The Days Are Surely Coming - Jeremiah 30:1-3 & 8-22

The Days Are Surely Coming

Jeremiah 30:1-3 & 8-22

Lesson Setting:

Bible scholars debate the exact date for the book of Jeremiah.  Dr. Thomas L. Constable, a member of the Dallas Theological Seminary faculty, posits a date of 520 BCE for the book of Jeremiah in its present canonical form.  That date allows for Jeremiah’s knowledge of the desolation of Israel and Judah by the Assyrians in 722 BCE and later by the Babylonians in 587 BCE.  Also, the book addresses events in Israel and Judah spanning the reigns of King Josiah (640 BCE) to Cyrus (538 BCE), the Persian ruler who oversaw part of the Babylonian captivity.  As it relates to Jeremiah 30 which we study today, its approximate date and historical is the reign of Jehoiakim in the early 600s BCE during a period or monarchical arrogance and national rebellion against Yahweh.

Lesson Outline:

I.                 Jeremiah 30:1-6 A Written Promise of Consolation

II.            Jeremiah 30:7-12         Assurance of Delivery and Return

III.        Jeremiah 30:13-18       Chastisement with Consolation

IV.         Jeremiah 30:19-24       The Purposes of God’s Heart

Unifying Principle:

People often find themselves in situations when they feel lost and alone.  How do they regain a sense of belonging?  Jeremiah tells of God’s promise to restore fortunes of the people, Israel and Judah, and to re-establish the covenant with them.

Introduction

In this week’s passage, Jeremiah faces a very difficult challenge as he answers his commission by Almighty God to offer comfort to Israel and Judah. Yahweh promises to renewal to His desolate people. They have learned experientially what “irreversible” means.  The indiscriminate ruin of their culture, religion, history and landmarks by the Assyrians could never be forgotten even tem generations later.  No one will wake them up from the worst imaginable nightmare any individual or group of people could have.  Totally defeated and subjugated, what reason do they have to live?  Practically speaking, for what purpose will they arise from bed each dawn?  Yet, they serve the one and true God, the “Maker of all that is seen and unseen,” who made an everlasting covenant with them.  His promises do not bend to plots twists and shifting circumstances of humankind.  Considering the hard fact that He allowed their utter decimation, is there anything meaningful He could possibly say to His people on the day after such a colossal disaster?  Within this crisis of faith, emotional paralysis and disillusionment, Jeremiah reminds Israel and Judah of God’s enduring promise of restoration of their lives and land.  The prophet encourages the people to imagine a bright, safe and rewarding future as they stand in the midst of personal ruin and practical rubble.  Jeremiah reassures his brothers and sisters of the Lord’s covenantal commitment to them.  “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will restore the fortunes of my people.”

Centuries later, the prophet’s words of divine comfort and wisdom to Israel and Judah equally encourage and empower us as we face similar personal and collective disasters.  Severe health challenges financially ruin a lot of people each year.  Depression and attention deficit disorders afflict hundreds of thousands of American citizens.  Many businesses and people are still recovering from the banking and housing crisis during the second term of President George W. Bush.  The domino effect of countless home foreclosures led to the loss of many jobs throughout the American economy.  As citizens depleted their savings accounts as they faced entrenched and rising unemployment, they had to rebuild their lives by developing new approaches to spending, budgeting and working.  Each season, many people live under the pervasive threat of a natural disaster striking their region of the country.  Interestingly, the combination of technology, science, psychiatry, psychology and pharmaceuticals are powerless to prevent or protect us from experiencing these types of health, emotional, economic, relational and natural catastrophes.  Still, the eternal wisdom of Jeremiah’s words offer hope and encouragement.

