The “final perseverance” of the Christian follows from his identification of his life with eternal laws of God. God will no more cast off his people than the sun cease to rule the seasons or the moon the tides; for in grace, as in nature, eternal laws and principles preserve eternal stability to the spiritual universe.
II. THE IMMEASURABLE GREATNESS OF THE UNIVERSE As a mere figure of speech, verse 37 is highly expressive. By appealing to an impossible feat God pledges his word the more clearly and the more forcibly. But we have here also an analogy based upon common principles of the material and spiritual worlds.
1. The Creator of heaven and earth is too great to be changeable. Change is a sign of weakness. Strength secures stability.
2. Our action is a small thing in the sight of God. It cannot shake the foundations of the universe, cannot even touch them. To us it appears to revolutionize all things; but God sees it in its true light and treats it with calm pity. It is not in the power of such beings as we are to overturn the counsels of God.
3. As nature is wrapped in mystery, so is the spiritual kingdom of God. There are in both hidden forces the action of which we cannot predict. Therefore it is rash and foolish for us to judge God’s actions by our limited knowledge. He may appear to east his people off. We may no longer see him. His actions may seem harsh and cruel. But we are not competent to judge. Out of the mystery of Nature and her dark depths of being, out of midnight and winter, there issue life and light; out of God’s darkest dispensations of providence his eternal counsels of love proceed to their unerring beneficent results.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR
Jer 31:2
Grace preparing for grace.
There is some doubt as to the time alluded to, whether that of the Exodus or that of the Exile. A careful examination would seem to make it clear that the former alone corresponds to the description. Pharaoh’s cruel edict and the judgments and wars of the desert thinned the ranks of the Israelites. A remnant was left, with whom God entered into covenant relationship. Their survival under these circumstances was a sign of the Divine favour, at the time hard to be understood, but in the future abundantly confirmed. Their ultimate entrance into Canaan was the seal of their acceptance.
I. THE PRESENT TROUBLES OF SAINTS ARE NO PROOF OF THEIR REJECTION. The history of the Church shows this. Here is an instance; there have been many such. The best of God’s servants have been most severely tried, and that just before attaining great rewards and satisfactions. The exiles of Babylon are, therefore, to be of good cheer. The afflictions of the present may not only be the punishment for past transgressions, but much morea preparation for future blessedness and usefulness, a grace in germ if not in formation. In the case of the Church they may bring back to a study of the title deeds of faith; in that of the individual they may promote humility, heart searching, and efforts to amend. However hard to bear, they should be endured as a grace preparing for grace.
II. WHERE THE ESSENCE OF GOD‘S GRACE IS PRESENT, THE FULNESS OF IT MAY BE WAITED FOR.
1. What is the essential element in grace? Is it not the consciousness of acceptance with God? The child of God knows that he is such, and that therefore he is the subject of gracious influences from the Holy Spirit, and heir of all that is truly good.
2. It is in view of this that present circumstances are to be interlarded. The good as well as the evil. Our true, eternal blessedness lies beyond our greatest present happiness, amongst the “things prepared.” Our anxiety should be, not for immediate possessions, but for meetness for the inheritance, and for entering in by the right way.M.
Jer 31:3
The character of the Divine love inferred from its history.
I. ITS HISTORY
1. It was self-declared. A free, spontaneous promise on God’s part. This revelation was itself a grace, as the actual sentiment of God toward Israel might have been concealed. By the circumstances of its declaration all doubt was removed, and it became a fundamental article of Jewish faith, and a factor of Jewish life and national development.
2. It existed from the very first. (Cf. Deu 4:37; Deu 10:15.) The dealings of God with Abraham, and with the children of Israel in Egypt, proved this. Anticipating the beginnings of spiritual life: “We love him, because he first loved us” (1Jn 4:19; cf. Rom 4:9-12).
3. It was constant and unceasing. With this truth the Israelites were familiar. Too often they had presumed upon it. But the continued existence of such a little nation in the midst of its great neighbours was nothing less than a miracle of watchful, unceasing, Divine love.
4. The same favour is extended to the Babylonian exiles. It comes to them freely as it came to their ancestors. Through them the same purpose of love would work, and their misfortunes would be overruled for ultimate blessing.
II. ITS CHARACTER AS INFERRED FROM THIS. A love like this was as remarkable as it was vast, and had to be accounted for. A misunderstanding of its character had frequently involved the Jews in national crimes and disasters.
1. It was gracious and undeserved. There was nothing in the fathers to create such an affection; as little was there anything in themselves. And even if there had, the constancy of it throughout so many ages of idolatry and wickedness demonstrated that it could not be the reward of human desert.
2. It was merciful and righteous in its purpose. This it was which sanctified it and endued it with such moral power. A love of delight and complacency, independently of the character of those upon whom it was bestowed, would have been weak and reprehensible. But the enduring mercy of God, whilst it is a continual reproof to the impenitent, is full of encouragement and help to the weakest soul that truly seeks for righteousness. The misfortunes of Israel were as much the proofs of that love as the prosperity; the one consistent purpose of redemption stringing together the most diverse historic experiences. Did he choose Israel? it was that they “should be holy.”M.
Jer 31:6
The unity of the Church.
Ephraim represented the ten tribes of Israel, and Jerusalem the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the sections of the divided kingdom. In days to come this division was to be healed, as the “watchmen” or prophets of Israel would lead their people to the temple at Jerusalem.
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF UNITY AMONGST GOD‘S PEOPLE IS SHOWN BY THE PROMINENCE GIVEN TO IT IN THIS PROPHECY. Dissension and strife between the followers of truth is not only an unseemly spectacle, it is productive of misery and ruin. Judah and the ten tribes were too jealous of one another to unite in works of defence or internal administration. The rival temples of Gerizim and Jerusalem were mischievous in their influence, and, as time would accentuate differences, there would be danger of the common truth being forgotten. The unity of the Church must ever be important to those whose hearts are filled with the love of God. Christ’s prayer (Joh 17:21) shows how dear the thought is to the purest and best. The children of God should be bound together in the closest bends of sympathy and love. Only thus will their efforts to evangelize the world be successful, and the glory of the kingdom of God be realized on earth.
II. BY WHAT INFLUENCES WAS IT TO BE BROUGHT ABOUT? That there were various causes tending to this result is evident to every student of sacred history. But chief amongst these were:
1. The events of providence, by which they discovered, amidst exile and misery, a common brotherhood and faith, and attained to:
2. A more intense spiritual aim and life. The desire to meet with God overcame all prejudice and difference, and revealed the true unity of Israel. The nearer they were to God the nearer they became to one another, and the more they delighted in assembling together (Ezr 3:1; Isa 2:3; Mic 4:2).
3. God was to manifest himself in the person of his Son at Jerusalem. To the temple, then, all eyes were increasingly turned as the appointed time drew on.
4. Through Christ’s connection with the temple, local holy places were abolished, and men sought God through him. (Joh 4:21.)M.
Jer 31:10-14
The redemption of Israel a great and notable event.
It is to be proclaimed as of universal import and consequence. The scattering of Israel may be alluded to in speaking of “the nations” and “the isles,” or these may be addressed simply as onlookers of the mighty drama. What happens to God’s people must concern the whole world.
I. AS AN EXHIBITION OF DIVINE GRACE AND POWER. (Jer 31:10,Jer 31:11.)
1. It betokened the restoration of God’s favour. (Jer 31:10.) The term of punishment was to draw to a close, and the era of reconciliation to commence. Just as he had “scattered” the Israelites, now he was about to recall them to Canaan. In the one act, as in the other, the Divine intervention and its moral significance would be made manifest. The greatest judgments of God on earth have their limits. “He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever.” How carefully should the times of Divine discipline and reconciliation be observed by those who are concerned in them!
2. The power of God would be displayed in it. (Jer 31:10, Jer 31:11; cf. Jer 31:8.) As Sovereign. The words used, “He that scattered Israel will gather him,” would seem to meanhe that scattered Israel would alone know where to discover them again. The figure of a shepherd and his flock is also suggestive of skill and authority. As the restored unity and national life of Israel were to be a marvellous phenomenon, much more would the spiritual unity of God’s people throughout the world, of which the former was but the prototype. “The Lord knoweth them that are his.” Another proof of the Divine power was afforded in the fact that Israel was to be delivered from one “that was stronger than he.” The power of Nebuchadnezzar was to be broken. So the world-power which prevents the true freedom and unity of the Church from being realized will be destroyed. Indeed, already Christ has declared himself as “him that overcometh the world;” and in view of this the “little flock” are not to be dismayed. The day is coming when all enemies will be put under the feet of Christ, the Lord of the Church.
II. AS RESULTING IN NATIONAL AND SPIRITUAL PROSPERITY. (Jer 31:12-14.) It was not only to be a restoration of the people to their own land. God does nothings, by halves. The industry, social and national development, and the spiritual life of Israel would be abundantly blessed.
1. The well being of God’s people is viewed as connected. The spiritual with the material, and the material with the spiritual. There is no austerity in the religion of the restored, and yet their life is full of the spirit and practice of religion. The blessing of God upon the fruits of the earth is gratefully recognized, and as with a common thankfulness the people “flow together” to the great festivals of the temple. It is only as men exhibit this spirit – the spirit of righteousness and thankfulness – that the earth will succeed better than the wicked, even in secular pursuits. “Godliness is profitable unto all things,” etc. (1Ti 4:8).
2. It is to be complete and glorious. How spontaneous the piety of the redeemed! In the picture here sketched we seem to catch a glimpse of the fulness of the millennial joy. It is a state of overflowing, ecstatic blessedness. The religious and the secular pursuits of men are to be harmonized. Age is to forget its weakness, and the bereaved their grief. The Church is to share in the general prosperity, and, as a consequence of the efficiency and fervour of its ministrations, the people are to be “satisfied with my goodness.” When shall this vision of human life in its wholeness and its glory be realized? Our own times exhibit few signs of such a golden age. Yet the Word of the Lord has spoken it, and we should with patience both labour and look for its fulfilment.M.
Jer 31:15-17
Rahel weeping for her children
The great mother of Israel and Judah is represented by a figure as mourning over the desolation of the land. God comforts the sorrow thus occasioned by a promise greater than could be fulfilled in the return of the Babylonian captivity. Rahel was an ancestress of the Old Testament Church whose spirit she might be said to personify The Church of Christ may still be said to weep for her children, and to be comforted by the promises of God. Matthew’s reference to this passage is only accommodativea spiritual and not a literal parallel. We may understand the passage, therefore, as representative of
I. THE SORROW OF THE CHURCH.
1. Its occasion. The loss of her sons and daughters through sin, alienation, or death. Especially might this apply in times of spiritual sterility and worldly influence. The Church cannot look upon the indifference or hostility of her legitimate children without grief.
2. Its intensity. Loud and bitter, as of one not to be consoled. The blessing of which she is bereft promised to be so great; the consequences to the “banished ones” themselves may be so serious. Are Christ’s people sufficiently alive to the losses which are continually inflicted upon his communion through worldliness or particular sins?
3. Its character. Verse 16, “Thy work.” Energy has been put forth. All her resources have been exhausted in vain efforts for the recovery of the exiles. In the first instance our concern for the “banished ones” should lead us to persistent and manifold effort for their restoration; and when that fails, we must cast ourselves in lamentation and prayer before God. In this way our sorrow shall prove to be a “work” in a double sense.
II. HER CONSOLATION.
1. The restoration of the lost ones is promised. This would be the only adequate comfort for those who mourn over dear ones as spiritually dead. God’s scheme of redemption is greater than our utmost hopes or preparations.
2. This will in a sense be the reward of her work. When direct and immediate efforts have failed, a further Divine grace will prove effectual. The children of the Church are beneath the eye of God, who will lead them back again from the captivity of sin, and even from the sepulchres of spiritual death. The labours and prayers of the faithful shall not be in vain in the Lord. The unity of spiritual labour in the past, present, and future (cf. Joh 4:37, Joh 4:38).
3. God himself comforts her even now. In his “exceeding great and precious promises.” By the Spirit of hope. By the gradual realization of the fruits of salvation. The end is made very real and bright through faith. – M.
Jer 31:18-21
Ephraim bemoaning himself; or, the penitent’s restoration.
The exiled Israelites are represented as about to grieve over their apostasy, and to seek God in confession and prayer. The answer of God is full of mercy and encouragement. The Captivity is to be brought back, and the cities of Israel are to be again occupied.
I. THE STAGES AND PROCESSES OF TRUE REPENTANCE. (Jer 31:18, Jer 31:19.)
1. Conviction and acknowledgment of sin. The unbroken steer a forcible metaphor, but not stronger than the circumstances warrant. How stupid and heinous our offences seem when once we see them in God’s light! It is sin that is bemoaned, not mere misfortune or pain; and the wrong done to the Divine character by our unbelief and misconception.
2. Prayer for conversion. The stubborn resister of God’s commands is now consciously helpless to convert himself. He feels how necessary the power and grace of God to “turn” him.
3. The complete work of repentance is now accomplished. Sorrow for past sins and shame for inward depravity are felt as never before. With deeper knowledge of God’s mercy and his own sin, the sinner attains to more intense sorrow and shame, “Smote upon my thigh’ (cf. Eze 21:12; Homer, ‘Iliad,’ 15:113: 16:124).
II. GOD‘S ANSWER TO THE PENITENT. (Jer 31:20, Jer 31:21.) He prophesies this experience from afar; he represents himself as overhearing it. The first beginnings of grace in the heart, although invisible to human eyes, are noted by our heavenly Father.
1. Complacency, sympathy; and mercy are awakened in the Divine mind.
2. Encouragement is given. By promise of salvation, and by directions as to the way by which sinners are to return (Jer 31:21).
3. God declares his own readiness to receive us. He will go forth like the father of the prodigal.M.
Jer 31:31-34
The new covenant.
Religion is only possible and of advantage as based upon an understanding between man and God. The perpetuation of the word covenant, in the New as well as in the Old Testament, shows how essential this idea is. And God’s infinite mercy and royal condescension is shown in instituting a new covenant when the old was “ready to vanish away,”
I. AS RESULTING FROM THE OLD COVENANT.
1. It was necessitated by past failure. The first covenant had been repeatedly and flagrantly broken. As a system of morals, it was perfect and without flaw; but human nature, being corrupt, was unable to keep its conditions (Rom 7:12). Universal corruption witnessed to the hopelessness of salvation by such a method. And yet the transgressions of men were not thereby excused. The essential depravity of man was revealed in a stronger and more definite character; but it already existed, and was an occasion of the Divine anger. As the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews phrases it, God, “finding fault with them” (Heb 8:8) reminds Judah and Israel of his delivering mercy (“I took them by the hand,” etc.), and declares his constancy and uninterrupted tenderness (“I was an husband,” etc.).
2. It illustrated Divine mercy. In strict justice the transgressors of the Law had no claim to any consideration. They had incurred the righteous displeasure of God. But his merciful purpose was not laid aside. Another opportunity of salvation was afforded, and when the first covenant failed, a second covenant was designed of grander conception and more universal adaptation. The love of God, affronted, does not withdraw itself, but busies itself with new schemes to supplement human frailty and diminish the occasions and possibilities of failure.
II. IN ITS DISTINCTIVE DIFFERENCE FROM IT. It is evident from this description that the gospel dispensation is referred to. The characteristics of the new covenant are mentioned as differing from those of the old in:
1. Inwardness. A form of speech signifying that the Law would be rooted in the affections of men, and grow up within them as a second nature. Paul, whilst conscious of the condemnation of the Law, yet approved it as “holy, and just, and good.” No longer will it be a limiting, restraining influence acting from without, but an impulse and inspiration from within. It is much the same in effect as when God promises to give his Spirit to men. And, indeed, a work like thisthe new birthas it is beyond the power of man, must be effected by the power of God. He will reveal himself to them by an inward experience.
2. Universality. A revelation of this kind will naturally be more extensive than one which appeals first to the intellect. Being spiritual and experimental, it will anticipate and underlie intellectual apprehension. The child and the unlearned person will thereby be placed on an equality with the scholar and the wise man. Yet is not this light given to Israel, or Judah, or to any others, apart from their own voluntary acceptance of it. It is to be distinguished from the natural light of conscience as involving a voluntary submission of the will to the revealed will of God, and as originating in the recognition of a new filial relation between the soul and God. Thus it is said, “He will reveal himself to them as he does not unto the world.” And because of the supernatural character of this revelation, “the least” are placed at an advantage relatively to “the greatest;” for “Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (1Co 1:26). The possession of this Divine illumination will of itself constitute a man a citizen of the new Israel, of which it is an essential feature that all its constituents shall know God.
3. Absoluteness and duration. “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Acceptance with God is, therefore, final and complete. Under the new covenant the sins of the redeemed are not only forgiven, but forgotten; not only cancelled, but “blotted out as a morning cloud” (Isa 44:22); not only removed from before his face, but “cast behind his back into the depths of the sea” (Mic 7:19). Under the Levitical priesthood, offering for sins had frequently to be made, being in itself powerless to take them away; but Christ’s sacrifice, being of absolute avail with God, would only have to be once offered in order “to perfect forever them that are sanctified” (Heb 10:14).M.
Jer 31:34
Missions put an end to.
Many persons, at the outset of modern missionary enterprise, strongly objected to it upon various pleas, but chiefly as an interference with providential arrangements and an opposition to the will of God. Even now there are some who regard it as a quixotic and presumptuous folly. It may console such persons to know that even the Bible looks forward to the abolition of missions. But in a very different way from theirs!
I. THE MEANS BY WHICH THIS IS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED.
1. What it is. Communication of the knowledge of God. Not by one act or word, but in a sustained and continuous way. By careful and intelligent explanation of God’s character, laws, and purpose; even more by realizing in one’s own life and behaviour the love and grace of God. Every life ought to be a revelation of God.
2. Where it is to be applied. The important thing to observe here is the point of departure. Our eyes are not to be in the ends of the earth. The persons upon whom our first efforts are to be put forth are close beside usour “brother” and our “neighbour.” This describes an immediate and direct responsibility. How many have fulfilled it? Some such work as this was done when the Jews returned from the Exile, without teachers numerous or learned enough for the instruction of the people in the Law. The scribes of the great synagogue gave themselves to the work, making itinerant journeys throughout Israel and Judah at stated intervals. But this was not sufficient, and so it had to be supplemented by popular and domestic efforts. Happily the people were enthusiastic and earnest, and, literally, every man taught his brother and his neighbour. This was but a prelude to the work which the Church of Christ has to take up. The missionaries and ministers of the cross are to “go everywhere” preaching the Word. But that will not suffice. Multitudes are hungering for the truth as it is in Christmultitudes whom we personally may never hope to reach. What, then, can we do? We can tell our brother and our neighbourin that way the tidings of salvation will spread; and others more at liberty and more enterprising may be encouraged by our zeal and liberality to go forth to heathen nations. In any case the first quarter to which the Church should look for increase is within itself. The language is explicit, and no man need waste his time in inquiring, “Who is my neighbour?” The parable of the good Samaritan has settled that matter for all time.
II. THE EVIDENCE THAT IT IS ACCOMPLISHED.
1. Universal knowledge of God. The gospel is intended for all men. Every man has a personal interest in its message. To keep back the truth from any one who has come within our reach is a sin; especially is this the case with regard to those who are our daily companions and closest friends. The words are not satirical, but a gracious promise. It is an end towards which we should hopefully and constantly aim. Some day it will be realized; “for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa 11:9; Hab 2:14). So long as one soul is ignorant of God, we are bound to continue the work.
2. Universal experience of the blessings of salvation. It is no speculative abstraction we have to communicate, but a “word” which has in it the power to awaken, convert, and reconcile eternally to God. This knowledge of him is therefore experimental and practical. It will not leave men as it finds them. It will purify and redeem, and introduce them to the blessedness of a complete and enduring salvation. God will seal the labours of his servants by “signs following”by righteous and holy fruits, and by the assurance that the sins of them that believe through their teaching will be forgiven forever.M.
Jer 31:38-40
The new Jerusalem.
The law or condition of the spiritual life of the future having been referred to, the organized embodiment or community to which they will give rise is next described. This will be
I. THE ANTITYPE OF THE OLD JERUSALEM.
1. An organized community. With permanent constitution and laws, and subject to a central authority. Comprehending and unifying the manifold relations of human life. A true “city of God” on earth.
2. With an earthly manifestation. It would not be a mere idea, but would realize itself, in part at least, in sensible forms and external manifestations. It would be the incarnation of spiritual principles and their practical realization.
3. And a sacred character. This would be its distinguishing characteristic, as it had been that of the former city. There would be a wall of consecration, and a special aim and direction given to the life, of which it would be the dwelling place and home. It would be built “to the Lord,” and would in its entirety be “holy to the Lord.”
II. CONTRASTED WITH IT.
1. More complete in its surroundings and defences. Jehoash had destroyed the wall in the north and northeast, in the reign of Amaziah. On this side, therefore, the old city was most defenceless. A large portion of this was rebuilt by Nehemiah (Neh 3:1), but probably not the whole. The new city will be entirely rebuilt and thoroughly defended, “a city compact and built together.”
2. More comprehensive. Outlying places would be included, and the bounds of the city vastly extended. The whole earth will be included in the city of salvation.
3. More inclusively consecrated. The hill Gareb (perhaps that of the lepers), and the hill Goath (possibly Golgotha), and the valley of Hinnom, the foul Gehennaeven these which had confronted the old city as a reproach, would be cleansed, transformed, and included. The sources of disease and the occasions of defilement would thus be entirely removed.
4. More permanent in its duration. It is to be preserved from all injury, and is to stand forever.
III. WHOLLY DISTINCT FROM IT. At no time in the history of Israel were these predictions fulfilled with regard to the earthly Jerusalem. Portions of the description might appear to correspond with what took place in the time of Nehemiah and others, but in its entirety it is evident that the city here spoken of is utterly distinct from the geographical and historical Jerusalem. It is associated with it according to the law of Divine continuity, but in itself it is a new creation. The “wall great and high” is of no earthly material; the extension is not one of yards or miles, but of nations and ages; the consecration of the unclean places is but typical of the regenerative force of Christianity, which reclaims the moral wastes of the world, and purifies the carnal affections and sinful tendencies of human nature; and no material city could ever “stand for aye.” Only the kingdom and Church of Christ could satisfy the conditions of such a prophecy.M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Jer 31:1-9
The restoration of Israel.
To cheer the hearts of the exiles, to lift up the despondent, and to vindicate the faithfulness of God, is the intent of this and the many other predictions concerning the restoration of Israel. In a limited sense they were fulfilled by the restoration at the close of the Captivity; but the events of that period can hardly be said to have filled up the meaning of the emphatic language which the prophets were wont to employ. Hence it has been felt to be necessary to look further for the complete fulfilment of these many most glorious predictions. And in the yet future restoration of Israel, in the gathering home to their own land again in all their national entirety, not a few see the real meaning of the prophets’ words. Others, whilst clearly seeing that the return of the exiles from Babylon could not satisfy the inspired Word, find that which more than meets the case in the restoration of humanity at largein that which our Saviour called “the regeneration,” and St. Peter “the restitution of all things,” and St. Paul “the gathering of all things in one, even in Christ.” And, as in a microcosm, we may see in the redemption of every individual soul the varied characteristics which shall be more broadly and conspicuously displayed when these prophetic utterances shall have their perfect fulfilment in the kingdom of God. In the above verses (1-9) some of these characteristics are indicated; e.g.
I. ITS AUTHOR. This is the Lord. See how in all these opening verses this fact is emphatically proclaimed. In Jer 31:1 it is the Lord who declareth that he “will be the God,” etc; in the second verse “the Lord” speaks, saying, “I caused him to rest;” in the third the Lord it is who declares to his servant the unchanging love which is at the root of all this restoration; and in Jer 31:4 it is again,” I will build thee,” etc. Let these prophecies be understood as they may, the blessings of which they tell are every one of them due to the Lord alone, whether we apply them to the return from exile, the national restoration of Israel yet to come, the redemption of humanity, or to the individual soul. He is the gracious Author of every such restoration, and to him is the praise to be given.
II. THE BLESSINGS OR SUCH RESTORATION. There will be:
1. Gladness and joy. (Cf. Jer 31:4, Jer 31:7.) Under the imagery of a festive dance the prophet declares this. The mournful monotone of humanity’s sorrow, its ceaseless moan, shall be replaced by the song, the dance, the shout of joy.
2. Peace. For centuries the vine clad hills of Samaria had been the object of the marauder’s repeated attack; invasion after invasion had fallen upon “the planters” that planted there. But now, undisturbed, unmolested, they shall not merely plant, but eat the fruit of their vines. It is an image of unruffled peace which arises from the perfect security in which God’s people shall forever dwell. In the turmoil of life, amid its tossings to and fro, and its painful agitations, there are not a few to whom the thought of this blessed peace is the chief charm of the hoped for future.
3. Unity. (Jer 31:6.) The watchmen of Ephraim, who were stationed on the high mountains to proclaim the advents of the feasts and festivals of God’s people shall cry, “Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion.” What a change here from the old sad past! Then Israel would not worship in Zion, but stood aloof in her own worship within her own borders. But now Israel and Judah shall go together to worship in Zion. Not discord now, but blessed unity. It can hardly be questioned that the spirit of strife, which is an all but universal feature in human character, and never has been wanting in vigorous expression, must have been designed for some good end. But who will not welcome the day when it can be done without, and the nations shall learn war no more?
4. God shall be all and in all. The going up to Zion shall be “to the Lord our God.” This fact is the keystone of the whole arch of promise and of blessing. Without it all would crumble away, could have no existence, still less permanence.
III. ITS PROCESS.
1. The proclamation of God’s grace is made. Faith to believe it is given. Then and thence “praise” to God for his goodness and “prayer” pleading with God to make good his word. “O Lord, save,” etc. (Jer 31:7).
2. Then God actually proceeds to bring them away from the many lands where they are scattered. Distance is no obstacle (Jer 31:8). Their own infirmities shall not hinder (Jer 31:8). The dreadful desert, with its thirst, its pathless extent, its rough rock strewn ways, shall not hinder; for (Jer 31:9) God shall give them “rivers of waters,” and “a straight way wherein they shall not stumble.”
3. We see them approaching their own land: “They shall come with weeping,” etc. (Jer 31:9). It is the sense of God’s goodness that more than aught besides leads to that godly sorrow which is the sure guarantee of complete abandonment of those sins which in the past had brought such evil upon them, and which, until abandoned, would render restoration impossible.
IV. THE REASON AND MOTIVE OF IT. Jer 31:9, “For I am Israel’s Father,” etc. It is this fact of the fatherhood of God that explains the darkest experiences of life, for such experiences are God’s disciplines, the pruning of the vine, etc. And it enables us to sustain them and warrants the highest and most blessed hopes for those who are called upon to endure them. God’s fatherhood is at the same time the most awful and the most blessed fact the soul can know. Let us see to it that, by loving obedience to his will, we know only the Father’s smile and escape the Father’s frown.C.
Jer 31:1
The steps of the kingdom of God.
