“At that time,” says Yahweh, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”
Yahweh says, “The people who survive the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.”
Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.
I will build you again, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel. You will again be adorned with your tambourines, and will go out in the dances of those who make merry.
Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and will enjoy its fruit.
For there will be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry, ‘Arise! Let’s go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.’ ”
For Yahweh says, “Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations. Publish, praise, and say, ‘Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel!’
Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together. They will return as a great company.
They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they won’t stumble; for I am a father to Israel. Ephraim is my firstborn.
“Hear Yahweh’s word, you nations, and declare it in the distant islands. Say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.’
For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
They will come and sing in the height of Zion, and will flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd. Their soul will be as a watered garden. They will not sorrow any more at all.
Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance; the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says Yahweh.
Yahweh says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
Yahweh says: “Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work will be rewarded,” says Yahweh. “They will come again from the land of the enemy.
There is hope for your latter end,” says Yahweh. “Your children will come again to their own territory.
“I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.
Surely after that I was turned. I repented. After that I was instructed. I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” says Yahweh.
“Set up road signs. Make guideposts. Set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went. Turn again, virgin of Israel. Turn again to these your cities.
How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”
Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Yet again they will use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I reverse their captivity: ‘Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’ Judah and all its cities will dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”
On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of animal. It will happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” says Yahweh.
“In those days they will say no more, “ ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
But everyone will die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says Yahweh.
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh;’ for they will all know me, from their least to their greatest,” says Yahweh: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is his name, says:
“If these ordinances depart from before me,” says Yahweh, “then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me forever.”
Yahweh says: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” says Yahweh.
“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that the city will be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner. The measuring line will go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and will turn toward Goah. The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, will be holy to Yahweh. It will not be plucked up or thrown down any more forever.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 I omit here any remarks on the first verse;…
I omit here any remarks on the first verse; for it was explained in connection, with the 22d verse of the last chapter (Jeremiah 30:22). The verb הלוך eluk, in the second verse, is in the infinitive mood, but it is to be taken as a preterite, and in this interpreters agree. But some apply it to God, that he is a leader to his people, until he brings them to rest; and as the verb, להרגיעו, laeregiou, to rest him, so to speak, is in Hiphil, it seems that this ought to be ascribed to God. But we may take the words more simply, “until he betakes himself to rest;” added afterwards is the word “Israel;” and thus we may render the pronoun “himself,” and not “him,” — until then he betook himself to rest
Let us now come to the truth which the Prophet handles: he reminds the people, no doubt, of the ancient benefits of God, in order that the miserable exiles might entertain hope, and not doubt but that God would be their deliverer, though they were drowned, as it were, in Chaldea, and overwhelmed with a deluge of evils. This is the reason why he mentions the desert, and why Jeremiah also adds, that they who were then preserved had escaped from the sword For the people, though they dwelt in a pleasant and fertile country, were in a manner in a desert, when compared with their own country. As then the Israelites had been driven far away into foreign lands, all the regions where they then inhabited are compared to a desert. A similar mode of speaking is adopted by Isaiah when he says,
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“A voice crying in the desert, Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, make straight paths in the wilderness.” (Isaiah 40:3)
What did he understand then by desert? even the most fertile regions, Chaldea, Assyria, and other neighboring countries. But with regard to the people, he thus calls these countries, because their exile was always sorrowful and miserable. So then in this place the Prophet, in order to animate the exiles with hope, says, that though they had been sent away to unknown regions, yet distance, or anything else which might seem opposed to their liberation, could not prevent God to restore them; for he formerly liberated their fathers when they were in Egypt.; Now as the Jews might again object and say, that they were few in number, and also that they were ever exposed to the sword, as they dwelt among conquerors the most cruel, he says, that their fathers were not preserved otherwise than by a miracle; they had been snatched, as it were, from the midst of death.
We now perceive the design of the Prophet; and we may include in a few words the substance of what he says, — That there was no reason to fear, that God would not, in due time, deliver his people; for it was well known, that when he became formerly the liberator of his people, his power was rendered illustrious in various ways, nay, that it was inconceivably great, since for forty years he nourished his people in the desert, and also that their coming out was as though the dead arose from their graves, for the Egyptians might have easily killed the whole people; so that they were taken as it were from death, when they were led into the land which had been promised to Abraham. There was therefore no doubt but that God would again, in a wonderful way, deliver them, and manifest the same power in liberating them as was formerly exhibited towards their fathers.
A profitable doctrine may hence be gathered: Whenever despair presents itself to our eyes, or whenever our miseries tempt us to despair, let the benefits of God come to our minds, not only those which we ourselves have experienced, but also those which he has in all ages conferred on his Church, according to what David also says, who had this one consolation in his grief, when pressed down with extreme evils and almost overwhelmed with despair,
“I remember the days of old.” (Psalm 143:5)
So that he not only called to mind the benefits of God which he himself had experienced, but also what he had heard of from his fathers, and what he had read of in the books of Moses. In the same manner the Prophet here reminds us of God’s benefits, when we seem to be forsaken by him; for this one thought is capable of alleviating and comforting us. This is the import of the whole. It now follows —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38 When this noble governor shall come, meaning, Christ, not…
When this noble governor shall come, meaning, Christ, not only Judah, and Israel, but the rest of the world shall be called.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–40 Jer 31:1 At the same time, saith the LORD,…
Jer 31:1 At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
Ver. 1. At the same time,] i.e., In the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign, as before, was this word uttered. Or rather, in those latter times forementioned, {Jer 30:24} after the return from Babylon, but especially in the days of the Messiah. The modern Jews vainly apply it to the coming of their Messiah, quem tantis etiamnum ululatibus exposcunt, whom they yet expect, but to no purpose.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–40 When the Lord’s anger shall turn, he having performed…
When the Lord’s anger shall turn, he having performed all the thoughts of his heart upon the wicked Israelites, he will declare himself not unmindful of the covenant which he made with Abraham and his seed, but will be their God, and they shall be the people of his favour, whom he will protect and bless. It is uncertain whether Israel here is to be taken in a more large sense, as it signifieth the whole twelve tribes, or only Judah, being that part of Israel which was before spoken of.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 10, 18, 27, 35 God here assures his people,
God here assures his people,
I. That he will again take them into a covenant relation to himself, from which they seemed to be cut off. At the same time, when God's anger breaks out against the wicked (Jer 30:24), his own people shall be owned by him as the children of his love: I will be the God (that is, I will show myself to be the God) of all the families of Israel (Jer 31:1), - not of the two tribes only, but of all the tribes, - not of the house of Aaron only, and the families of Levi, but of all their families; not only their state in general, but their particular families, and the interests of them, shall have the benefit of a special relation to God. Note, The families of good people, in their family capacity, may apply to God and stay themselves upon him as their God. If we and our houses serve the Lord, we and our houses shall be protected and blessed by him, Pro 3:33.
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II. That he will do for them, in bringing them out of Babylon, as he had done for their fathers when he delivered them out of Egypt, and as he had purposed to do when he first took them to be his people. 1. He puts them in mind of what he did for their fathers when he brought them out of Egypt, Jer 31:2. They were then, as these were, a people left of the sword, that sword of Pharaoh with which he cut off all the male children as soon as they were born (a bloody sword indeed they had narrowly escaped) and that sword with which he threatened to cut them off when he pursued them to the Red Sea. They were then in the wilderness, where they seemed to be lost and forgotten, as these were now in a strange land, and yet they found grace in God's sight, were owned and highly honoured by him, and blessed with wonderful instances of his peculiar favour, and he was at this time going to cause them to rest in Canaan. Note, When we are brought very low, and insuperable difficulties appear in the way of our deliverance, it is good to remember that it has been so with the church formerly, and yet that it has been raised up from its low estate and has got to Canaan through all the hardships of a wilderness; and God is still the same. 2. They put him in mind of what God had done for their fathers, intimating that they now saw not such signs, and were ready to ask, as Gideon did, Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of? It is true, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me (Jer 31:3), in Egypt, in the wilderness, hath appeared with me and for me, hath been seen in his glory as my God. The years of ancient times were glorious years; but now it is otherwise; what good will it do us that he appeared of old to us when now he is a God that hides himself from us? Isa 45:15. Note, It is hard to take comfort from former smiles under present frowns. 3. To this he answers with an assurance of the constancy of his love: Yea, I have loved thee, not only with an ancient love, but with an everlasting love, a love that shall never fail, however the comforts of it may for a time be suspended. It is an everlasting love; therefore have I extended or drawn out lovingkindness unto thee also, as well as to thy ancestors, or, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee to myself as thy God, from all the idols to which thou hadst turned aside. Note, It is the happiness of those who are through grace interested in the love of God that it is an everlasting love (from everlasting in the counsels of it, to everlasting in the continuance and consequences of it), and that nothing can separate them from that love. Those whom God loves with this love he will draw into covenant and communion with himself, by the influences of his Spirit upon their souls; he will draw them with lovingkindness, with the cords of a man and bands of love, than which no attractive can be more powerful.
III. That he will again form them into a people, and give them a very joyful settlement in their own land, Jer 31:4, Jer 31:5. Is the church of God his house, his temple? Is it now in ruins? It is so; but, Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built. Are they parts of this building dispersed? They shall be collected and put together again, each in its place. If God undertake to build them, they shall be built, whatever opposition may be given to it? Is Israel a beautiful virgin? Is she now stripped of her ornaments and reduced to a melancholy state? She is so; but thou shalt again be adorned and made fine, adorned with thy tabrets, or timbrels, the ornaments of thy chamber, and made merry. They shall resume their harps which had been hung upon the willow-trees, shall tune them, and shall themselves be in tune to make use of them. They shall be adorned with their tabrets, for now their mirth and music shall be seasonable; it shall be a proper time for it, God in his providence shall call them to it, and then it shall be an ornament to them; whereas tabrets, at a time of common calamity, when God called to mourning, were a shame to them. Or it may refer to their use of tabrets in the solemnizing of their religious feasts and their going forth in dances then, as the daughters of Shiloh, Jdg 21:19, Jdg 21:21. Our mirth is then indeed an ornament to us when we serve God and honour him with it. Is the joy of the city maintained by the products of the country? It is so; and therefore it is promised (Jer 31:5), Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria, which had been the head city of the kingdom of Israel, in opposition to that of Judah; but they shall now be united (Eze 37:22), and there shall be such perfect peace and security that men shall apply themselves wholly to the improvement of their ground: The planters shall plant, not fearing the soldiers' coming to eat the fruits of what they had planted, or to pluck it up; but they themselves shall eat them freely, as common things, not forbidden fruits, not forbidden by the law of God (as they were till the fifth year, Lev 19:23-25), not forbidden by the owners, because there shall be such plenty as to yield enough for all, enough for each.