Exposition

Point I – Jeremiah 30:1-6 – A Written Promise of Consolation

The Lord instructs Jeremiah to write His promise in a book.  He records the Lord’s faithfulness to the covenant He made with Israel and Judah.  In the future when they receive deliverance from their anguish and oppression, the Lord wants them to recall His gracious, merciful and faithful role in liberating them.  He wants them to remember His promise made many years before their salvation.  As they read the promise in retrospect, they will credit the Lord for fulfilling His promise by orchestrating the details of their freedom and restoration.  Otherwise, they easily will find other explanations for their return from captivity.  Usually, we attribute great personal and professional success to individual talents and personal will.  We pat ourselves on the back as we rely upon our internal resources to determine the height and depth of our achievements.  In contrast, when we experience failure, defeat and adversity, we immediately ask “Why God?”  On sunny, balmy and breezy days of spring and summer, we compliment meteorologists for their accuracy in forecasting.  When rain, lightning and thunder disrupt our daily tranquility, we ponder why God allows such potentially damaging occurrences in our lives.  In writing, Jeremiah foretells God’s deliverance and restoration of Israel and Judah years before it occurs.

The third verse contains God’s essential promise.  “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their ancestors to possess, says the Lord.”  A prophet both foretells the future and forthrightly declares the truth.  In his office, Jeremiah forewarns the peoples of the Northern and Southern kingdoms about the future consequences of their present sin.  Their intractable rebellion against the character, holiness and Law of Almighty God will yield their conquest and oppression by the Assyrians in 722 BCE and later by the Babylonians in 587 BCE.  Nevertheless, as Jeremiah simultaneously exhorts the people about their iniquity, he offers a word of divine assurance of renewal and return.  This prophecy perfectly reveals God’s character.  He is a holy and righteous God who will not allow any other gods to compete with Him.  He will not tolerate wanton transgressions of His Law and His holiness.  He will not allow His chosen people to trample upon His grace.  But, He loves Israel and Judah with an unfailing, fiercely loyal and covenantal love.  As He allows them to reap justly what they have sown, He graciously and mercifully prepares to lovingly forgive and restore them.  As He promises them the land of Canaan and elsewhere as an inheritance to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He continually adheres to the covenant He makes and maintains.  As a consequence, He must return them to that land even after their captivity.  Otherwise, He would be a liar!

As Israel’s “Good Shepherd” who selflessly cares for His people, the Lord recognizes and respects their fear and pain.  He acknowledges cries of fear and dread amongst the people.  In fact, they are so scared about their well-being that even grown man are hold their stomachs as of they were mothers in labor.  Contrast that startling image of extreme panic with a valiant soldier fully dressed in military gear and armed to battle his opponents.  Every face in Israel and Judah looks “deathly pale.”  Nevertheless, the prophet steadfastly pronounces the coming of the Lord’s consolation.  A new dawn will emerge when they will travel back to the land they inherited from their forbears and enjoy a bright and prosperous future in a familiar place.

Point II – Jeremiah 30:7-12 – Assurance of Delivery and Return

The prophet utilizes equally powerful imagery to depict the Lord’s promised delivery of Jacob from captivity and Judah from bondage.  He asks the people to look with the eyes of the heart and soul to see the Lord’s future liberation and restoration.  Jeremiah acknowledges “this day” will be a time of tremendous trouble and tribulation for Jacob, his characterization of Israel and Judah to encompass the twelve tribes in addition to Ephraim and Manasseh.  They will face the cumulative consequences of their choices as they rebelled willfully against the Lord.  However, the prophet offers a fundamental message of good news.  The Lord will save Jacob from the trouble he creates and the punishment he justly deserves.

Whereas the dawn of the dawn of that day bursts on the horizon with storms clouds and destruction, the afternoon will bring sunshine and restoration following the necessary intermittent rains.  God will break the oppressors’ yoke from Israel’s and Judah’s necks.  He will also sever the chains of bondage and foreigners will no longer enslave His people.  Moreover, God will remove any Gentile government.  In exchange, He will anoint and promote a ruler in the linage and legacy of King David.  This monarch will function concurrently as king and priest of the nation.  Like times of old, Israel and Judah will serve “the Lord their God” as they obey the king.

