JEREMIAH
30
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2003 James Melough
30:1. “The word
that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,”
30:2. “Thus
speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have
spoken unto thee in a book.”
It is generally believed
that chapters 30 and 31 were written during or shortly after the 586 BC siege
of Jerusalem. It was by God’s direct command that Jeremiah recorded all that
Jehovah communicated to him, and clearly what he was about to receive was the
revelation of the regathering of Israel in the latter days, the condition of
the world today making it clear that fulfillment of what is written is
imminent. It was to be written “in a book” so as to be available to those who
would be scattered in 586 BC., and though it wasn’t revealed to Jeremiah, it
would be for the comfort of those who have also been scattered since AD 70.
Chapter 31:26 makes it clear
that what follows was revealed to the prophet in a dream.
30:3. “For, lo,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my
people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to
the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.”
From Jeremiah’s perspective
it might have seemed that the return was to be from Babylonian captivity, but
clearly what is written here awaits fulfillment in a day then far distant, but
now very near, for while some of them did return from Babylon and Assyria, not
all did, and the descendants of those who did return were scattered again in
AD 70, and with the exception of the few who have been returning since the
restoration of Jewish autonomy in 1948, the majority are still scattered
amongst the nations.
30:4. “And these
are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah.”
30:5. “For thus
saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear and not of peace.”
It seems that the One Who
hears the cry of terror is God Himself, so the “we” signifies the three
persons of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the twenty centuries
since the Diaspora, scattered Israel’s bitter cry of distress and fear has
been heard virtually without ceasing, for she has known neither permanent rest
nor peace in all those weary years; nor will she until the Tribulation
judgments will have brought her nationally to repentant faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ as her Savior Messiah.
30:6. “Ask ye
now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? Wherefore do I see every
man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are
turned into paleness?”
Since birth pangs are unique
to women, Jehovah asks why it is that he sees men experiencing the very same
anguish: they grip their loins, while their faces become ashen in terror.
30:7. “Alas!
for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s
trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”
The “day” is the second half
of the seven-year Tribulation era, i.e., the three and a half years of the
Great Tribulation, which will leave the world in ruins, and see billions slain
by war, famine, and disease worse than anything that has ever been. It will
be the most terrible time in the history of the world, yet God will bring out
of that terrible crucible a repentant, believing, purified remnant, not only
of Israel, but also of the nations, they being those who will remain on the
earth to enjoy millennial blessings.
30:8. “For it
shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his
yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more
serve themselves of him;”
“... his yoke” means the
yoke which the oppressor will have placed on Israel’s neck. Other
translations render it “thy yoke from off thy neck.” The truth being declared
is that Israel will no longer be subservient to any other nation: she will in
fact be “the head, and not the tail,” De 28:13.
30:9. “But they
shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up
unto them”
Jehovah alone will be over
Israel through the regency of a descendant of David, all other nations being
subservient to Israel.
The final stage of the
resurrection of life will occur at the end of the Tribulation, that
resurrection transporting to heaven those then raised, Scripture offering no
hint that any of them will return to the millennial earth, so clearly the king
who will then reign will be a descendant of David, not David himself. The
latter part of Ezekiel chapter 45, and all of chapter 46, also make it very
clear that that king will not be the Lord Jesus Christ, for that millennial
prince will offer sacrifice and worship, something the Lord Jesus Christ does
not do: as the second Person of the Godhead He receives worship.
30:10.
“Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be
dismayed, O Israel:
for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their
captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and
none shall make him afraid.”
The two names, Jacob and
Israel, used to designate the same people, have special significance, for
Jacob is associated with what pertains to the flesh; Israel, with what
pertains to the spirit, facts which serve to remind us that Israel was divided
into two parts: those who were true believers, the believing remnant; and
those who were unbelievers, being Israelites in name only.
Christendom is similarly
divided.
This assurance of
restoration to the land, and their peaceful occupation of it, still awaits
fulfillment, and will not come about until the Millennium. Only then will they
be regathered from the Diaspora which finds them still scattered amongst the
nations, except for the few who have been returning to the land since 1948.