“I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.” Day by day we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” and what that means the next sentence of the prayer tells us. It is that God’s will should be done on earth as it is done in heaven. All blessedness for man is contained in the fulfilment of this prayer, even as all man’s misery is due to its non-fulfilment. But how do we expect the kingdom of God to come? By what means will the blessed condition of God’s will being perfectly done on earth be brought about? The answer which is commonly given is that, by means of the preaching of the gospel and the consequent conversion of the ungodly world, the kingdom of God shall come. Hence the prayer is perpetually put up that God would send his Spirit, and make his Word powerful in men’s conversion. Now, God forbid that any should disparage such work, or do aught other than desire most earnestly that the preaching of God’s Word may be far, far more successful to this end than it commonly is. Would that the Church might win from the world far more numerous converts than have yet been given to her! God speed the work of conversion! But it is not by this means alone that the coming of God’s kingdom is to be brought about. There is another, a more ancient, and we may also say a more scriptural and therefore more successful way, and that is by the increase of godly families. When God is the God of all the families in Israel, then the nation shall be his people. The family, the Church, the kingdom of God,these are the successive steps by which, according to the Scriptures, it is the Divine intent to bring in the kingdom.
I. THE FAMILY. God has not taken means to secure the perpetuation of any special political, ecclesiastical, or social institutions, but he has determined that, whilst these may come and go, the institution of the family shall abide. Therefore from the beginning “God made man in his own image, male and female created he them.” The Divine ideal contained this twofold element. And he has also ordered it that the one should be in all respects the complement of the other, and as such should mutually seek and delight in the companionship of the other. And to their union he gave the blessed gift of children and the love that accompanies them, and so amid all the vicissitudes of nations and governments, the institution of the family has been perpetuated; that has not perished, whatever else may have. And there results from all this the formation of a certain spirit and type of character. There are family likenesses, not in feature and form only, but in mental, moral, and physical characteristics as well. And these enlarge and become characteristics of whole tribes, races, nations. It is evident, therefore, that, in the institution of the family, there is present a propagating power for whatever moral and spiritual forces the heads of such family may be themselves possessed with. Abraham, God knew, would be sure to “order his household” after him. And to this day the characteristics of the Jewish race are discernible everywhere. Moral and spiritual forces travel along this road rather than any other. It is God’s great highway for those principles which, when fully embraced by men’s hearts, shall bring in the kingdom of God itself. And it is by the natural increase of the family that God designs his truth should spread and his way come to be known upon earth, and his saving health amongst all nations. But ere this he accomplished the family will have developed into
II. THE CHURCH. This will be the further step in the coming of the kingdom of God. When one and another household are possessed of a common spirit, share common faith and hope, and render obedience to one Divine law, it is in accordance with all spiritual instincts that these should meet together for their mutual comfort, edification, and support. “Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another.” And so strong has been in all ages the force of this spiritual instinct, that no fear of persecution, no terror that their enemies could inflict, has been able to deter those who believed in God from thus meeting together. There need have been no martyrs, or scarce any, if the faithful would but have individually kept their opinions to themselves. But spiritual force cannot be dammed in and held back. It will be sure ere long to burst through all restraints and barriers and go its own way. But this irrepressible instinct has been the cause and creator of the Church. And such holy convocations have reacted on the family, and deepening the hold of those sacred principles which first drew the members of the Church together have made more firm the faith and hope which already existed. Thus by the Church the spirit of the family is not only preserved, but strengthened, and its perpetuation and reproduction made more certain in the future. And the process goes on. Divine principles, faith in God, fear and love of his Name, established in the family, expand and develop into the Church, and there slowly, with ever accelerating force, surely and irresistibly, they make their way until at length it will be seen that the godly seed has the start of the seed of the wicked one, and is ever pushing it out of the way, driving it forth from its long held but usurped dominion. In illustration of this see how the Christian races do even now inherit the earth. The Puritans of America, the colonies that are ever being founded by our own people. See, too, how the Jews have ever held their ownwhat tenacity of life, what spiritual force, are inherent in them. These are but illustrations, and but feeble ones, of how spiritual force, if it take possession of the family, will live and spread and grow until the mustard shall become the goodly tree. And thusrather than by occasional conversions from the ranks of the worldlydoes it seem God’s mind and will that the coming of
III. THE KINGDOM OF GOD should be brought about. “There is an established hereditary moral connection between parents and their offspring, and every known principle of reason, of justice, and of holiness suggests that this connection exists for purposes of good, and not exclusively for purposes of evil.” “The character of the family lies at the very foundation of all permanent moral improvement in the human race generally, and in Christian Churches in particular; and until it be intelligently, and, under the influence of right principles, practically attended to, all the preaching and all the religious machinery with which we are furnished will fail, as they have hitherto failed, to improve materially the moral condition of the world.” As Baxter says, “The preaching of the Word by public ministers is not the first ordinary means of grace to any but those that were graceless till they came to hear such preaching; that is, to those on whom the first appointed meansgodly nurture in the familyhath been neglected or proved vain. I doubt not to affirm that a godly education is God’s first and ordinary appointed means for the begetting of actual faith and other graces in the children of believers. Public preaching is appointed for the conversion of those only that have missed the blessing of the first appointed means.” Yes; let God be the God of our families, and he will soon become the God of our nation, the God of the whole human race, and his kingdom will have come, and his will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.C.
Jer 31:2
Troubles lessened by increase.
“The people which were wilderness.” The sword by which Israel had been decimated, her ranks thinned, her homes desolatedwhat a trouble was that! And now it is to be followed by “the wilderness”that “waste howling wilderness” so vividly described by Moses (Deu 1:19; Deu 8:15; Deu 32:10). This would seem another, a new, a sore trouble, but it was to be the means of healing the wound caused by the first. Cf. “I have given the valley of Achor for a door of hope” (Hos 2:15).
I. THE MEANING OF THESE WORDS. It is not easy to say certainly what sword and what wilderness the prophet had in his mind when he thus wrote. Perhaps the sword of Pharaoh and the wilderness of Sinai. Yet more likely the sword of their Babylonian conquerors; and the wilderness, that great Syrian desert across which they must travel on their homeward waya wilderness far more deserving of the dread epithets which Moses applied to the wilderness of Sinai. Or the wilderness may mean the whole condition of the Jews in their exile, the deep sorrow, shame, and distress which their captivity seemed to threaten them with.
II. But, let it be understood how it may, THE PROPHETIC STATEMENT IS TRUE. In the wilderness of Sinai what grace God’s people found there! Blessings in basket and in store, in guidance, governance, guardianship; in instruction, discipline, and development as a nation: how they were welded together, trained for duty, qualified for the high honour God designed for them! And in the wilderness which they had to cross on their return from their exile, infested, then as now, with robber tribes, to whom their comparatively scant numbers, their unwarlike character, and above all their treasures of gold and silver destined for the temple of God, would offer an irresistible temptation, how could the exiles have escaped this peril of the wilderness, to say nothing of many others, but for the grace of God? It was emphatically true that they “found grace in the wilderness.” Those dreary leagues of burning sand, the awful dangers of the way, might well have daunted them, and no doubt did deter the majority of the people from all attempt at return; for it was but a remnant that came back. But all these perils were surmounted. Day after day for four months the caravan of the exiles crept along the wilderness way. “Unlike that of Sinai, it was diversified by no towering mountains, no delicious palm groves, no gushing springs. A hard gravel plain from the moment they left the banks of the Euphrates till they reached the northern extremity of Syria, with no solace except the occasional wells and walled stations. Ferocious hordes of Bedouin robbers then, as now, swept the whole trail.” But like their great ancestor, “they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the laud of Canaan they came.” “They,” as he, “found grace in the wilderness.” And so abundant was that grace that their perilous enterprise became a veritable march of triumph. “The redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” “As before some royal potentate, there would go before them an invisible Protector, who should remove the hard stones from the bare feet of those that ran beside the camels, and cast them up in piles on either side to mark the broad track seen for miles along the desert.” (Cf. Isa 40:1-4, for description of this grace found in the wilderness.) And so what seemed so sore a trouble added on to the sword of the exile, was in reality the healing of the wound caused by that sword. But this is often the Divine plan. The second trouble heals the first, and so trouble is lessened by increase. Note
III. FURTHER ILLUSTRATIONS. The plague of London was followed by the fire, but that fire purged the city as nothing else could, and no such plague has visited it since. In medical science it is well known how often one disease is driven out by another. In the hot, close valleys of mountainous lands the wild storm is welcomed, notwithstanding its fierce might, overturning and destroying in ruthless manner, for it purges the whole atmosphere and drives away the seeds of disease and death. The heat was terrible, and the storm, but the second trouble lessened the first. To have to leave Paradise and to go out into a wilderness in which thorns and briars should abound was another trouble, but the labour the second demanded was to be the healing force whereby the first loss should be lessened and the curse turned into a blessing. What a tissue of troubles Jacob’s life seems to have been made up of! and yet once and again the new trouble healed the old. The imprisonment of his sons in Egypt led to his recovery of his lost son Joseph. Death follows on disease. Ah! what a new trouble is death in instances not a few! but in that wilderness of the grave what grace the departed soul finds there! Take our Lord’s illustration of the birth of children: how the last sorrows of the birth throes, the dread hour of travail, because thereby a new life is born, are with all the pain that went before forgotten, “remembered no more”! And in things spiritual the law of our text is true. The prodigal’s outward misery was followed by the inward pangs of shame, remorse, and sorrow. But they led to the “I will arise and go,” etc. And to a renewed soul what misery there is in the return of temptation! and if it have overcome the soul, what yet greater misery haunts the soul then! “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.” But that new distress is to render the recurrence of the first less and less possible, and by and by impossible. In God’s providential ordering of our affairs, this same law is often shown. The straitened means that follow bereavement of the breadwinner of the householdthat poverty often develops character, compels the mind to turn from perpetual brooding over its loss, which it is so apt to do, draws forth sympathy of friends, and in innumerable ways works good. “All things” do, as a fact, “work together for good to them that love God.”
IV. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THIS. (Cf. Rom 5:3, Rom 5:4.) The outward ills may not always be removed, but their power to do aught else than bless the believer is taken away. Instead of casting him down, they lead him into the full possession of that hope, having which the soul is independent of all that man or hell can do against it.
V. ITS LESSON. If “the wilderness” should follow “the sword,” we need not fear; that is to say, if a second sorrow should come upon the steps of a former one, we may regard it as a probable means of lessening the former, and not increasing it. The long sorrow of no Isaac born to Abraham was followed by the awful command to slay him; but that led to an issue that swallowed up in glory and joy all the darkness and sorrow of all the past, and lit up all the future of the long ages to come with a light whose radiance is as bright today as ever. Then let our song be, “Father, I wait thy daily will,” etc.C.
Jer 31:3
The love of God.
In these chapters, the thirtieth and the thirty-first, we have a delightful change from the prolonged accusations, warnings, and threatenings which form the staple of well nigh all that has gone before. Here we have a series of good and comfortable words designed for the encouragement of God’s people in the midst of the sorrows of their exile. This verse declares that the love of God was the real cause of all that had befallen his people. Now
I. WITHOUT DOUBT THERE WAS MUCH IN THEIR HISTORY THAT SEEMED TO BE VERY CONTRARY TO WHAT LOVE WOULD DO. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” said God. “What!” we can imagine a perplexed soul exclaiming”What! love, everlasting love, and Israel a scattered people, her throne overturned, her kings slain or in exile, her people perished by tens of thousands, her temple and city burnt with fire, her lot so exceeding hard, bitter, and hopeless! Where is the love in all this?” And so it is still. It is hard to persuade men to believe in the love of God; to understand how, under the omnipotent rule of a beneficent and loving God, these many things can be which we know by experience arepain, loss, disappointment, death, and yet worse, moral evil, sin in all its forms; and the darkness in which we continue in regard to all these. Who can understand all this, or adequately explain the great mysteries of human life?
II. BUT NEVERTHELESS GOD‘S LOVE IS AT THE ROOT OF ALL THINGS. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” was true for Israel and is true for us. For note in regard to Israel:
1. The purpose of God towards them was such as love only would cherish. What of honour and glory and blessing did God not design for his people! The whole of the Scriptures teem with his promises and declarations as to this. They were to be his people and he would be their God, in all the fulness of blessed meaning that such an assurance intends.
2. And there was no other way whereby his gracious ends could be secured, less painful than that which he had been constrained to adopt. We may be sure of this; for the same love that first formed the gracious purpose would be certain to choose the most direct and happy means to secure it. For:
3. It was in the power of Israela power which they exercised with fatal effect for themselvesto compel God to take circuitous routes to reach his designed end. The heart of a people cannot be dealt with as God deals with mere matter. The power of choice, the free will of man, can baffle for a long time the benevolence of God, and delay and thwart not a little the accomplishment of that on which his heart is set. They would try their own ways, and only when they had found how full of sorrow these were would they consent to God’s way. And all this involved long weary years and much and manifold sorrow.
4. And what was true of Israel is true of mankind at large. God has purposes of grace for man. He so loved the world, and loves it still. But sin can for a while baffle God, and compel the use of the pains and penalties which we see associated with it, in order to eradicate the love of it from the heart of man.
III. NO OTHER KEY SO UNLOCKS THE PROBLEM OF LIFE. If we find it hard at times even with this key, we shall find it much harder with any other. No malignant being would have implanted love in human hearts. The existence of that one blessed principle in man renders the word of the faithless servant, “I knew thee that thou wert a hard man,” forever glaringly untrue, A capricious being would not have established “the reign of love” which we find everywhere. The settled uniformity of the principles on which God’s universe is governed disprove that. An indifferent being, such as the Epicureans taught that the gods were, would not have contrived so many means whereby the ease and comfort of his creatures are secured. Only a God of love would be to man what we perpetually see God is to us. The innumerable and palpable proofs of his beneficence affirm this, and when we regard the sorrows and ills of life as but love’s sharp remedies, they will not disprove it.
IV. OUR WISDOM IS TO ASSUME, EVEN WHERE WE CANNOT PROVE IT, THAT THIS IS SO. For thus we shall surely come to find more and more “the soul of good” that there is in even the most evil things, and we shall be able to “both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”C.
Jer 31:3
God’s will done at last.
I. WHAT IS THAT WILL? To gather his children round him. God creates each individual soul only that he may have fresh objects on which to lavish his love. The “dower of blessed children” which God gives to us, he gives because he delights in the possession of children. And the Father of us all wants us to gather around him in the true home of our souls.
II. THE MOTIVE OF THAT WILL. Love. What else can it be?
III. THE FORM IT ASSUMES. Everlasting love. It wears not out, it “hopeth all things, beareth all things, endureth all things.”
IV. ITS EXERCISE. Drawing men to himself. How perpetually and by what manifold agencies this is being accomplished! “I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me,” said he who came to do the will of God.
V. THE GREAT POWER WHICH THAT WILL EMPLOYS. Loving kindness. “With loving kindness have,” etc. Seen most of all in the attraction of the cross of Christ.
VI. THE RESISTANCE IT IMPLIES. There is such resistancesin.
VII. ITS ULTIMATE RESULT. “I have drawn thee.” The Father will be able to say that of all his children when Christ’s work is finished. “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to his Father, that God may be all in all.”C.
Jer 31:10
The Scatterer the Gatherer.
“He that scattered Israel,” etc. It is possible that there should be a scattering which has no gathering. Not seldom we see men squandering every gift and blessing God has endowed them withtime, health, opportunities, friends, etc. And such scattering has often no gathering to follow it, save of the appropriate harvest of ruin whose seed has been so diligently sown. But there may be also a gathering which has never been preceded by any scattering. The Father’s house may never have been forsaken, the children therein may have grown up in his love and service, without a thought or wish for the far country whither prodigals love to go. As the former fact, the scattering that has no gathering, is the saddest of all, so this latter, the gathering which has known no scattering, is the most blessed of all. It is that of those who have lived ever in the love of God; it is that of the holy angels. But there is a scattering which is followed by a gathering. Such is spoken of in this verse (Jer 31:10). God was the Author of both in regard to Israel. Let us take
I. ILLUSTRATIONS OF SUCH PROCEDURE. There is that of the sower. He scatters his grain in the furrows, and throws it broadcast o’er the land. But by and by he gathers in the rich harvest. The merchant. He scatters his wealth in this venture and in that, in the confidence that he shall, in due time, gather large increase of wealth thereby. The father of a family, when disease has broken out in the home. The children are sent hither and thither, scattered, but with the intent that when the disease is banished they may all be gathered again without loss or harm. And God has scattered the children of men, and the fortunes of men oftentimes, but with the intent of gathering them again. Job. Jacob. Israel’s exile. The sending forth and return of our Lord’s apostles. The persecution of the Church about Stephen. The whole company of the children of God which are scattered abroad, all to be gathered in at last in the Father’s house on high.
II. REASONS OF IT. In the case of such as the sower, etc; these are obvious. But the reasons that influence them in their conduct are akin to those which we may believe order the like Divine procedure. By scattering his people hither and thither broadcast o’er the world, God looks for a harvest from such seed; and how often he has gathered such harvest from such sowing! And the parent’s reasonscattering his children to protect them from evil which would have befallen them had they remained together in one place, but purposing to gather them again when the fear of the evil is no morehow much of the painful scatterings which in this life we know and experience may be explained so! When the fire of the foe threatens the massed ranks of an army, the commander scatters his men, bids them take “open order,” and so Eaves them. When the fire ceases, they close up once more. It was to save men from a great sin that God scattered them at Babel. Such divisions and separations are needful now. But he that scattereth will gather.
III. LESSONS.
1. Submission. There is wise and good reason for all that now is. What is, is best.
2. Hope. Yes; “let our eyes look right on, and our eyelids straight before us.” “He that scattereth will gather.” Meanwhile:
3. Obedience. If God have scattered me or mine, inquire why he has done so. Put yourself in line with God’s purposes; for “he always wins who sides with thee.”C.
Jer 31:11
Strong, stronger, strongest.
Israel, Babylon, God. Note
I. THE STRONG. Was not Israel so? Regarding Israel as including Judah and Jerusalem, how strong, even materially, was Israel! In her numbers, wealth, fortressesespecially Jerusalem, which was one of the most impregnable of all the cities of the world! in her privileges, memories, promised help of God! in her past prestige and influence! in her long traditions of freedom and greatness! and in much beside! But Israel may Be taken as a type of all humanity. Looking upon our first parents, the head of our race, surely we should have thought their position of happiness, holiness, and Divine favour, impregnable. What safeguard did they lack? what motive to withstand the tempter was wanting? And how many there are now who say of themselves, and others think it, that they shall never be moved? Their mountain seems to stand so strong. Lands where pure gospel ministry exists; children of godly homes; men who have long walked in God’s ways. But facts all too often show that, “strong” as these may be, there is
II. THE STRONGER one who overcomes them. The Chaldean armies were too strong for Israel. “The hand of Babylon “was stronger than he.” And the facts of human life all reveal how humanity has come under the cruel dominance of one who is stronger than man. Behold the body, a prey to feebleness, disease, pain, and death; the mind, to corrupt imagination, to delusion, and deceit; the affections clinging to things evil, debased, perverted; the will enslaved, made to do that which it would not; the soul earth bound, unable to rise up to God and heaven, as it was made to do. Yes; the evidence is abundant and everywhere that a stronger than man has overcome him to his harm. But this verse tells of deliverance from the hand of this stronger one, by one who is
III. THE STRONGEST of all. It came true of Israel, and shall come true again. It is true in regard to humanity and the individual soul. It may be thought, considering the comparatively small number of the exiles who returned to Jerusalem, that this prediction was scarcely verified. But in the increase of the Jewish race in the lands of their exile, in their preservation from the hatred of their enemies (cf. Book of Esther), in the deliverance of them from the snare of idolatry, in the implantation in their hearts of a deeper love and understanding of God’s Word,in all these and in other respects Israel was delivered. And humanity is redeemed, ransomed. When Christ said, “It is finished,” then was virtually accomplished that deliverance for which, in its full realization, the world yet groans. But in every triumph of Divine grace, every conversion, every breaking away from evil, every tightening of the blessed bends which bind us to Christ, every advance the gospel makes, every missionary triumph, every act of self-consecration, there is present proof of what by and by shall be perfectly proved. And the means by which all this is accomplished are suggested to us by the word “ransomed;” it sends our thoughts to him who said of himself that he came to give his life a “ransom for many.” Therefore:
1. Let us each look on beyond that mighty one, the prince of this world, who is stronger than we, to him, the Saviour of us all, the Mightiest, who is stronger than he.
2. And ask ourselves the questionUnder whose rule and service do we ourselves live? That is the all-important question. God help us to give it the right answer.C.
Jer 31:14
Satisfied.
I. THERE IS A SATISFACTION WHICH IS NOT TO BE DESIRED.
1. That of the worldling, which says, “Soul, take thine ease,” etc.
2. That of conventionalism. This looks only to the ordinary standard of religious attainment, and so long as it can come up tolerably near to that standard, it desires no more. They are “at ease in Zion,” and the “woe” denounced on such is theirs.
3. Of Pharisaism, which thanks God that it is not as other men are.
4. Of the Stoic, that has drilled itself not to feel the sorrows of men.
5. Of the selfish, which, because it swims, cares not who sinks.
II. BUT THERE IS A SATISFACTION WHICH IS GREATLY TO BE DESIRED.
1. That of trust, which prevents all murmuring at the dispensations of God, and which says, “I will trust, and not be afraid.”
2. That of meekness, which says, “It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth good in his sight.”
3. That of belief in God’s promises in Christ. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.”
4. That of experiencethe consciousness that God is carrying on his work within us, deepening the hold of that which is good, loosening more and more the power of that which is evil. Consciousness of growth in grace. But none of these, precious as they are, come up to what is meant here. For it tells us that
III. THERE IS A SATISFACTION BETTER THAN ALL THESE. It is that of the realization of the promises of God. This, not now, but hereafter. In all the kingdom of nature where God has implanted any hunger, he has made provision for its supply. Is the soul of man to be the solitary exception? The seeds obtain their full development ere they die; but not one single soul that God has created ever does so. We cannot be satisfied with either what we know or attain to here. What satisfaction we have is all based on the conviction that we know not, see not, possess not, now; we shall hereafter. See to it, that we be in the road that leadeth to that realization. “I am the Way,” said Jesus.C.
Jer 31:15-17
Strong consolation.
In this touching passage let us note
I. THE SCENE. The exiles, with bowed heads and many tears, are being hurried away from their beloved land. Fierce soldiery urge them on. The smoking ruins of their towns, cities, homes, and, above all, of the greatly beloved city of God, Jerusalem, are behind them. A wail of distress goes up from these broken-hearted captives as they stand on the frontier Mils of their land, and have to say farewell to it forever. The whole scene rose up vividly before the prophet, and he seems to see the spirit of Rachel, the genius of their nation, the mother of the tribes on whose border land the exiles are now standing. She hovers over the sad-hearted company, her face wet with uncontrollable tears, and her lamentations for her poor lost children hoard incessantly. She has arisen from her tomb, which was hard by Ramah, and is bewailing the misery of her children.
II. THE SORROW. It is that of parents for their children. How intense this sorrow is! Rachel refuses to be comforted, because her children are not. It is greater than the sorrow of the children. In God’s blessed ordering of things, children rarely grieve deeply. They soon forget, as they ought to do. It is not they that grieve, but their parents for them. And if the parents’ grief be greater than that of the children, it is greater still than that which the parents feel for themselves. It matters little what becomes of them: it is the children for whom they care. What a holy thing this love of parents is! It is by means of this, appealing to it, that “out of the mouths of babes,” etc. And how frequent, in this weary world of ours! We know how the deep distress of those mothers whose little ones Herod slew recalled the sorrow told of here. The words of the prophet find plentiful application. Not on one ground alone, but on many, parents often have to mourn for their children. But for the people of God there is ever
III. RICH CONSOLATION.
1. Is the sorrow, as here, that which is caused by the sight of sore calamity coming upon our children which we cannot ward off? Oh, how many a father, as he looks around the circle of his children, seems to see a black spectre of care hovering over every one of those curly heads! and the vision sends a chill into his very soul. Their mother is to die, the means of their support is failing, disease has already fastened on some of them; trouble manifold is appointed for them. Their foes are many, their friends few. Now, to all such parents this word of consolation is sent. It tells us how God will care for them if we cannot. His love will never fail, and there is hope for them. Life, after all, will not be to them what we think. O anxious fathers and mothersand what a crowd of you there are!trust the God of Israel for your children.
2. Or is it the sorrow that conies from having prodigal children? This is a sorrow worse still. But art thou, O parent, a believer in God? dost thou seek him evermore in fervent prayer? Then be assured that he who caused that the prodigal of whom our Saviour tells should “come to himself,” will do the like for thine. Never believe that the seed of the godly, for whom earnest prayer is offered, can be ultimately lost.
3. Or is it that you have been bereaved of your children? So was it with the mothers at Bethlehem, to whose sorrow St. Matthew applies these words. The salvation of children is as certain as the existence of God himself. To think otherwise would be to render impossible all hope, trust, and love towards God. “Of such is the kingdom of heaven;” “Their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven;” “It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” True, heartless because childless priests have taught that there is a limbus iafantuma children’s hell. Good God! that any should believe it! And yet in many districts still the children who die unbaptized are refused Christian burial. But we turn from theologians to God’s Word, and clasp the precious promise of these verses to our hearts, as, thank God, we are altogether warranted in doing. Let, then, all to whom God has given children trust him for themfor their bodies’ and their souls’ welfare, for their well being in the life that now is and in that which is to come, whilst you continue to bow your knees to “the God and Father in whom every family in heaven and earth is named.”C.
Jer 31:18, Jer 31:19
Bemoaning one’s self.
The very word suggests sorrow, weariness, distress. And all the more when the reason of such bemoaning is not something external to ourselves, as when Rachel wept for her children, but something in ourselves, when we are the cause of our own distress.
I. INQUIRE WHEREFORE THIS BEMOANING.
1. That he had called down upon himself the chastisements of God.
2. That these chastisements had been of no avail.
3. That now it was made evident there was no hope of amendment in himself.
II. COMFORTING THOUGHTS CONCERNING THIS BEMOANING.
1. The Lord surely heard it, Cf. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”
2. There is no attempt to excuse or palliate his sin.
3. That it had led him to despair of help in himself.
4. That in his misery he seeks the Lord.
5. That it was and is the forerunner of genuine conversion.
CONCLUSION.
1. Welcome the smart and pain of sorrow for sin.
2. Dread that apathy which is so common in the slaves of sin.
3. Remember that it is only as the Lord turns us that our conversion is genuine and real.C.
Jer 31:18
Our yokes.
I. That which is hard and yoke-like is appointed for us all.
II. The reason of this appointment is that thereby we may render service which otherwise we could not.
III. That to refuse or resist this yoke will bring down the chastisements of God.
IV. That until we are really turned to God by his grace we shall so resist.
V. We do not cease from such folly without great pain. “I have.; heard Ephraim bemoaning himself.”
VI. In that pain is our hope.C.
Jer 31:19
Conversion and repentance.