Accordingly, there is no need to allow fear to paralyze them.  God will surely deliver them from a distant place and protect their descendants.  Their children will not be slaves.  They will assume their rightful inheritance as children of the Most High God who made an oath with their forbears.  Israel and Judah will again live in peace and prosperity.  No one will ever be able to make them feel fear again!  What an incredible promise.  Consider how blissful life would be if you never felt fear to any degree.  This tenth verse is one of the cardinal tenets and assurances of this “Book of Consolation,” chapters thirty, thirty-one and thirty-two, embedded in the book of Jeremiah.

One of the greatest reassurances the Lord makes is His abiding presence in the midst of adversity.  “I am with you and will save you.”  Multiple biblical authors over the expanse of centuries and divergent experiences attest to the incalculable benefits of being in God’s protection.  The Psalter likens the Lord’s presence as a place of refuge.  Solomon refers to it as a strong tower and fortress to which the righteous flee for protection.  Daniel appeals to it for vindication and protection in response to a wicked governmental decree.  Isaiah comforts his audience with blessed assurance that the Lord comes to them in the midst of their deepest distress and upholds them with His all-powerful, righteous right hand.  Spiritually speaking, being in God’s direct presence is equivalent to being in the eye of the storm, the safest and most secure place to be until the danger passes.

In the eleventh verse, the Lord straightforwardly tells the people that He will not pardon their offenses.  Though He will destroy the nations that scatter and subjugate His people, He will not allow those foreign nations to destroy His people.  Again, He will rescue and renew them.  Conversely, the Lord will not let Israel and Judah escape the consequences of their actions.  “I will not let you go entirely unpunished.”  Spiritual laws often parallel natural laws.  Anyone who challenges the forces of nature will be subject the outcomes of his or her choice.  Years of overeating and binging results in obesity.  Alcoholism eventuates in cirrhosis of the liver and other related diseases.  Gambling addictions often end in the loss of all financial and material property not to mention broken marriages and severely damaged families.  Israel’s and Judah’s self-reliance in which the ignored Almighty God culminated in weakening their societies socially, politically and militarily.  Though they prospered greatly, their moral decadence and permissiveness made them vulnerable to foreigners.  Their behavior equated with rebellion against God as they ignored His holy requirements and transgressed His Law.  In fulfillment of His Word, He left them to the end results of their choices.  He permits their captivity as a measure of discipline.

Contrary to popular belief, the object of discipline is not punishment; it is instruction and education.  Discipline assists in correcting mistakes rather than exacting pain and punishment because of those errors.  Everyone is prone to mistakes on any occasion.  Do we wish to learn from our mistakes? Will we continue making them until a pattern of counterproductive behavior hardens in our daily living?  Discipline’s primary objective is to eliminate the ignorance that contributed to the mistake.  To educate stems from the Latin word, educare, this means literally to lead out of darkness into light.  Discipline is an educative tool to help a person compensate for his or her blindsides.  For Israel and Judah, the Lord permits their captivity by foreigners to enable them to contrast the results of self-reliance and social decadence with the prosperity and security of genuinely relying upon Him.  Contemporarily, the Lord will extend His truth and favor to all generations of believers but He will also discipline us out of love.

Point III – Jeremiah 30:13-18 – Chastisement with Consolation

In a moment of intense anger and disappointment, an emotionally volatile parent usually misses an opportunity for a teaching moment.  Instead, a parent’s resentment that a child has failed yet again to learn a lesson by making the same mistake for the one thousandth time compels severe chastisement with verbal excess.  A parent may say something that he or she regrets as he or she observes the deep emotional and psychological wound reflected on the face of his or her child.  An approach combining consolation with chastisement would be more empowering.  After all, the child still needs to learn the lesson even if it takes another thousand attempts.  The Lord’s discipline of Israel and Judah assumes this technique. 