IV. That they shall have liberty and opportunity to worship God in the ordinances of his own appointment, and shall have both invitations and inclinations to do so (Jer 31:6): There shall be a day, and a glorious day it will be, when the watchmen upon Mount Ephraim, that are set to stand sentinel there, to give notice of the approach of the enemy, finding that all is very quiet and that there is no appearance of danger, shall desire for a time to be discharged from their post, that they may go up to Zion, to praise God for the public peace. Or the watchmen that tend the vineyards (spoken of Jer 31:5) shall stir up themselves, and one another, and all their neighbours, to go and keep the solemn feasts at Jerusalem. Now this implies that the service of God shall be again set up in Zion, that there shall be a general resort to it, with much affection and mutual excitement, as in David's time, Psa 122:1. But that which is most observable here is that the watchmen of Ephraim are forward to promote the worship of God at Jerusalem, whereas formerly the watchman of Ephraim was hatred against the house of his God (Hos 9:8), and, in stead of inviting people to Zion, laid snares for those that set their faces thitherward, Hos 5:1. Note, God can make those who have been enemies to religion and the true worship of God to become encouragers of them and leaders in them. This promise was to have its full accomplishment in the days of the Messiah, when the gospel should be preached to all these countries, and a general invitation thereby given into the church of Christ, of which Zion was a type.
V. That God shall have the glory and the church both the honour and comfort of this blessed change (Jer 31:7): Sing with gladness for Jacob, that is, let all her friends and well-wishers rejoice with her, Deu 32:43. Rejoice, you Gentiles with his people, Rom 15:10. The restoration of Jacob will be taken notice of by all the neighbours, it will be matter of joy to them all, and they shall all join with Jacob in his joys, and thereby pay him respect and put a reputation upon him. Even the chief of the nations, that make the greatest figure, shall think it an honour to them to congratulate the restoration of Jacob, and shall do themselves the honour to send their ambassadors on that errand. Publish you, praise you. In publishing these tidings, praise the God of Israel, praise the Israel of God, speak honourably of both. The publishers of the gospel must publish it with praise, and therefore it is often spoken of in the Psalms as mingled with praises, Psa 67:2, Psa 67:3; Psa 96:2, Psa 96:3. What we either bring to others or take to ourselves the comfort of we must be sure to give God the praise of. Praise you, and say, O Lord! save thy people; that is, perfect their salvation, go on to save the remnant of Israel, that are yet in bondage; as Psa 126:3, Psa 126:4. Note, When we are praising God for what he has done we must call upon him for the future favours which his church is in need and expectation of; and in praying to him we really praise him and give him glory; he takes it so.
VI. That, in order to a happy settlement in their own land, they shall have a joyful return out of the land of their captivity and a very comfortable passage homeward (Jer 31:8, Jer 31:9), and this beginning of mercy shall be to them a pledge of all the other blessings here promised. 1. Though they are scattered to places far remote, yet they shall be brought together from the north country, and from the coasts of the earth; wherever they are, God will find them out. 2. Though many of them are very unfit for travel, yet that shall be no hindrance to them: The blind and the lame shall come; such a good-will shall they have to their journey, and such a good heart upon it, that they shall not make their blindness and lameness an excuse for staying where they are. There companions will be ready to help them, will be eyes to the blind and legs to the lame, as good Christians ought to be to one another in their travels heavenward, Job 29:15. But, above all, their God will help them; and let none plead that he is blind who has God for his guide, or lame who has God for his strength. The women with child are heavy, and it is not fit that they should undertake such a journey, much less those that travail with child; and yet, when it is to return to Zion, neither the one nor the other shall make any difficulty of it. Note, When God calls we must not plead any inability to come; for he that calls us will help us, will strengthen us. 3. Though they seem to be diminished, and to have become few in numbers, yet, when they come all together, they shall be a great company; and so will God's spiritual Israel be when there shall be a general rendezvous of them, though now they are but a little flock. 4. Though their return will be matter of joy to them, yet prayers and tears will be both their stores and their artillery (Jer 31:9): They shall come with weeping and with supplications, weeping for sin, supplication for pardon; for the goodness of God shall lead them to repentance; and they shall weep with more bitterness and more tenderness for sin, when they are delivered out of their captivity, than ever they did when they were groaning under it. Weeping and praying do well together; tears put life into prayers, and express the liveliness of the, and prayers help to wipe away tears. With favours will I lead them (so the margin reads it); in their journey they shall be compassed with God's favours, the fruits of his favour. 5. Though they have a perilous journey, yet they shall be safe under a divine convoy. Is the country they pass through dry and thirsty? I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, not the waters of a land-flood, which fail in summer. Is it a wilderness where there is no road, no track? I will cause them t walk in a straight way, which they shall not miss. Is it a rough and rocky country? Yet they shall not stumble. Note, Whithersoever God gives his people a clear call he will either find them or make them a ready way; and while we are following Providence we may be sure that Providence will not be wanting to us. And, lastly, here is a reason given why God will take all this care of his people: For I am a Father to Israel, a Father that begat him, and therefore will maintain him, that have the care and compassion of a father for him (Psa 103:13); and Ephraim is my first-born; even Ephraim, who, having gone astray from God, was no more worthy to be called a son, shall yet be owned as a first-born, particularly dear, and heir of a double portion of blessings. The same reason that was given for their release out of Egypt is given for their release out of Babylon; they are free-born and therefore must not be enslaved, are born to God and therefore must not be the servants of men. Exo 4:22, Exo 4:23, Israel is my son, even my first-born; let my son go that he may serve me. If we take God for our Father, and join ourselves to the church of the first-born, we may be assured that we shall want nothing that is good for us.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–40 At the same time, saith the Lord,.... The time…
At the same time, saith the Lord,.... The time of the Messiah, the Gospel dispensation, the latter days; when the Jews shall consider the prophecies of the Old Testament, and observe how they have been fulfilled in Jesus; and shall reflect upon their disbelief and rejection of him; and shall turn unto him, and serve the Lord their God, and David their king; see Jer 30:9;
will I be the God of all the families of Israel; not of some few persons only, or of one of a city, and two of a family, but of every family; and this will be when "all Israel" shall be converted and saved, and a nation shall be born at once; then will God show himself to them as their covenant God, manifest his love to them, and bestow the blessings of his grace upon them:
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and they shall be my people; behave as such to him; own him to be their God, and serve and worship him.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 The restoration of Israel published, ver. 1-14. Rachel mourning…
The restoration of Israel published, ver. 1-14. Rachel mourning is comforted, ver. 15-17. Ephraim repenting is brought home, ver. 18-21. Christ promised, ver. 22-26. His care over the church, ver. 27-30. His new covenant, ver. 31-34. The stability and enlargement of the church, ver. 35-40.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 34, 36, 38, 39, 40 This chapter continues the subject of the preceding in…
CHAPTER XXXI
This chapter continues the subject of the preceding in a
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beautiful vision represented at a distant period. God is
introduced expressing his continual regard for Israel, and
promising to restore them to their land and liberty, 1-5.
Immediately heralds appear, proclaiming on Mount Ephraim the
arrival of the great year of jubilee, and summoning the people
to gather unto Zion, 6.
Upon which God resumes the speech; and makes such gracious
promises both of leading them tenderly by the way, and making
them happy in their own land, that all the nations of the world
are called upon to consider with deep attention this great
salvation, 7-14.
The scene is then diversified by a very happy invention.
Rachel, the another of Joseph and Benjamin, is represented as
risen from her tomb, in a city of Benjamin near Jerusalem,
looking about for her children, and bitterly lamenting their
fate, as none of them are to be seen in the land of their
fathers, 15.
But she is consoled with the assurance that they are not lost,
and that they shall in due time be restored, 16, 17.
To this another tender and beautiful scene immediately
succeeds. Ephraim, (often put for the TEN tribes,) comes in
view. He laments his past errors, and expresses the most
earnest desires of reconciliation; upon which God, as a tender
parent, immediately forgives him, 18-20.
The virgin of Israel is then directed to prepare for returning
home, 21, 22;
and the vision closes with a promise of abundant peace and
security to Israel and Judah in the latter days, 23-26.
The blessed condition of Israel under the Messiah's reign is
then beautifully contrasted with their afflicted state during
the general dispersion, 27, 28.
In the remaining part of the chapter the promises to the
posterity of Jacob of the impartial administration of justice,
increasing peace and prosperity, the universal diffusion of
righteousness, and stability in their own land after a general
restoration in Gospel tines, are repeated, enlarged on, and
illustrated by a variety of beautiful figures, 29-40.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXI
Dr. Blayney has introduced this and the preceding chapter with the following excellent observations: -
"There are many prophecies," says he, "in various parts of the Old Testament, which announce the future restoration of Israel to their own land, and the complete re-establishment of both their civil and religious constitution in the latter days, meaning the times of the Gospel dispensation. These two chapters contain a prophecy of this kind; which must necessarily be referred to these times, because it points out circumstances which certainly were not fulfilled at the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, nor have hitherto had their completion. For the people who returned from Babylon were the people of Judah only, who had been carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar; but here it is foretold, that not only should the captivity of Judah be restored, but the captivity of Israel also, meaning those ten tribes which were carried away before, by Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and who still remain in their several dispersions, having never returned, in a national capacity at least, to their own land, whatever some few individuals have done. But the terms of the prophecy entitle us to expect, not an obscure and partial, but a complete and universal, restoration; when God will manifest himself, as formerly, the God and Patron of all the families of Israel, and not of a few only. Again it is promised that, after this restoration, they should no more fall under the dominion of foreigners, but be governed by princes and magistrates of their own nation, independently of any but God, and David their king. But this was not the case with the Jews who returned from Babylon. They then indeed had a leader, Zerubbabel, one of their own nation, and also of the family of David; but both the nation and their leader continued still in a state of vassalage, and the most servile dependence upon the Persian monarchy. And when the Grecian monarchy succeeded, they changed their masters only, but not their condition; till at length under the Asmonean princes they had for a while an independent government of their own, but without any title to the name of David. At last they fell under the Roman yoke; since which time their situation has been such as not to afford the least ground to pretend that the promised restoration has yet taken place. It remains therefore to be brought about in future under the reign of the Messiah, emphatically distinguished by the name of David; when every particular circumstance predicted concerning it will no doubt be verified by a distinct and unequivocal accomplishment. There is no particular date annexed to this prophecy, whereby to ascertain the precise time of its delivery. But it may not unreasonably be presumed to have followed immediately after the preceding one in which the restoration of the people from their Babylonish captivity is in direct terms foretold. From hence the transition is natural and easy to the more glorious and general restoration which was to take place in a more distant period, and was designed for the ultimate object of the national hopes and expectations. Both events are frequently thus connected together in the prophetic writings; and perhaps with this design, that when that which was nearest at hand should be accomplished, it might afford the clearest, and strongest, and most satisfactory kind of evidence that the latter, how remote soever its period, would in like manner be brought about by the interposition of Providence in its due season. But though this prophecy relates wholly to one single subject, it seems naturally to divide itself into three distinct parts.