I. BOTH THESE ARE TOLD OF HERE. Conversion is. It is spoken of as “being turned” and “instructed.” Repentance is. It is spoken of plainly and again figuratively: “I smote upon my thigh” This is a common mode of expressing indignation and grief.
II. AND REPENTANCE IS SAID TO COME AFTER CONVERSION. And this is ever so. Not that there is no repentance prior to conversion. There is, and a genuine one. The “bemoaning” spoken of in the previous verse tells of that repentance which comes prior to conversion. But the true, deep, abiding repentance comes after. It consists, not so much in some passionate outburst of sorrow over sin, but in a settled hatred of it, and a remembrance ever with shame of the time when we allowed ourselves in it. In proportion as we see the love of God in Christ will this repentance deepen. It is in the light of that love that sin takes on its darkest hue. And if it be not so, then our conversion, our turning, our being instructed, has been apparent, not real. For
III. THERE MAY BE REPENTANCE WITHOUT CONVERSION. We find many instances in Scripture of transgressors saying, “I have sinned,” and their words were true, and felt to be true by themselves. They were the utterance of grief and real distress; but because such repentance never roused the energies of the will to resolve on the abandonment of the sin, therefore, though there was repentance, it led to no conversion. And even a true repentance in its initial stages, and until it has led the soul really to God, exists without conversion. It is a most solemn fact that there can be real distress about sin, and yet no forsaking of it. And if sin be not forsaken, then this distress, which is God’s distinct call to turn unto him and live, grows fainter and fainter with every repetition of the sin.
IV. AND THERE MAY BE THE FRUITS OF CONVERSION WITHOUT REPENTANCE. There may be the hatred of sin, the love of goodness and of God, without the previous process of conversion. The gift of regeneration is essential to every soul, but some regenerate ones are kept by the grace of God from ever needing that deep repentance which is essential to conversion. It is possible to grow up in the kingdom of Odd, never to go away from the Father’s house. That does not mean to be faultless, but to live, as the settled tenor of one’s life, in love, obedience, and trust. These are the most blessed ones, who are “kept from the evil that it should not hurt them,” to whom the Father will say, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” But
V. GENERALLY THERE HAS BEEN BOTH IN GOD‘S SAVED ONES. Therefore it is safer for the most of us to conclude that we need both, and to seek both from him who is “exalted to give repentance and remission of sins.” And let us not be content with repentance alone, unless it lead on to conversion, nor let us deem our conversion genuine unless it cause, as here in this verse, our repentance to deepen more and more.C.
Jer 31:31-34
The new covenant.
The consideration of this new covenant will enable us to understand how it is that, whilst many Christian men are at peace and content in regard to their justification before God and their acceptance with him, they are very far from content in regard to their attainment in Christian character and their ,practical sanctification. The reason is that, whilst they are content simply to look in faith to Christ for the former, they forget that this is precisely the condition of the latter also. Hence they are forever struggling and making good resolves, labouring earnestly to conquer this sin and that and to win one and another as yet unwon grace. But the new covenant is a promise, is the assurance indeed, that God has taken the matter of our salvation into his own hands, It is all of grace; he gives everything; nothing is left to our own solitary effort. If we read over the words of the covenant as they are given here from first to last, there is not a single word about anything to be clone by us. The whole covenant is not so much between man and his Maker as between Jehovah and man’s Representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. The human side of the covenant has been already fulfilled by Jesus, and there remains nothing now but the covenant of giving, not the covenant of requirements. The whole covenant with regard to us, the people of God, now stands thus: “I will give this; I will bestow that; I will fulfil this promise; I will grant that favour.” The old covenant said, “Do this, and thou shalt live.” The new says, “I will do all.” In considering this new covenant, note
I. ITS RESEMBLANCES TO THE OLD.
1. Both are based on the goodness of another. The Jew in the old covenant knew that it was for Abraham’s sake he had been chosen and called and privileged above all other nations. And that our privileges are all “for Christ’s sake” is among the alphabet of the truths of the faith we hold.
2. Both demand fitness and preparation for the enjoyment of the blessings they promise. For the Jew, obedience to the Law of God was the condition of his entering into and living happily in the land God had promised to his fathers. Because they failed in this obedience, the carcases of a whole generation of them fell in the wilderness. And for the Christian, faith is the imperative condition. “He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.”
3. Both gave help and direction for the fulfilment of these conditions. To Israel was given an external Law; to the Christian, an indwelling Spirit. Hence most fitly was the gift of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost; for that day commemorated the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. It was fitting, therefore, that the giving of the new law of the new life should be on the day that told of the giving of the law for the old life.
II. ITS CONTRASTS.
1. The old covenant related to the possession of an earthly inheritance, the new to the attainment of a spiritual character. The one was of earth, the other of heaven. The one held before Israel the winning and keeping of the promised land; the other, the possession of likeness to God.
2. The old covenant was chiefly characterized by external law; the new, by the gift of the Spirit.
3. The old asked before it gave; the new gave before it asked. True, there was the promise made to Abraham, but Israel could not enter into it unless they kept the commandments of God. But in the new covenant God does not ask for holiness till he has given the Holy Spirit, until he has put his Law in our inward parts, and written it upon our hearts. As when he bade the palsied rise and walk, he did not ask before he gave; for along with the command went the power to obey. And this power resides in the influence of the love of Christ upon the believing soul. It is at the cross of Christ that the writing of the Law upon the heart most of all takes place. Regeneration is in connection, inseparable connection, with the cross. Do any ask
III. THE REASON OF THE OLD COVENANT, NOTWITHSTANDING IT SO PERPETUALLY FAILED? It was necessary to show the hopelessness of all covenants of works. Twice had the experiment been tried; with our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden; then under the most advantageous circumstances such covenant was tried and failed again with Israel.
IV. THE SUPERIORITY OF THE NEW. It is manifold and manifestin its nobler aim, in its universality, in its nobler result in character, in its surer foundation, in its light and easy yoke, etc.
CONCLUSION. Do any say, “I have not yet experienced the blessings of this new covenant”? Remember the Law is not written all at once, and that we must seek the Lord’s help. It is his work.C.
Jer 31:31-33
Great encouragements for those returning to God.
It is sad enough that there should be any going away from God so as to require a return. It is better never to have gone away from him than to return after such departure. Better be the son to whom the Father says, “Thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine,” than the one who came back in misery and shame, notwithstanding all the compassionate love wherewith he was welcomed. Let all young children, and they who have the training of them, remember this; and all young converts to Christ. The same grace that forgives the going away, when in penitence the wanderer comes back, is ready to prevent any such going away at all. And this preventive grace is what we should all desire and seek. But the sad fact is that vast numbers have wandered from God. How few can leave themselves out of the prophet’s confession, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned aside every one to his own way”! In this emergency the question arises as to what is to be done. If God were at once to inflict vengeance on the transgressor, or, which would amount to the same thing, if the wanderer were allowed to go on in his own way, none could complain or say that God did aught that was unjust. But instead of that, he mercifully causes that the way of the transgressor should be hard; he makes it grievous unto him, to the end that he may weary of it and long for the good ways he has left. And by and by he will and does, and it is here at this point the blessed promise of these verses meets him for his great encouragement. He has found out how bitter and evil a thing it is to sin against the Lord, how full of folly and madness his conduct has been, and in deep humility and contrition he is returning “with his whole heart.” But such as thus return are full of self-distrust and deep fear lest they should wander off again and fall once more. They have been beguiled before and led to doubt God’s Word. Now, these verses promise that the three great avenues by means of which unbelief, the fountain sin of all sin, enters the man, shall each one be securely guarded against such entrance for the future. The verse contains three distinct promises. Note how such safeguard is secured by
I. THE FIRST PROMISE. “I will put my Law in their inward parts,” etc. (Jer 31:33). Now, the avenue that this guarded was that of the understanding. The people to whom the prophet wrote had been sorely tempted to question whether, after all, God was the Lordthat is, was the supreme Ruler and Disposer of all events; for had they not seen how other nations who acknowledged him not had risen up and prospered, whilst his own faithful people had often been in sore straits? There was very much to be said in favour of the gods of other nations, and very much was said. And when all this was encouraged and secretly seconded by the lurking likings of their lower nature, what wonder if their understandings in regard to this great question were sometimes bewildered? We can see how unbelief would find occasion to enter in in force through such bewildered and doubting minds. And perhaps never can the question be settled by the intellect alone. God does not reveal himself in all his infinitude to that part of our nature. It is the heart which must know “that he is the Lord.” But this promise is for this very thing. Such a heart shall be given. The rational conclusions of the understanding shall be supported by the mighty force of the heart’s intuitions, and the two combined will forever render utterly impossible all doubt whether God be the Lord. The peace of keeps the heart and mind in Christ Jesus (Php 4:1-23.). If we have not heart knowledge of God, that of the intellect alone will be likely to fall away and leave us with no knowledge of God at all. How blessed, then, cannot but be this promise to all those who, because they have lacked such knowledge hitherto, have sinned and brought on themselves such distress, but who now are returning to God with their whole heart! It is a mighty encouragement indeed.
II. THE SECOND PROMISE. “And they shall be my people.” The avenue that this guards is that of man’s circumstances. Doubt does often enter by such way. If a man be surrounded with distress, almost worn out with “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” broken-hearted and bankrupt of all earthly good, let none condemn such, or only those who are themselves without sin though they have been in like manner tried, if doubt do haunt these troubled ones and faith in God dies down. Do we not admire Job just because he held so fast to his faith under such awful circumstances? Is not our very admiration of him proof of our conviction as to the sore difficulty of faith keeping its hold at such times? Did not even he than whom Christ said none of women born was greaterJohn the Baptistfind the drear dungeon into which Herod had flung him, and the cruel death which he knew awaited him, more than his spirit could bear? And so he sent to the Lord, saying, “Art thou he that should come, or,” etc.? Oh, it is easy under sunny skies and amid happy surroundings and when all is won, to sing sweet hymns about trusting in God and the blessedness of faith. But let all that prosperity vanish, and be replaced by grim, gaunt poverty, in which and because of which you have to see your beloved wife or children, or both, hunger and perhaps die, because you have not enough to ward off from them the sufferings they have to endure. Ah! where would be the faith of myriads of those well to do Christians who love to sing “Sweet it is to trust in him”? Not a little of the sad unbelief of the poor is accounted for, and we cannot but think rendered far less guiltful, by the fact of the terrible privations that are so often their lot. But this promise, “They shall be my people,” assures that such trial of faith shall not be permitted. For the promise means that God will bestow on them such signal favour; he will so graciously deal with them that it shall become evident to all that they are his people, the beloved of the Lord. They shall have that “blessing which maketh rich and addeth no sorrow thereto.” They shall not any more have to eat the bread of affliction or drink the water of affliction, but their circumstances shall be so happy and peaceful as to utterly prevent that unbelief to which adversity so often gives rise. The beggar Lazarus is carried by the angels into Abraham’s besom; not one word is said about his character; and this surely seems to teach that the poor, to whom belief in the love of God has been so difficult here, shall hereafter in happier circumstances see and enjoy that love of which here they are only told. Of course, happy circumstances, such as are involved in this promise, would be of little avail without the bestowment of the other promise, “a heart to know that I am the Lord;” but with that this gives a double defence, within which blessed are they who abide. And if it be said that God does not now, as he did in Old Testament days, make any promise to his servants that they shall be exempt from adversity, as in fact they are not, it is to be remembered that they have far clearer light than had the saints of the Old Testament concerning that blessed home of God’s people, of whose inhabitants it is said, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light upon them, nor,” etc. If not now, assuredly then, shall they be known as God’s people by the happy external lot which will be theirs.
III. THE THIRD PROMISE. “I will be their God.” The avenue which this guards is that of the heart. Man’s understanding may be convinced, and his circumstances be all favourable and prosperous, but if he have not rest of his soul in God, unbelief will still assail and, not unlikely, overcome him. “Nostrum cor inquietum est donec requiescat in te.” He must be able to say of the Lord, “He is my God” (Psa 90:2), ere ever he has rest in God. God must be his joy; he must “delight himself also in the Lord,” and be happy in God, would he effectually bar out all unbelief. But this third promise ensures this. “I will be their God.” It tells of this joy which they shall have in him, and of their happy rest in him.
CONCLUSION. Then let us “return unto God with our whole heart.” Perhaps it is because we have not returned in this whole-hearted way that we yet have to wait for these promises to be fulfilled; and that we still find unbelief, though banished for a while, yet returning and haunting us once more. It is said of Joshua and Caleb that they served the Lord “fully.” It is this thoroughness which is needed. Let but this be, and the understanding will be satisfied; the circumstances of our life will be pleasing to us, because they are those the Lord pleases; and our heart shall sing for gladness, because God is our “exceeding joy.”C.
Jer 31:32
God the Husband of his people.
(Cf. homily on Jer 3:14.)C.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Jer 31:3
The everlasting love of God.
I. IN CONTRAST TO OTHER LOVERS. Note Jer 30:14, “All thy lovers have forgotten thee,” etc. Israel had had many lovers professing regard and offering service; but what had their regard and service come to? They were now cold, careless, perhaps even hostile. They had shown the appearance of love to Israel, not that they cared for Israel, but because they themselves were advantaged. Now, that is no true affection which changes when the thing loved ceases to gratify us. Yet this was all the affection of these other lovers amounted toa mere name of love; a feeling which, in the course of time, was to evince their own instability and bring shame to them. But God is a contrast to all this. He loves with an everlasting love. He loves Israel, not only in the days of prosperity and wealth and beauty, but in the days of downfall and despair. His thought penetrates through to the abiding worth of humanity. We do not slander human affection, or in any way underestimate it, when we say that man cannot love his fellow man as God loves him. God it is who first of all shows man what love really is; then man, having the Spirit of the Divine Father breathed into him, learns to love also. We cannot attain to any thing which will give us the right to say with respect to duration that ours is an ever lasting love; but, as true Christians, we may have something of the quality of that affection.
II. IN SPITE OF UNRECIPROCATED AFFECTION. Israel had had other lovers, and she had loved them in return. They had bestowed gifts on her, and she had bestowed gifts on them, and so there was profession of mutual regard as long as it was profitable to make it. But there was no love to God. His holiness, his goodness, was not seen. Year by year his open hand was stretched forth, filled with the corn and the wine and the oil; and the people greedily laid hold of the gifts, and thought nothing of the Giver. Not but what there were individuals whose hearts went out gratefully and devotedly to God, as the Psalms show. But then these individuals would not find very many to respond to the invitation, “Oh, love the Lord, all ye his saints.” And still the love of God goes on. Men need the manifestations of God’s love all the more, just because of their unreciprocating attitude towards him. Love cannot prevent the headstrong prodigal from seeking his own desires, but it can keep things ready for the season of repentance and return. The manifestations of the Divine love are to constitute a great spectacle, breaking down the heart of the selfish man.
III. THE LOVE IS DECLARED WHEN MOST THE DECLARATION IS NEEDED. Love does not always look like love. The spurious puts on the appearance of the genuine, and the genuine gets hidden behind the necessary manifestations of righteousness and fidelity to law. They that break law must be punished and suffer. They that have false, unstable, misleading lovers cannot escape the consequence of their foolish connection with them in the day when the lovers are destroyed and go into captivity (Jer 22:20, Jer 22:22). Israel itself must suffer loss and go into exile and sit with dust and ashes on its head. But in that very day comes the assurance of everlasting love. The lower skies are filled with cloud and storm and rain, but the abiding sun is still above, and its radiance will remain when the storm has passed away.Y.
Jer 31:5
Work yet to be found in the vineyard.
Here is to be an evidence of the everlasting love spoken of in Jer 31:3.
I. THE RESTORATION OF WHAT HAD BEEN LOST. This is not the first prophecy in the book concerning vineyards. It had been declared that the nation from afar should eat up the vines and the fig trees of Israel (Jer 5:17). “I will surely consume, saith the Lord. There shall be no grapes on the vine” (Jer 8:13). The bright prophecy here could not have been made but for the dark prophecies going before. The literal fulfilment of the prophecy is, of course, the least part of it. The deepest meaning is that, whatever we may lose through God’s chastisements, we shall get much more in a spiritual and truly abiding way.
II. THE FUTURE IS DESCRIBED IN TERMS OF THE PAST. One of the occupations of the past had been to plant vineyards in Samaria. What associations there must have been with the sunny slopes! It is the way of God to speak of future comforts and glories in terms drawn from the present and from things around us. The future will give opportunities for profitable work. We shall always have some place to work in which shall be as the mountains of Samaria, and some work to do which shall be as the planting of vines. Fruitless toil and crushed hopes are but a disciplining episode in the career of those who are the heirs of eternal life.
III. THE STABILITY IMPLIED IN THIS PROMISE. Five years, according to the Mosaic Law, had to pass from the planting to the time of fruitage. The prophecy was therefore a prophecy of peaceful settlement. The whole outlook gave a sense of security. Looked at in this light, one sees the reason of previous overthrowing and destruction. The aim is to get down to something solid and stable, to purify the heart from unworthy aims and love of the fleeting. The things that are shaken are removed, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
IV. THE INCLUSIVENESS OF THIS PROMISE. Vineyards are to be planted, but vineyards are not the first necessity of life. To promise the planting of vineyards implied the promise of other things. The corn and the oil went along with the wine. The vineyard is doubtless here mentioned as a symbol of joy. He who is able to plant a vineyard is able to plant all good things. Note the evidence we have of the temporal fulfilment of this promise. From vineyards our Lord drew some of his most suggestive teaching. We may be sure they had often been seen by him, and their spiritual significance apprehended. Vine planting was a suitable industry, an industry to be expected in the land out of which the spies had brought the ponderous cluster of grapes.Y.
Jer 31:8, Jer 31:9
God the Gatherer of his people.
I. WHENCE HE GATHERS THEM. The place is spoken of very indefinitely, not from any doubt as to its reality, but because it was largely a terra incognita. It was the land away in the northward direction, but what its extent or what its power for mischief there were but few who could guess. One thing, however, was possible to consider in the days of exile, when the north country had become a sad actual experience, namely, how Jeremiah had been sent to speak joyful tidings as well as mournful ones with respect to the power of this north country. True, he had spoken again and again concerning the evil and the great destruction coming out of the north; but here is a word from the same man and under the same authority to say that the power of the north country is not to continue. God uses even great nations for his own purposes. There is indication that these powers of the north were astonished at their own success. “The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem” (Lam 4:12). They were only the agents of God, and God could take his people out of their midst again when once the Exile had done its work. Distance is no difficulty. God can hinder or facilitate in a journey just as seems him best. Once he kept his people forty years in a journey from one land to another that, if he had chosen, might have been accomplished in a very short time.
II. THOSE WHOM HE GATHERS. The Lord’s compassions fail not. To the young, the strong, the healthy, those perfect in body, nothing was needed but to say, “The time is come for return. Make your start.” But then all were not so placed. The weaklings have ever to be considered, and God considers them, as it were, first of all. There are the blindGod will keep them in the way; there are the lameGod will provide that they be conveyed and sufficiently helped; there are women, with all their peculiar anxieties, who need to be dealt with very tenderly, and all grounds for alarm taken out of their way as far as possible. Well, God specifies these cases as representative of the provision he makes forevery sort of weakness. It is the mark of God’s way for men that it is a way for the weak, a way in which provision is made forevery sort of infirmity. There are ways in the world which are only for the strong; the weak soon get pushed aside. And God can bring all these weak people along, because the right spirit is in them. They come in weeping and in prayer. You can be eyes to a blind man, if he admits his blindness and is willing to be guided; but if he insists upon it that he can see, what are you to do with him? This is the only means by which God’s true people can be gathered into one way, moving with one purpose towards one place, namely, that they be each one of them from the very heart submitted to the Divine will and control.
III. THE SPIRIT IN WHICH GOD GATHERS. The spirit of a father. Israel must needs go into exile and chastisement for a while; but the place left vacant is the child’s place, and none but the child can fill it. It is the evidence of a father’s tenderness that he cares for the blind and the lame and the weak. The house of Israel had said to a stock, “Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth.” And their delusion had borne fruit in banishment and captivity. But the true Father remembered them all the time; and with the power of the true God and in the spirit of the true Father, he gathered them and guided them home.Y.
Jer 31:10
The Scatterer also the Gatherer.
I. GOD AS THE SCATTERER. Seeing that the Scatterer becomes the Gatherer, it is evident that scattering is used to describe his action by a sort of accommodation. Outwardly it looks like scattering; but there is a spirit and a purpose and a regulative principle in the action which makes it to be really only a stage in a more complete gathering worthy of the name. It is, perhaps, worthy of note that there is in the Hebrew word something of the idea of scattering even as seed is scattered. Now, when seed is scattered, it is with a perfect knowledge of the large gathering which will result. Seed is not flung at random, and then left forever. Beforehand there is preparation and afterwards there is expectation. And so we see that when God uses the same name for an action that we do, it by no means follows that he is doing just the same thing as we should indicate by the name. Note also that in this very prophecy here there is a reference to a very old intimation of the distresses that might come on Israel in the event of disobedience,” I will scatter you among the heathen” (Le 26:33).
II. GOD AS THE GATHERER. What a difference here between man and God! Oftentimes it is easy for man to scatter; but how shall he gather again? One fool can undo in a few hours what wise and diligent men have taken years in building up. But since God scatters upon principle, he knows where every fragment is, and continues to superintend and guide it as part of the whole. We see only disjointed parts, and so there is something very nondescript and puzzling and ineffectual looking about their operations. God, however, sees the whole. Hence the insistence in apostolic teaching upon unity. Christians could not be kept in one place. Persecution drove them apart; the needs of the gospel sent each apostle into his own field; and Christians sprang up in many far separated places. But though scattered and separated in appearance, they were still one, because the one Spirit was in them. The gathering principle is, in Christians, a principle that rises dominant over all earthly distinctions. Men cannot be kept permanently together unless the Christian spirit is in them; and if the Christian spirit is in them, there is no power that can keep them permanently separated.
III. GOD AS HE WHO KEEPS HIS PEOPLE FROM A SECOND SCATTERING. We cannot put too much force into this thought of God keeping his people as a shepherd does his flock. What a significance it adds to the way in which Jesus speaks of himself as the good Shepherd! Who shall scatter when it is God’s will to gather and to unite in an abiding company? Who shall scatter when he who gathers has in him not only the spirit of a shepherd, but also the power to keep his sheep from all danger? And what a warning to us against all needless separations! Men are betrayed into danger to themselves by pushing individual liberty to extremes. The shepherd will keep every member of the flock so long as it holds to the flock. God will only keep us so long as we are in his way, within his boundaries, subject to his directions.Y.
Jer 31:12-14
Praise waiting for God in Zion.
I. THE PLACE OF PRAISE. To speak of Zion was to speak of the dwelling place of Jehovah. To sing in the height of Zion, therefore, was to sing, as it were, at the door of God’s own house. While God ever visited idolatry with the severest punishments, he yet localized his presence by the sanctities connected with the ark. It was the holy of holies that made Zion a sacred place, and if the people were helped in praise and worship by assembling there, then there is every reason for mentioning Zion as the great place of national rejoicing. But we must take care not to consider any literal fulfilment of this prophecy as sufficient. The word is one taking our thoughts to that Mount Zion, which is part of the city of the living God, of the heavenly Jerusalem. The days of earthly localization are forever past. The principle of assembly now is that, wherever two or three are gathered together in the Name of Christ, there he is in their midst.
II. THE CAUSE OF PRAISE. Praise and gladness always have some Cause, but the question remains to be asked whether it be a cause which God will approve. If it be gladness rising out of some selfish triumph or gain, then the joy will assuredly be turned into mourning. But here the goodness of Jehovah is emphatically described as being the cause of the joy and singing. There is something substantial to sing aboutcorn, and wine, and oil, and cattle: the appropriate produce of the land, something that is at once the reward of righteous striving and the gift of an approving God. Everything is right externally and internally. The very life of the people is like a watered garden, which surely is a very suggestive expression to indicate that all is as it ought to be. A watered garden suggests a piece of land worth cultivating, well cultivated, and supplied with every factor contributing to fruitfulness. But what has been said of the place of praise must also be said of the cause of praise. Corn and wine and all the rest of the good things are only symbols of deeper blessings that have to do with the satisfaction of the heart. “Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” It is an easy thing for him, if needs be, to make up the defects of nature, which he showed at the feeding of the five thousand. Yet, in spite of this, famines are not always interfered with. God is not solicitous to go beyond what he has provided in nature for the support of natural life. But he is solicitous that we should apprehend the great spiritual abundance within our reach. The deepest meaning of this prophecy is that spiritual men only can really praise God, because they are praising him out of hearts that are being sustained by the richness of spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
III. THE CERTAINTY OF PRAISE. The satisfied heart must praise, else there is a proof that the heart is not really satisfied. Satisfaction can no more be concealed than dissatisfaction. When in the writings of the apostles we come across outbursts of doxology, it is just what we might expect as being in harmony with the greatness of the blessings received. And this is just what often makes the praise part of worship eminently unsatisfactory, that men are thanking God for what they have not received. All compositions having praise and thanksgiving for their elements, and being successful compositions, must, by the very nature of the case, owe their origin to some actual experience of God’s goodness. Hence it is important in this passage to notice how three things are bound together in the one prediction.
1. There is the gift of God.
2. The consequent satisfaction.
3. The irrepressible joy.
And what greater gift can we have from God than a heart filled with pure, abiding, joy, free from reproach, free from apprehension?
IV. THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE PRAISE. Young and old, priests and people, are joined together in the common song. God’s spiritual blessings are for all. There is much significance in that promise, “I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness.” That means that the people are right religiously, and that again means that the priests are attentive to their own proper duty. Liberality to all Christian institutions, to all that is truly evangelistic and charitable, to all that is in the way of the highest ministry to mankind, is a sign of spiritual prosperity.Y.
Jer 31:15-17
Sorrowing mothers and their consolation.
I. THE GRIEFS OF BEREAVED MOTHERS. There is an innumerable company of women who have seen the children die in whom they themselves had given birth, and Rachel is their great representative. She stands before us here as the mother of a nation; for surely it only spoils a grand poetical idea to attach her to some tribes rather than others. She sees the nation which sprang from her husband Jacob going from the land of promise into captivity, and straightway she reckons it as a dead nation. Bear in mind distinctly that the mourning is not over dead individuals, but over a dead nation. The individuals went on living, but the nation in its pride and privilege was gone. So one might think of some representative spirit bewailing dead Greece and dead Rome. The figure, moreover, derives its strength from what must have been very frequent in the land of Israel, as in every land before or since, namely, the sad sight presented by a mother weeping over her dead child. The mother’s sorrow is unique; its elements can only be imperfectly apprehended by others. The object of so much hope, solicitude, and pleasure is gone. The proper order of things is reversed. The mother should see the child grow to manhood or womanhood, and then go first into the unseen world. Death, coming in this way, seems to furnish a plausible ground of complaint, and if anything can be said to lessen the mystery and the sorrow and make hope rise in the heart, it should be said.
