Jeremiah 30–33 – Promises Of Restoration
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Let the Word evoke words. May your life encourage lives.
Jeremiah 30 and 31 encourage the exiled Israelites by painting a vision of hope for the future. “I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you but only in due measure; I will not let you go entirely unpunished” (Jeremiah 30:11). That last phrase caught my attention, “I will not let you go entirely unpunished” doesn’t sound favorable, but I believe those who were schooled in proverbs would appreciate that only a loving father would properly discipline his child. Ignoring our transgressions is synonymous with disdain. The text spends much more time foretelling of the Lord’s blessings that are to come.
“The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart. In days to come you will understand this” (30:24). Now that’s a day I’m waiting for, the day when we will understand the reason behind the trials. That day is the day I long for! Being a father of four children, now adults, does not lessen the pain felt for their hasty decisions. The glimpse of eternity that I have in my mind is one I want to implant in them, but it is impossible–each must learn this for themselves. In days to come indeed.
I found it interesting that those who get to return from exile are not just the healthy, poster-child of Israel, “Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor; a great throng will return” (31:8). Many times we are told to take care of the blind, the lame, the widow and the fatherless. The Lord remembers them all–we should as well.
Jeremiah’s great words of the Lord’s promise:
I believe I’ve commented on this verse before, but it’s worth thinking about further, “they will all know me” is such an incredible promise of the future. We won’t have to try to convince anyone, they will all know. I am truly looking forward to that day, to that Beulah Land!
Jeremiah Buys a Field (chapter 32). The Lord seems to provide for the future of Jeremiah’s family by allowing him to buy a field (even though he’s imprisoned by King Hezekiah), then seal the deed in clay jars to prove their rightful ownership after the Exile. He knows the time period for the Exile and recognizes he will not live to possess the land, but he makes the deal for his descendants. Though the people have done much evil, God will restore them: “I will give them singleness of heart and action” (32:39), and, “I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them” (32:42). When the Exile is over, business will return to normal, buying of land, deals sealed and witnessed. It seems his description of buying a field in the beginning of the chapter is to highlight the future when all will be able to participate in honorable business deals.
Promise of Restoration (chapter 33). Jeremiah repeats the great words, “In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land” (33:15). On the eve of Exile, Jeremiah does his best to plant the seed of hope for future generations. I imagine those who became “the remnant” would retell these stories to their children and teach them to tell the next generation to instill the hope that is found only in the Lord, the Almighty. Lord, I pray that I can do that with my children and they will do so with theirs.