The first part, after a short preface, in which the prophet is required to commit to writing the matters revealed to him, commences with representing, in a style of awe and energy, the consternation and distress which, in some future day of visitation, should fall upon all nations, preparatory to the scene of Jacob's deliverance, Jer 31:5-9. Israel is encouraged to confide in the Divine assurance of restoration and protection, Jer 31:10; Jer 31:11. He is prepared previously to expect a severe chastisement for the multitude of his sins; but consoled with the prospect of a happy termination, Jer 31:12-17. This is followed by an enumeration at large of the blessings and privileges to which the Jews should be restored upon their re-admission into God's favour, Jer 31:18-22. Again, however, it ifs declared that the anger of JEHOVAH would not subside till his purposed vengeance against the wicked should have been fully executed; and then, but not till then, an entire reconciliation would take place between him and all the families of Israel, Jer 31:23; Jer 31:1.
The second part of this prophecy begins Jer 31:2, and is marked by a sudden transition to a distant period of time, represented in a vision, and embellished with a variety of beautiful scenes and images. God announces the renewal of his ancient love for Israel; and promises, in consequence thereof, a speedy restoration of their former privileges and happiness, Jer 31:2-5. Already the heralds have proclaimed on Mount Ephraim the arrival of the joyful day; they summon the people to re-assemble once more in Zion; and promulge by special command the glad tidings of salvation which God had accomplished for them. God himself declares his readiness to conduct home the remnant of Israel from all parts of their dispersion, to compassionate and relieve their infirmities, and to provide them with all necessary accommodations by the way, Jer 31:6-9. The news is carried into distant lands; and the nations are summoned to attend to the display of God's power and goodness in rescuing his people from their stronger enemies, and in supplying them after their return with all manner of good things to the full extent of their wants and desires, Jer 31:10-14. Here the scene changes; and two new personages are successively introduced, in order to diversify the same subject, and to impress it more strongly. Rachel first; who is represented as just risen from the grave, and bitterly bewailing the loss of her children; for whom she anxiously looks about, but none are to be seen. Her tears are dried up; and she is consoled with the assurance that they are not lost for ever, but shall in time be brought back to their ancient borders, Jer 31:15-17. Ephraim comes next. He laments his past undutifulness with great contrition and penitence, and professes an earnest desire of amendment. These symptoms of returning duty are no sooner discerned in him, than God acknowledges him once more as a darling child and resolves with mercy to receive him, Jer 31:18-20. The virgin of Israel is then earnestly exhorted to hasten the preparations for their return; and encouraged with having the prospect of a signal miracle wrought in her favour, Jer 31:21; Jer 31:22. And the vision closes at last with a promise that the Divine blessing should again rest upon the land of Judah; and that the men of Judah should once more dwell there, cultivating it according to the simplicity of ancient institutions, and fully discharged from every want, Jer 31:23-26. In the third part, by way of appendix to the vision, the following gracious promises are specifically annexed: That God would in time to come supply all the deficiencies of Israel and Judah; and would be as diligent to restore as he had ever been to destroy them; and would not any more visit the offenses of the fathers upon the children, Jer 31:27-30. That he would make with them a better covenant than he had made with their forefathers, Jer 31:31-34. That they should continue his people by an ordinance as firm and as lasting as that of the heavens, Jer 31:35-37. And that Jerusalem should again be built, enlarged in its extent, and secure from future desolation, Jer 31:38-40."
Verse 1. At the same time] This discourse was delivered at the same time with the former; and, with that, constitutes the Book which God ordered the prophet to write.
Will I be the God of all the families of Israel] I shall bring back the ten tribes, as well as their brethren the Jews. The restoration of the Israelites is the principal subject of this chapter.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 38 Jer 31:1. At the same time, saith the Lord…
Jer 31:1. At the same time, saith the Lord — Namely, in the latter days, mentioned Jer 30:24. I will be the God of all the families of Israel — Not of the two tribes only, but of all the tribes; not of the house of Aaron only and the families of Levi, but of all the families. And they shall be my people — I will favour them, and do them good, and they shall be subject to, and shall worship and obey me. “This second part of the prophecy,” says Calmet, “principally respects the return of the ten tribes. And I have shown, in a particular dissertation, that not only Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, but also the twelve tribes returned into their own country.” Doubtless, many individuals of the ten tribes returned with the Jews from Babylon, having been incorporated among them in the several places where they were settled; yet this seems to have been only a very partial accomplishment of this prophecy, which, as Blaney observes, “points out circumstances that certainly were not fulfilled at the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, nor have hitherto had their completion.” But, in the latter days, when the fulness of the Gentiles are brought in, all Israel shall be saved; for, as Isaiah and St. Paul testify, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Isa 59:19; Rom 11:26-29. See note on Jer 30:10.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 At the same time - literally, At that time,…
At the same time - literally, At that time, i. e., “the latter day.” mentioned in Jer 30:24.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40 Israel. The ten tribes returned as well as Juda,…
Israel. The ten tribes returned as well as Juda, &c. (Calmet) --- They were more ready to receive Christ than the other two tribes, Matthew xiii., &c. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 15, 23, 27, 31 III. THE SPECIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SALVATION TO THE TWO…
III. THE SPECIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SALVATION TO THE TWO HALVES OF THE NATION (Jer_31:1-26)
α. Ephraim’s Share (Jer_31:1-22)
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1. The Decree of Restoration
Jer_31:1-6
1 At that time, saith Jehovah, I will be God to all the families of Israel,
And they shall be my people.
2 Thus saith Jehovah; the people left of the sword has found grace in the desert.
Up!1 to bring him to rest,2 even Israel.
3 Jehovah appeared unto me from afar.
And I love thee with everlasting love,
Therefore have I in loving-kindness respited thee.3
4 Again will I build thee and thou shalt be built, Virgin Israel;
Again shalt thou adorn thyself with thy tabrets,
And go forth in the dance of those that make merry.
5 Again shalt thou plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria;
The planters shall plant and enjoy the fruit.
6 For there is a day when the watchmen cry on Mount Ephraim,
Arise and let us go up towards Zion, to Jehovah our God.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
According to Jer_30:4 the prophet has in the previous passage been addressing Israel and Judah. Now he turns to Israel alone, as far as Jer_31:22, then in Jer_31:23-26 to Judah alone, finally in Jer_31:27-40 to the entire Israelitish nation. After the comprehensive promise (Jer_31:1), which now allots the consolation, assured in Jer_30:22 to the entire nation, especially to the ten tribes; he announces that the residue of Israel has found grace, and that the Lord arises to bring it to rest (Jer_31:2). The people see the Lord approaching from a distance, and telling them that he loves them with an everlasting love, of which the previous respite was a proof (Jer_31:3). Then follows the consolatory promise that the Virgin Israel shall be rebuilt, that she shall again go forth in cheerful dances (Jer_31:4), that vineyards shall again be planted in Samaria, and those who have planted shall enjoy the fruit (Jer_31:5). And not only this. Israel will also again have recourse to the national Sanctuary, and go up for worship to Jerusalem.
Jer_31:1. At that time … my people. The section begins as the previous one had closed. That glorious consolation is again proclaimed specially to the ten tribes, the most ruined and almost lost portions of the people. The alterations and extensions occasioned by its position in the beginning and the inversion mark at the same time the distinction in reference to Jer_30:22.