II. CONSOLATION IN SUCH TIME OF GRIEF. The real Rachel needed no such consolation. But bereaved mothers both need it and can have it. They have worked for something else than death and the breaking off of their purposes, and their work shall not be in vain. Death is a great deceiver in making his power seem greater than it is. When children are taken from this world into the next, opportunities are not lost, they are only changed. God will assuredly not allow the highest joys belonging to human nature to suffer from a cause so purely external as the duration of temporal existence. When Herod slew the children at Bethlehem, this prophecy had a sort of fulfilment, and surely so far as it was fulfilled it was fulfilled altogether. To every, one of those weeping mothers it might have been said, “Refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears.” The weeping and the tears are natural enough, but after all they have no sufficient ground in reason. As a general rule, life must be taken with all its risks and casualties, seeing that risk and casualty, as we call them, are after all, according to a law. Sometimes there are extraordinary preservations of infant life, and when some life so delivered has afterwards unfolded into eminence and usefulness, there is a talk of something specially providential in the preservation. Some such preserved lives, however, turn out a great curse, and then where is the providence. The great thing every mother should seek is such faithfulness, such wisdom, such right dealing in all ways as will enable her to be a true mother to her children, however long they live. Then, whatever happens, there is the certainty that her work will be rewarded. The work of individual obedience can never come to anything but reward in the end. The mischief is that very often we want the reward to come in our way and not in God’s.Y.
Jer 31:26
Sweet sleep.
Assuming that Jeremiah is here the speaker, what a suggestion there is of restless, unrefreshing nights on other occasions! And little wonder. It may have been the case that many of his prophecies came to him at night, and if so, considering the elements of those prophecies, his nights must often have been very troubled ones. But if we look attentively at the contents of Jer 30:1-24. and 31; we find very sufficient causes for the sweetness of the prophet’s sleep. Jehovah makes one long announcement of favour, restoration, and comfort. Hitherto when the prophet has had to listen to Jehovah, if there have been consolatory utterances, they have been mingled with denunciation and words of the most melancholy import. But now there is one unbroken stream of good tidings, and the effect is shown even in sleep. And if in sleep, how much more in waking hours! The whole round of the day becomes different when God looks favourably on the life. Sweetness of sleeping hours must come from all being right in waking hours. Now, with Jeremiah, as to his own personal life, all was right in waking, hours, but with his nation all was wrong; and so through the day he went about seeing sin and foreseeing suffering, and at night his vivid imagination must often have kept him awake or peopled what broken sleep he got with the most terrible dreams. Bad men may sleep better than good ones, so long as there is nothing to awaken their selfish fears and good men spend restless nights over the troubles of those in whom they are interested. Yet the restlessness must come from the failing to see the abiding goodness of God. Here, for a little, God drove every cloud from the sky of his servant, and showed him how heavenly brightness was a thing entirely above earthly confusions; and then his servant could get sweet sleep. And God will give to all that wait upon him that quiet calm of the heart which is to our higher life what sweet sleep is to the body. It is God’s will that our present life, with all its varied needs, should have all the refreshment he can give.Y.
Jer 31:29, Jer 31:30
Jehovah visiting the individual for his sins.
I. THE SIN OF SOME AND THE SUFFERING OF OTHERS. This is put before us in a very striking figure. Literally, the taste of a sour grape would be an instantaneous sensation; but here we are asked to imagine the possibility of a man getting whatever other advantage there might be in the grape, whatever nourishment, whatever refreshment, and then handing on the one bad element of sourness. And truly it often seems as if there were this kind of division. The wrong doer goes on succeeding, enjoying himself, getting his full of life, and then his children come in to find that the father’s wrong doing is like a millstone round their necks, destroying every chance they might otherwise have. The figure here presents from the human side that fact of experience which from the Divine side is presented as a law. “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children” (Exo 20:5).
II. THE SIN OF SOME AND THEIR OWN SUFFERING. We need to look somewhat carefully at the point brought out in Jer 31:30. At first it seems as if daily experience were contradicted, for we leap to an inference that the children’s tooth will not be set on edge by the sour grapes their fathers have eaten; whereas it is abundantly plain that children still suffer for the sins of their fathers. But observe that this is not at all denied. The great point insisted on is that the fathers will suffer themselves; and this is a point that needs to be insisted on, for the fallacy is continually arising that a man may, by some magic, some precaution, escape the consequences of his evil, and so he may escape from some consequences. But observe, again, the all-comprehending word here used, “he shall die,” and this word has a retrospective force. There never has been any other law but that a man shall die for his own iniquity. Possibly we should take this passage as having some sort of reference to the old custom of making revenge an hereditary thing. If the doer of a wrong escaped vengeance and died peacefully in his bed, then his son stood in the father’s place, and became an object of attack till the punishment due to the father was visited on him. It seems so plain to us that a man should die for his own iniquity, punishment falling on the head of him who does the wrong, that we find it hard to imagine a day when the ethical code was otherwise. Whereas it is tolerably clear that in Old Testament times and countries the feeling was that somebody must be punished; and if the real criminal escaped, why, then take his nearest blood relation. That the Christian looks on things so differently is the clearest proof that this prophecy has been fulfilled.
III. THE NEED THERE IS THAT EVERY ONE SHOULD CLASSIFY THE SUFFERINGS OF HIS LIFE. It is not enough that we seek deliverance from suffering. It is right for us to do so, and suffering, we may be sure, is not by the will of God. But as there is suffering which comes from causes within our control, so there is suffering coming from causes outside our control; and it is with the former only that we can deal. Besides, it is the worst suffering, seeing that it comes from trouble and unrest of conscience. God has so made us that the worst wounds from others are but as surface scratches compared with the wounds that in our folly we inflict on ourselves. Then we have to look, not only on the sufferings, but enjoyments. We may so live as to rise above the worst that men can do to us, and at the same time, we may be the better for whatever good man is disposed to do. If sometimes it is true that the fathers eat sour grapes and the children’s teeth get set on edge, is it not also true that the fathers eat sweet grapes, yet little of the sweetness they seem to tasteit is a sweetness standing over for the children?Y.
Jer 31:31-34
The new covenant add the old.
I. THE LIGHT CAST ON THE OLD COVENANT. It would be a mistake to describe it as a covenant that failed. Paradoxical as the expression sounds, the very breaking of the covenant furnished the proof of its success. It made man’s position clearer to him; it prepared the world for Christ. The old covenant had been broken in spite of all the teaching connected with it. “Know Jehovah” had been dinned into the ear, and doubtless many had a notion that they did know Jehovah, whereas all that they knew was a certain round of ritual observances. At all events, it was a knowledge that left iniquity unforgiven and sin still registered in the book of God’s remembrance. It was such a knowledge as the wrong doer has of his judge. It was the knowledge of a force that thwarted all selfishness, and came with overwhelming completeness to ruin the plans of man. It was not the knowledge coming from trust and leading to greater trustknowledge of God as a Guide, Director, and Provider. Yet some indeed knew. The man who said to his neighbour and his brother, “Know Jehovah,” must have been, in some instances at least, one who himself had some real knowledge. As there were men of the reforming spirit before the Reformation, so there were Christians in essence before Christianity. The breaking of the old covenant shows the thing that was needed, namely, a new power in the hearts of men. The knowledge of God is not to be gained by mere teaching. Teaching has its place, and within its own limits is indispensable; but who could teach a child to eat, to see, to hear? If faculties are not inborn, we cannot do anything with them.
II. THE CONFIDENT PREDICTIONS ON THE NEW COVENANT, The old covenant starts with law; the new one springs out of life. Jer 31:33 gives one of the Old Testament ways of expressing the doctrine of regeneration. God writes the laws of Spiritual life on the heart, just as he writes the laws of natural life on every natural germ; and then all the rest is a matter of unfolding, of growth, of encouragement, of culture. The old covenant was one long, exhaustive, thorough experiment by which the fact became clear that in the natural man there was nothing to unfold. The new covenant established within a very brief period that, given a new life principle working within him, man is indeed a being of glorious capabilities. The first man of the new covenant, in point of quality, is of course the Man Christ Jesus himself. God’s Law was written in the heart of his Son. Here is one way in which the Law and the prophets are completed. The ark with its inscriptions vanishes; we hear nothing of it later than Jer 3:15. And in its place there comes the loving heart trusted to the utmost liberty. Well might there be confidence in speaking of the new covenant. When good seed and good soil and favourable circumstances meet, then there is certainty of perfect and abundant fruit. The new covenant is above all things a covenant with the individual. It is made to depend upon individual susceptibility and individual fidelity. Also it is a knowledge that comes in repentance, forgiveness, and favour. And all this teaches us that a special meaning must be put into the term, “people of God.” The true people of God are constituted by the aggregation of individual believers. They do not begin their journey to the heavenly land of promise marching as one constrained company through a miraculous Red Sea passage; they rather go, one by one, through a straitened entrance, even through a needle’s eye, some of them.Y.
Jer 31:35-37
The seed of Israel; signs of its everlasting duration.
I. THEY ARE SIGNS WITH MUCH REVELATION OF GOD IN THEM. The sun, the moon, the stars, the heavenly spaces with all their occupants, the terrestrial surface with the fathomless depths beneath it. We shall never know all that is to he known about these existences; but we may soon know enough to know through them something of their Maker. That they are the common work of one hand, the common expression of one wisdom and love, soon Becomes plain. The unity of all we see is a truth becoming clearer in the light of scientific investigation. God drove Israel from the land they had polluted and forfeited by their idolatries; but their share in the common possessions of mankind remained. It is plain that man gets good from all these signs here mentioned, and the largeness of the good depends on the righteousness and understanding shown in the use.
II. THEY ARE SIGNS WITHIN THE COMPREHENSION OF ALL. Even a child can be made to understand the unfailing regularity that belongs to them. They are signs all over the world. It is not a sign drawn from Jerusalem or from anything comparatively stable in the Israelites’ peculiar experience. Sun and moon and stars know nothing of national distinctions. Each nation doubtless can claim its territory to the very centre of the globe, but beyond a certain depth, that globe is defiant of them all. One man may know more than another of the constitution of these signs, by reason of peculiar opportunities, but all can know enough for the purpose here required.
III. THEY ARE SIGNS DRAWN FROM GOD‘S INDEPENDENT OPERATION. Not from operations which as a general rule depend on our cooperation. God’s operations in sun, moon, and stars are independent of usunaffected by our disobedience, our negligence, unsteadiness; uplifted far above our interference. Indeed, what can show more clearly how God’s operations on the earth’s surface are interfered with by human ignorance and indolence than the contrast with heaven’s regularity?
IV. THE THING SIGNIFIED WILL OUTLAST THE SIGNS. The thing signified is the everlasting duration of the seed of Israel. That seed will remain when the signs themselves, having done their work, are vanished. The things that are seen are temporal. As our body is but the earthly house of this tabernacle, so the visible universe itself is but as the tabernacle wherein God dwells with us. But all these visible things will come to their end when they have done their work, not through failure of Divine power. They will disappear into a more glorious transformation, and serve some puttee to God’s true Israel, the very outlines of which we cannot yet comprehend.Y.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Jer 31:1. At the same time This is a continuation of the discourse which was begun in the last chapter. “This second part (says Calmet) principally respects the return of the ten tribes. I have shewn in a particular dissertation, that not only Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, but all the twelve tribes, returned into their own country.” Nothing is more expressly marked out in the prophets than this event; Jeremiah here foretels it in the clearest manner. But many great men have considered the return of the ten tribes here referred to, as an event which is to take place in the latter days of the Gospel.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
III. THE SPECIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SALVATION TO THE TWO HALVES OF THE NATION (Jer 31:1-26)
. Ephraims Share (Jer 31:1-22)
1. The Decree of Restoration
Jer 31:1-6
1At that time, saith Jehovah, I will be God to all the families of Israel,
And they shall be my people.
2Thus saith Jehovah; the people left of the sword has found grace in the desert.
Up!1 to bring him to rest,2 even Israel.
3Jehovah appeared unto me from afar.
And I love thee with everlasting love,
Therefore have I in loving-kindness respited thee.3
4Again will I build thee and thou shalt be built, Virgin Israel;
Again shalt thou adorn thyself with thy tabrets,
And go forth in the dance of those that make merry.
5Again shalt thou plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria;
The planters shall plant and enjoy the fruit.
6For there is a day when the watchmen cry on Mount Ephraim,
Arise and let us go up towards Zion, to Jehovah our God.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
According to Jer 30:4 the prophet has in the previous passage been addressing Israel and Judah. Now he turns to Israel alone, as far as Jer 31:22, then in Jer 31:23-26 to Judah alone, finally in Jer 31:27-40 to the entire Israelitish nation. After the comprehensive promise (Jer 31:1), which now allots the consolation, assured in Jer 30:22 to the entire nation, especially to the ten tribes; he announces that the residue of Israel has found grace, and that the Lord arises to bring it to rest (Jer 31:2). The people see the Lord approaching from a distance, and telling them that he loves them with an everlasting love, of which the previous respite was a proof (Jer 31:3). Then follows the consolatory promise that the Virgin Israel shall be rebuilt, that she shall again go forth in cheerful dances (Jer 31:4), that vineyards shall again be planted in Samaria, and those who have planted shall enjoy the fruit (Jer 31:5). And not only this. Israel will also again have recourse to the national Sanctuary, and go up for worship to Jerusalem.
Jer 31:1. At that time my people. The section begins as the previous one had closed. That glorious consolation is again proclaimed specially to the ten tribes, the most ruined and almost lost portions of the people. The alterations and extensions occasioned by its position in the beginning and the inversion mark at the same time the distinction in reference to Jer 30:22.
Jer 31:2-6. Thus saith Jehovah our God. It is impossible that there can be a reference here to those who were delivered from the captivity in Egypt. Apart from particular objections, the ten tribes did not then obtain a special deliverance, and the whole description relates to the future, as is clear from up! to bring, etc., and still more plainly from Jer 31:4-6. The declarations of these latter verses only particularize what was said in Jer 31:2-3. The perfects in Jer 31:2-3 are also prophetical.Has found grace. Israel had fallen into disfavor, now he has again found favor. In the desert the Lord finds the remnant spared by the sword of the enemy. It is certain that the prophet means the north-eastern desert situated between Palestine and the Euphrates. For the escaped of the sword, mentioned in Jer 51:50 are not those which Jer. here has in mind. There he is speaking of Jews, here of those pertaining to the ten tribes. The prophet is thinking of them as they were during the period of their disfavor, oppressed and persecuted by enemies and driven out into the desert. There, in their deepest distress, the Lord finds them. We have however no right to deny that this prophetic picture of the future has its corresponding historical reality in an external, literal sense. Jer 31:3. A dramatic change of persons! The people speak. They see the Lord appear from afar. For He had kept Himself afar off, He had indeed quite disappeared from the sight of the people. Now He is again visible, of course from Zion. Comp. Psa 14:7; Isa 49:9 sqq.And I love. The connection of what Jehovah says with what the people say by means of Vau, and (Hitzig appropriately compares 1Ki 20:34) makes the impression that the Lord at once agrees to what is said, confirms it, makes indeed glorious additions to it. Vau therefore=and indeed (comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 111, 1, a) is connected with a collateral causal significance (comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 110, 1, e), since that eternal love is the only ground of the appearance.On the subject-matter comp. Deu 7:13; Isa 54:7-8; 1Ki 10:9.Build, etc. Build here is to be taken not merely in the sense of building walls, but of restitutio in integrum. Comp. Psa 28:5; Psa 102:17; Jer 12:16. [This metaphor, which may appear harsh in English, is to be explained from the use of the Hebrew word banah, to build, as applied to the building up a family of sons (banim) and daughters (banoth) who are like living stones of the household, built up from the mother, wedded as a Virgin Bride to her husband. Wordsworth.S. R. A.]Adorn thyself, etc. Comp. Jer 4:30. The kettle-drum, [or timbrel] is here designated as pertaining to the ornaments of a woman who appears in festal apparel.Comp. Jer 31:19.To the rebuilt cities and the restored commonwealth, it is also necessary in order that the people may be happy, that there be agriculture, especially the culture of the vine, the fruit of which rejoiceth the heart of man.Mountains of Samaria (comp. 1Ki 16:24) are the mountains of the northern kingdom generally, in so far as they permitted the culture of the vine. Comp. Jdg 9:27.Hos 2:17.Enjoy the fruit. Jeremiah here refers to the legal enactment, Lev 19:13-25, that the fruit of newly planted trees should not be eaten at all in the first three years, and in the fourth year they should be holy unto the Lord; not until the fifth year should they be enjoyed ad libitum (comp. Saalschuetz, Mos. Recht. S. 168, 9). This appropriation permitted from the 5th year onwards is designated by the expression profanare, in usum profanum convertere. He who has planted a vineyard and has not yet enjoyed the fruit of it is free from service in war, Deu 20:6. It is also one of the punishments threatened to the ungodly man that he shall plant a vineyard but another shall make it common (Deu 28:30). In antithesis to this passage it is here promised as an element of blessing that the planter shall also be the profaner or partaker. (). Comp. Isa 65:21.For there is a day, etc. All this blessing promised to Israel in Jer 31:4-5 shall and will be imparted to them on this account, that the people themselves will return to the service of Jehovah as of old. For, Jer 31:6, thus gives the reason of Jehovahs action (Jer 31:4-5) in the behavior of Israel.Watchmen. There were not only watchmen stationed on lofty eminences (comp. 1Ki 17:9; 1Ki 18:8) to announce danger from enemies (Jer 4:6; Jer 4:19; Jer 6:1, etc.) but also to announce the new moons and feasts. Comp. Saalschuetz, Mos. Recht., S. 387. 401.The cry then, up to Jerusalem to worship Jehovah! sounds again as before the separation. Israel and Judah are again united in the Lord.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Joh. Conr. Schaller, pastor at Cautendorf, says in his Gospel Sermons, (Hof. 1742, S. 628), These chapters are like a sky in which sparkle many brilliant stars of strong and consolatory declarations, a paradise and pleasure-garden in which a believing soul is refreshed with delightsome flowers of instruction, and solaced with sweetly flavored apples of gracious promise.
2. On Jer 30:1-3. The people of Israel were not then capable of bearing such a prophecy, brimming over with happiness and glory. They would have misused it, hearing to the end what was promised them, and then only the more certainly postponing what was the only thing then necessarysincere repentance. Hence they are not yet to hear this gloriously consolatory address. It is to be written, that it may in due time be perceived that the Lord, even at the time when He was obliged to threaten most severely, had thoughts of peace concerning the people, and that thus the period of prosperity has not come by chance, nor in consequence of a change of mind, but in consequence of a plan conceived from the beginning and executed accordingly.
3. On Jer 30:7. The great and terrible day of the Lord (Joe 3:4) has not the dimensions of a human day. It has long sent out its heralds in advance. Yea, it has itself already dawned. For since by the total destruction of the external theocracy judgment is begun at the house of God (1Pe 4:17), we stand in the midst of the day of God in the midst of the judgment of the world. Then the time of trouble for Jacob has begun (Jer 30:7), from which he is to be delivered, when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in (Romans 11.)
4. On Jer 30:9. Christ is David in his highest potency, and He is also still more. For if we represent all the typical points in Davids life as a circle, and draw a line from each of these points, the great circle thus formed would comprise only a part of the given in Christ. Nevertheless Christ is the true David, who was not chosen like Saul for his bodily stature, but only for his inward relation to God (comp. Psa 2:7), whose kingdom also does not cease after a short period of glory, but endures forever; who will not like Saul succumb to his enemies, but will conquer them all, and will give to his kingdom the widest extent promised; all this however not without, like David, having gone through the bitterest trials.
5. On Jer 30:11. Modus patern castigationis accommodatus et quasi appensus ad stateram judicii Dei adeoque non immensus sed dimensus. Christus ecclesiam crucis su hredem constituit. Gregor. M. Frster.
6. On Jer 30:14. Cum virlutem patienti nostr flagella transeunt, valde metuendum est, ne peccatis nostris exigentibus non jam quasi filii a patre, sed quasi hostes a Domino feriamur. Gregor. M. Moral. XIV. 20, on Job 19:11. Ghisler.
7. On Jer 30:17. Providentia Dei mortalibus salutifera, antequam percutiat, pharmaca medendi grati componit, et gladium ir su acuit. Evagr. Hist. Ecc 4:6.Quando incidis in tentationem, crede, quod nisi cognovisset te posse illam evadere, non permisisset te in illam incidere. Theophyl. in cap. 18 Joh. Frster.Feriam prius et sanabo melius. Theophyl. in Hosea 11. Ghisler.
8. On Jer 30:21. This church of God will own a, Prince from its midstJesus, of our flesh and blood through the virgin Mary, and He approaches God, as no other can, for He is Gods image, Gods Son, and at the same time the perfect, holy in all His sufferings, only obedient son of man. This king is mediator and reconciler with God; He is also high-priest and fulfilled all righteousness, as was necessary for our propitiation. What glory to have such a king, who brings us nigh unto God, and this is our glory! Diedrich.
9. On Jer 31:1. There is no greater promise than this: I will be thy God. For if He is our God we are His creatures, His redeemed, His sanctified, according to all the three articles of the Christian faith. Cramer.
10. On Jer 31:2. The rough heap had to be sifted by the sword, but those who survived, though afflicted in the desert of this life, found favor with God, and these, the true Israel, God leads into His rest. Diedrich.
11. On Jer 31:3. The love of God towards us comes from love and has no other cause above or beside itself, but, is in God and remains in God, so that Christ who is in God is its centre. For herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us (1Jn 4:10). Cramer. Totum grati imputatur, non nostris meritis. Augustine in Psalms 31. Frster. Before I had done anything good Thou hadst already moved towards me. Let these words be written on your hearts with the pen of the living God, that they may light you like flames of fire on the day of the marriage. It is your certificate of birth, your testimonial. Let me never lose sight of how much it has cost Thee to redeem me. Zinzendorf. God says: My chastisement even was pure love, though then you did not understand it; you shall learn it afterwards. Diedrich. [I incline to the construction given in the English version, both because the suffix to the verb is more naturally, I have drawn thee, than I have drawn out toward thee, and because there seems to be a tacit allusion to Hos 11:4, With loving kindness have I drawn thee.-A great moral truth lies in this passage so construed, viz., that the main power which humbles mans pride, softens his hard heart and makes him recoil in shame and sorrow from sinning, comes through his apprehension of Gods love as manifested in Christ and His cross. It is love that, draws the fearful or stubborn soul to the feet of divine mercy. Cowles.S. R. A.]
12. On Jer 31:6. It is well: the watchmen on Mount Ephraim had to go to Zion. They received however another visit from the Jewish priests, which they could not have expected at the great reformation, introduced by John, and which had its seat among other places on Mount Ephraim. The Samaritans were not far distant, and Mount Ephraim had even this honor that when the Lord came to His temple He took His Seat as a teacher there. Zinzendorf. [Gods grace loves to triumph over the most inveterate prejudices No words could represent a greater and more benign change in national feeling than these: Samaria saying through her spiritual watchmen, Let us go up to Zion to worship, for our God is there. Cowles. Ascendamus in Sion, hoc est in Ecclesiam says S. Jerome. According to this view, the watchmen here mentioned are the Preachers of the Gospel. Wordsworth.S. R. A.]
13. On Jer 31:9. I will lead them. It is an old sighing couplet, but full of wisdom and solid truth:
Lord Jesus, while I live on earth, O guide me,
Let me not, self-led, wander from beside Thee.
Zinzendorf.
14. On Jer 31:10. He who has scattered Israel will also collect it. Why? lie is the Shepherd. It is no wolf-scattering. He interposes His hand, then they go asunder, and directly come together again more orderly. Zinzendorf.
15. On Jer 31:12-14. Gaudebunt electi, quando videbunt supra se, intra se, juxta se, infra se. Augustine.Prmia clestia erunt tam magna, ut non possint mensurari, tam multa, ut non possint numerari, tam copiosa, ut non possint terminari, tam pretiosa, ut non possint stimari. Bernhard. Frster.
16. On Jer 31:15. Because at all times there is a similar state of things in the church of God, the lament of Rachel is a common one. For as this lament is over the carrying away captive and oppressions of Babylon, so is it also a lament over the tyranny of Herod in slaughtering the innocent children (Mat 2:1-7.)Cramer. Premuntur justi in ecclesia ut clament, clamantes exaudiuntur, exauditi glorificent Deum. Augustin. Frster.With respect to this, that Rachels lament may be regarded as a type of maternal lamentation over lost children, Frster quotes this sentence of Cyprian: non amisimus, sed prmisimus (2Sa 12:23). [On the application of this verse to the murder of the innocents consult W. L. Alexander, Connexion of the Old and New. Testament, p. 54, and W. H. Mill in Wordsworths Note in loc.S. R. A.]
17. On Jer 31:18. The conversion of man must always be a product of two factors. A conversion which man alone should bring about, without God, would be an empty pretence of conversion; a conversion, which God should produce, without man, would be a compulsory, manufactured affair, without any moral value. The merit and the praise is, however, always on Gods side. He gives the will and the execution. Did He not discipline us, we should never learn discipline. Did He not lead back our thoughts to our Fathers house which we have left (Luke 15) we should never think of returning.
18. On Jer 31:19. The children of God are ashamed their life long, they cannot raise their heads for humiliation. For their sins always seem great to them, and the grace of God always remains something incomprehensible to them.Zinzendorf. The farther the Christian advances in his consciousness of sonship and in sanctification, the more brilliantly rises the light of grace, the more distinctly does he perceive in this light, how black is the night of his sins from which God has delivered him. [It is the ripest and fullest ears of grain which hang their heads the lowest.S. R. A.]
19. On Jer 31:19. The use of the dear cross is to make us blush (Dan 9:8) and not regard ourselves as innocent (Jer 30:11). And as it pleases a father when a child soon blushes, so also is this tincture a flower of virtue well-pleasing to God. Cramer. Deus oleum miserationis su non nisi in vas contritum et contribulatum infundit. Bernhard.Frster.
20. On Jer 31:19. The reproach of my youth. The sins of youth are not easily to be forgotten (Psa 25:7; Job 31:18). Therefore we ought to be careful so to act in our youth as not to have to chew the cud of bitter reflection in our old age. It is a comfort that past sins of youth will not injure the truly penitent. Non nocent peccata prterita, cum non placent prsentia. Augustine. To transgress no more is the best sign of repentance. Cramer.
21. On Jer 31:20. Comforting and weighty words, which each one should lay to heart. God loves and caresses us as a mother her good child. He remembers His promise. His heart yearns and breaks, and it is His pleasure to do us good. Cramer. lpsius proprium est, misereri semper et parcere. Augustine.Major est Dei misericordia quam omnium hominum miseria. Idem.
