Day #228

Sermon - Audio
Jeremiah 30-31 - Audio
Jeremiah 30-31 - Reading

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Jeremiah 30-31

Chapters 30-33 are often called Jeremiah’s “book of consolation”. The entire section can likely be dated to 587 B.C., the year before Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and its’ people exiled to Babylon. After the exile, there will be a return: God will restore His people. Many images from earlier in the book – an incurable wound and a forgotten lover – recur in these prophecies.

Chapter 30

v. 6 – The anguish of childbirth is a picture of the suffering the people would experience under the Babylonian armies. Perhaps men would act like women in childbirth due to their extreme situation – separation from their God, country, home and temple.

v. 7 – “That day” refers to the judgment against Jerusalem that was about to be experienced.

v. 8 – “That day” refers to the time when God will strike out against the enemies of Israel in order to deliver His own people.

v. 10 – “Jacob shall return” – the exile will end when God’s people return home.

v. 21 – “Their leader” – after the exile there was no Davidic king. Jeremiah is most likely referring to the coming Messiah.

v. 23 – “Storm of the Lord” is a metaphor for the day of God’s judgment that will fall upon the wicked.

Chapter 31

God promises Israel that they will be His people (vv. 1-14), He will have mercy on weary Israel (vv. 15-26), He will make Israel secure (vv. 27-30), and God describes the new covenant (vv. 31-40).

v. 2 – As the exodus from Egypt was through a desert, so also would be the return from Babylon (present day Arabian desert). Like the first exodus, the restoration from exile would be a model of God’s power to save.

v. 3 – “You” refers to the whole people. God’s love was always based on grace and even Israel’s rejection of that love cannot cause this covenantal, relational love to cease.

v. 4 – After the restoration from exile, the stain of their past sin will finally be cleansed.

v. 5-6 – Ephraim is both a tribe and a representative name for Israel.

v. 11 – Ransomed suggests financial payment for a debt. Redeemed implies a family member acting on behalf of a relative to remove from trouble, pay a debt, or avenge a wrong.

v. 15 – Rachel was Jacob’s second and favorite wife and was the mother of Joseph (who was father of Ephraim and Manasseh). The focus in Jeremiah is on the grief of the exile as if it touched Rachel herself. Matthew 2:18 applies this verse to Herod killing the innocent children in an attempt to kill Jesus. By Jesus’ time the verse had become proverbial for the mistreatment of Jewish children.

v. 19 – The phrase “struck my thigh” is a physical act of remorse.

v. 20 – Despite all God has had to do to discipline Israel, he never stopped loving his “darling child”.

v. 21 – A command to the exiles (who weren’t even exiled yet) to remember the promised land, to let this memory inspire their repentance so that they could be restored to the promised land.

v. 22 – “A woman encircles a man.” Several interpretations have been proposed. 1 – It may mean the weak will overcome the strong, so that Israel’s return will be the weak overcoming the strong through God’s power. 2 – It may also mean Israel, the Lord’s bride, embracing him in utter fidelity.

v. 23-25 – Jeremiah addresses Judah, who will soon join Israel in exile. God will restore Judah just as He will restore Israel.

v. 29 – “Sour grapes…” is a reference back to Ezek. 18:2.

v. 31 – God will finally remedy the longstanding problem of His people that they are circumcised in body, but so few are circumcised in heart. New Testament passages (I Cor. 11:25, II Cor. 3:6, Heb. 9:15, Heb. 12:24) reveal that the new covenant is fulfilled in Christ, who brought to fruition God’s desire for a renewed covenant relationship with His people. Christ in His first coming only inaugurated the new covenant. He continues to establish it during the time between His first and second comings and will establish it fully at His return. The new covenant will provide a fresh start for Israel and Judah, the recipients of both the old and now the new covenant. Though many interpret the new covenant as beginning entirely of Jews, it now includes Gentiles. This new covenant will be different in that it will not be broken. Jesus Christ through His sacrificial death and grace secure the covenant blessing for God’s people, who on their own are not capable of keeping the covenant.

v. 33 – “I will be there God and they will be my people” is wording from the old covenant (Lev. 26:12). The new covenant does not abolish the old, but renews it and fulfills its ideals.

v. 34 – “Because they will all know me” – God promises to give His people a heart to know Him. “Remember no more” underscores that the satisfaction made for sins through redemption will be final and perfect, eliminating the need for further sacrifices for sin.

v. 38 – “In the city” – Jerusalem was rebuilt under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, but that restoration program failed because of continuing sin. The NT sees this promise fulfilled in the New Jerusalem that will appear when Christ returns.