Jer_31:2-6. Thus saith Jehovah … our God. It is impossible that there can be a reference here to those who were delivered from the captivity in Egypt. Apart from particular objections, the ten tribes did not then obtain a special deliverance, and the whole description relates to the future, as is clear from up! to bring, etc., and still more plainly from Jer_31:4-6. The declarations of these latter verses only particularize what was said in Jer_31:2-3. The perfects in Jer_31:2-3 are also prophetical.—Has found grace. Israel had fallen into disfavor, now he has again found favor. In the desert the Lord finds the remnant spared by the sword of the enemy. It is certain that the prophet means the north-eastern desert situated between Palestine and the Euphrates. For the escaped of the sword, mentioned in Jer_51:50 are not those which Jer. here has in mind. There he is speaking of Jews, here of those pertaining to the ten tribes. The prophet is thinking of them as they were during the period of their disfavor, oppressed and persecuted by enemies and driven out into the desert. There, in their deepest distress, the Lord finds them. We have however no right to deny that this prophetic picture of the future has its corresponding historical reality in an external, literal sense. Jer_31:3. A dramatic change of persons! The people speak. They see the Lord appear from afar. For He had kept Himself afar off, He had indeed quite disappeared from the sight of the people. Now He is again visible, of course from Zion. Comp. Psa_14:7; Isa_49:9 sqq.—And I love. The connection of what Jehovah says with what the people say by means of Vau, and (Hitzig appropriately compares 1Ki_20:34) makes the impression that the Lord at once agrees to what is said, confirms it, makes indeed glorious additions to it. Vau therefore=and indeed (comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 111, 1, a) is connected with a collateral causal significance (comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 110, 1, e), since that eternal love is the only ground of the appearance.—On the subject-matter comp. Deu_7:13; Isa_54:7-8; 1Ki_10:9.—Build, etc. Build here is to be taken not merely in the sense of building walls, but of restitutio in integrum. Comp. Psa_28:5; Psa_102:17; Jer_12:16. [“This metaphor, which may appear harsh in English, is to be explained from the use of the Hebrew word banah, to build, as applied to the building up a family of sons (banim) and daughters (banoth) who are like living stones of the household, built up from the mother, wedded as a Virgin Bride to her husband.” Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]—Adorn thyself, etc. Comp. Jer_4:30. The kettle-drum, [or timbrel] is here designated as pertaining to the ornaments of a woman who appears in festal apparel.—Comp. Jer_31:19.—To the rebuilt cities and the restored commonwealth, it is also necessary in order that the people may be happy, that there be agriculture, especially the culture of the vine, the fruit of which rejoiceth the heart of man.—Mountains of Samaria (comp. 1Ki_16:24) are the mountains of the northern kingdom generally, in so far as they permitted the culture of the vine. Comp. Jdg_9:27.—Hos_2:17.—Enjoy the fruit. Jeremiah here refers to the legal enactment, Lev_19:13-25, that the fruit of newly planted trees should not be eaten at all in the first three years, and in the fourth year they should be holy unto the Lord; not until the fifth year should they be enjoyed ad libitum (comp. Saalschuetz, Mos. Recht. S. 168, 9). This appropriation permitted from the 5th year onwards is designated by the expression הִלֶּלprofanare, in usum profanum convertere. He who has planted a vineyard and has not yet enjoyed the fruit of it is free from service in war, Deu_20:6. It is also one of the punishments threatened to the ungodly man that he shall plant a vineyard but another shall make it common (Deu_28:30). In antithesis to this passage it is here promised as an element of blessing that the planter shall also be the profaner or partaker. (מְחַלֵּל). Comp. Isa_65:21.—For there is a day, etc. All this blessing promised to Israel in Jer_31:4-5 shall and will be imparted to them on this account, that the people themselves will return to the service of Jehovah as of old. בִּיFor, Jer_31:6, thus gives the reason of Jehovah’s action (Jer_31:4-5) in the behavior of Israel.—Watchmen. There were not only watchmen stationed on lofty eminences (comp. 1Ki_17:9; 1Ki_18:8) to announce danger from enemies (Jer_4:6; Jer_4:19; Jer_6:1, etc.) but also to announce the new moons and feasts. Comp. Saalschuetz, Mos. Recht., S. 387. 401.—The cry then, up to Jerusalem to worship Jehovah! sounds again as before the separation. Israel and Judah are again united in the Lord.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Joh. Conr. Schaller, pastor at Cautendorf, says in his Gospel Sermons, (Hof. 1742, S. 628), “These chapters are like a sky in which sparkle many brilliant stars of strong and consolatory declarations, a paradise and pleasure-garden in which a believing soul is refreshed with delightsome flowers of instruction, and solaced with sweetly flavored apples of gracious promise.”
2. On Jer_30:1-3. The people of Israel were not then capable of bearing such a prophecy, brimming over with happiness and glory. They would have misused it, hearing to the end what was promised them, and then only the more certainly postponing what was the only thing then necessary—sincere repentance. Hence they are not yet to hear this gloriously consolatory address. It is to be written, that it may in due time be perceived that the Lord, even at the time when He was obliged to threaten most severely, had thoughts of peace concerning the people, and that thus the period of prosperity has not come by chance, nor in consequence of a change of mind, but in consequence of a plan conceived from the beginning and executed accordingly.
3. On Jer_30:7. The great and terrible day of the Lord (Joe_3:4) has not the dimensions of a human day. It has long sent out its heralds in advance. Yea, it has itself already dawned. For since by the total destruction of the external theocracy judgment is begun at the house of God (1Pe_4:17), we stand in the midst of the day of God in the midst of the judgment of the world. Then the time of trouble for Jacob has begun (Jer_30:7), from which he is to be delivered, when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in (Romans 11.)
4. On Jer_30:9. Christ is David in his highest potency, and He is also still more. For if we represent all the typical points in David’s life as a circle, and draw a line from each of these points, the great circle thus formed would comprise only a part of the πλήρωμα given in Christ. Nevertheless Christ is the true David, who was not chosen like Saul for his bodily stature, but only for his inward relation to God (comp. Psa_2:7), whose kingdom also does not cease after a short period of glory, but endures forever; who will not like Saul succumb to his enemies, but will conquer them all, and will give to his kingdom the widest extent promised; all this however not without, like David, having gone through the bitterest trials.
5. On Jer_30:11. “Modus paternæ castigationis accommodatus et quasi appensus ad stateram judicii Dei adeoque non immensus sed dimensus.” “Christus ecclesiam crucis suæ hæredem constituit. Gregor. M.” Förster.
6. On Jer_30:14. “Cum virlutem patientiæ nostræ flagella transeunt, valde metuendum est, ne peccatis nostris exigentibus non jam quasi filii a patre, sed quasi hostes a Domino feriamur. Gregor. M. Moral. XIV. 20, on Job_19:11.” Ghisler.
7. On Jer_30:17. “Providentia Dei mortalibus salutifera, antequam percutiat, pharmaca medendi gratiâ componit, et gladium iræ suæ φιλανθρωπίᾳ acuit. Evagr. Hist. Ecc_4:6.”—“Quando incidis in tentationem, crede, quod nisi cognovisset te posse illam evadere, non permisisset te in illam incidere. Theophyl. in cap. 18 Joh.” Förster.—“Feriam prius et sanabo melius. Theophyl. in Hosea 11.” Ghisler.
8. On Jer_30:21. “This church of God will own a, Prince from its midst—Jesus, of our flesh and blood through the virgin Mary, and He approaches God, as no other can, for He is God’s image, God’s Son, and at the same time the perfect, holy in all His sufferings, only obedient son of man. This king is mediator and reconciler with God; He is also high-priest and fulfilled all righteousness, as was necessary for our propitiation. What glory to have such a king, who brings us nigh unto God, and this is our glory!” Diedrich.
9. On Jer_31:1. “There is no greater promise than this: I will be thy God. For if He is our God we are His creatures, His redeemed, His sanctified, according to all the three articles of the Christian faith.” Cramer.
10. On Jer_31:2. “The rough heap had to be sifted by the sword, but those who survived, though afflicted in the desert of this life, found favor with God, and these, the true Israel, God leads into His rest.” Diedrich.
11. On Jer_31:3. “The love of God towards us comes from love and has no other cause above or beside itself, but, is in God and remains in God, so that Christ who is in God is its centre. For herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us (1Jn_4:10).” Cramer. “Totum gratiæ imputatur, non nostris meritis. Augustine in Psalms 31.” Förster. “Before I had done anything good Thou hadst already moved towards me. Let these words be written on your hearts with the pen of the living God, that they may light you like flames of fire on the day of the marriage. It is your certificate of birth, your testimonial. Let me never lose sight of how much it has cost Thee to redeem me.” Zinzendorf. “God says: My chastisement even was pure love, though then you did not understand it; you shall learn it afterwards.” Diedrich. [“I incline to the construction given in the English version, both because the suffix to the verb is more naturally, ‘I have drawn thee,’ than ‘I have drawn out toward thee,’ and because there seems to be a tacit allusion to Hos_11:4, ‘With loving kindness have I drawn thee.’—-A great moral truth lies in this passage so construed, viz., that the main power which humbles man’s pride, softens his hard heart and makes him recoil in shame and sorrow from sinning, comes through his apprehension of God’s love as manifested in Christ and His cross. It is love that, draws the fearful or stubborn soul to the feet of divine mercy.” Cowles.—S. R. A.]
12. On Jer_31:6. “It is well: the watchmen on Mount Ephraim had to go to Zion. They received however another visit from the Jewish priests, which they could not have expected at the great reformation, introduced by John, and which had its seat among other places on Mount Ephraim. The Samaritans were not far distant, and Mount Ephraim had even this honor that when the Lord came to His temple He took His Seat as a teacher there.” Zinzendorf. [“God’s grace loves to triumph over the most inveterate prejudices… No words could represent a greater and more benign change in national feeling than these: Samaria saying through her spiritual watchmen, ‘Let us go up to Zion to worship, for our God is there.’ ” Cowles. “ ‘Ascendamus in Sion, hoc est in Ecclesiam’ says S. Jerome. According to this view, the watchmen here mentioned are the Preachers of the Gospel.” Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]
13. On Jer_31:9. “I will lead them. It is an old sighing couplet, but full of wisdom and solid truth:—
‘Lord Jesus, while I live on earth, O guide me,
Let me not, self-led, wander from beside Thee.’ ”
—Zinzendorf.
14. On Jer_31:10. “He who has scattered Israel will also collect it. Why? lie is the Shepherd. It is no wolf-scattering. He interposes His hand, then they go asunder, and directly come together again more orderly.” Zinzendorf.
15. On Jer_31:12-14. “Gaudebunt electi, quando videbunt supra se, intra se, juxta se, infra se. Augustine.”—“Præmia cœlestia erunt tam magna, ut non possint mensurari, tam multa, ut non possint numerari, tam copiosa, ut non possint terminari, tam pretiosa, ut non possint æstimari. Bernhard.” Förster.
16. On Jer_31:15. “Because at all times there is a similar state of things in the church of God, the lament of Rachel is a common one. For as this lament is over the carrying away captive and oppressions of Babylon, so is it also a lament over the tyranny of Herod in slaughtering the innocent children (Mat_2:1-7.)”Cramer. “Premuntur justi in ecclesia ut clament, clamantes exaudiuntur, exauditi glorificent Deum. Augustin.” Förster.—With respect to this, that Rachel’s lament may be regarded as a type of maternal lamentation over lost children, Förster quotes this sentence of Cyprian: non amisimus, sed præmisimus (2Sa_12:23). [On the application of this verse to the murder of the innocents consult W. L. Alexander, Connexion of the Old and New. Testament, p. 54, and W. H. Mill in Wordsworth’s Note in loc.—S. R. A.]
17. On Jer_31:18. The conversion of man must always be a product of two factors. A conversion which man alone should bring about, without God, would be an empty pretence of conversion; a conversion, which God should produce, without man, would be a compulsory, manufactured affair, without any moral value. The merit and the praise is, however, always on God’s side. He gives the will and the execution. Did He not discipline us, we should never learn discipline. Did He not lead back our thoughts to our Father’s house which we have left (Luke 15) we should never think of returning.