22. On Jer 31:23. The Lord bless thee, thou dwelling-place of righteousness, thou holy mountain. Certainly no greater honor was ever done to the Jewish mountains than that the womans seed prayed and wept on them, was transfigured, killed and ascended above all heaven. Zinzendorf. It cannot be denied that a church sanctifies a whole place . Members of Jesus are real guardian angels, who do not exist in the imagination, but are founded on Gods promise (Mat 25:40). Idem.
23. On Jer 31:29-30. The so-called family curse has no influence on the servants of God; one may sleep calmly nevertheless. This does not mean that we should continue in the track of our predecessors, ex. gr., when our ancestors have gained much wealth by sinful trade, that we should continue this trade with this wealth with the hope of the divine blessing. If this or that property, house, right, condition be afflicted with a curse, the children of God may soon by prudent separation deliver themselves from these unsafe circumstances. For nothing attaches to their persons, when they have been baptized with the blood of Jesus and are blessed by Him. Zinzendorf.
24. On Jer 31:29-30. In testamento novo per sarguinem mediatoris deleto paterno chirographo incipit homo paternis debitis non esse obnoxius renascendo, quibus nascendo fuerat obligatus, ipso Mediatore di cente: Ne vobis patrem dicis in terra (Mat 23:9). Secundum hoc utique, quod alios natales, quibus non patri succederemus, sed cum patre semper viveremus, invenimus. Augustine, contra Julian, VI. 12, in Ghisler.
25. On Jer 31:31. In veteribus libris aut nusquam aut difficile prter hunc propheticum locum legitur facta commemoratio testamenti novi, ut omnino ipso nomine appellaretur. Nam multis locis hoc significalur et prnuntiatur futurum, sed non ita ut etiam nomen lega ur expressum. Augustine, de Spir. et Lit. ad Marcellin, Cap. 19 (where to Cap. 29 there is a detailed discussion of this passage) in Ghisler.In the whole of the Old Testament there is no passage, in which the view is so clearly and distinctly expressed as here that the law is only . And though some commentators have supposed that the passage contains only a censure of the Israelites and not of the Old Covenant, they only show thus that they have not understood the simple meaning of the words. Ebrard. Comm. zum Hebrerbr. S. 275.
26. On Jer 31:31, sqq. Propter veteris hominis noxam, qu per literam jubentem et minantem minime sanabatur, dicitur illud testamentum vetus; hoc antem novum propter novitatem spiritus, qu hominem novum sanat a vitio vetustatis. Augustine, c. Lit. Cap. 19.
27. On Jer 31:33. Quid sunt ergo leges Dei ab ipso Deo script in cordibus, nisi ipsa prsentia Spiritus sancti, qui est digitus Dei, quo prsente diffunditur charitas in cordibus nostrio, qu plenitudo legis est et prcepti finis? Augustine, l. c. Cap. 20.
28. On Jer 31:34. Quomodo tempus est novi testamenti, de quo propheta dixit: et non docebit unusquisque civem suum, etc. nisi quia rjusdem testamenti novi ternam mercedem, id est ipsius Dei beatissimam contemplationem promittendo conjunxit? Augustine, l. c. Cap. 24.
29. On Jer 31:33-34. This is the blessed difference between law and Gospel, between form and substance. Therefore are the great and small alike, and the youths like the elders, the pupils more learned than their teachers, and the young wiser than the ancients (1Jn 2:20 sqq.). Here is the cause:For I will forgive their iniquities. This is the occasion of the above; no one can effect this without it. Forgiveness of sins makes the scales fall from peoples eyes, and gives them a cheerful temper, clear conceptions, a clear head.Zinzendorf.
30. On Jer 31:35-37. Etsi particulares ecclesi intotum deficere possunt, ecclesia tamen catholica nunquam defecit aut deficiet. Obstant enim Dei amplissim promissiones, inter quas non ultimum locum sibi vindicut qu hic habetur Jer 31:37. Frster.
31. On Jer 31:38-40. Jerusalem will one day be much greater than it has ever been. This is not to be understood literally but spiritually. Jerusalem will be wherever there are believing souls, its circle will be without end and comprise all that has been hitherto impure and lost. This it is of which the prophet is teaching, and which he presents in figures, which were intelligible to the people in his time. The hill Gareb, probably the residence of the lepers, the emblem of the sinner unmasked and smitten by God, and the cursed valley of Ben-Hinnom will be taken up into the holy city. Gods grace will one day effect all this, and Israel will thus be manifested as much more glorious than ever before. Diedrich.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer 30:5-9. Sermon on one of the last Sundays after Trinity or the second in Advent. The day of the judgment of the world a great day. For it is, (1) a day of anxiety and terror for all the world; (2) a day of deliverance from all distress for the church of the Lord; (3) a day of realization of all the happiness set in prospect before it.
2. On Jer 30:10-12. Consolation of the church in great trial. 1. It has well deserved the trial (Jer 30:12); 2. it is therefore chastised, but with moderation; 3. it will not perish but again enjoy peace.
3. On Jer 30:17. [The Restorer of mankind. 1. Faith in the Christian Sacrament and its attendant revelation of divine character alone answer the demand of the heart and reason of man for a higher state of moral perfection. 2. Christianity offers to maintain a communication between this world and that eternal world of holiness and truth. 3. It commends itself to our wants in the confirmation and direction of that principle of hope, which even in our daily and worldly life, we are perpetually forced to substitute for happiness, and 4. By the adorable object, which it presents to our affections. Archer ButlerS. R. A.]
4. On Jer 31:1-2. Gesetz and Zeugniss (Law and Testimony) 1864, Heft. 1. Funeral sermon of Ahlfeld.
5. On Jer 31:2-4. lb. 1865. Heft 1. Funeral sermon of Besser, S. 32 ff.
6. On Jer 31:3. C. Fr. Hartmann (Wedding, School, Catechism and Birth-day sermons, ed. C. Chr. Eberh. Ehemann. Tb. 1865). Wedding sermon. 1. A grateful revival in the love of God already received. 2. Earnest endeavor after a daily enjoyment of this love. 3. Daily nourishment of hope.
7. On Jer 31:3. Florey. Comfort and warning at graves. I. Bndchen, S. 253. On the attractions of Gods love towards His own children. They are, 1. innumerable and yet so frequently overlooked; 2. powerful and yet so frequently resisted; 3. rich in blessing and yet so frequently; unemployed. [For practical remarks on this text see also Tholuck, Stunden der Andacht, No. 11.S. R. A.]
8. On Jer 31:9. Confessional sermon by Dekan V. Biarowsky in Erlangen (in Palmers Evang. Casual-Reden, 2 te Folge, 1 Band. Stuttgart, 1850.) Every partaking of the Lords supper is a return to the Lord in the promised land, and every one who is a guest at the supper rises and comes. 1. How are we to come? (weeping and praying). 2. What shall we find? (Salvation and blessing, power and life, grace and help).
9. On Jer 31:18-20. Comparison of conversion with the course of the earth and the sun. 1. The man who has fallen away is like the planet in its distance from the sun; he flees from God as far as he Song of Solomon 2. Love however does not release him: a. he is chastened (winter, cold, long nights, short days); b. he accepts the chastening and returns to proximity to the sun (summer, warmth, light, life). Comp. Brandt, Altes und Neues in i extemporirbaren Entwrfen. Nremberg, 1829, II. 5. [The stubborn sinner submitting himself to God. I. A description of the feelings and conduct of an obstinate, impenitent sinner, while smarting under the rod of affliction: He is rebellioustill subdued. II. The new views and feelings produced by affliction through divine grace: (a) convinced of guilt and sinfulness; (b) praying; (c) reflecting on the effects of divine grace in his conversion. III. A correcting but compassionate God, watching the result, etc., (a) as a tender father mindful of his penitent child; (b) listening to his complaints, confessions and petitions; (c) declaring His determination to pardon. Payson.S. R. A.]
10. On Jer 31:31-34. Sermon on 1 Sunday in Advent by Pastor Diechert in Grningen, S. Stern aus Jakob. I. Stuttg. 1867.
11. On Jer 31:33-34. Do we belong to the people of God? 1. Have we holiness? 2. Have we knowledge? 3. Have we the peace promised to this people? (Caspari in Predigtbuch von Dittmar, Erlangen, 1845).
12. On Jer 31:33-34. By the new covenant in the bath of holy baptism all becomes new. 1. What was dead becomes alive 2. What was obscure becomes clear. 3. What was cold becomes warm. 4. What was bound becomes free (Florey, 1862).
Footnotes:
[1]Jer 31:2.. The infinitive absolute is to be taken as an imperative, in the sense of a summons to ones self. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 92, 2, b.
[2]Jer 31:2.In the prophet evidently alludes to Deu 28:65. This Hiphil denotes quietem agere, to make a rest (comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 18, 3). There is indeed no further instance to adduce in favor of the meaning quietum facere, yet, apart from its grammatical admissibility, it rests on a good foundation, partly in the etymology (comp. , Jer 6:16; , Isa 28:12) partly in the connection.On the anticipation of the object by the suffix. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 77, 2 and rems. on Jer 9:14.
[3]Jer 31:3. in the sense of prolongare gratiam is found in Psa 36:11; Psa 109:12 coll. Psa 85:6. The sense would also be perfectly appropriate. Then the suffix would have to be taken in the sense of the dative. This use of the suffix is however proved only in the 1st person (), and the similar case of the third pers. masc. (). For such a use in the 2d pers. we have only the uncertain instance of Isa 65:5. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 70.I therefore take with Hitzig and Fuerst in the sense of respite (Ecc 2:3). is the Accus. Instr. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 70, i.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This seems to be but a continuation of the former Chapter; and a most blessed continuation it is! We have here, the Lord speaking most graciously to his people; and giving them exceeding great and precious promises in Christ, confirmed with all the sanction and authority of Jehovah.
Jer 31:1
The first observation, that I desire to offer on this most glorious chapter is, to mark to the Reader, the repeated confirmation we meet with of its blessed contents, in a thus, and a thus saith the Lord. No less than one and twenty times, within the space of forty verses, doth Jehovah graciously condescend to set his seal of authority to the merciful promises delivered, by the mention of his own great and incommunicable name. Reader! I beseech you never to overlook this, in whatever part of the Sacred Word it occurs. It is the testimony of Jehovah, which becomes the ground and warrant of our faith. The testimony of the Lord is sure; yea, the Psalmist saith, that the Lord’s testimonies are very sure, holiness becometh his house forever, Psa 93:5 and Psa 19:7 . And it is the Father’s testimony, and approbation of his dear Son, as our glorious Head and Surety, which must give assurance to our faith. Every poor unbelieving sinner, who fears the salvation of his soul is too great to be believed, could never desire stronger assurances for his faith to rest on, than the Word of God. If the Lord would but say it, I should believe. Here then comes in the blessedness of this short, but comprehensive expression. Thus saith the Lord. But what time is this to which the Lord refers, in which he will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be his people? I apprehend, not simply the time of restoring them from Babylon, but looking forward unto Gospel times, when both Jew and Gentile shall be brought into the fold of Christ. In confirmation of this, see Isa 49:6 ; Gal 3:29 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 31:34
Man’s cry and God’s answer, that is our subject; man’s cry for pardon, renewal, restoration; God’s answer willingness and power both to forgive and forget.
I. Man’s Cry for Pardon. What is this sense of sin that pursues man so persistently, and of which the cry of the Psalmist is a proof that we can neither get away from it nor forget it without help from above? It is at once a proof of man’s grandeur and of his impotence. God and Nature seen at strife within us. That which we should be and might have been rises upon us in clear tormenting vision; then that which we are gives this the lie and torments us still more. And so that strange sentiment, or experience, or quality of our nature rises in power within us remorse, which is the feeling engendered by the changelessness of an ill-spent past, in whole or in part. Memory may sleep, but it never dies. We can bear many memories if we think they are our own, safely locked up in our bosoms. But there is another consciousness than our own, other than that of the whole human race; a consciousness universal as being, pure and retentive as the light, holy as holiness itself can be; which holds all that ever was, that has ever happened to us and within us, in its unfailing, unfading grasp, and which never forgets. It is the thought of this tremendous cosmic memory which is the ultimate bar of judgment at which all good and evil must receive their verdict, the ultimate correction of an easy-going optimism as regards the issue of wrongdoing. There is no escape from God’s knowledge of the present, nor from His memory of the past.
II. The Transformation of Memory. We shall not come into any satisfying faith in the forgiveness and forgetfulness of God till we realize that all reality of sin remains and must remain for ever; and yet that forgiveness and forgetfulness are both real. The Cross of Christ is the furthermost point in the journey of heavenly love in seeking to bring back the lost; a love that bent all the Divine attributes (like the earth under the stresses that carry it round the sun) into a perfect circle of reconciliation. And so when man, recognizing this miracle of atoning love, repents and is reconciled to God as a dear child, the result is a moral forgiveness, which is also a moral forgetfulness.
E. Griffith-Jones.
References. LXXIX. 15. J. H. Hitchens, Catholic Sermons, vol. ii. p. 73. LXXIX. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 197. LXXX. 1. J. Parsons, Penny Pulpit, No. 1702, p. 655.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Religion in the Family
Jer 31:1
What constitutes a godly home? The acknowledgment of God in all things. Making His will the governing principle. There can be no godly household where that is not done.
I. Where the will of God is placed first there will be order an inestimable blessing in a home. God is not the God of confusion in the home or the Church. A man or woman who truly walks with God will soon become ashamed of disorder and slovenliness. And where God is the God of the family, and not merely the God of the Church, there will be order. The father and mother will take their proper place at the head of the household, and govern it and administer it as a trust for God. There will be no tyranny, no caprice; but there will be firm order, and an insistence upon it, and a constant striving after it.
II. There will be unselfishness. Not every one doing that which is right in his own eyes, but every one asking, ‘What is the will of God?’ And there will be a perpetual and relentless war upon selfishness. Care for others will be supreme. Consideration of others will prevail. Kindness will be paramount, and it will be a happy service to render it.
III. Where God is the God of the family, His will will govern the whole policy of the home. Such matters as the education of the children, the treatment of servants, such matters as dress and evening parties, as books and games, are sadly in want of a Christian standard. They are matters about which some Christian people think, or seem to think, that there is no will of God, and they simply follow the fashion, that is, the fashion of the world, and sometimes money dominates, and sometimes your neighbour’s custom. And we shall not get right in any of these matters until we recognize that there is a will of God in them, and it is not a question of what my neighbour practises, and allows or condemns. Not my narrow neighbour on the one hand, nor my broad neighbour on the other, but ‘What is the Christian standard? what is the will of God? ‘and I must be brave enough to follow that.
IV. And there is another side to this fair and lovely picture. It is suggested by the last line in the verse. Wherever you have a number of people set on doing God’s will and placing that will first, there you have most surely God’s protection and safe keeping.
C. Brown, Light and Life, p. 137.
References. XXXI. 1. C. Brown, God and Man, p. 95. XXXI. 1-26. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlvii. No. 2726. XXXI. 3. Ibid. vol. xxxii. No. 1914; vol. xxxvi. No. 2149; vol. 1. No. 2880. J. S. Maver, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. 1900, p. 109. J. Tulloch, Sundays at Balmoral, p. 18. S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Sermons, p. 61. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, vol. ii. p. 253. G. Brett, Fellowship With God, p. 132. XXXI. 10, 11. John Clifford, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. 1899, p. 161. XXXI. 14. H. W. Webb-Peploe, Calls to Holiness, p. 53. XXXI. 14 and 25. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlvii. No. 2726. XXXI. 18 . Ibid, vol. xiii. No. 743. XXXI. 18-20. Ibid. vol. xxxv. No. 2104. XXXI. 31-34. Ibid. vol. xlviii. No. 2762. H. P. Liddon, Christmastide in St. Paul’s, p. 38. A. Ramsay, Studies in Jeremiah, p. 261. XXXI. 33. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii. No. 93; vol. xxviii. No. 1687; vol. lii. No. 2992. XXXI. 34. Ibid. vol. xxviii. No. 1685; vol. xxxiv. No. 2006. E. Griffith-Jones, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxii. 1907, p. 282. XXXI. 36. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah and Jeremiah, p. 332. XXXI. 37. Ibid. p. 336. XXXII. 1-27. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlvi. No. 2675. XXXII. 8-10. A. Ramsay, Studies in Jeremiah, p. 241.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
X
THE PROPHECY OF JEREMIAH ON THE RESTORATION
Jeremiah 30-33
This prophecy may be called Jeremiah’s messianic prophecy, or the prophecy of the blessed age, the messianic age, that glorious age that was to come. Most of the teaching of Jeremiah up to this point is permeated with the note of sadness and of doom, the theme of which is destruction. From this Jeremiah might be called a thorough-going pessimist, but here we shall see that he was anything but a pessimist. He was one of the greatest optimists. When his nation seemed so determined to go on in sin and rebellion against God and hence to destruction, Jeremiah could be nothing but a pessimist, so far as the immediate future of his country was concerned. There is such a thing as a sane and sensible pessimism. The man who is a pessimist when he sees that sin is unbridled in its sway over the people, is the only man who takes a sane view of the situation. But in this passage we will see that Jeremiah was one of the greatest optimists that the world ever saw.
Blessed is the man who can mediate between the pessimist and the optimist. All the prophecies concerning the messianic age, and the restoration from the exile to Palestine were optimistic. Amos was a pre-exilic prophet, and he prophesied a return of the Jews and a glorious age; so did Hosea, Isaiah, Joel, Micah, and Zephaniah. All of these pictured the return to Jerusalem and the worship in Mount Zion. Isaiah puts it in the form of a reign of David’s son over a true and righteous Israel, at the time of the restoration from the Exile in Babylon. Joel pictures the messianic age and we are told in Act 2 when it was fulfilled. Peter there declares that Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled in what was enacted at that time. Ezekiel pictures it also as a restored nation and a restored theocracy in Jeremiah 40-48.
Now, let us consider what Jeremiah has to say concerning the Jews and their glorious restoration. In these four chapters (Jeremiah 30-33) we have three great subjects:
1. The triumphal hymn of Israel’s salvation (Jeremiah 30-31)
2. The story of the purchase of a field by Jeremiah during his imprisonment, and the explanation (Jer 32Jer 32Jer 32 )
3. The promise of the restoration with the renewed glory of the house of David and the Levitical priesthood (Jer 33Jer 33Jer 33 )
Observe that this prophecy is not dated. It merely says, “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.” It is altogether likely that it came in the latter part of the reign of Zedekiah, possibly during the imprisonment in the court of the guard, or it may have occurred a little earlier than that.
In the introduction the prophet is commanded to write these things (Jer 30:1-3 ). The fact that God commanded Jeremiah to write this messianic prophecy shows that he put considerable value upon it and that he intended it to be preserved for his people, Israel. He said, “The days will come, saith Jehovah, that I will turn again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave their fathers, and they shall possess it.” This is the essence of the prophecy contained in Jeremiah 30-31.
The prophecy relative to Judah in Jer 30:4-11 is that there shall be an end of Judah’s troubles, for the foreign domination shall cease. Judah is pictured here as sorely troubled. Notice verse Jer 30:5 : “We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.” Then he pictures the nation in that figure, which is so many times used in the Scriptures, as in the pain of travail. Verse Jer 30:7 : “For that day is great, so that none is like unto it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble.” Then he adds, “But he shall be saved out of it.” In verse Jer 30:8 : he describes how the foreign domination of Babylon shall be broken off. Verse Jer 30:9 : “They shall serve Jehovah their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.”
Of course, this is not David himself, in a literal sense, that shall be raised up. It means that one of David’s royal posterity shall reign over Israel. Israel shall have her kingdom restored and on the throne a king of the old royal line. In a large measure that promise was fulfilled in David’s greater son, Jesus Christ. In Jer 30:10 he calls Israel by the name of “Servant,” the word used so often in Isaiah 40-66, and promises return and rest. Jer 30:11 : “I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee, but I will not make a full end of thee; but I will correct thee in judgment, and will in no wise leave thee unpunished.”
Judah is pictured in Jer 30:12-17 as incurably wounded. The hurt of the cities of Judah is incurably deep but she shall be restored to health. Verse Jer 30:12 : “Thy hurt is incurable, and thy wound grievous,” therefore punishment must come to Judah. Then he pictures her as being despised among the nations, forgotten by her lovers, i.e., all those nations whom she followed after strange gods. He adds that their chastisement was a cruel one, but that it was because of the greatness of their iniquity; because their sins were so increased. Jer 30:15 adds: “Why criest thou for thy hurt?” There is no use crying. Why do you cry unto me? “Thy pain is incurable.” It was all because of the greatness of their iniquity. Verse Jer 30:16 : “They that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity.” Verse Jer 30:17 : “I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds.”
There is a promise respecting Jerusalem and other cities of Judah in Jer 30:18-22 . The city shall be rebuilt and shall be prosperous. Verse Jer 30:18 : “And the city shall be builded upon its own hill, and the palace shall be inhabited after its own manner.” Now, that was particularly fulfilled under Ezra and Nehemiah, in their later history. Jer 30:19 describes the happiness and merriment of the people. Jer 30:20 says, “Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me.” Verse Jer 30:21 : “Their princes shall be of themselves and their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them.” He shall be of the royal line; shall be of themselves. Their rulers shall proceed from their own blood. They shall be relieved from the domination of Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon.
The prophecy of Jer 30:23-24 is that there shall be a sweeping tempest upon her enemies: “Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, even his wrath, is gone forth, a sweeping tempest: it shall burst upon the head of the wicked.” This undoubtedly refers to the nations that have harassed Judah so long.
The picture found in Jer 31:1-6 is that Israel shall be restored to the worship of their own God, Jehovah. Verse I: “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.” This was true when God brought them forth from Chaldea and from Egypt after the exile. The great motive expressed is that God might be their God and they his people. In the glory of the restoration he says, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel.” In Jer 31:3 we come to a great and glorious passage, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” That is a great text. We have here a vision of the fidelity and love of Jehovah for his people. He loves forever. “With lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” That was true in Egypt. He drew them to himself. It will be true again when he shall draw them from among the nations. Jehovah loves the people of Israel now with the same jealous love as of old, and he is drawing them. The time is coming when he will draw them together to him with this everlasting love. This same truth applies to all Christians of the world, both Jew and Gentile.
Samaria shall be resettled and repeopled: “Again shalt thou plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria. . . . For there shall be a day that the watchman upon the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto Jehovah our God.” Which means that there will be watchmen who will watch for the rising of the new moon and the time of the feasts, and then the word will go from mouth to mouth and the people will all observe the feasts together. Now, that prophecy has never been literally fulfilled.
Samaria was peopled by aliens from Babylon and Assyria mixed with Jews and when the Jews returned from the exile, these people wanted to help them in the work of rebuilding, but they were spurned. This made the Samaritans the bitter enemies of the Jews and of their leaders. In Jesus’ time “the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans,” but many of them were converted in Christ’s ministry and through the apostles after Pentecost. The future will determine the glories of this prophecy.
There is a great promise in Jer 31:7-9 . A great company shall return from the north. Verse Jer 31:8 : “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, and the woman with child.” Verse Jer 9 : “I will cause them to walk by rivers of water, in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born.”
The announcement in Jer 31:10-14 is that this return shall be proclaimed to the nations. This passage reminds us very much of Isa 40 . The expressions are almost identical. Note the clause in Jer 31:10 which is almost the same in both books, “As a shepherd doth his flock.” Then in verse Jer 31:12 : “They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow unto the goodness of Jehovah, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden.” That is a beautiful picture; the people coming shall be like that of a flowing stream hurrying on to an experience of the goodness of Jehovah. All the nations shall see it.
And mourning Ephraim shall be comforted and restored (Jer 31:15-20 ). Rachel is heard weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted. Rachel was the mother of Joseph and he was the father of Ephraim, the leading tribe of the Northern Kingdom, which finally absorbed all the rest of the tribes of that division of the kingdom west of the Jordan. Hosea calls Israel Ephraim. Rachel weeping over her children is a pathetic picture of the destruction of the Northern Kingdom, but there is hope for it. She shall not weep forever. Verse Jer 31:16 : “Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith Jehovah: and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.” Then he goes on to describe the repentance of Ephraim. Jer 31:20 sounds much like Hosea in his great prophecy. Here Jeremiah says, “Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child?”
In the exhortation in Jer 31:21-22 the wanderer is asked to return. Speaking to Israel, he says, “Set thee up waymarks, make thee guide-posts; set thy heart toward the highway, even the way thou wentest.” Jer 31:22 is a remarkable prophecy: “How long wilt thou go hither and thither, O thou backsliding daughter? For Jehovah hath created a new thing in the earth: A woman shall encompass a man.” In Jeremiah’s time the man must encompass the woman. But this prophecy predicts that there is going to be a new state of things: “A woman shall encompass a man,” shall surround him, that is, she shall win him and also be his protector and safeguard. The Spiritual application of that seems to be that the time will come when Israel, this backsliding and wandering woman, shall be changed; shall be different; she shall have a new disposition. Instead of God having to go after her and surround her and induce her to keep herself true to him, she will take the initiative; she will surround the Lord and shall be true to him; shall go after him, and meet him more than half way. That was true to some extent when they came back from the exile. They were true to God and protected his cause, but the larger fulfilment is doubtless yet to come.
The prophecy as to the life of Israel after the restoration (Jer 31:23-26 ) shows that the life of restored Israel shall be happy and blessed. Note verse Jer 31:23 : “Jehovah bless thee, O habitation of righteousness, O mountain of holiness.” What a magnificent description of the city is that. That prophecy was fulfilled only to a very slight degree after the return from exile. Its true fulfilment is spiritual. Jeremiah was much pleased with the vision.
There shall be great material prosperity for the renewed people and there shall be individual responsibility. Great prosperity is shown in the verse Jer 31:27 : “I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast.” The idea there is that it is going to be so thickly populated that it will be literally sown with men and with beasts, like a field. Then in Jer 31:29 , “In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” That was a proverb based upon the fact that because of the father’s sins the children suffered. They kept saying that in the exile, because a multitude of those who were in exile never sinned as their fathers did, and had to suffer for the wickedness and sins of their fathers. Hence they kept saying, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” They were suffering for the iniquities of their fathers, not their own. There was a note of bitterness and complaint in it. They regarded the law as unjust. The great law of individual responsibility is here asserted. That doctrine is worked out with great clearness in Eze 18 .
In the blessings of the new covenant (Jer 31:31-34 ) we have the climax, the greatest of all Jeremiah’s prophecies. This is indeed the high-water mark of all the Old Testament prophecy. Jeremiah had come to the conclusion that the heart of the man was deceitful and above all things desperately wicked and that he could no more change it of himself than the leopard can change his spots, or the Ethiopian his skin; that the people who are accustomed to do evil, cannot do good. They must be changed. There must be a new order of things, a new covenant. What is this new covenant? Jer 31:33 lays down a new condition: “I will put my law in their inward parts.” Moses wrote it on tablets of stone but the law to be effective must be written in the inward parts. It must be written on the tablets of the heart. On that condition “I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” saith Jehovah.