In these six verses, Jeremiah rehearses the nation’s sins.  He characterizes their guilt as superlative and their sins as countless.  As a consequence, he tells them their cries for relief are useless.  The wound of offense against God’s holy character is so deep that it is incurable at first glance.  Moreover, the oppression they will experience will so fierce and unrelenting because of their “great guilt and many sins.”  There simply is no cure.  Besides, their prideful commission of their sinful deeds means they deserve the adverse consequences.  Periodically, our willful actions yield irreversible results.  Smoking five or more packs of cigarettes a day for decades may terminate with an incurable cancer.  Crying aloud for relief will not lessen the pain nor will it miraculously provide a cure.  It will not compel God to suspend natural law however sincere an afflicted patient’s mea culpa.  Jeremiah similarly informs Israel and Judah that they will suffer the end results of their behavior notwithstanding the genuineness of their guilt and regret to the contrary.  Simply, there is no need to plead their defense or offer a rebuttal to the Lord’s decree.  He punishes them with the cruelty of an enemy.  Their predicament is so detrimental that even their allies will forget them and fail to come to their aid.

In stark contrast to the considerable chastisement in the preceding verses, the Lord consoles His people in the sixteenth and seventeenth verses with the same measure with which he rebukes them.  The Lord promises to lift the yoke of oppression and send Israel’s and Judah’s enemies into exile.  He will visit upon their adversaries the same punishment that they bestowed upon His people.  Like a protective Father, the Lord will enter the battle upon behalf of His children and cause their opponents to flee.  Further, He will plunder their enemies and graciously give the spoils to His people.  Ironically, their deepest distress will yield a bountiful blessing as it will enrich them for the future with gold, silver, livestock and booty of war.  More significantly, the Lord pledges to restore their health holistically.  He will heal any lingering diseases.  Each man could take comfort in the Lord’s willingness to restore the fortunes in each of Jacob’s tent.  Practically speaking, each man and his family will recoup their former lifestyles and possessions no matter how extensive their loss.  They will rebuild and recover everything that has been lost.  In addition, God will impart compassion on their dwellings.  Contemporary American citizens dream of owning a home in safe, serene neighborhood with no crime, manicured lawns and pleasant scenery.  Relative to the biblical era and setting of the Ancient Near East, the Lord promises that His obedient and humbled children will live in similar neighborhoods and cities.  He will transform the bricks of ruin into blocks for restoration.  Where desolation was widely visible, new construction and vibrant commerce and communities will stand. 

Point IV – Jeremiah 30:19-24 – The Purposes of God’s Heart

Essentially, Jeremiah announces the purpose of God’s heart for Israel.  His pledge of consolation following their forthcoming destruction maintains God’s unwavering commitment to the covenant He makes with Israel in Genesis 12 and renews throughout Israel’s history from Abraham to the present.  God unfailingly and loyally loves Israel.  His certifies His oath to Israel on the basis of His Name and character which He cannot contradict.  His faithful commitment to His people is not subject to human validation.  Therefore, the collective and unbridled sin of the nation cannot negate the covenant or the blessings it bestows.  In response to their tremendous guilt and innumerable sins, Israel and Judah rightly experiences divine judgment and punishment.  Still, God adheres to His covenant as He pledges renewal and restoration.  He returns Israel and Judah to the land He promised to their forebears.  Moreover, He transforms their ruined lives into new creations as they enjoy security and prosperity under the canopy of His limitless love and unending grace.