18. On Jer_31:19. “The children of God are ashamed their life long, they cannot raise their heads for humiliation. For their sins always seem great to them, and the grace of God always remains something incomprehensible to them.”Zinzendorf. The farther the Christian advances in his consciousness of sonship and in sanctification, the more brilliantly rises the light of grace, the more distinctly does he perceive in this light, how black is the night of his sins from which God has delivered him. [“It is the ripest and fullest ears of grain which hang their heads the lowest.”—S. R. A.]
19. On Jer_31:19. “The use of the dear cross is to make us blush (Dan_9:8) and not regard ourselves as innocent (Jer_30:11). And as it pleases a father when a child soon blushes, so also is this tincture a flower of virtue well-pleasing to God.” Cramer. “Deus oleum miserationis suæ non nisi in vas contritum et contribulatum infundit. Bernhard.”Förster.
20. On Jer_31:19. The reproach of my youth. “The sins of youth are not easily to be forgotten (Psa_25:7; Job_31:18). Therefore we ought to be careful so to act in our youth as not to have to chew the cud of bitter reflection in our old age. It is a comfort that past sins of youth will not injure the truly penitent. Non nocent peccata præterita, cum non placent præsentia. Augustine. To transgress no more is the best sign of repentance.” Cramer.
21. On Jer_31:20. “Comforting and weighty words, which each one should lay to heart. God loves and caresses us as a mother her good child. He remembers His promise. His heart yearns and breaks, and it is His pleasure to do us good.” Cramer. “lpsius proprium est, misereri semper et parcere.” Augustine.—“Major est Dei misericordia quam omnium hominum miseria.” Idem.
22. On Jer_31:23. The Lord bless thee, thou dwelling-place of righteousness, thou holy mountain. “Certainly no greater honor was ever done to the Jewish mountains than that the woman’s seed prayed and wept on them, was transfigured, killed and ascended above all heaven.” Zinzendorf. “ It cannot be denied that a church sanctifies a whole place …. Members of Jesus are real guardian angels, who do not exist in the imagination, but are founded on God’s promise (Mat_25:40).” Idem.
23. On Jer_31:29-30. “The so-called family curse has no influence on the servants of God; one may sleep calmly nevertheless. This does not mean that we should continue in the track of our predecessors, ex. gr., when our ancestors have gained much wealth by sinful trade, that we should continue this trade with this wealth with the hope of the divine blessing…. If this or that property, house, right, condition be afflicted with a curse, the children of God may soon by prudent separation deliver themselves from these unsafe circumstances. For nothing attaches to their persons, when they have been baptized with the blood of Jesus and are blessed by Him.” Zinzendorf.
24. On Jer_31:29-30. “In testamento novo per sarguinem mediatoris deleto paterno chirographo incipit homo paternis debitis non esse obnoxius renascendo, quibus nascendo fuerat obligatus, ipso Mediatore di cente: Ne vobis patrem dicüis in terra (Mat_23:9). Secundum hoc utique, quod alios natales, quibus non patri succederemus, sed cum patre semper viveremus, invenimus.” Augustine, contra Julian, VI. 12, in Ghisler.
25. On Jer_31:31. “In veteribus libris aut nusquam aut difficile præter hunc propheticum locum legitur facta commemoratio testamenti novi, ut omnino ipso nomine appellaretur. Nam multis locis hoc significalur et prænuntiatur futurum, sed non ita ut etiam nomen lega’ ur expressum.” Augustine, de Spir. et Lit. ad Marcellin, Cap. 19 (where to Cap. 29 there is a detailed discussion of this passage) in Ghisler.—“In the whole of the Old Testament there is no passage, in which the view is so clearly and distinctly expressed as here that the law is only παιδαγαγός. And though some commentators have supposed that the passage contains only a censure of the Israelites and not of the Old Covenant, they only show thus that they have not understood the simple meaning of the words.” Ebrard. Comm. zum Hebräerbr. S. 275.
26. On Jer_31:31, sqq. “Propter veteris hominis noxam, quæ per literam jubentem et minantem minime sanabatur, dicitur illud testamentum vetus; hoc antem novum propter novitatem spiritus, quæ hominem novum sanat a vitio vetustatis.” Augustine, c. Lit. Cap. 19.
27. On Jer_31:33. “Quid sunt ergo leges Dei ab ipso Deo scriptæ in cordibus, nisi ipsa præsentia Spiritus sancti, qui est digitus Dei, quo præsente diffunditur charitas in cordibus nostrio, quæ plenitudo legis est et præcepti finis?” Augustine, l. c. Cap. 20.
28. On Jer_31:34. “Quomodo tempus est novi testamenti, de quo propheta dixit: et non docebit unusquisque civem suum, etc. nisi quia rjusdem testamenti novi æternam mercedem, id est ipsius Dei beatissimam contemplationem promittendo conjunxit?” Augustine, l. c. Cap. 24.
29. On Jer_31:33-34. “This is the blessed difference between law and Gospel, between form and substance. Therefore are the great and small alike, and the youths like the elders, the pupils more learned than their teachers, and the young wiser than the ancients (1Jn_2:20 sqq.). Here is the cause:—For I will forgive their iniquities. This is the occasion of the above; no one can effect this without it. Forgiveness of sins makes the scales fall from people’s eyes, and gives them a cheerful temper, clear conceptions, a clear head.”Zinzendorf.
30. On Jer_31:35-37. “Etsi particulares ecclesiæ intotum deficere possunt, ecclesia tamen catholica nunquam defecit aut deficiet. Obstant enim Dei amplissimæ promissiones, inter quas non ultimum locum sibi vindicut quæ hic habetur Jer_31:37.” Förster.
31. On Jer_31:38-40. “Jerusalem will one day be much greater than it has ever been. This is not to be understood literally but spiritually. Jerusalem will be wherever there are believing souls, its circle will be without end and comprise all that has been hitherto impure and lost. This it is of which the prophet is teaching, and which he presents in figures, which were intelligible to the people in his time. The hill Gareb, probably the residence of the lepers, the emblem of the sinner unmasked and smitten by God, and the cursed valley of Ben-Hinnom will be taken up into the holy city. God’s grace will one day effect all this, and Israel will thus be manifested as much more glorious than ever before.” Diedrich.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer_30:5-9. Sermon on one of the last Sundays after Trinity or the second in Advent. The day of the judgment of the world a great day. For it is, (1) a day of anxiety and terror for all the world; (2) a day of deliverance from all distress for the church of the Lord; (3) a day of realization of all the happiness set in prospect before it.
2. On Jer_30:10-12. Consolation of the church in great trial. 1. It has well deserved the trial (Jer_30:12); 2. it is therefore chastised, but with moderation; 3. it will not perish but again enjoy peace.
3. On Jer_30:17. [“The Restorer of mankind. 1. Faith in the Christian Sacrament and its attendant revelation of divine character alone answer the demand of the heart and reason of man for a higher state of moral perfection. 2. Christianity offers to maintain a communication between this world and that eternal world of holiness and truth. 3. It commends itself to our wants in the confirmation and direction of that principle of hope, which even in our daily and worldly life, we are perpetually forced to substitute for happiness, and 4. By the adorable object, which it presents to our affections.” Archer Butler—S. R. A.]
4. On Jer_31:1-2. Gesetz and Zeugniss (Law and Testimony) 1864, Heft. 1. Funeral sermon of Ahlfeld.
5. On Jer_31:2-4. lb. 1865. Heft 1. Funeral sermon of Besser, S. 32 ff.
6. On Jer_31:3. C. Fr. Hartmann (Wedding, School, Catechism and Birth-day sermons, ed. C. Chr. Eberh. Ehemann. Tüb. 1865). Wedding sermon. 1. A grateful revival in the love of God already received. 2. Earnest endeavor after a daily enjoyment of this love. 3. Daily nourishment of hope.
7. On Jer_31:3. Florey. Comfort and warning at graves. I. Bändchen, S. 253. On the attractions of God’s love towards His own children. They are, 1. innumerable and yet so frequently overlooked; 2. powerful and yet so frequently resisted; 3. rich in blessing and yet so frequently; unemployed. [For practical remarks on this text see also Tholuck, Stunden der Andacht, No. 11.—S. R. A.]
8. On Jer_31:9. Confessional sermon by Dekan V. Biarowsky in Erlangen (in Palmer’s Evang. Casual-Reden, 2 te Folge, 1 Band. Stuttgart, 1850.) Every partaking of the Lord’s supper is a return to the Lord in the promised land, and every one who is a guest at the supper rises and comes. 1. How are we to come? (weeping and praying). 2. What shall we find? (Salvation and blessing, power and life, grace and help).
9. On Jer_31:18-20. Comparison of conversion with the course of the earth and the sun. 1. The man who has fallen away is like the planet in its distance from the sun; he flees from God as far as he Song of Solomon 2. Love however does not release him: a. he is chastened (winter, cold, long nights, short days); b. he accepts the chastening and returns to proximity to the sun (summer, warmth, light, life). Comp. Brandt, Altes und Neues in i extemporirbaren Entwürfen. Nüremberg, 1829, II. 5. [The stubborn sinner submitting himself to God. I. A description of the feelings and conduct of an obstinate, impenitent sinner, while smarting under the rod of affliction: He is rebellious—till subdued. II. The new views and feelings produced by affliction through divine grace: (a) convinced of guilt and sinfulness; (b) praying; (c) reflecting on the effects of divine grace in his conversion. III. A correcting but compassionate God, watching the result, etc., (a) as a tender father mindful of his penitent child; (b) listening to his complaints, confessions and petitions; (c) declaring His determination to pardon. Payson.—S. R. A.]
10. On Jer_31:31-34. Sermon on 1 Sunday in Advent by Pastor Diechert in Gröningen, S. Stern aus Jakob. I. Stuttg. 1867.
11. On Jer_31:33-34. Do we belong to the people of God? 1. Have we holiness? 2. Have we knowledge? 3. Have we the peace promised to this people? (Caspari in Predigtbuch von Dittmar, Erlangen, 1845).
12. On Jer_31:33-34. By the new covenant in the bath of holy baptism all becomes new. 1. What was dead becomes alive 2. What was obscure becomes clear. 3. What was cold becomes warm. 4. What was bound becomes free (Florey, 1862).