Then the prophet asserted the doctrine of individual, or personal experience of the knowledge of God, verse Jer 31:34 : “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.” He does not mean by that that there shall be no more teaching but he does mean that each individual shall have a personal experience for himself. His parents cannot give it to him; each individual shall have a personal knowledge of God for himself. As regards their sins God provides a sacrifice so that he will remember their sins no more forever, consequently there shall be no more need for the sacrifices of atonement.
Now, that wonderful prophecy was not fulfilled in that restoration. When Nehemiah had completed the walls of Jerusalem, Ezra brought forth the book of the Law and read it before them and they made another covenant to keep the Law. That was 150 years after Jehovah had said, “I will make a new covenant.” Ezra brought forth this same old covenant and the people adopted it again. That was not a new covenant, and in no sense a fulfilment of the prophecy here. The people asked Ezra to read it, which showed that it was in no sense in their hearts. This covenant is fulfilled in Christianity. Jesus preached the new birth and the principle of personal knowledge of God. It is the fundamental element of the gospel, that God’s law must be in the heart, not in mere ceremony.
It is said of the new people in Jer 31:35-37 that they shall be perpetual. They shall abide forever. This is expressed by a comparison of the material universe with God’s eternal purpose concerning his people. The prophecy concerning Jerusalem in Jer 31:38-40 is that the holy city shall be rebuilt. Jerusalem shall be holy unto Jehovah. Now, that was to some extent fulfilled in the restoration under Nehemiah and Ezra, but for 1900 years it has been trodden under foot. For the larger fulfilment we look to Christianity in the millennium.
The prophecy of Jer 32 occurred in the tenth year of the reign of Zedekiah, during the siege, when Jeremiah was shut up in the court of the guard. In that condition, when the city was thus surrounded and seemed doomed to pass into the hands of the enemy and be destroyed, Jeremiah utters this prophecy. The following are the main points of it:
1. The announcement of the Oracle of Jeremiah (Jer 32:15 ). This section simply contains the record of the fact that the oracle came from God to Jeremiah at this time and the fate of the city is announced.
2. The purchase of an ancestral field (Jer 32:6-15 ). Jeremiah received word from Jehovah that a certain man was coming to ask him to buy a field at Anathoth which belonged to Jeremiah’s family and was within his right. God told him to buy it. He tells us that he did so, and paid seventeen shekels for it. Doubtless property was cheap at that particular time, for all the land was overrun by the Chaldeans. The deed was signed and two copies made; then they were subscribed to before witnesses. They were then deposited in an earthen vessel to be kept, because seventy years or more was to pass before they could be used. Such is the story. It reminds us of the incident that occurred in the wars of Hannibal. When he was encamped before the gates of Rome, the very ground upon which he was encamped was bought by men in the city, for they believed in the future of Rome. They paid for it and believed that they would make use of it. So it was with Jeremiah; he believed in the future of Jerusalem and. Judah more truly than those men believed in the future of Rome.
3. His misgiving, with his retrospection of Jehovah’s’ power, justice, and lovingkindness, manifested in Israel’s history (Jer 32:16-25 ). He closes that retrospection by summing up the situation. We find it in Jer 32:24-25 . The city is in a state of siege, and is going to be destroyed very soon.
4. Jehovah’s reply to Jeremiah’s misgivings (Jer 32:26-35 ). The reply is this: “Because of the people’s sins Jerusalem shall be destroyed by the Chaldeans.”
5. Jehovah gives an emphatic promise of future favor (Jer 32:36-44 ). Again and again Jehovah says, “I will gather them out of all countries; I will give them one heart and one way; I will make an everlasting covenant with them.” Men shall buy fields, shall subscribe deeds, seal them and call witnesses, etc.
Jeremiah gives the date of its deliverance, about the year 586 B.C., while the Chaldeans were besieging the city and Jeremiah was shut up in the court of the guard. The items of this chapter are as follows:
1. The call for a larger faith (Jer 32:2-3 ). Jehovah will show them difficult things.
2. The city shall be reinhabited and shall be joyful (Jer 32:4-9 ). [I am simply giving the substance of these portions. They are largely repetitions and details are not necessary.]
3. The land of Judah shall be repopulated (Jer 32:10-13 ). Jer 32:12 says, “Yet again there shall be in this place, which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.” In the cities of the lowland, the hill country, the South, Benjamin, and Judah, shall the flocks again pass under the hands of the shepherd.
4. David shall have a righteous successor upon the throne (Jer 32:14-18 ). Jer 32:15 contains the substance, a glorious messianic picture, like Isa 11:1-2 .
5. The royal line of David and of the Levitical priesthood shall certainly be perpetuated, Jer 32:19-22 .
6. The Davidic Dynasty shall certainly be re-established (Jer 32:23-26 ). The seed of David shall sit upon the throne.
The fulfilment of this prophecy occurred partly in the restoration, partly in Christianity, and shall be completely fulfilled in the glorious reign of Christ when Christianity shall be triumphant throughout the world. In this we have a remarkable perspective of prophecy, a prophecy with several fulfilments stretching over a long period of time.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the nature of this section of Jeremiah?
2. How does it compare with his former prophecies?
3. How does it compare with the prophets before him?
4. What is the outline of these four chapters?
5. What is the date of this prophecy?
6. What is the nature of Jer 30:1-3 ?
7. How is the importance of this section here indicated and what the reason assigned?
8. What the prophecy relative to Judah in Jer 30:4-11 ?
9. How is Judah pictured in Jer 30:12-17 and yet what hope is held out to Judah?
10. What is the promise respecting Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah in Jer 30:18-22 ?
11. What is the prophecy of Jer 30:23-24 and what is the fulfilment?
12. What is the picture found in Jer 31:1-6 and when realized?
13. What is the great promise in Jer 31:7-9 ?
14. What is the announcement in Jer 31:10-14 and other Old Testament passage similar to it?
15. What is the prophecy here concerning Ephraim (Jer 31:15-20 )?
16. What is the exhortation in Jer 31:21-22 and what the meaning of the “new thing” here?
17. What is the prophecy as to the life of Israel after the restoration (Jer 31:23-26 ) and how did this prospect affect Jeremiah?
18. What are the material blessings for the renewed people and how is their individual responsibility set forth? (Jer 31:27-30 .)
19. What are the blessings of the new covenant? (Jer 31:31-34 .)
20. What is said of the new people in Jer 31:35-37 and how is it expressed?
21. What is the prophecy concerning Jerusalem in Jer 31:38-40 and when fulfilled?
22. What is the date of the prophecy of Jer 32 ?
23. What are the main points of this prophecy?
24. What is the date and contents of Jer 33 ?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Jer 31:1 At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
Ver. 1. At the same time, ] i.e., In the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign, as before, was this word uttered. Or rather, in those latter times forementioned, Jer 30:24 after the return from Babylon, but especially in the days of the Messiah. The modern Jews vainly apply it to the coming of their Messiah, quem tantis etiamnum ululatibus exposcunt, whom they yet expect, but to no purpose.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah Chapter 31
Another material distinction is already set out in the beginning of Jer 31 . It is no return of Judah, but of the twelve tribes: how different from the scanty remnant of the Jews with a few stragglers of other tribes under Ezra and Nehemiah! Here all the families of Israel are in question. “At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have 1 drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things. For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God. For thus saith the Lord; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.” (Ver. 1-9.) Who can pretend that this has been made good either in the Jews or in the gospel, much as the gospel has transcended it?
I know the nations are summoned to hear, but it is not of their own salvation but Israel’s blessing. “Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.” (Ver. 10-14.)
It is vain to cite Mat 2 , as if it proved the complete accomplishment of verse 15: especially as the formula points out no more then a correspondence in spirit between the prophecy quoted and the fact, as distinguished from the object. “Thus saith the lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border.” (Ver. 15-17.)
But sorrow from man’s oppression and cruel suffering is not all. There is a needed discipline from the Lord which is next brought before us. “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and 1 shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since 1 spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” (Ver. 18-20.)
Then the Lord calls them to their cities. “Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man. Thus saith the lord of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness. And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.” (21-26.) It is a favourite application among the fathers and many who are under their influence, that the birth of the Saviour is here intended. But this is an error, and introduces a sense as incongruous with the context as with the particular phrase which has been tortured to bear the weight of the incarnation. “A woman shall compass a man” refers, not to the birth of Christ, but to the superiority in the latter day of the once backsliding daughter over all the might of man that shall oppose her.
A threefold declaration (first, ver. 27-30; second, ver. 31-37; and third, ver. 38-40) from Jehovah of the rich blessing of all His people closes this word of our prophet.
The first of these promises pledges the end of travail and the sure establishment of both houses of the chosen nation. “Behold, the days come, saith the lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will 1 watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the lord. In those days they shall say no more, the fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.” (Ver. 27-30.)
The second speaks of the new covenant, not according to law but grace, which Jehovah will make with them and its and their perpetuity. “Behold, the days come, saith the lord, that I will a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that 1 will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name. If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.” (Ver. 31-37.)
The chapter ends with the third promise as to the city, its limits and landmarks, which (unlike the second) is incapable of any just application to the wants, circumstances, or blessings of the Christians. It is the divine Doomsday-book of Jerusalem, the topography defined, and that security pronounced which belongs only to the mouth of God. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner. And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath. And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields under the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.” (Ver. 38-40.)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 31:1-6
1At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.
2Thus says the LORD,
The people who survived the sword
Found grace in the wilderness-
Israel, when it went to find its rest.
3The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying,
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.
4Again I will build you and you will be rebuilt,
O virgin of Israel!
Again you will take up your tambourines,
And go forth to the dances of the merrymakers.
5Again you will plant vineyards
On the hills of Samaria;
The planters will plant
And will enjoy them.
6For there will be a day when watchmen
On the hills of Ephraim call out,
‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,
To the LORD our God.’
Jer 31:1 At that time This refers to Jer 30:23-24 or the words Jeremiah wrote (i.e., Jer 30:1-24).
Notice the covenant terminology (cf. Jer 30:22) and that Judah and Israel are united again (cf. Gen 17:7-8). This covenant terminology can also be seen in Lev 26:12; Jer 7:23; Jer 11:4; Jer 24:7; Jer 30:22; Jer 31:33; Jer 32:38.
Jer 31:2 This may be an allusion to a new wilderness wandering period. The VERB went to find rest (BDB 921, KB 1188, Hiphil INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT) communicates a reality of peace and YHWH’s presence. A different word (BDB 628) is used in Exo 33:14 and Deu 28:65, but reflects the same theological concept (cf. Hos 2:14).
the sword The Aramaic Targums have Egypt’s sword, therefore, the sword is a metaphor for death more than a reference to war. This section seems to refer to God’s loving acts during the Wilderness Wandering Period.
Jer 31:3 him The MT has me (cf. NKJV, NJB). The LXX has him (cf NRSV). It seems to refer to the descendants of Jacob/Israel (cf. Deu 4:37; Deu 7:8).
I have loved you. . .I have drawn you Both of these VERBS are Qal PERFECTS.
The word you must be a COLLECTIVE FEMININE SINGULAR (twice) because of
1. the context of Jer 31:4 as national renewal and restoration
2. the continuation of the COLLECTIVE FEMININE SINGULAR
everlasting love. . .lovingkindness These are covenant terms and promises. God wants His exiled people to know He has not forsaken them.
1. everlasting love – BDB 12 CONSTRUCT 761, see Special Topic: Forever (‘olam)
2. lovingkindness – BDB 338, see Special Topic: Lovingkindness (Hesed)
Jer 31:4 The things asserted in Jer 31:4-5 are the very things that were taken with them into the exile.
O virgin of Israel This phrase is used several times in the OT (cf. Jer 31:21; Jer 14:17; Jer 18:13; Jer 46:11; Amo 5:2). God’s people have committed spiritual adultery (cf. Jer 31:22 b). God forgives and restores them. The title Israel is used in three ways in this chapter.
1. as a reference to Jacob
2. as the whole nation of his descendants
3. as the northern ten tribes also called Ephraim or Samaria
Jer 31:5 hills of Samaria This was the site of the capital of the northern kingdom built by Omri. Jer 31:5-6 speak to the area of the northern tribes, Israel.
enjoy This VERB literally means profane (BDB 320, KB 319, Piel PERFECT). It is a reference to the OT custom of offering first fruits to God (cf. Lev 19:23-25; Deu 20:6). Here profane means to use for normal consumption. The first four years’ fruit and then the first ripened fruit of the following years were symbolically given to YHWH in order to show His ownership of all the crops. However, here the phrase is metaphorical for a long extended period of peace and abundance (cf. Deuteronomy 28).
Jer 31:6 Ephraim This is a reference to the northern ten tribes who had by Jeremiah’s day already been exiled by Assyria (722 B.C.). It went by several names after the united monarchy under Saul, David, and Solomon split in 922 B.C.
1. Israel (a collective term)
2. Samaria (their capital)
3. Ephraim (their largest tribe)
To keep Ephraim from returning to Zion to worship YHWH, Jeroboam I set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan (i.e., alternate sites of temples to YHWH). They were turned into sites of Ba’al worship but now they no longer exist!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
At the same time: i.e. in the latter days (Jer 30:24).
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
of = to.
all. Not Judah alone.
they shall be My People. Reference to Pentateuch (Lev 26:12). App-92. Compare Jer 30:22.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
This time shall we turn in our Bibles to Jer 31:1-40 .
Now there are those who say that God has cast off Israel as a nation forever, and that all of the blessings, all of the covenants and all of the promises that God made to this nation are now fulfilled in the church. That we have become Israel after the Spirit and being spiritual Israel, God has forsaken the nation itself and is now pouring out all of the blessings that He had promised through His covenant upon the church. Now this teaching creates all kinds of problems as far as your views of eschatology, because immediately it places the church in the Great Tribulation.
Now as we were in the thirtieth chapter of Jeremiah we found out where God speaks of the nation Israel going to be in the Great Tribulation and experiencing that time of Jacob’s trouble. But it is our view and strong conviction that the church will not be in the Great Tribulation, inasmuch as the Great Tribulation is the time of God’s wrath being poured out upon the church, I mean, upon the world, and the Lord said that we have not been appointed-that is, the church-unto wrath.
So as we get into chapter 31, it is more or less a continuation of chapter 30. For he said,
At the same time ( Jer 31:1 ),
At what time? As you go back to verse Jer 31:24 of chapter 30, he declares, “The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has done it, and has performed the intents of His heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it” ( Jer 30:24 ). “At that same time,” that would be, then, the latter days.
saith the LORD ( Jer 31:1 ),
When God again restores the nation Israel to a place of divine favor and love. “At that same time, saith the Lord.”
will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people ( Jer 31:1 ).
Now, in the ninth chapter of Daniel, Daniel was seeking the Lord concerning the repatriation of the Jews back to their land after the seventy years of Babylonian captivity. The whole ninth chapter of Daniel begins with the fact that Daniel had been reading the prophecies of Jeremiah and he discovered by the words of Jeremiah that the time that God had ordained the Babylonian captivity was seventy years. And realizing that these seventy years were about over, Daniel began to pray unto the Lord confessing his sins and the sins of the nation and the righteousness of God and the judgment and in this period of seventy years that they have been in exile in Babylon.
And as Daniel was in prayer, the angel of the Lord came unto him and declared unto him that he was highly blessed and favored of the Lord. And that the Lord had said unto Daniel to give to him wisdom and understanding as regards to the nation Israel and its future. And He said, “Know and understand that from the time the commandment that there are seventy sevens that are determined upon the nation Israel, to finish the transgressions, to make an end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to complete the prophetic picture, to anoint the most holy One, or the most holy place, and to bring in the everlasting kingdom,” seventy sevens. “But know and understand that from the time the commandment goes forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto the coming of the Messiah the prince will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens, or sixty-nine seven-year periods or 483 years” ( Dan 9:25 ). And of course, it was 483 years from the time the commandment went forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of Jesus Christ in His triumphant entry. He came 483 years to the day from the commandment went forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
Now that takes care of sixty-nine of the sevens. But we have one seven-year period unaccounted for. He said, “After the Messiah is revealed, He will be cut off without receiving the kingdom or without receiving anything for Himself” ( Dan 9:26 ) And the Jews will be dispersed, and that is exactly what happened. Christ came at the appointed time, but rather than being anointed, and rather than ushering in at that moment the everlasting kingdom, and rather than completing all of the prophecies, the Messiah was cut off. He did bring reconciliation for our iniquities by His death upon the cross. He has reconciled us to God. And He did make an end of sin. He did finish sin as far as we are concerned, making that reconciliation for us. But the latter three prophecies were not fulfilled and wait a yet future date for fulfillment. The Messiah was cut off. And then He went on to say, “And the prince of the people that shall come will make a covenant with the nation Israel. But in the midst of that seven-year period, he will break the covenant and establish the abomination which causes desolation. And until the end desolation is determined” ( Dan 9:26 ).
Daniel then went on, told about the seventieth week, but he did make a definite break between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth week. And there has been a definite break. When Jesus was cut off, not for Himself but for the people, and when He was cut off without receiving the kingdom, the Jews were dispersed and have been dispersed into all of the world until in the past generation the Zionist movement as they’ve gone back and are going back to their homeland and have established as of May 1948 a homeland.
Now Jesus having made reference to Daniel’s prophecy in Mat 24:1-51 in response to the question of the disciples, “What will be the sign of Your coming and the end of the age?” He said, “Now when you see the abomination of desolation that was spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, then flee to the wilderness” ( Mat 24:15-16 ). What is the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet? Is when the antichrist, this prince of the people that shall come, will come into the temple and stand in that holy place of the temple and creates the abomination of desolation by declaring that he is God, stopping the daily prayers and sacrifices, and demanding that he be worshipped as God. Paul the apostle speaks of this in the second chapter of Thessalonians, how that he will stand in the temple of God declaring himself to be God and demanding to be worshipped as God.
Now Jesus gave this as part of the sign of the end of the age and His coming. And He is talking again to the Jews and He said, “When you see this happen, and let him who reads understand, then flee to the wilderness. Pray that your flight will not be on the Sabbath day or the new moon. Don’t bother to go home to get your clothes, just get out of there as quickly as you can” ( Mat 24:15-20 ). Of course in Revelation, we are told that God will give them wings of the angel to bear them to the wilderness place where they will be nourished for three-and-a-half years. So there is one seven-year period in which God is going to be dealing with the nation Israel once again. Seventy sevens were determined on the nation; sixty-nine of them have been fulfilled. We are still waiting for the seventieth seven to be determined, or that seventieth seven to be fulfilled. It will not be fulfilled until the church is taken out of here.
Right now God’s Spirit is resting upon the church and the church is God’s instrument upon the earth. But the Lord is going to take His church out and when He does, then He will put His Spirit again upon the nation Israel and He’ll begin to deal with them once more nationally. God has not cast off Israel forever. God is going to deal with them yet and they shall yet become the covenant people of God. The seven years that God is dealing with them will be a time, as Jeremiah writes here in the thirtieth chapter, of Jacob’s trouble. It’s not going to be an easy period. It’s going to be very difficult. They are going to be driven from their land once again. And there’s going to be another holocaust, unfortunately, as Satan vents his anger against these people who were God’s instrument of bringing the Messiah into the world. And through the antichrist will seek to make war against Israel to destroy these people completely. So at the end of that seven-year period, then Jesus will return again and they will receive, recognize and honor Him as their Savior, as their Messiah, as their Lord, and we will be united with them in the kingdom as we serve the Lord.
So, “At that same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel and they shall be My people.”
Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee ( Jer 31:2-3 ).
So God speaks of His love for Israel, an everlasting love. And with lovingkindness He has drawn them.
Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria ( Jer 31:4-5 ):
Now that’s the West Bank. So notwithstanding all of the political hassle that’s being made over it, now it’s still going to be Israel’s. And they’re going to plant vines there in Samaria in the West Bank.
the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things. For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God ( Jer 31:5-6 ).
When Christ comes and establishes the kingdom and sits there upon His throne on mount Zion.
For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country [Russia], and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travails with child together: a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn ( Jer 31:7-9 ).
That’s an interesting statement for God to declare that Ephraim was His firstborn, because we remember from the story that Manasseh was actually the firstborn. They were twins and Manasseh… or no, they were brothers, Joseph’s sons. And Manasseh was the older and yet God said Ephraim is My firstborn. So firstborn does not mean the first to be born as far as a space of time, but it means first in prominence or has the pre-eminence of those that were born. And that causes us to understand other scriptures which are used by the Jehovah Witnesses to try to prove that Jesus is not the Son of God or is not God manifested in the flesh.
Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock ( Jer 31:10 ).
Now this is God’s promise. He says, “Proclaim it! I scatter them, but I’m going to gather them again.”
For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, there’ll be wheat, and wine, and oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all ( Jer 31:11-12 ).
That glorious day when they are received again and joined unto God and to His Son Jesus Christ.
Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD. Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children and refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not ( Jer 31:13-15 ).
Now Matthew in the New Testament takes this as a prophecy of Herod killing all of the children two years old and under at the time of the birth of Christ, in order that he might destroy the king that was born that the wise men from the east came looking for him. “And Joseph being warned by the angel in a dream to flee to Egypt with the child had left Bethlehem and Herod had ordered all of the children two years and under to be slain in Bethlehem, that,” Matthew said, “the prophecy might be fulfilled which declared, ‘Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are not'” ( Mat 2:13 , Mat 2:17-18 ). And so he sees that as a prophecy of this period in which Herod ordered the slaying of the children.
Now I would not in reading through this see that this was a prediction of that event. But I accept that it is, because Matthew by the Holy Spirit declares that it is. And the New Testament is really the best commentary we have on the Old Testament. And it is interesting to me in the prophecies concerning Jesus Christ how these things are just sort of hid here and yet those enlightened by the Holy Spirit suddenly see them and they see their fulfillment in the Lord. And just in reading this in its context we are really talking about a yet future event, and yet, by the Holy Spirit Matthew says this was fulfilled and was a prediction of Herod’s slaying of the innocent children.
Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy ( Jer 31:16 ).
So God promises the restoration, coming out from the land of the enemy.
And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border ( Jer 31:17 ).
So you’ve got hope. You’re going to be coming back again into the borders of the country.
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself declaring; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely will have mercy upon him, saith the LORD ( Jer 31:18-20 ).
Now listen how God speaks about a wayward son Ephraim. Not as this, “I cast him off forever. I’m through with him. I disinherit him. I disown him.” But God did speak of the judgment that was going to come upon him. “I spoke against him, but I earnestly remember him still.” And actually, “I inwardly am groaning for him. And I will surely have mercy upon him.”
Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. How long will you go about, O you backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness ( Jer 31:21-23 ).
This will be again declared, “Oh, the Lord bless thee.” And He says, “I will use this speech in the land of Judah in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity, as they declare, ‘The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.'”
Now, of course, there is also another thing here and that is in this present-day re-gathering into Israel, the use again of the Hebrew language. After they returned from the Babylonian captivity, Hebrew was not the general language in Israel any longer. But they spoke Aramaic and they spoke Greek. But they did not really speak Hebrew. Only the scholars, the scribes and all, spoke Hebrew. All of the children growing up in Babylon in the two generations in Babylon the kids didn’t bother to learn the Hebrew language. And so they just were, of course, were in the Babylon schools and playing with their boyfriends and girlfriends and all there in Babylon, and they just picked up the Aramaic and of course that became the language when they returned, the common language. But it is interesting as a part of the modern Zionist movement was when in their return to the land they established again Hebrew as the national language of the land. Everybody learns Hebrew when they go back and they speak Hebrew there. And so they’re again using this speech of Hebrew and declaring, “The Lord bless thee,” in Hebrew, “O habitation of justice.”
And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in the cities thereof together, husbandmen, shepherds who will be going forth with their flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house ( Jer 31:24-27 )
As he thought about this, Jeremiah awoke as God was speaking to him these things, and it was just a beautiful thing to realize God’s restoration of the people. He was facing… they were facing, then, their destruction. And yet God took him beyond the dark period of history that was right upon them and out to the end really and the glorious restoration of God’s grace and love upon the people.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD ( Jer 31:27-28 ).
Now if you go back to the first chapter of Jeremiah when God is calling Jeremiah to his prophetic ministry, the Lord said unto Jeremiah, verse Jer 31:10 of chapter 1, “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.” So he was to prophesy that destruction that was going to come upon these people. And now God declares, “I’ve watched over them to pluck them up, to break them down, to throw them down, to destroy and to afflict, but I will also watch over them to build and to plant.” So God’s restoration of His work with the nation Israel.
In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be on edge ( Jer 31:29-30 ).
Now they had this proverb, and basically the proverb was trying to blame the fathers for all of the calamities instead of accepting responsibility yourself.
When I was a kid it was all the responsibility for the bad things that went on were laid on the kids. We were held responsible for those things that we were doing. When I became an adult then they changed. They said it was all the parents’ fault. So I’ve got sort of got it both directions. Got it when I was a kid, and now I’m getting it when I’m an adult, as they blamed now the adults for all of the problems with the children. They say that personality equals heredity, environment, and time. And the formula that they use is P=HET. Personality equals heredity, environment, and time. And there’s quite a discussion now on how much is heredity, how much is environment, and how much making up your personality. But it always seems that there is that endeavor to throw the blame for my faults onto somebody else. Man does not like to take responsibility for his own actions. And if I can blame someone else for what I’ve done wrong, I’m always looking for a scapegoat. I’m always looking for someone to blame. For you see, I’m so perfect that if these other environmental things weren’t around me, I could be a perfect person. But it’s all of these annoyances and all that are around me that create this loss of temper and create these dumb things that I do. It’s not really my fault. It’s the kids have got the TV on too loud in the other room and that’s why I dropped the vase and broke it. It wasn’t really that I’m just a clumsy oaf; it was their fault, you know. And we’re always looking for someone to blame for our own weaknesses or our own failures.
And so this proverb became a very current, popular thing. And so they say, “Well, you know, my teeth are set on edge because my father ate sour grapes. And so my teeth are sharp and on edge, you know.” And blaming their fathers for their problems. He said, “That’s a proverb they’re not going to be using anymore. Every man’s going to be responsible for his own action.” And in truth, we are each of us when we stand before God, we’re responsible for our own actions. We can’t say, “Well, my dad was a mess. I couldn’t relate to you as a father because my dad was such a horrible father, you know.” That won’t go. You’re going to have to answer to God for what you’ve done. You are responsible for what you have done.
Now, there have been religious groups that have tried to take responsibility off of you. And they say, “Well, we’ll be your shepherd, you know, and we’ll be responsible for you.” People really gathered after them like everything because we like to escape responsibility for our own actions. People say, “Well, it’s the devil that made you do it, you know.” Oh, that’s great, make him responsible. No, I am responsible for what I do and I’m going to have to answer to God for what I have done. And when I come before God, I can’t say, “Well, my dad ate sour grapes. That’s why my teeth were on edge.” I’ll have to just answer to God for what I am, for what I’ve done, even as you are going to have to answer to God and you can’t find a scapegoat. You can’t lay the blame on anybody else. Every man will answer for himself.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, saith the LORD ( Jer 31:31-32 ):
I’m going to make a new covenant. Not like the covenant that I made.