Songs often demarcate happy times in our lives.  Most people begin to smile and sing along when an endearing song from their adolescence starts on the radio.  It brings back such favorable memories of innocence, unlimited dreams and carefree living.  Upon their return to the Promised Land, Israel and Judah would sing songs of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God for His covenantal deliverance.  The sounds of rejoicing will resound throughout the land.  “The Lord has done this; it s marvelous in our eyes.”  In addition, the birth rate will rise as it does naturally in good economic and political times.  They will desire eagerly to have children in a peaceful and stable environment as they know their posterity will be secure and prosperous.  “The good ole times” will re-emerge as if someone turned back the sands of time and put them in the days of youth, vigor and unlimited imagination.  Their ruler will be one of their very own and not a foreigner.  This head of state will be someone who rightly relates himself to God and thereby secures His perpetual blessings upon the nation.  Chief among them is protection against any future enemies.  “The fierce anger of the Lord” will not relent until He accomplishes these promises on behalf of a people dwell closely to Him.  Summarily, He will fulfill His word because it accords with what the purposes of His heart for Israel and Judah.

The Lesson Applied

Recent natural disasters in the United States and throughout the world offer a visual parallel to Israel’s and Judah’s destruction.  In Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the City of New Orleans, Louisiana was devastated to an unprecedented degree.  Faulty or sub-standard levees in its Ninth Ward neighborhood failed to stem the destruction that the Atlantic Ocean wrought upon one of the nation’s most popular tourist centers.    Aerial video coverage and photos showed a city immersed in high levels of water.  In the neighboring states of Alabama and Mississippi, news reporters filmed people waiting on the roofs of their homes praying for rescue before the water levels overtook them.  Seven years later in October 2012, Super Storm Sandy decimated large areas of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in addition to extensive residual damage suffered by residents of nearby states.  In both natural disasters, many people lost every single material possession they owned.  Years of hard work and savings were washed away in the furor of wind, water and fire.  In the Staten Island neighborhood, Breezy Point, a spontaneous fire consumed an entire complex of hundred houses.  Rising tides and ferocious waves prevented firefighters from salvaging any homes.  Residents and rescue workers stood helplessly and watched Mother Nature ruthlessly consume their hard earned property and mercilessly erase sentimental mementos symbolizing years of their lives.  Imagine the powerless, bewilderment, fear and hopeless these fellow citizens felt as they experienced such significant loss.  What would they do?  Where would they go?  From whence will the next meal come?  Where will they sleep tonight?  How could they possibly begin to rebuild?  These frightening questions were asked previously by Israel and Judah as they too suffered wholesale devastation.

Approximately a month and a half after Super Sandy, the Northeast region, specifically, and the nation, generally, was struck once again with a monumental tragedy.  On Friday, December 14, 2012, a mentally deranged and deeply psychologically disturbed young man massacred twenty-seven persons before taking his own life.  He went to an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and inexplicably killed twenty-one first grade students and six adults.  Prior to the school shootings, he had killed his own mother whose dead body was found in their home.  This indescribable and collective loss of innocent human lives arguably surpasses the damage of the foregoing natural disasters.  How will the parents of these children and the relatives of the adult victims journey forward in life without their loved ones?  What could anyone specifically clergypersons, psychologists and other counselors possibly say that would comfort any of these grievously bereaved people?  Their grief tastes similar to the bitter gall of Rachel whom the prophet, Jeremiah, records would not be comforted when she lost her children at the hands of the Assyrians.  In that biblical era of 722 BCE, the Assyrians sacked Ephraim and demolished Israel’s and Judah’s history, religion and literature practically erasing their lives.  Everything that the people held sacred was now gone and scattered to ends of the earth like dust in the wind.  Compounding their misfortune, Israel’s and Judah’s children were lost too.  What future could they possibly have?

Let’s Talk About It

·        Have you ever experienced the total loss of your material possessions or something else very important?  Share your feeling and thoughts at the time.

·        Did you think God abandoned you in that experience?  Were you angry with Him for allowing it to happen?

·        Do you agree with God’s discipline of Israel and Judah by punishing them with captivity and exile?

·        What is the purpose of discipline in your opinion? 

·        Have you ever had to rebuild some component of your life?  How did you do it?