Footnotes:
[1]Jer_31:2.—הָלוֹךְ. The infinitive absolute is to be taken as an imperative, in the sense of a summons to one’s self. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 92, 2, b.
[2]Jer_31:2.—In להרגיעו the prophet evidently alludes to Deu_28:65. This Hiphil denotes quietem agere, to make a rest (comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 18, 3). There is indeed no further instance to adduce in favor of the meaning quietum facere, yet, apart from its grammatical admissibility, it rests on a good foundation, partly in the etymology (comp. מַרְגּוֹעַ, Jer_6:16; מַרְגֵּעַה, Isa_28:12) partly in the connection.—On the anticipation of the object by the suffix. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 77, 2 and rems. on Jer_9:14.
[3]Jer_31:3.—מָשַׁךְ חֵסֶד in the sense of prolongare gratiam is found in Psa_36:11; Psa_109:12 coll. Psa_85:6. The sense would also be perfectly appropriate. Then the suffix would have to be taken in the sense of the dative. This use of the suffix is however proved only in the 1st person (ני), and the similar case of the third pers. masc. (יו). For such a use in the 2d pers. we have only the uncertain instance of Isa_65:5. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 70.—I therefore take מָשַׁךְ with Hitzig and Fuerst in the sense of “respite” (Ecc_2:3). חֶסֶד is the Accus. Instr. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 70, i.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–40 Upon the grace manifested to Israel "in the wilderness"…
Upon the grace manifested to Israel "in the wilderness" God grounds His argument for renewing His favors to them now in their exile; because His covenant is "everlasting" (Jer 31:3), and changes not. The same argument occurs in Hos 13:5, Hos 13:9-10; Hos 14:4-5, Hos 14:8. Babylon is fitly compared to the "wilderness," as in both alike Israel was as a stranger far from his appointed "rest" or home, and Babylon is in Isa 40:3 called a "desert" (compare Jer 50:12).
I went to cause him to rest--namely, in the pillar of cloud and fire, the symbol of God's presence, which went before Israel to search a resting-place (Num 10:33; Isa 63:14) for the people, both a temporary one at each halt in the wilderness, and a permanent one in Canaan (Exo 33:14; Deu 3:20; Jos 21:44; Psa 95:11; Heb 3:11).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39 RESTORATION FOR ALL THE FAMILIES OF ISRAEL, Jer_31:1-40.
RESTORATION FOR ALL THE FAMILIES OF ISRAEL, Jer_31:1-40.
1. At the same time — Namely, in the “latter days” of Jer_30:24, when God’s anger shall light on his enemies. Then shall men be made to “discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” Mal_3:18. Will I be the God, etc. — An all-comprehending promise, carrying in its bosom all possible good — safety, success, victory, glory. And this he will be, not to Judah alone, and not to select and fortunate individuals and families, but to all the families of Israel.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40 1. all the families of Israel] the twelve tribes.…
1. all the families of Israel] the twelve tribes. Afterwards the Northern kingdom is dealt with (2–22), then the Southern (23–26), and then again both together (27–40).
Jer_31:1-9. See introd. summary to the section. Jer_31:1, virtually a repetition of Jer_30:22, should be joined to the previous ch.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40 (1) The God of all the families of Israel.—The…
XXXI.
(1) The God of all the families of Israel.—The union of the ten tribes of Israel and the two of Judah is again prominent in the prophet’s mind. He cannot bear to think of that division, with its deep lines of cleavage in the religious and social life of the people, being perpetuated. Israel should be Israel. This is the crown and consummation of the promise of Jer_30:24.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40 Vers. 1-6. The promise of Jer_30:22 is expressly declared…
Vers. 1-6. The promise of Jer_30:22 is expressly declared to apply to both sections of the nation. Jehovah thus solemnly declares his purpose of mercy, and dwells with special Madness on the happy future of Ephraim.
Ver. 1. The close relations of God and his people.
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I THE OCCASION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CLOSE RELATIONS BETWEEN GOD AND HIS PEOPLE.
1. After chastisement. This and the other blessings promised in "the hook of consolation" are to follow the endurance of the Captivity. God often accords the choicest spiritual blessings to those of his children who are called to endure the bitterest trials.
2. After repentance. The people learned to grieve for their wickedness, and return to God in penitence and trust under the wholesome lessons of adversity. Then they were ready for reunion with God. Mere suffering will not lead to this. Suffering is useful just because it may he a means of leading us to humble ourselves and turn to God.
3. Accompanying a restoration of temporal prosperity. The glories of the restoration referred to in the last chapter are closely associated with the high spiritual privileges promised in the text. Earthly good things are of little use unless they are crowned by higher blessings. The difference between the prosperity of the wicked and that of true Christians is that the one is the highest good enjoyed, and thus tends to become an idol and a snare, while the other is subordinate to better things and purified by their pervading influence. Thus received, prosperity may be safely enjoyed.
4. Contemporaneously with the punishment of the wicked. "At the same time," etc. God is discriminating in his judgments because he is calm and just, though we cannot discern his course and aim. The highest spiritual good is received only when our spiritual foes are overthrown.
II THE PERSONS WHO ENJOY THESE CLOSE RELATIONS.
1. Israel. The promise was to the favoured nation, to the exclusion of others. Elsewhere prophets foretold the spread of the blessings of redemption to all nations, but always on the understanding that those nations entered into the Jewish covenant and became spiritual Israelites. The highest blessings are offered to all men, but with the condition that they who would receive them become his true children. The invitation is to mankind; the promise is to the people of God.
2. The families of Israel. God gives distinct family gifts, blessing children through their parents. Religion sanctifies the family. Family life is the largest and highest form of natural human life.
3. All the families of Israel. The privileges are not confined to certain selected families to those which had always remained faithful, to any spiritual aristocracy, to any priestly order; not Aaron"s family alone, nor Levi"s tribe, nor Judah to the exclusion of the ten tribes; but all are to be restored. All Christians are called to the free enjoyment of God"s peculiar people; spiritual privileges are confined within no exclusive limitations. All Christians are kings and priests; all can now enter the holiest sanctuary, enjoy the closest communion with God.
III THE CHARACTER OF THESE CLOSE RELATIONS.
1. It has a human side: "I will be the God of all the families of Israel.
(1) Jehovah is acknowledged. The people had followed Baal. They return to the true God. Christians who acknowledge God and Christ should frankly confess their faith.
(2) God is worshiped. If he is regarded by us as becomes his being and character, he must be honoured as well as acknowledged.
(3) God is obeyed. If he is admitted to be our God, he must be submitted to as our sovereign Lord.
(4) God is trusted. Our God is our supreme Helper. When we enter into right relations with God, we learn to confide in him.
(5) God is enjoyed. He is our God as our Portion.
2. The character of this relation between God and hi s people has also a Divine side: "And they shall be my people." Religion is not only an exercise of human spiritual activities; it is also a sphere in which God works, influencing his people. Though his people are unworthy of God, he is not ashamed of them. He owns them. If God regards any men as his people, great consequences follow.
(1) He will prize them as his treasures, showing to them love, bestowing upon them favours, guarding them from harm..
(2) He will lay obligations upon them, call them to service, honour them with trusts. These two characteristics of the close relation of God and his people are nearly allied. God will not honour and protect us while we forget or disown him; but his great favours to us help us the better to own and serve him.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-9. The restoration of Israel.
To cheer the hearts of the exiles, to lift up the despondent, and to vindicate the faithfulness of God, is the intent of this and the many other predictions concerning the restoration of Israel. In a limited sense they were fulfilled by the restoration at the close of the Captivity; but the events of that period can hardly be said to have filled up the meaning of the emphatic language which the prophets were wont to employ. Hence it has been felt to be necessary to look further for the complete fulfilment of these many most glorious predictions. And in the yet future restoration of Israel, in the gathering home to their own land again in all their national entirety, not a few see the real meaning of the prophets" words. Others, whilst clearly seeing that the return of the exiles from Babylon could not satisfy the inspired Word, find that which more than meets the case in the restoration of humanity at large in that which our Saviour called "the regeneration," and St. Peter "the restitution of all things," and St. Paul "the gathering of all things in one, even in Christ." And, as in a microcosm, we may see in the redemption of every individual soul the varied characteristics which shall be more broadly and conspicuously displayed when these prophetic utterances shall have their perfect fulfilment in the kingdom of God. In the above verses (1-9) some of these characteristics are indicated; e.g.
I ITS AUTHOR. This is the Lord. See how in all these opening verses this fact is emphatically proclaimed. In ver. 1 it is the Lord who declareth that he "will be the God," etc; in the second verse "the Lord" speaks, saying, "I caused him to rest;" in the third the Lord it is who declares to his servant the unchanging love which is at the root of all this restoration; and in ver. 4 it is again," I will build thee," etc. Let these prophecies be understood as they may, the blessings of which they tell are every one of them due to the Lord alone, whether we apply them to the return from exile, the national restoration of Israel yet to come, the redemption of humanity, or to the individual soul. He is the gracious Author of every such restoration, and to him is the praise to be given.
II THE BLESSINGS OR SUCH RESTORATION. There will be:
1. Gladness and joy. (Cf. vers. 4, 7) Under the imagery of a festive dance the prophet declares this. The mournful monotone of humanity"s sorrow, its ceaseless moan, shall be replaced by the song, the dance, the shout of joy.
2. Peace. For centuries the vine clad hills of Samaria had been the object of the marauder"s repeated attack; invasion after invasion had fallen upon "the planters" that planted there. But now, undisturbed, unmolested, they shall not merely plant, but eat the fruit of their vines. It is an image of unruffled peace which arises from the perfect security in which God"s people shall forever dwell. In the turmoil of life, amid its tossings to and fro, and its painful agitations, there are not a few to whom the thought of this blessed peace is the chief charm of the hoped for future.
3. Unity. (Ver. 6) The watchmen of Ephraim, who were stationed on the high mountains to proclaim the advents of the feasts and festivals of God"s people shall cry, "Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion. What a change here from the old sad past! Then Israel would not worship in Zion, but stood aloof in her own worship within her own borders. But now Israel and Judah shall go together to worship in Zion. Not discord now, but blessed unity. It can hardly be questioned that the spirit of strife, which is an all but universal feature in human character, and never has been wanting in vigorous expression, must have been designed for some good end. But who will not welcome the day when it can be done without, and the nations shall learn war no more?