Now what was the covenant that He made with them? When they came out of Egypt, they came to mount Sinai and there God gave them the law and God said when He gave them the law, “He that doeth these, he that liveth by these things and doeth them shall be My people.” So the covenant that God made with them first was a covenant that was predicated upon their obedience to that law. Now they broke that covenant, God said. They didn’t obey the law. God gave to them the Ten Commandments; they broke them. They did not keep them. So God said, “I’m going to make a new covenant with them. In that day I’ll make a new covenant. Not like the old covenant that was predicated upon their obedience and their faithfulness to obey the law. And I will be their God and they will be My people, and so forth, if they live by these things and do these things.”
But what is the new covenant?
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people ( Jer 31:33 ).
That is, I will give them a change of attitude within. I will give them a change of heart. It will not be an outward law that is forcing me obedience, but now it is a new covenant where God writes His law in my heart by creating in me a new nature. Now that’s, of course, exactly what God has done for us. That’s what Christianity is all about. Jesus said, “You’ve got to be born again. You were born of the flesh, but you’ve got to be born of the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Don’t marvel that I say you’ve got to be born again” ( Joh 3:3 , Joh 3:6-7 ). You need to have this new nature. And when you have this new nature, God then writes His law in your heart. You have a whole new desire, a whole new… You have such a change. It’s from within and the desire for the things of the Lord as He writes His law upon my heart. And this new covenant that God has established with us through Jesus Christ, it’s the same thing-the change of nature. Born again by the Spirit, a new nature after Christ Jesus.
And it is so important that we be born again, because we cannot keep that first covenant that God established. The law, we’ve all broken it. We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So God has established this new covenant. The old covenant was established upon man’s faithfulness to obey the law. The new covenant is established upon God’s faithfulness to justify us by our faith in Jesus Christ. The old covenant failed because it was predicated upon man. The new covenant will stand because it is predicated upon God’s work.
And so we have this new covenant that God has established with us and also will establish with the house of Israel in that day. They are still trying to relate to God under the old covenant, but not completely. They no longer have any sacrifice, which was required of God to put away their sins. And so they’re still seeking to relate to God outside of the covenant through Jesus Christ whereby our sins are taken away.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more ( Jer 31:34 ).
What a glorious covenant. God having forgiven our iniquities, not remembering our sins.
Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divides the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever ( Jer 31:35-36 ).
If you will stop the day and the night, the ordinances of the moon and the stars and all, then Israel will cease from being a nation before the Lord.
Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel even to the gate of the corner. And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall encircle it to Goath. And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever ( Jer 31:37-40 ).
It is interesting these hills and so forth that are described here as being a part of the city of Jerusalem are indeed all within the city of Jerusalem today. The city has been expanded out to these areas that are referred to here in Jeremiah.
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Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Jer 31:1. At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
During the Israelites banishment to Babylon, Gods covenant with them had been as it were in abeyance, but in this promise of their restoration he brings it to the front again, and he gives a peculiarly gracious turn to it: I will be the God of all the families of Israel. What a mercy it is to have a family God, and to have our whole family in Christ! Brethren, you have a family Bible, and you have, I hope, a family altar; may your whole family belong to God!
Jer 31:2. Thus saith the LORD, the people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
Pharaoh tried to kill Israel; when he drew his sword, it looked as if the whole nation would be slain. But God got them away from Pharaoh into the wilderness, and there he caused them to rest. God still teas a people whom he will certainly save, and the adversary shall not be able to destroy them. Now comes this glorious verse:-
Jer 31:3-4. The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built,
Jerusalem was all broken down, her houses were vacant, and her palaces were in ruins, but Gods promise to her was, Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built. If the preacher tries to rebuild those who are spiritually broken down, his work may be a failure; but when God does it, it is effectually done.
Jer 31:4. O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tablets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
God can take away his peoples sorrow, and fill them with exultant joy. Their flying feet shall follow the flying music, and they shall be exceeding glad. May the Lord make his people joyful now in his house of prayer!
Jer 31:5. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.
Gods people shall get to work again; and they shall have the fruit of their toil, and shall rejoice before God because they do not labour in vain nor spend their strength for nought.
Jer 31:6. For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.
The men of Ephraim did not go up to Zion to worship, they forsook the one altar at Jerusalem; but the day will come when they will turn again to the Lord. Watchmen have to be on the look-out for enemies, but the day will come when even they shall be able to leave their watch-towers and to say, Let us go up to Zion unto Jehovah our God. Are any of you watching just now with anxious eyes? Have you been watching all through the night? Well, you have not seen much, and your eyes ache with looking out for evil; so drop your watching now, and say one to another, Let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God.
Jer 31:7-8. For thus saith the LORD Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nation, publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them-
Notice the prayer and the answer. The prayer is put into our mouths, and before we hardly have time to utter it, the answer comes: O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them-
Jer 31:8.From the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame,
How can they come? Will they help one another? God himself will be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
Jer 31:8. The woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.
They were not fit for traveling, yet God in his great mercy can make the feeblest of his people strong, and when he means to bring them to himself, they shall come even though it looks as if they could not come.
Jer 31:9. They shall come with weeping,-
Never mind the weeping so long as they do but come, and remember that there is no true faith without the tear of repentance in its eye: They shall come with weeping,-
Jer 31:9. And with supplications will I lead them:
The way of prayer is the way home to God.
Jer 31:9. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble:
Happy are the people who have such precious promises as these. The way is to be straight, and their feet are to be so firmly planted in it that they shall not stumble.
Jer 31:9-11. For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob.
The secret of every other blessing is redemption. If God has redeemed he will save, depend upon it; the precious blood of Jesus shall neer be shed in vain.
Jer 31:11-12. And ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come-
If they are redeemed, they shall come. Christ did not die in vain; the redemption that he wrought must be effectual; therefore they shall come-
Jer 31:12. And sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd:
These are all temporal mercies, and it is a great blessing to see Gods goodness in them. If God blesses common mercies, they are blessings indeed; but without his blessing they may become idols, and so may become curses.
Jer 31:12. And their soul shall be as a watered garden;
What a delightful simile! It is of little use for the body to be fed unless the soul also is well nourished: Their soul shall be as a watered garden;
Jer 31:12-14. And they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness,
God will give the spiritual leaders of his people enough and more than enough, more than they can take in, he will satiate them with fatness.
Jer 31:14. And my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.
What a delightful promise this is! Listen to it and carry it home, all of you who are truly the Lords people.
Jer 31:15. Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
There is here a prophetic allusion to the massacre of the infants by Herod at the time of the birth of our Lord. It was a time of sorrow indeed.
Jer 31:16-17. Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD: and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD that thy children shall come again to their own border.
As Rachel is represented as weeping for her children, so is she represented as mourning for the tribes that were carried away into captivity, yet is she comforted with the Lords gracious assurance, . they shall come again from the land of the enemy. So they did, and there is to be a glorious future yet for the people of God of the ancient race of Abraham.
Jer 31:18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus;
There is never a penitent in this world bemoaning himself without God hearing him. Do not think that a single penitential cry ever rises unheeded from a contrite heart. That cannot be; God has a quick ear for the cries of penitents.
Jer 31:18. Thou hast chastened me, and I was chastened, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke:
I bore the chastisement, but derived no benefit from it. I have not repented of my sin, I have not turned unto thee.
Jer 31:18. Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.
If the Lord undertakes to turn us, we shall be truly turned, that is, converted.
Jer 31:19. Surety after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, 1 smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
Are there any here recollecting the past with terror, and lamenting before God because of their sins? Then hear what God says. He seems to echo the voice of Ephraim. As Ephraim bemoans himself, God bemoans him:-
Jer 31:20. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child?
You might expect the answer to be, No, he has lost the rights of childhood; he has been unpleasant and provoking to God, yet God does not give such an answer as that to his own questions, but he says:-
Jer 31:20. For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still;
Notwithstanding that the Lord threatened him, and sent prophets to foretell evil to him because of his sin, yet he says, I do earnestly remember him still;-
Jer 31:20. Therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him saith the LORD.
What a wonderful speech for God to make! Even the infinitely-blessed God represents himself as in trouble concerning penitent sinners, remembering them in pity, and longing to have mercy upon them.
Jer 31:21. Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
In crossing the desert, travelers raise little cairns of stone that they may be directed on a future occasion, across that pathless sea of sand; and so God bids them set up waymarks, and make high heaps, that they may know how to come back to him.
Jer 31:22. How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter?
God still asks in pity, how long will you seek here and there for comfort?
You will never find it till you come back to your God. Emptiness is written upon everything till the heart comes to its Saviour and Lord.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Jer 31:1
Jer 31:1
At that time, saith Jehovah, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
The first phrase here ties the whole chapter to the times of the Messiah. Both the Northern and Southern Israels will be accepted in the kingdom of Christ, as will everyone else on earth who desires to serve God.
The purposes of a Sovereign God Jer 30:23 to Jer 31:1
The Hebrew chapter division places Jer 31:1 as the last verse of chapter 30. The three verses of this paragraph serve to point to the purpose of God in history. Jer 30:23-24 are almost identical with the threat made against the false prophets in Jer 23:19 f. Here the words apply to the Gentile enemies of Israel and particularly wicked Babylon. The wrath of God like a whirlwind goes forth to execute the intents of His heart. He will not relent until (a) evil has been punished and (b) the families or clans of Israel acknowledge His lordship. Only in the latter days, after the judgment against Babylon has been accomplished, will the people of God fully comprehend the sovereign purposes of God. The latter days as envisioned by the Old Testament seers commenced with the coming of Jesus Christ. See Heb 1:1; Act 2:16-17; 1Ti 4:1; 2Ti 3:1; 1Jn 2:18.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Continuing, the Prophet dealt with the issues of restoration. He first described the restoration of the city. After affirming the ancient love of Jehovah for His people, he foretold the building of the city, and the planting of “vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria,” proceeding to describe the return to the city and the country of the penitent people. He then turned to the surrounding nations, and declared to them the fact that Jehovah had ransomed and redeemed Jacob, foretold their prosperity and rejoicing, and the absolute satisfaction with which He would fill them.
The next movement tells of the passing of sorrow. The prophet first described that sorrow, and then uttered the promise of Jehovah which was intended to assuage the grief and stay the tears. He put into the mouth of Ephraim the language which indicated his sense of the meaning of his chastisement, and declared his repentance, and again affirmed God’s memory on him and determination to have mercy on him. He then broke in on the poem with an urgent appeal to the people to turn from backsliding into the way of God’s restoration.
Taking up the song again, he celebrated the new contentment which would take possession of the people in the day of return. It would be contentment with the divine government and administration. All the proverbs which seemed to reflect upon Jehovah would be abandoned. He then described the new covenant out of which the new contentment would grow. It would no longer be like the external one made with the fathers, but spiritual and internal, and based on an intimate knowledge of Jehovah.
The last movement of the song consists of the prophet’s statement of the oath of restoration in which Jehovah appealed to the signs in the heavens, and repeated His promise of deliverance.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Ungrateful Forgetfulness
Jer 2:1-8; Jer 26:1-24; Jer 27:1-22; Jer 28:1-17; Jer 29:1-32; Jer 30:1-24; Jer 31:1-40; Jer 32:1-44
God regarded Israel as His bride, who had responded to His love, or as a vineyard and cornfield which were expected to yield their first fruits in response to the careful cultivation of the owner. Why had they failed to respond? For the answer let us question our own hearts. What marvels of perversity and disappointment we are! Who can understand or fathom the reason of our poor response to the yearning love of Christ! The heathen, in their punctilious devotion and lavish sacrifices at their idol-shrines, may well shame us. The root of the evil is disclosed in Jer 2:31. We like to be lords, to assume and hold the mastery of our lives. But God has been anything but a wilderness to us. He has given us ornaments, and we owe to His grace the garments of righteousness which He has put on us. In return we have forgotten Him days without number, Jer 2:32. Let us ask Him to call us back-nay more, to draw us by the chains of love.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter 31 continues the general subject, dwelling more particularly upon the deliverance of the righteous remnant, and the establishment of the new covenant with them.
“At that time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people” (Jer 31:1). The Loammi sentence of Hos 1:9 will be forever repealed, for it is written: “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God” (Hos 1:10).
Thus saith the Lord: The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest” (Jer 31:2).
The faithful remnant in the latter day are doubtless referred to. By Ezekiel a similar message is given:
“I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people” (or nations), “and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord” (Eze 20:34-38).
In that unparalleled tribulation period, referred to in Mat 24:21, the apostates of Israel will be destroyed by the judgment of the Lord; after which, those who have faithfully sought to walk in His ways will be established in the land.
All this, however, is pure grace; for it is His own loving-kindness that shall attract their hearts to Himself. Hence we read:
“The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee” (Jer 31:3).
It is His eternal love for them, not theirs for Him, that insures their final blessing. So with us: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1Jn 4:10). When in us, as in Israel, there was naught to draw out that love, save, indeed, our deep and bitter need, He set His heart upon us and wooed us for Himself. In this way had He dealt with His earthly people; and having once set His affections upon them, He will never give them up.
“Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry” (Jer 31:4).
For centuries their harps have been hung upon the willows, for “how can they sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” (Psa 137:4) But soon the scene of the dance and song led by Miriam on the banks of the Red Sea shall be repeated in grander, fuller measure, when all their enemies are overthrown forever. In that day also they “shall yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things” (Jer 31:5).
The temple at Jerusalem will be rebuilt on a scale of magnificence previously unknown, and the tribes shall once more gather there to celebrate the feasts of the Lord.
“For there shall be a day that the watchmen Upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God. For thus saith the Lord: Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel” (Jer 31:6-7). The “time of the singing” (Son 2:12) will have truly come, when the Lord shall turn again the captivity of His people.
“Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind, and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My first-born” (Jer 31:8-9).
GOD was not revealed as Father in an individual sense in the Old Testament.
– To Abraham He was known as the Almighty, or the All-Sufficient;
– To Moses, as the Lord; prophetically, as the Most High;
– To the remnant in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, as the GOD of heaven.
The Lord JESUS it was who revealed the Father to us – My Father and your Father,” (Joh 20:17) He says. This is blessedly individual. Each saint is a child, and can cry by the Spirit, “Abba, Father.” (Gal 4:6) Nationally, Israel was His son. As so recognizing them, He is spoken of as Father, but in no nearer sense. “Doubtless thou art our Father,” the future remnant are entitled to say, “though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; Thy name is from everlasting” (Isa 63:16).
In the book we are studying we have already noticed the Lord’s pathetic appeal: “Wilt thou not from this time cry unto Me, my Father, Thou art the guide of my youth? (Jer 3:4).
As a Father, often grieved but loving still, He will rejoice over them when once more they ask the way to Zion.
“Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock” (Jer 31:10).
No temporary restoration can be here contemplated; no gathering to allow of scattering again; but they shall be brought back to be kept by the faithful “Shepherd of Israel,” nevermore to wander from the fold.
“For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he” (Jer 31:11).
He has never given up His purpose of redemption. As a nation they were sheltered by blood from judgment and redeemed by power from Pharaoh’s thralldom, when He brought them out of Egypt. He has contemplated them ever since from that standpoint.
His grace cannot admit of failure to bring them into fulness of blessing at last, however much their ways may have necessitated chastisement in the interim. When brought safely through the time of Jacob’s trouble, they will sing the song both of Moses and of the Lamb (Revelation 15). Their final deliverance is intimately connected with their salvation from bondage in the past.
“Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, saith the Lord” (Jer 31:12-14).
It is an utterly false system of exegesis that would spiritualize all this, and then apply it to the Church in this dispensation. The language is plain and simple. It is a millennial picture, descriptive of the joy of Messiah’s kingdom when set up in this world.
In Jer 31:15-17 we have the tribulation period once more referred to, with comforting assurances of blessing eventually. We know well that the words of verse 15 are referred by the Holy Ghost to the slaughter of the infants in Bethlehem, under Herod’s cruel edict. “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping, for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.” (Comp. Mat 2:17-18). That was a similar case and an apt fulfilment of the passage, but the two following verses make it evident that a second and more complete fulfillment is contemplated; for it is distinctly stated that the children of which Rachel is bereft shall “come again from the land of the enemy,” (Jer 31:16) and that they “shall come again to their own border.” (Jer 31:17) It is captivity, and not alone slaughter, that is contemplated. This twofold application of prophecy is very common in Scripture, as witness Peter’s citation from the prophet Joel on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). The words will have a fuller performance in the last days in connection with the ushering in of the kingdom.
From verses 18 to 21 the repentance of the ten tribes (often referred to under the name Ephraim, as the two tribes are included in the term Judah) is vividly depicted.
“I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; for Thou art the Lord my God” (Jer 31:18).
Hosea had declared that “Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer” (Hos 4:16). This is here taken up as their own confession, but they turn to the One so long refused and sinned against. In true self-judgment Ephraim is heard to exclaim, “Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth” (Jer 31:19).
It is the acknowledgment of the Lord’s grace in bringing them back. Smiting on the thigh is, I judge, an expression symbolizing the entering once more into covenant. This breathing after Himself is at once responded to by the Lord, who exclaims:
“Is Ephraim My dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore My bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord” (Jer 31:20).
Hence the call to take the highway leading back from the lands of the nations to their ancestral home in Palestine. “Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thy heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, o virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities” (Jer 31:21). How boundless the grace that owns as a virgin the people that had been so horribly polluted!
“How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man” (Jer 31:22).
The so-called “Fathers” were wont to apply this verse to the incarnation. The woman, with them, was the Virgin Mary: the man, her Holy Son. This, however, seems to be quite unwarranted and dubiously fanciful as an interpretation. Is it not more likely that the woman referred to is the virgin of Israel of the preceding passage? In that case the man would possibly be the symbol of power in the hands of the Gentile. (See Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2). Israel, weak as a woman, shall compass, or overcome, the power of the nations. This would harmonize with the context. The verse is confessedly difficult and the meaning obscure.
“Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness. And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and have replenished every sorrowful soul” (Jer 31:23-25).
When could Jerusalem have been referred to as the “habitation of justice and the mountain of holiness” (Jer 31:23) in the five centuries following the return by permission of Cyrus? Beyond all contradiction these are promises yet to be made good. They refer to Judah, not the Church; therefore the Jews must be brought back to their land and established there in the fear of the Lord if this word is to be carried out. “The Scripture cannot be broken.” (Joh 10:35)
Our prophet has been like a man in slumber while this vision of future glory and rest was unfolded to him. He is now aroused and his heart filled with a sweet, trusting peace as he enters into the purpose of GOD for his people. “Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me” (Jer 31:26). The few verses following recall at once the parable of the sour grapes uttered by Ezekiel at about the same time.
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast . . . And I will watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord. In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge” (Jer 31:27-30).
In Ezekiel 18 we find that this proverb had become a common one on the lips of the people of Judah. Blind to their own sins, they attributed their misfortunes to the Lord’s anger because of the evil doings of their fathers. This was far from being the case, as both Ezekiel and Jeremiah testify. Their own sins had drawn down condign judgment. They had eaten the sour grapes, therefore were their teeth set on edge. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Eze 18:20) This they will be brought to confess in the time of their greatest sorrow; and as a result, we find the Lord sowing them once more in their land; building and planting, whereas before He had been obliged to pluck up and afflict.
Following on this, the new covenant will be made with them. It is important to note that while the blessings of the new covenant are ours, yet it is never said to be made with the Church. In the epistle to the Hebrews, as in the passage before us, it is distinctly stated that it is to be made with “the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Heb 8:8-13).
The Mediator of that covenant is the Lord JESUS CHRIST. The blood of the new covenant is that which He shed for our sins. Therefore believers now rejoice in the distinctive blessings it insures; but it is with the earthly, not with the heavenly, people that the covenant itself is to be made.
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord” (Jer 31:31-32).
It were folly to speak of a new covenant with the Church, when no former covenant had been made with us. In the case of Israel and Judah it is different. They entered into the covenant of works at Sinai. That covenant had two parties to it. If they did their part, GOD would fulfil His. Alas, on that ground they forfeited everything before ever the tables of the covenant were brought down from the mount! Legal righteousness they had none.
In the new covenant GOD alone is the responsible One; hence they are placed in the position of recipients. It is pure grace. As we, also, are saved on this ground, it is clear that the same principle is operative in both cases; but the new covenant, as such, has its place in connection with them alone.
We get the terms of it in the next two verses:
“But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer 31:33-34).
There is no possibility of failure here, because all the pledges are on GOD’s side.
This covenant, therefore, once made, shall never be abrogated. It is “an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.” (2Sa 23:5) Israel and Judah, one nation in the land – purged, repentant and forgiven – shall never more forfeit the Lord’s favor. Forever they shall be debtors to His grace.
“Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is His Name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever. Thus saith the Lord: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord” (Jer 31:35-37).
The vastness of the heavens above and the earth beneath set forth this immeasurable mercy to Israel. In the face of this passage, what possible ground is there left for those to stand upon who teach the ultimate rejection of the once-favored nation?
Mark: it is not here a promise to bring Israel into blessing through the Church, and by incorporation into it. It is their national existence that is pledged, and their blessing as Israelites – not as Christians. They must be restored to their land, recognized once more as a nation, and brought into complete subjection to the Lord, owning their once rejected Messiah as King and Saviour, or the prophecies of this chapter fall to the ground. All here is intensely literal.
Nothing could be more so than the remaining verses, which need no comment.
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner. And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath. And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever” (Jer 31:38-40).
To no period of the past can these words apply. In our Lord’s time the filthy stench of the valley of Hinnom still polluted the atmosphere. It was in no sense holy unto the Lord. To the future alone can we look for a fulfilment that shall accord with, and transcend, the promise.
“The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” (Isa 9:7)
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Jer 31:3
I. Divine love is a fact; there can be no doubt of the teaching of the Scripture on this subject. The God of the Bible is a God of love, He is a Father in heaven. He cares for us, He watches over us, He guides us, He saves us. This attitude of Divine love is the very core of the Gospel. It may be said to encounter two obstacles within us: our fears at times, and then, what seems the very opposite, our pride and self-confidence. (1) The instinct of conscious guilt is fear, and when the sense of sin is strongly awakened we are apt to turn away from God, and to feel as if God must hate us. But God never hates us. He hates our sins and will punish those sins. But in the very hatred of those sins there is the reality of Divine love. (2) Not only does our fear sometimes turn us away from the thought of God, but our self-sufficiency. We feel as if the powers of nature were strong in us, and the sense of sin dies down; we feel as if God would overlook our sins, and that we are not so sinful after all; we feel as if we might trust to His goodness, as if it were, so to speak, good nature. But this is equally inconsistent with true spiritual experience. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
II. God not only loves us; He loves us everlastingly. The fact of Divine love is not only sure in itself, it is never uncertain in incidence. Whatever appearance there may seem to the contrary, it is still there. The voice of God is not still because man does not hear it, and the love of. God is not gone because man does not feel it. It is still crying to us; it abides as an everlasting fact. “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.”
III. The love of God is individual; it is personal; it is the love of one loving heart to another; it is no mere impersonal conception of supreme benevolence; it is the love of a father to a child, the love of a mother to a daughter; it would not be love otherwise, for it is a distinguishing idea of love that it discriminates its object. “With lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”
J. Tulloch, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 209.
References: Jer 31:3.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiii., No. 1914; Ibid., Morning by Morning, pp. 60, 355; S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 5th series, No. vii.; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 153.
Jer 31:12
I. A watered garden suggests the idea of fragrant freshness. The prophet was contrasting the weary, dusty, withered aspect of Israel during the exile, with the fresh, bright, happy look of a recovered and ransomed nation. The characters and lives of the people of God ought to be marked by a similar freshness. Godliness tends to keep the soul from withering, and replenishes the springs of the deepest life. There is a perennial freshness in unselfish affections and unworldly aims. The “eternal life” never grows old. It is selfishness that fatigues the spirit, and robs it of its freshness; but so long as a human soul is pervaded by the love of God and the love of man, the human life cannot, for that soul, altogether lose its zest.
II. A “watered garden” suggests the idea of a varied beauty. In a well-kept garden there is beauty of colour and of form; beauty of order and of tasteful arrangement; beauty of stem and leaf and flower; and amongst the flowers themselves a varied beauty, resulting from manifold varieties of form and colour. And even so the characters and lives of the people of God ought to be marked by that which is attractive and sweet to look upon. There is need that men be attracted by the “beauty of holiness.” There are times when a man may get more good from the flowers of the garden than even from its fruits. The lovelier features of the Christian character have their own peculiar charm and peculiar power.
III. A watered garden suggests the idea of a rich fruitfulness. A gardener generally expects, not only flower and blossom, but also fruit, as the outcome of his toil. And certainly the lives of God’s people ought to be marked by a fruitfulness which ministers to the welfare and happiness of humanity. Israel was placed under a special culture for the glory of God, and for the benefit of the nations. And “herein,” says Christ to His disciples, “is My Father glorified that ye bear much fruit.”
F. Campbell Finlayson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 72.
References: Jer 31:12.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 276. Jer 31:15, Jer 31:16.-W. Walters, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., No. 102. Jer 31:16.-J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 234.
Jer 31:18
Compunctious visitings and repentant resolutions.
I. I will not enter now into what we may call the more exceptional regrets and remorses of sinful souls. Our Lord touches a different and a more thrilling chord when He makes the wanderer in His utmost destitution, think of the plenty of his home; compare what he might have been with what he is; and say, as he comes to himself, only just this, “How many hired servants of my father’s have had enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger?” This is the compunction which I would have to visit us.
II. The Resolution. “I will arise and go to my Father.” (1) Mark first how the repentant resolution speaks of God. “My Father.” Happy is he, who, in his remotest exile, in his uttermost destitution, still speaks, still thinks, of God as his Father. (2) “I will arise.” There is need of exertion. Sit still and thou art bound; sorry, but not contrite; miserable, but not repentant. There is a journey, though it be but in the soul’s going, and therefore there must be a rising, a rousing of the whole man, like that, which, in the days of the Son of God below, enabled one whose hand was withered, yet, at the Divine command, to stand forth and stretch it out. (3) “I will go.” Whither and how? (a) In prayer. The soul must arise and pray. Say, Father, I have sinned. Say it: He hears, (b) Go in effort. We must not trifle with or mock God, and therefore he who would pray must endeavour too. In particular, we must give up resolutely known sins. Give up your sin, is the first word of Christ to those who would return to their Father. (c) Go in the use of all means. God has furnished us with various means and instruments of access to Him. His Holy Word, public worship, Holy Communion. (d) “I will arise and go to my Father.” We must get to Him somehow. If we do not get to God Himself, we have done nothing after all.
C. J. Vaughan, Voices of the Prophets, p. 291.
Jer 31:18
I. Human life is established upon a disciplinary basis.
II. The value of discipline depends upon its right acceptance.
III. Application. (1) There is a yoke in sin. (2) There is a yoke in goodness. God helps the true yoke-bearer.
Parker, City Temple, vol. i., p. 369; see also Pulpit Notes, p. 177.