Their being called Jacob and
Israel is the reminder, that apart from the believing remnant that will pass
from the Great Tribulation into the Millennium, millennial Israel will be a
nation comprised of believers and unbelievers, for the children born during
that halcyon age will be like those born in every other age: they will need to
be born again to fit them for the eternal state to which the Millennium will
give place. The multitudes who will join Satan at the end of the Millennium,
in his final rebellion against God, attests the truth that many of those born
in the Millennium, will, like many in every other age, refuse to be born
again, but will be allowed to live to the end of the Millennium as long as
their hatred of God and His people does not become overt.
30:11. “For I am
with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end of all
nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee:
but I will correct thee in a measure, and will not leave thee altogether
unpunished.”
This doesn’t mean that God
will utterly destroy every nation at whose hand Israel has suffered, but the
elimination of Babylon and the Philistines, for example, is the assurance that
some of them have been destroyed, and that others will yet suffer that fate.
Some times it has seemed as
though Israel
were on the very brink of extinction, e.g., in 586 BC at the hand of
Babylon, and again in AD 70 at the hand of the Romans, but God
has preserved her against seemingly impossible odds. Her grievous sin has
incurred such drastic punishment as to make her survival seem impossible, but
God has always stopped short of that drastic extreme, because His ultimate
objective is her blessing in the Millennium.
30:12. “For thus
saith the Lord, Thy bruise (sin) is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.”
The fact that Israel’s sin
was incurable; and what she had suffered at the hand of God and man as a
result of it, equally incurable, would indicate that her case was hopeless,
her destruction inevitable; and humanly speaking this was true. But what is
impossible to man is not impossible to God: He could, and would, heal her; but
by an inexplicable means: giving His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die
in her stead, He thus expiating her sin, and enabling God to pardon her and
bestow His priceless gift of eternal life.
It is to be noted, however,
that the healing was and is available only in response to individual
repentance, and faith in Christ; the faith of the OT believer being
anticipative; that of the NT saint, retrospective. Only the OT believers
constituted the true Israel, as it is written in Ro 9:6-8, “For they are not
all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of
Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall they seed be called. That
is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.”
Only the believing Jews were
true Israelites, that believing remnant constituting the only Israel that God
recognizes. In every age He has preserved such a remnant, those who emerge
from the terrible judgments of the Great Tribulation being the remnant that
will constitute the Israel which will inherit millennial and eternal blessing.
That generation addressed by
Jeremiah, however, was one which had sealed its doom by refusal to repent of
its sin. Its wound was incurable. It must perish, as must every other
generation except that which will emerge repentant and believing from the
Tribulation judgments.
30:13. “There is
none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing
medicines.”
It was its failure to repent
of its sin that doomed that generation, as must that same failure doom every
man who also refuses to repent and trust in Christ as his Savior.
30:14. “All thy
lovers (friends, allies) have forgotten thee; they seek thee not, for I have
wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one,
for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.”
Its refusal to repent within
God’s time had cut that generation off from any hope of escaping destruction,
the record of their folly being preserved to warn others, nations and
individuals against being guilty of the same madness, i.e., of failing to
repent within the time in which God will grant pardon, His warning to all men
being, “My spirit shall not always strive with man,” Ge 6:3, and, “He, that
being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that
without remedy,” Pr 29:1.
The chastisement, which
heeded within God’s time, would have brought salvation, had become instead the
stroke of wrath bringing death. He is a very great fool who ignores the
warning, and walks in Israel’s unrepentant footsteps, for he too will perish
eternally under the stroke of a God no longer willing to pardon.
30:15. “Why
criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of
thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto
thee.”
This continues to emphasize
the folly of failing to repent within God’s time, for the cry, which uttered
within that time would have brought mercy, will then bring instead His deadly
stroke of eternal vengeance: first, consignment to hell, and ultimately to the
eternal torment of the awful lake of fire.
30:16.
“Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine
adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil
thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.”
This does not offer hope
that any unrepentant generation of Israel will ultimately be forgiven. It is
rather the announcement of the truth that those who take delight in afflicting
her will make themselves also the objects of His fierce wrath. It is one
thing for Him to use nations as His instruments of Israel’s chastisement, but
it is a very different thing when they take vindictive delight in afflicting
her simply out of malicious hatred, when they themselves are guilty of the
very same sins.