4. God shall be all and in all. The going up to Zion shall be "to the Lord our God." This fact is the keystone of the whole arch of promise and of blessing. Without it all would crumble away, could have no existence, still less permanence.
III ITS PROCESS.
1. The proclamation of God"s grace is made. Faith to believe it is given. Then and thence "praise" to God for his goodness and "prayer" pleading with God to make good his word. "O Lord, save," etc. (ver. 7).
2. Then God actually proceeds to bring them away from the many lands where they are scattered. Distance is no obstacle (ver. 8). Their own infirmities shall not hinder (ver. 8). The dreadful desert, with its thirst, its pathless extent, its rough rock strewn ways, shall not hinder; for (ver. 9) God shall give them "rivers of waters," and "a straight way wherein they shall not stumble.
3. We see them approaching their own land: "They shall come with weeping," etc. (ver. 9). It is the sense of God"s goodness that more than aught besides leads to that godly sorrow which is the sure guarantee of complete abandonment of those sins which in the past had brought such evil upon them, and which, until abandoned, would render restoration impossible.
IV THE REASON AND MOTIVE OF IT. Ver. 9, "For I am Israel"s Father," etc. It is this fact of the fatherhood of God that explains the darkest experiences of life, for such experiences are God"s disciplines, the pruning of the vine, etc. And it enables us to sustain them and warrants the highest and most blessed hopes for those who are called upon to endure them. God"s fatherhood is at the same time the most awful and the most blessed fact the soul can know. Let us see to it that, by loving obedience to his will, we know only the Father"s smile and escape the Father"s frown. C.
The steps of the kingdom of God.
"I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people." Day by day we pray, "Thy kingdom come," and what that means the next sentence of the prayer tells us. It is that God"s will should be done on earth as it is done in heaven. All blessedness for man is contained in the fulfilment of this prayer, even as all man"s misery is due to its non-fulfilment. But how do we expect the kingdom of God to come? By what means will the blessed condition of God"s will being perfectly done on earth be brought about? The answer which is commonly given is that, by means of the preaching of the gospel and the consequent conversion of the ungodly world, the kingdom of God shall come. Hence the prayer is perpetually put up that God would send his Spirit, and make his Word powerful in men"s conversion. Now, God forbid that any should disparage such work, or do aught other than desire most earnestly that the preaching of God"s Word may be far, far more successful to this end than it commonly is. Would that the Church might win from the world far more numerous converts than have yet been given to her! God speed the work of conversion! But it is not by this means alone that the coming of God"s kingdom is to be brought about. There is another, a more ancient, and we may also say a more scriptural and therefore more successful way, and that is by the increase of godly families. When God is the God of all the families in Israel, then the nation shall be his people. The family, the Church, the kingdom of God, these are the successive steps by which, according to the Scriptures, it is the Divine intent to bring in the kingdom.
I THE FAMILY. God has not taken means to secure the perpetuation of any special political, ecclesiastical, or social institutions, but he has determined that, whilst these may come and go, the institution of the family shall abide. Therefore from the beginning "God made man in his own image, male and female created he them." The Divine ideal contained this twofold element. And he has also ordered it that the one should be in all respects the complement of the other, and as such should mutually seek and delight in the companionship of the other. And to their union he gave the blessed gift of children and the love that accompanies them, and so amid all the vicissitudes of nations and governments, the institution of the family has been perpetuated; that has not perished, whatever else may have. And there results from all this the formation of a certain spirit and type of character. There are family likenesses, not in feature and form only, but in mental, moral, and physical characteristics as well. And these enlarge and become characteristics of whole tribes, races, nations. It is evident, therefore, that, in the institution of the family, there is present a propagating power for whatever moral and spiritual forces the heads of such family may be themselves possessed with. Abraham, God knew, would be sure to "order his household" after him. And to this day the characteristics of the Jewish race are discernible everywhere. Moral and spiritual forces travel along this road rather than any other. It is God"s great highway for those principles which, when fully embraced by men"s hearts, shall bring in the kingdom of God itself. And it is by the natural increase of the family that God designs his truth should spread and his way come to be known upon earth, and his saving health amongst all nations. But ere this he accomplished the family will have developed into
II THE CHURCH. This will be the further step in the coming of the kingdom of God. When one and another household are possessed of a common spirit, share common faith and hope, and render obedience to one Divine law, it is in accordance with all spiritual instincts that these should meet together for their mutual comfort, edification, and support. "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another." And so strong has been in all ages the force of this spiritual instinct, that no fear of persecution, no terror that their enemies could inflict, has been able to deter those who believed in God from thus meeting together. There need have been no martyrs, or scarce any, if the faithful would but have individually kept their opinions to themselves. But spiritual force cannot be dammed in and held back. It will be sure ere long to burst through all restraints and barriers and go its own way. But this irrepressible instinct has been the cause and creator of the Church. And such holy convocations have reacted on the family, and deepening the hold of those sacred principles which first drew the members of the Church together have made more firm the faith and hope which already existed. Thus by the Church the spirit of the family is not only preserved, but strengthened, and its perpetuation and reproduction made more certain in the future. And the process goes on. Divine principles, faith in God, fear and love of his Name, established in the family, expand and develop into the Church, and there slowly, with ever accelerating force, surely and irresistibly, they make their way until at length it will be seen that the godly seed has the start of the seed of the wicked one, and is ever pushing it out of the way, driving it forth from its long held but usurped dominion. In illustration of this see how the Christian races do even now inherit the earth. The Puritans of America, the colonies that are ever being founded by our own people. See, too, how the Jews have ever held their own what tenacity of life, what spiritual force, are inherent in them. These are but illustrations, and but feeble ones, of how spiritual force, if it take possession of the family, will live and spread and grow until the mustard shall become the goodly tree. And thus rather than by occasional conversions from the ranks of the worldly does it seem God"s mind and will that the coming of
III THE KINGDOM OF GOD should be brought about. "There is an established hereditary moral connection between parents and their offspring, and every known principle of reason, of justice, and of holiness suggests that this connection exists for purposes of good, and not exclusively for purposes of evil." "The character of the family lies at the very foundation of all permanent moral improvement in the human race generally, and in Christian Churches in particular; and until it be intelligently, and, under the influence of right principles, practically attended to, all the preaching and all the religious machinery with which we are furnished will fail, as they have hitherto failed, to improve materially the moral condition of the world." As Baxter says, "The preaching of the Word by public ministers is not the first ordinary means of grace to any but those that were graceless till they came to hear such preaching; that is, to those on whom the first appointed means godly nurture in the family hath been neglected or proved vain. I doubt not to affirm that a godly education is God"s first and ordinary appointed means for the begetting of actual faith and other graces in the children of believers. Public preaching is appointed for the conversion of those only that have missed the blessing of the first appointed means." Yes; let God be the God of our families, and he will soon become the God of our nation, the God of the whole human race, and his kingdom will have come, and his will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35 At the same time, saith the Lord, will I…
Jer_31:1
At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.
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Religion in the home
The family is a primal and universal institution, which stands alone distinct and apart from all others. Men voluntarily create States or Churches, but God putteth men in families. The relations of husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, are altogether different in origin and character from those of the ruler and the ruled, whether in civil or religious society. They began when men was created. They cannot and will not cease until the race ceases to exist. They are recognised, therefore, and they are the only associations which are so recognised in the announcement of those fundamental precepts of moral law, which we properly separate from all the other rules given to the children of Israel through Moses, and call the Ten Commandments. But it is not even in these solemn commands that the sacred and impressive character of these relations is best gathered. It is rather their frequent employment in one form or other to illustrate the relation which the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ sustain to us, which invest them with peculiar sanctity and suggestiveness. As we find the mothers self-oblivion and undying love to her babe used to set forth the yet more enduring tenderness of God to us; so is the pity with which the father regards even his sinful children made the type of that inexhaustible compassion which pardons all human transgressions. As we hear our blessed Lord addressing us as His brethren, and are taught that in order to make His brotherhood complete He was tempted in all respects like as we are, or have the ineffable love with which He regards His Church, and binds it to Himself in loving fellowship represented by the union of the bridegroom and the bride, so is the family the image of that glorious fellow-ship to which all true souls belong--the family in heaven and earth called after the name of Christ.
I. The importance of the family relation. It is in the wise ordering of the home, the purifying of the affections in which all its relations and influences have their root, the upholding of the authority which ought ever to be maintained within it, that States and Churches alike have the best security for their peace and prosperity.
1. The feelings which are cultivated in well-regulated households and make men good sons, husbands, and fathers, are those which, when exercised in a different direction, make them good citizens and true patriots; whereas on the other side the selfishness which brooks no restraint, listens to no voice but that of its own passions, and seeks no end but their indulgence, is not more hostile to the peace and purity of the home than it is fatal to the order and progress of the nation. The most absolute collapse of a State which modern times has seen was preceded by a weakening of family ties and obligations, and the most extraordinary national development is that of a people whose loyalty to their country is not less remarkable than their devotion to their homes, and among whom, from the Emperor on the throne to the meanest of his subjects, attention to domestic duties is placed among the cardinal virtues, and the enjoyment of home happiness is esteemed one of the choicest blessings.
2. While the home is the best training-ground for the citizen, even more, if possible, ought it to be the best nursery for the Christian, and its teaching and discipline the right preparation for the Church. At all periods and in all countries where there has been any strong manifestation of the power of godliness, the family has been one of its centres It is not suggested that religious feelings can be transmitted. But it is manifest that the traditions, the associations, the beliefs and practices, and the reputation of a family may--where there is anything marked and distinctive--certainly will, materially affect each of its members. The piety of Lois and Eunice could not become the possession of Timothy, but who can doubt that he was affected by it? It must have done much, to say the least, towards creating the atmosphere by which his early life was surrounded, and so far have influenced his subsequent career. To be born into a family, where the love of God reigns is itself no small privilege. From the very dawn of intelligence one thus situated is in the midst of circumstances all tending to produce in him sentiments of reverence and devotion. He will not believe in Christ because father and grandfather believed before him, and if he were, on this account alone, to adopt a Christian creed and name, his faith would be as idle as the words in which it might be professed. He does not, caroler become a man eminent for goodness because the world or the Church looks to him thus to uphold the honour of the family name, and if he sought to do so inspired by no other motive, his life, with all the outward excellence he might discover, would be nothing more than a hollow pretence, himself no better than the whited sepulchres of the old Pharisaism. But with all this, who will undertake to deny the power which even the family traditions Of goodness, and still more the associations of the house set apart to God, must, in many cases, exert? They are as a chain of forts, which defend the acid against the assaults of sin. They are influences which predispose a man to listen to the truth, and if they may be resisted, even if by some they are hardly felt at all, they must surely place a man in a more favourable position than, if his first ideas of religion were of a tyranny to be resisted, a fanaticism to be pitied, or an hypocrisy to be despised, in every case a power which the soul should steadily resist. They are voices speaking to the heart, and appealing to many of its strongest motives and best affections.