References: Jer 31:18.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 743. Jer 31:29.-H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1645. Jer 31:31-34.-A. B. Bruce, Expositor, 1st series, vol. x., p. 65.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 31
1. The home-going of the nation (Jer 31:1-9)
2. The joy of salvation (Jer 31:10-14)
3. The preceding tribulation, sorrow and repentance (Jer 31:15-21)
4. Assurance (Jer 31:22-26)
5. The new covenant (Jer 31:27-34)
6. The everlasting nation (Jer 31:35-40)
Jer 31:1-9. Sovereign grace will bring them back and give them the songs of salvation. It is true of Israel I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee; –it is equally true of us. What a day of joy it will be when they go back home once more, never to leave the old homeland again! Then the watchmen on mount Ephraim cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God. Can there be anything more touching and beautiful than Jer 31:8-9?
Jer 31:10-14. The nations are addressed. oh! that the great nations of today might have an ear to hear this message, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock. His promises made to Israel will not fail. The nations should understand, as they do not, that Israel will yet become the head of all the nations of the earth. What singing that will be in that day of which the prophet speaks (verse 12). What rejoicing after their sorrow! What fullness will be theirs!
Jer 31:15-21. Rachel weeping for her children (Jer 31:5) is quoted in Mat 2:1-23 in connection with the killing of the boys in Bethlehem. It has also a future fulfillment, when once more Satan will manifest his power as the murderer during the tribulation. But the promise, They shall come again from the land of the enemy and Thy children shall come again to their own border, clearly shows that captivity is likewise meant from which Rachels children (Joseph and Benjamin, i.e., Ephraim) shall return after the final tribulation and weeping. Physical resurrection is not in view here. Therefore, the next verse speaks of Ephraim moaning and in repentance. Then Gods gracious answer Is Ephraim my dear son?–I will surely have mercy upon him.
Jer 31:22-26. Backsliding Israel is exhorted and the assurance is given, A woman shall compass a man. It refers to Israel as the woman, the timid, weak, forsaken one, who now will compass a man: that is have power given unto her to become the ruler. (Some have translated this difficult passage, The woman shall be turned into a man.) Then follows the promise of assurance.
Jer 31:27-34. In the preceding verse we read that Jeremiah awoke, so that this message must have come to him in a vision by night, and sweet was his sleep. How refreshing must have been to his troubled soul this wonderful prophecy! The great prediction in these verses is the one concerning the new covenant. This covenant is not made with Gentiles, nor even with the church as so often erroneously stated. It is the new covenant to be made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. This is fully confirmed in the Epistle to Hebrews Heb 8:8-13. The old covenant is the law-covenant, which the Lord did not make with Gentiles, but with Israel exclusively. The new covenant is of grace. The ground of this new covenant is the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ, His blood, as we learn from His own words when He instituted the supper. He died for that nation, and therefore all Israel will yet receive the promised blessing of this new covenant. This prophecy is therefore still unfulfilled, for Israel does not enjoy this new covenant now. In the meantime, while Israel has not yet the blessings of this new covenant, Gentiles, who by nature are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, believing in Christ, possess the blessings of this new covenant to the full. In that coming day of Israels return, the nation, Israel and Judah, will be born again, know the Lord, and their sins will be remembered no more.
Jer 31:35-40. This word of Jehovah is a complete answer to those in Christendom who think that God has cast away Israel, that they are no longer the chosen people. The Lord makes a condition, If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all they have done saith the LORD. Neither has heaven been measured, neither has the depth of the earth been searched out, nor will this ever be accomplished. What a faithful covenant-keeping God He is! Jer 31:38-40 have never been fulfilled in the past.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
same: Jer 30:24
will: Jer 31:33, Jer 30:22, Jer 32:38, Gen 17:7, Gen 17:8, Lev 26:12, Psa 48:14, Psa 144:15, Isa 41:10, Eze 11:20, Eze 34:31, Eze 36:28, Eze 39:22, Zec 13:9, Joh 20:17, Heb 12:16
of: Jer 3:18, Jer 23:6, Jer 30:3, Jer 30:10, Jer 33:7, Jer 33:14, Jer 33:24-26, Jer 50:4, Isa 11:12, Isa 11:13, Eze 37:16-27, Hos 1:11, Zec 10:6, Zec 10:7, Rom 11:26-29
Reciprocal: Exo 20:2 – the Lord Lev 25:38 – and to be Deu 4:37 – because 2Sa 7:24 – art become 1Ki 18:31 – twelve stones 1Ch 17:24 – a God Psa 63:1 – thou Psa 67:6 – our own Psa 91:2 – my God Isa 45:11 – concerning my sons Jer 2:4 – all the families Jer 29:11 – thoughts Jer 31:32 – Not Eze 34:24 – I the Lord will Eze 37:11 – whole house Eze 37:23 – they be Eze 39:25 – the whole Eze 47:13 – Joseph Hos 2:14 – and speak Hos 11:9 – not execute Amo 3:1 – against Mic 5:3 – then Zec 8:8 – they shall be my 2Co 6:18 – a Father Heb 8:10 – I will be Heb 11:16 – to be
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 31:1. The first 14 verses should form a bracket and the general subject is the return of the Jews from captivity. Some special details of that event will be noticed in various places hence the verses will be commented upon in their order. At the same time refers to the event predicted in the last of the preceding chapter.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 31:1. At the same time, saith the Lord Namely, in the latter days, mentioned Jer 30:24. I will be the God of all the families of Israel Not of the two tribes only, but of all the tribes; not of the house of Aaron only and the families of Levi, but of all the families. And they shall be my people I will favour them, and do them good, and they shall be subject to, and shall worship and obey me. This second part of the prophecy, says Calmet, principally respects the return of the ten tribes. And I have shown, in a particular dissertation, that not only Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, but also the twelve tribes returned into their own country. Doubtless, many individuals of the ten tribes returned with the Jews from Babylon, having been incorporated among them in the several places where they were settled; yet this seems to have been only a very partial accomplishment of this prophecy, which, as Blaney observes, points out circumstances that certainly were not fulfilled at the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, nor have hitherto had their completion. But, in the latter days, when the fulness of the Gentiles are brought in, all Israel shall be saved; for, as Isaiah and St. Paul testify, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Isa 59:19; Rom 11:26-29. See note on Jer 30:10.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 31:1. At the same time, namely, as the last words of the preseding chapter, in the latter day. Here the subject is glorious, and the language sublime.
Jer 31:3. I have loved thee with a perpetual love. So Montanus, Pagninus, and the Munster bible read. This reading is also fully admitted by our Poole. See his Synopsis. Dilectione perpeta dilexi te. This is Gods grand promise of strong consolation to the church in her time of long captivity and trouble. Messiah is the speaker here, who appeared of old for the salvation of his people, and who will appear again. He has loved them even as the Father loved him.
Jer 31:5. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria, once polluted with the high places of Baal. The vine, like the bramble, delights in rich but rocky soil. Words of comfort, and comfort for the latter day.
Jer 31:6. Arise ye and let us go up to Zion, unto the Lord our God. The targum reads, Arise, you who desire the years of consolation, that is, the coming of Christ and his kingdom, as foretold by the prophets. Isaiah 11. Micah 4. Whenever Jeremiah refers to this hope, he is brief and delicate in his words. But the hope of Israel, their Saviour in the time of trouble, was like the rising sun, ever kept before the faithful in the ancient church.
Jer 31:14. I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness. When a nation or people are favoured with prosperity, they should be liberal to their pastors, in proportion as God has been bountiful to them.
Jer 31:15. Rachel weeping for her children. This tenderest of mothers was interred between Ramah and Bethlehem. Now, after the city was taken, Jeremiah was carried with the Jews, in chains to the camp at Ramah, and liberated by Nebuzaradan: chap. 40. Hence there was a bitter weeping by the Benjamites; and Rachel, who died in giving Benjamin birth, is by a fine figure of speech brought up from her grave to weep for her children, and to move heaven by tears to give the subsequent promises of grace. But there were other occasions of weeping for Rachel; namely, when Herod slew the infants at Bethlehem, when Titus took Jerusalem, and when Adrian utterly made it a ruin.
Jer 31:19. After I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh. This action designates the sublime of grief, or the sublime of anger. In such cases the blow would be too severe on the breast. When Ephraim remembered the glory he once enjoyed, now followed with servitude and shame, his anguish was too great for words to utter. Also when Ezekiel saw the sword devouring Jerusalem, he was directed to smite upon his thigh: Eze 21:12.
Homer, Iliad 15., ascribes this action to a god of martial race. Both his thighs he smote with his strong hands. I must revenge my slaughtered son, at the ships of the Argives. I must revenge my son in death, should dreadful fate decree my fall. Should I, transfixed by Joves red bolt, lie blasted amidst the dead, and roll at large in dust and blood.Macpherson.
This action is twice ascribed to Achilles. Once under imaginary wrongs, he smote his thigh and declared, if Greece in future should call for his aid, Greece should call in vain. Afterwards, being reconciled, when the Greeks had sustained a sore defeat, he smote on his thigh, and roused the chiefs to arms. Iliad 16.
Jer 31:22. The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth; a woman shall compass a man. Hebrews nekaibah tesobaib geber; a weak or little woman (that is, a woman not come to her full growth) shall compass a man; the Latin fmella is so understood. The word geber, not only denotes a man, but a mighty one. The prophet uses here the same word as Isaiah in Isa 9:6. El Gibber, the mighty God. The woman designates a virgin; modesty forbids us to think otherwise. The word denotes also an individual, being never used in scripture for the female sex in general. It likewise denotes a supernatural conception; else how could her pregnancy be called a new thing in the earth. It is called a creation in the earth, even in Ephraim, and not in Babylon. It is noted as already done: The Lord hath created. So Isaiah: Unto us a child is born. This Son is the Hope of Israel, the Healer of Ephraim; a Son given for a Covenant to the people, to pardon their sins, to take impenitent hardness from their hearts, and put his law in their inward parts. He was to call the gentiles, that all might know him from the least to the greatest. The Lord of Hosts is his name. Such is the language of all the prophets. And what but the Messiah could comfort Ephraim in all his anguish, as stated in Jer 31:6. On this point, the elder rabbins and christian doctors are agreed. In their book, Midrash Tillim, rabbi Huna quotes a saying of rabbi Idi, on the second Psalm, who says, when speaking of the Messiahs sufferings, God, when his hour is come, shall create him with a new creation, as indeed is indicated in the words, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee. These words, being often cited by the ancient rabbins, and twice by St. Paul, sufficiently indicate the depths of glory they contain.
The Arians are all at work here. But no fault can be found with the Hebrew text, nor variation of readings. Grotius admits that the christian fathers cite this text to prove the nativity of Christ of the virgin Mary, but adds,to me, it is not proved. Houbigant, playing the usual game, suspects that there is a small error in the text, and would read, The wife shall return to her husband. This is hardly decent, after Jeremiah in the verse before had called her a virgin. Blaney loses himself in the labyrinth of twenty turns, concerning a weak and feeble woman. A fourth adds, that though christian writers consider this as a prophecy of the miraculous conception of the holy virgin, I am sure no such meaning is in the text, nor in the context. It is most likely a proverbial expression.What! Did Jeremiah in all his anguish totally forget the promise of a Saviour! Hear, oh heavens, and give ear, oh earth!
Jer 31:29. The fathers have eaten sour grapes. This is a Hebrew proverb, equivalent to a more recent one: like father, like son. In judicial punishment the son does not suffer for the sins of the father. See Exo 20:5.
Jer 31:31. A new covenant, not so much in substance as in circumcision of the heart. Deu 30:6. The gospel was preached to the Jews of old, as well as to us; but the covenant is new in the abolition of sacrifices. New, as a law of unexampled love, of glory, grace, and remission of sins. New, in regard of gifts and graces shed down on the church. New, in regard of the removal of the veil, bringing life and immortality to light. New, in regard of its confirmation by the blood of Christa covenant of peace, never to be superseded.
Jer 31:32. Although I was a husband to them. Hebrews I rejected them. So the Hebrew is rendered, Lev 26:43; but Heb 8:9, I regarded them not. Jerome reads, Ego neglexi eos, I neglected them.
Jer 31:34. They shall all know me, from the least to the greatest of them, from the disciple to the teacher. The gospel was to begin with the poor of Galilee, and the poor saints in Judea, as the Lord said by Hosea: I will leave a poor and an afflicted people in the midst of thee, and they shall trust in the Lord.
Jer 31:38-39. The city shall be built to the Lord. The tower of Hananeel was on the northern corner of the city, and the valley was eastward. Gareb was mount Calvary on the west, and Goath was not far distant.
Jer 31:40. The whole valley of the dead bodies. The valley of the son of Hinnom, reaching to the Kedron.
It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down any more for ever. The language is here too strong to be restricted to Nehemiahs rebuilding the city; for that was often taken, and totally thrown down by the Romans. We must therefore understand the passage as a sublime prediction of the city which Israel shall build on their final restoration, or of the new-testament church. See the general reflections at the end of Isaiah.
REFLECTIONS.
The recal of the Jews from Babylon, with their final restoration, is the result of Gods perpetual love from one generation to another. God loved Jacob, and preferred him to the blessing; and to this day there has always been a remnant of his seed, beloved of heaven, for whose sake the nation has been spared.
He promises them on their return, every blessing of national prosperity, and of millennial glory; fruitful vineyards, a crowded sanctuary, and the voice of weeping changed for joy. Here he joins Isaiah in many places, as may be traced by the marginal references.
While God bids Rachel refrain her voice from weeping, and her eyes from tears, he promises to heal the sorrows of Ephraim, or the ten tribes carried captive by the bloody Assyrians. Oh yes; for when heaven pours bliss into our cup, it is in such abundance as to make it overflow. Ephraim was almost extinguished in war before his captivity. Ephraim was almost extinguished by death in servitude, and by intermarrying with the heathen; yet God collected a scattered remnant in the eye of his mercy. The Lord would bring these by the rivers of water, yea the blind should see their way, the lame should walk, and pregnant women should travel stoutly home. On looking at the map of Palestine, it will be seen that there was a desert to cross: hence a spiritual gathering must surely be understood to follow the temporal assembling of the nation.
The call of Ephraim follows his repentance. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. As this noble animal makes two or three efforts to break his ropes, and then lies down groaning in anger and despair before he tamely draws with his fellow, so the carnal heart of man revolts against the kind afflicting rod. Then he quietly submits to be saved in Gods way, then he is lowly in his own eyes, and God calls him his pleasant child.
The prophet next launches more fully into evangelical times, and says that the daughter of Zion, who had been as an unnoticed virgin, should become his bride. Anger yielding to love, he bids her set up waymarks, that the wayfaring man though a fool, or rather, unacquainted with the road, might pass from hill to hill to the mountain of holiness. Thus she gained the Lord by her suit; and yet in another sense, the Lord gained her by his grace.
All this glory and grace was confirmed to Israel by a covenant; yea a new covenant founded on better promises, and in the hands of a glorious Mediator. All iniquity should be forgiven, as stated in Psa 32:1. A new heart on which the pure and perfect love of God should be written. And our love to God, says Matthew Henry on this text, must be sincere, hearty, and fervent. It must be a superlative love, a love strong as death. It must be an entire love; he must have the whole soul, and be served with all the heart. We must love nothing besides the Lord, but what we love for his sake, and in subordination to his pleasure. Preacher, see that you do not lower this standard.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 31:1-6. This prophecy of the restoration of the northern kingdom may belong, like ch. 3, to Jeremiahs early period. The northern Israelites shall be gathered from exile (the wilderness). Yahweh will appear from Zion (Jer 31:3, mg.1; cf. Jer 51:50), declaring His enduring love (Hos 11:4), and will restore general happiness; in the security of tenure the vineyards (which require time for their development) will be replanted, and their keepers (watchmen, Jer 31:6) will call man to Zion (thus marking the union of the two kingdoms).
Jer 31:2. The. tenses are prophetic perfects. Render Jer 31:2 b, with Driver, I will go that I may cause Israel to rest.
Jer 31:4. tabrets: tambourines; rendered timbrels in Exo 15:20, Jdg 11:34.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
31:1 At the {a} same time, saith the LORD, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
(a) When this noble governor will come, meaning Christ, not only Judah and Israel, but the rest of the world will be called.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
At that future time, namely, the eschatological future (cf. Jer 30:24), the Lord would establish an intimate relationship between Himself and all the families of His people (cf. Jer 31:33; Gen 17:7; Zec 12:10-14). He would finally achieve what His people had always frustrated by their sins.
This verse concludes the material in chapter 30 and serves as a heading for chapter 31. All of chapter 31 describes the national restoration of Israel. This is verse 25 chapter 30 in the Masoretic Hebrew Bible, and Jer 31:2 begins the next chapter.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XXXI
RESTORATION II
THE NEW ISRAEL
Jer 23:3-8; Jer 24:6-7; Jer 30:1-24; Jer 31:1-40; Jer 33:1-26
“In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name whereby she shall be called.”- Jer 33:16
THE Divine utterances in chapter 33, were given to Jeremiah when he was shut up in the “court of the guard” during the last days of the siege. They may, however, have been committed to writing at a later date, possibly in connection with Chapters 30 and 31, when the destruction of Jerusalem was already past. It is in accordance with all analogy that the final record of a “word of Jehovah” should include any further light which had come to the prophet through his inspired meditations on the original message. Chapters 30, 31, and 33 mostly expound and enforce leading ideas contained in Jer 32:37-44 and in earlier utterances of Jeremiah. They have much in common with 2 Isaiah. The ruin of Judah and the captivity of the people were accomplished facts to both writers, and they were both looking forward to the return of the exiles and the restoration of the kingdom of Jehovah. We shall have occasion to notice individual points of resemblance later on.
In Jer 30:2 Jeremiah is commanded to write in a book all that Jehovah has spoken to him; and according to the present context the “all,” in this case, refers merely to the following four chapters. These prophecies of restoration would be specially precious to the exiles; and now that the Jews were scattered through many distant lands, they could only be transmitted and preserved in writing. After the command “to write in a book” there follows, by way of title, a repetition of the statement that Jehovah would bring back His people to their fatherland. Here, in the very forefront of the Book of Promise, Israel and Judah are named as being recalled together from exile. As we read twice {Jer 16:14-15; Jer 23:7-8} elsewhere in Jeremiah, the promised deliverance from Assyria and Babylon was to surpass all other manifestations of the Divine power and mercy. The Exodus would not be named in the same breath with it: “Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the Israelites out of the land of Egypt: but, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the Israelites from the land of the north, and from all the countries whither He had driven them.” This prediction has waited for fulfilment to our own times: hitherto the Exodus has occupied mens minds much more than the Return; we are now coming to estimate the supreme religious importance of the latter event.
Elsewhere again Jeremiah connects his promise with the clause in his original commission “to build and to plant”: {Jer 1:10} “I will set My eyes upon them” (the captives) “for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.” {Jer 24:7} As in Jer 32:28-35, the picture of restoration is rendered more vivid by contrast with Judahs present state of wretchedness; the marvellousness of Jehovahs mercy is made apparent by reminding Israel of the multitude of its iniquities. The agony of Jacob is like that of a woman in travail. But travail shall be followed by deliverance and triumph. In the second Psalm the subject nations took counsel against Jehovah and against His Anointed:-
“Let us break their bands asunder,
And cast away their cords from us”;
but now this is the counsel of Jehovah concerning His people and their Babylonian conqueror:-
“I will break his yoke from off thy neck,
And break thy bands asunder.”
Judahs lovers, her foreign allies, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and all the other states with whom she had intrigued, had betrayed her; they had cruelly chastised her, so that her wounds were grievous and her bruises incurable. She was left without a champion to plead her cause, without a friend to bind up her wounds, without balm to allay the pain of her bruises. “Because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee, saith Jehovah.” Jerusalem was an outcast, of whom men said contemptuously: “This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.” But mans extremity is Gods opportunity; because Judah was helpless and despised, therefore Jehovah said, “I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds.”
While Jeremiah was still watching from his prison the progress of the siege, he had seen the houses and palaces beyond the walls destroyed by the Chaldeans to be used for their mounds; and had known that every sally of the besieged was but another opportunity for the enemy to satiate themselves with slaughter, as they executed Jehovahs judgments upon the guilty city. Even at this extremity He announced solemnly and emphatically the restoration and pardon of His people.
“Thus saith Jehovah, who established the earth, when He made and fashioned it-Jehovah is His name:
Call upon Me, and I will answer thee, and will show thee great mysteries, which thou knowest not.”
“I will bring to this city healing and cure, and will cause them to know all the fulness of steadfast peace . . .
I will cleanse them from all their iniquities, and will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned and transgressed against Me.”
The healing of Zion naturally involved the punishment of her cruel and treacherous lovers. The Return, like other revolutions, was not wrought by rose water; the yokes were broken and the bands rent asunder by main force. Jehovah would make a full end of all the nations whither He had scattered them. Their devourers should be devoured, all their adversaries should go into captivity, those who had spoiled and preyed upon them should become a spoil and a prey. Jeremiah had been commissioned from the beginning to pull down foreign nations and kingdoms as well as his native Judah. {Jer 1:10} Judah was only one of Israels evil neighbours who were to be plucked up out of their land. And at the Return, as at the Exodus, the waves at one and the same time opened a path of safety for Israel and overwhelmed her oppressors.
Israel, pardoned and restored, would again be governed by legitimate kings of the House of David. In the dying days of the monarchy Israel and Judah had received their rulers from the hands of foreigners. Menahem and Hoshea bought the confirmation of their usurped authority from Assyria. Jehoiakim was appointed by Pharaoh Necho, and Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar. We cannot doubt that the kings of Egypt and Babylon were also careful to surround their nominees with ministers who were devoted to the interests of their suzerains. But now “their nobles were to be of themselves, and their ruler was to proceed out of their midst,” {Jer 30:21} i.e., nobles and rulers were to hold their offices according to national custom and tradition.
Jeremiah was fond of speaking of the leaders of Judah as shepherds. We have had occasion already (Cf. chapter 8) to consider his controversy with the “shepherds” of his own time. In his picture of the New Israel he uses the same figure. In denouncing the evil shepherds he predicts that, when the remnant of Jehovahs flock is brought again to their folds, He will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them, {Jer 23:3-4} shepherds. according to Jehovahs own heart, who should feed them with knowledge and understanding. {Jer 3:15}
Over them Jehovah would establish as Chief Shepherd a Prince of the House of David. Isaiah had already included in his picture of Messianic times the fertility of Palestine; its vegetation, by the blessing of Jehovah, should be beautiful and glorious: he had also described the Messianic King as a fruitful Branch out of the root of Jesse. Jeremiah takes the idea of the latter passage, but uses the language of the former. For him the King of the New Israel is, as it were, a Growth (cemah) out of the sacred soil, or perhaps more definitely from the roots of the House of David, that ancient tree whose trunk had been hewn down and burnt. Both the Growth (cemah) and the Branch (necer) had the same vital connection with the soil of Palestine and the root of David. Our English versions exercised a wise discretion when they sacrificed literal accuracy and indicated the identity of idea by translating both “cemah” and “necer” by “Branch.”
“Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise up unto David a righteous Branch; and He shall be a wise and prudent King, and He shall execute justice and maintain the right. In His days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell securely, and his name shall be Jehovah Cidqenu, Jehovah is our righteousness.” Jehovah Cidqenu might very well be the personal name of a Jewish king, though the form would be unusual; but what is chiefly intended is that His character shall be such as the “name” describes. The “name” is a brief and pointed censure upon a king whose character was the opposite of that described in these verses, yet who bore a name of almost identical meaning-Zedekiah, Jehovah is my righteousness. The name of the last reigning Prince of the House of David had been a standing condemnation of his unworthy life, but the King of the New Israel, Jehovahs true Messiah, would realise in His administration all that such a name promised. Sovereigns delight to accumulate sonorous epithets in their official designations-Highness, High and Mighty, Majesty, Serene, Gracious. The glaring contrast between character and titles often only serves to advertise the worthlessness of those who are labelled with such epithets: the Majesty of James I, the Graciousness of Richard III. Yet these titles point to a standard of true royalty, whether the sovereign be an individual or a class or the people; they describe that Divine Sovereignty which will be realised in the Kingdom of God.
The material prosperity of the restored community is set forth with wealth of glowing imagery. Cities and palaces are to be rebuilt on their former sites with more than their ancient splendour. “Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. And the children of Jacob shall be as of old, and their assembly shall be established before Me.” {Jer 30:18-20} The figure often used of the utter desolation of the deserted country is now used to illustrate its complete restoration: “Yet again shall there be heard in this place the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.” Throughout all the land “which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof,” shepherds shall dwell and pasture and fold their flocks; and in the cities of all the districts of the Southern Kingdom enumerated as exhaustively as in Jer 32:44 shall the flocks again pass under the shepherds hands to be told. {Jer 33:10-13}
Jehovahs own peculiar flock, His Chosen People, shall be fruitful and multiply according to the primeval blessing; under their new shepherds they shall no more fear nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking. {Jer 23:3-4} Jeremiah recurs again and again to the quiet, the restfulness, the freedom from fear and dismay of the restored Israel. In this, as in all else, the New Dispensation was to be an entire contrast to those long weary years of alternate suspense and panic, when mens hearts were shaken by the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war. {Jer 4:19} Israel is to dwell securely at rest from fear of harm. {Jer 23:6} When Jacob returns he “shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.” {Jer 30:10} Egyptian, Assyrian, and Chaldean shall all cease from troubling; the memory of past misery shall become dim and shadowy.
The finest expansion of this idea is a passage which always fills the soul with a sense of utter rest.
“He shall dwell on high: his refuge shall be the inaccessible rocks: his bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold a far-stretching land. Thine heart shall muse on the terror: where is he that counted, where is he that weighed the tribute? where is he that counted the towers? Thou shalt not see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that thou canst not perceive; of a strange tongue that thou canst not understand. Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tent that shall not be removed, the stakes whereof shall never be plucked up, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. There Jehovah will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.” (Isa 33:16-21; Isa 32:15-18.)
For Jeremiah too the presence of Jehovah in majesty was the only possible guarantee of the peace and prosperity of Israel. The voices of joy and gladness in the New Jerusalem were not only those of bride and bridegroom, but also of those that said, “Give thanks to Jehovah Sabaoth, for Jehovah is good, for His mercy endureth forever,” and of those that “came to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving in the house of Jehovah.” {Jer 33:11} This new David, as the Messianic King is called, {Jer 30:9} is to have the priestly right of immediate access to God: “I will cause Him to draw near, and He shall approach unto Me: for else who would risk his life by daring to approach Me?” {Jer 30:21, as Kautzsch.} Israel is liberated from foreign conquerors to serve Jehovah their God and David their King; and the Lord Himself rejoices in His restored and ransomed people.
The city that was once a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse among all nations shall now be to Jehovah “a name of joy, a praise and a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them, and shall tremble with fear for all the good and all the peace that I procure unto it.” {Jer 33:9}