God reserves to Himself the
right to take vengeance, as it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay,
saith the Lord,” Ro 12:19. His inherent holiness invests Him with that right,
while man’s intrinsic sinfulness disqualifies him, since it makes him the
object of vengeance from which only God’s grace appropriated by faith delivers
him. The principle was dramatically declared by the Lord Himself relative to
the accusation of the Jews against the adulteress in John 8:7-9, “He that is
without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.... And they ...
convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the
eldest, even unto the last....”
30:17. “For I
will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the
Lord; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, this is Zion, whom no man
seeketh after.”
As discussed already,
healing and restoration had been forfeited by the failure of that generation
to repent within God’s time, nor has any other generation qualified itself for
these blessings. It will take the terrible Tribulation judgments to work
genuine repentance in Israel’s stony heart, and all the signs around us point
to the fact that this present generation could be the one to have that
experience, for virtually every sign relative to the approach of that era of
judgment has been fulfilled.
It is only in man’s impaired
judgment that Israel as a nation has cut herself off eternally from blessing,
that faulty judgment implying that God is incapable of fulfilling His Word - a
thing impossible. His every Word will be fulfilled, the Tribulation judgments
producing that repentant remnant that will inherit the promised blessings
forfeited by the failure of every other generation to repent and trust in
Christ as their Savior Messiah. Never were words more apropos than those
recorded in Ro 3:4, “... let God be true, but every man a liar....”
30:18. “Thus
saith the Lord; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and
have mercy on his dwelling-places; and the city shall be builded upon her own
heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.”
This regathering will be in
the Millennium, the use of the name Jacob, which is associated with the flesh
rather than the spirit, emphasizing that those regathered will not be
resurrected individuals, but living people who will have survived the horrors
of the Great Tribulation. The mention of “tents” is particularly appropriate
relative to a people who for the past twenty centuries have wandered amongst
the nations without a settled place of abode.
Jerusalem will be rebuilt on
its former elevated site, and the royal palace also will stand again where it
had been in the days of Israel’s glory.
30:19. “And 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 (weak, despised).”
The people whose voices for
the past twenty centuries have been employed almost exclusively in wailing and
weeping, will yet be heard in songs of praise and in laughter. They whose
numbers have frequently been diminished by the sword will be multiplied; and
the once weak and despised will be made mighty and honorable.
She who for over two
thousand years has been “the tail” of the nations will be “the head.”
30:20. “Their
children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be
established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them.”
Their children will thrive
and be multiplied, as in the days of David and Solomon, and their tribes will
stand in favor before Jehovah, no more to be scattered and diminished, all who
might attempt to wrong, hurt, or oppress them incurring the wrath of their
omnipotent God.
30:21. “And
their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the
midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near and he shall approach unto
me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the
Lord.”
Their king will be one of
themselves, rather than as so often in the past, a foreign tyrant; and he will
be graciously invited into the very presence of God, for it seems that he will
be also a priest.
30:22. “And ye
shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
This is not to be understood
as implying that this relationship has never previously existed: it has, but
in the Millennium it will be experienced in a very different context. In the
past it has been under the constraint necessarily imposed by the sinfulness of
the people, but in the Millennium sin will be tolerated only as long as it
remains covert in the heart; but the moment it expresses itself in word or
deed it will be visited with death.
In addition, Satan and his
minions will be imprisoned in the bottomless pit, so that enticement to sin
will be drastically curtailed. Righteousness will cover the earth as the
waters cover the sea, so that there will be little to mar the fellowship
between men and God.
30:23. “Behold,
the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind; it
shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.”
30:24. “The
fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have done it, and until he
have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider
(understand) it.”
This very clearly takes us
back to the terrible judgments that will devastate the earth in the Great
Tribulation.
The term “latter days or
years” refers to the Tribulation era, see De 4:30; Dan 2:28; 8:23; 10:14, and
the fact that the Jews “in the latter days shall consider (understand) it,”
i.e., what is here written, makes it clear that those instructed in God’s Word
will understand perfectly what the outcome of the judgments of that terrible
era will be: they will leave the earth purged in preparation for the
inauguration of the millennial kingdom.
“The last day (singular)”
refers to God’s resurrection program, see Jn 6:39-40, 44, 45; 11:24; 12:48;
and “... last days (plural)” refers to Israel’s salvation and blessing in the
Millennium, see Isa 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-7.
[Jeremiah
31]