March 2, Jeremiah 30
Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. For behold the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it." - Jeremiah 30:2-3
God sent a message to the besieged people of Israel who remained in Jerusalem as the Babylonian conquest loomed in their immediate future. He told Jeremiah to write it in a book. It would encourage not only the prophet's contemporaries, but also generations of God's people to come. The assurances of future blessings would give them courage and faith to believe that God still had a purpose and plan for them. Their enemies and oppressors would come under judgment. They would be destroyed, never to exist again. Israel (or its remainder in Judah) would also come into judgment. But it would not result in their extinction as a people.
Still, trouble was coming for Israel. God described it with multiple images. Israel would suffer from an incurable sickness, a wound that could not be healed. They would be alone and abandoned with no one to take their side. They would have no hope or help from a human point of view. But God could and would intervene to bring them future blessings.
In the future, all Israel, both northern kingdom Israel and southern kingdom Judah, would be reunited. God would also bring the people who had been scattered among the nations who had taken them captive. They would be brought together again. The ingathering would also include Gentiles. And it would only be accomplished by Messiah when he came. But this gathering would not reconstitute the fallen kingdom to its national status. The reunion would take place in Messiah's kingdom, under his covenant. Jerusalem would be rebuilt on its ruins. That statement is both historically and spiritually accurate. Ancient cities including Jerusalem were often rebuilt on the "tels" or ruin mounds of the destroyed city. (Many modern city names still bear witness to this practice, for example Tel Aviv.) But Messiah's new Jerusalem would rise out of ruined Judaism, and would begin and go forth from Jerusalem.
Jeremiah told the people God’s words about how Messiah would accomplish all this. He would come from among them and rise as ruler from their midst, just as Moses prophesied centuries before. God would call Messiah near to him and he would draw near, something no sinful human could do. But the God-man Jesus would do exactly that. He would bring sinful people back to God through his mediation and atonement at the cross.
There was still a great day of judgment to follow, more vast in scope and terror than God's judgment in history against Israel and their pagan neighbors. The judgment of the last great day would come, but Messiah's people would be safe and secure in that day.
You and I can be glad that God told Jeremiah to preserve the message he gave Jeremiah in writing. The book method was effective. It preserved the words of encouragement for future generations of God's people. We have not only Jeremiah's work, but all the other inspired writers' messages in the Bible. There's no other book of antiquity in existence today with the vast manuscript support and textual integrity of the Bible. Its timeless message is still applicable today. When God's people read and trust God's word, our faith and courage grow stronger, and all the adversaries of God grow weaker against us. The promises worked to stabilize and assure the little faithful remnant of Israel. They will still work for us today. Praise God for his wonderful, incomparable word!
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—March 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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