II. The way in which family piety is to be cultivated.
1. Its foundation manifestly is parental influence. The influence which a parent exercises over his children may be composed of many elements, but the predominant one in the majority of cases must ye personal goodness. I met some time ago one, now himself the head of a household and the son of an excellent father, whose praise, as I personally know, had long remained in the church in which he was an office-bearer. As we were conversing of him, the son addressing me with strong feeling, said, It was my fathers life which saved me from being drawn away from the faith. I was, while yet a youth, throw into the society of those who made a practice of sneering at religion as a folly or a delusion, and at all its professors as hypocrites. I thought I knew my father better, but they talked so confidently that I resolved to watch. For two years I did watch with an anxious and ever-observant care, and in what I saw of my fathers holy life I found an answer to the taunts and doubts of my companions. It was a high testimony, and the truth of it was confirmed by the consecration of a large family to the service of Christ. The thought it suggests, indeed, may, in one aspect of it, be disquieting enough to parents. If the eyes of their household are thus continually upon them, and if its judgment on the Gospel be formed on the ground of what it sees in them, what reason is there for anxiety, even for trembling, lest the impression given be such as to prevent the truth from having its rightful power on the hearts of their children and servants! Children, of all others, are quick to detect a contrast, if such there be, between the outward deportment, especially in the presence of Christian friends or on religious seasons, and the predominant temper of the life; and the parent who thinks to atone for a prevailing worldliness by occasional outbursts of religious emotion, may at least be sure that his family will not be imposed on by these periodical fits of devotion. But if they will not give credit for a high degree of piety because of a few manifestations of spirituality which are out of accord with the general tenor of life, neither will they be led by occasional imperfections, and even inconsistencies, to ignore the evidence of spirit and character, supplied by daily conduct.
2. It must be manifested, however, in the whole conduct of the family, and perhaps in nothing more than in the ambitions which are cherished in relation to it and the means adopted for their realisation. Professions of supreme love to God, even though supported by many acts which are in accordance with them, will tell for very little if there is abundant proof that what a man desires, first and above all, for his children is not that they should be true Christians, but that they should be rich, or fashionable, or famous. Here is the secret of many failures, which at first seem almost unintelligible. There are parents who, to outward appearance, and to the best of their own belief, have trained their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; but the teaching has not been successful, and those who are disappointed in its results complain, or, at least, wonder, that the promise is not fulfilled. They have given instruction in the doctrines of the Gospel; they have led their children to the house of God; they have sought by precept and entreaty to influence them on Gods behalf--but without success. What can be the cause? If they would look deeper and with less prejudiced eyes, it would not be hard to find. Their children are what they have made them. I have heard of some who have been more anxious about the manners and deportment of their children or pupils; others more concerned about the society into which they can get admittance; others more intent on their outward prosperity than their religion. Ought they to be surprised if the young learn the lesson and act accordingly?
3. I include under one point family influences, whether in the way of instruction, or discipline, or worship. Two remarks only will I throw out.
(1) There should be a religion of the household; not only should the individual members personally recognise and seek to meet the claims of Christian duty, but there should be religious service rendered by the family as a whole. There should be the family gathering for daily worship, and the household, as a body, should present itself before God in His house.
(2) There comes a time when the authority of the parent can be enforced only by moral suasion, but in those earlier and more tender years, when children are not simply to be advised, but ruled, the wise head of a household will feel that he is but exercising the right which God Himself has given, or rather, let us say, discharging the trust which God has committed to him as a steward, when he gathers his children around him, whether at the family altar or in the family pew. But this raises the question of that parental rule which it was never more necessary to maintain than at the present time. If the Son of God Himself learned obedience by the things which He suffered. He has, by that submission, taught a great lesson, which neither parents nor children should forget. (J. G. Rogers, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 31 "I will be the God of all the families…
CHAPTER XXVI
INTRODUCTORY
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"I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people."- Jer_31:1
IN this third book an attempt is made to present a general view of Jeremiahs teaching on the subject with which he was most preoccupied-the political and religious fortunes of Judah. Certain (30, 31, and, in part, 33) chapters detach themselves from the rest, and stand in no obvious connection with any special incident of the prophets life. These are the main theme of this book, and have been dealt with in the ordinary method of detailed exposition. They have been treated separately, and not woven into the continuous narrative, partly because we thus obtain a more adequate emphasis upon important aspects of their teaching, but chiefly because their date and occasion cannot be certainly determined. With them other sections have been associated, on account of the connection of subject. Further material for a synopsis of Jeremiahs teaching has been collected from chapters 21-49, generally, supplemented by brief references to the previous chapters. Inasmuch as the prophecies of our book do not form an ordered treatise on dogmatic theology, but were uttered with regard to individual conduct and critical events, topics are not exclusively dealt with in a single section, but are referred to at intervals throughout. Moreover, as both the individuals and the crises were very much alike, ideas and phrases are constantly reappearing, so that there is an exceptionally large amount of repetition in the Book of Jeremiah. The method we have adopted avoids some of the difficulties which would arise if we attempted to deal with these doctrines in our continuous exposition.
Our general sketch of the prophets teaching is naturally arranged under categories suggested by the book itself, and not according to the sections of a modern treatise on Systematic Theology. No doubt much may legitimately be extracted or deduced concerning Anthropology, Soteriology, and the like; but true proportion is as important in exposition as accurate interpretation. If we wish to understand Jeremiah, we must be content to dwell longest upon what he emphasised most, and to adopt the standpoint of time and race which was his own. Accordingly in our treatment we have followed the cycle of sin, punishment, and restoration, so familiar to students of Hebrew prophecy.
NOTE SOME CHARACTERISTIC EXPRESSIONS OF JEREMIAH
This note is added partly for convenience of reference, and partly to illustrate the repetition just mentioned as characteristic of Jeremiah. The instances are chosen from expressions occurring in chapters 21-52. The reader will find fuller lists dealing with the whole book in the "Speakers Commentary" and the "Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges." The Hebrew student is referred to the list in Drivers "Introduction," upon which the following is partly based.
1. "Rising up early": Jer_7:13; Jer_7:25; Jer_11:7; Jer_25:3-4; Jer_26:5; Jer_29:19; Jer_32:33; Jer_35:14-15; Jer_44:4. This phrase, familiar to us in the narratives of Genesis and in the historical books, is used here, as in 2Ch_36:15, of God addressing His people on sending the prophets.
2. "Stubbornness of heart" (A.V. imagination of heart): Jer_3:17; Jer_7:24; Jer_9:14; Jer_11:8; Jer_13:10; Jer_16:12; Jer_18:12; Jer_23:17; also found Deu_29:19 and Psa_81:15.
3. "The evil of your doings": Jer_4:4; Jer_21:12; Jer_23:2; Jer_23:22; Jer_25:5; Jer_26:3; Jer_44:22; also Deu_28:20; 1Sa_25:3; Isa_1:16; Hos_9:15; Psa_28:4; and in slightly different form in Jer_11:18 and Zec_1:4.
"The fruit of your doings": Jer_17:10; Jer_21:14; Jer_32:19; also found in Mic_7:13.
"Doings, your doings," etc., are also found in Jeremiah and elsewhere.
4. "The sword, the pestilence, and the famine," in various orders, and either as a phrase or each word ocurring in one of three successive clauses: Jer_14:12; Jer_15:2; Jer_21:7; Jer_21:9; Jer_24:10; Jer_27:8; Jer_27:13; Jer_29:17-18; Jer_32:24; Jer_32:36; Jer_34:17; Jer_38:2; Jer_42:17; Jer_42:22; Jer_44:13.
"The sword and the famime," with similar variations: Jer_5:12; Jer_11:22; Jer_14:13; Jer_14:15-16; Jer_14:18; Jer_16:4; Jer_18:21; Jer_42:16; Jer_44:12; Jer_44:18; Jer_44:27. Cf. similar lists, etc., "death . . . sword . . . captivity," in Jer_43:11 : "war . . . evil . . . pestilence," Jer_28:8.
5. "Kings . . . princes . . . priests . . . prophets," in various orders and combinations: Jer_2:26; Jer_4:9; Jer_8:1; Jer_13:13; Jer_24:8; Jer_32:32.
Cf. "Prophet . . . priest . . . people," Jer_23:33-34. "Prophets . . . diviners . . . dreamers . . . enchanters . . . sorcerers," Jer_27:9.
CHAPTER XXXII
RESTORATION III
REUNION
Jeremiah 31
"I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast."- Jer_31:27
IN his prophecies of restoration, Jeremiah continually couples together Judah and Israel. {Jer_33:7, etc.} Israel, it is true, often stands for the whole elect nation, and is so used by Jeremiah. After the disappearance of the Ten Tribes, the Jewish community is spoken of as Israel. But Israel, in contrast to Judah, will naturally mean the Northern Kingdom or its exiled inhabitants. In this chapter Jeremiah clearly refers to this Israel; he speaks of it under its distinctive title of Ephraim, and promises that vineyards shall again be planted on the mountains of Samaria. Jehovah had declared that He would cast Judah out of His sight, as He had cast out the whole seed of Ephraim. {Jer_7:15} In the days to come Jehovah would make His new covenant with the House of Israel, as well as with the House of Judah. Amos, {Amo_9:14} who was sent to declare the captivity of Israel, also prophesied its return; and similar promises are found in Micah and Isaiah. {Mic_2:12; Isa_11:10-16} But, in his attitude towards Ephraim, Jeremiah, as in so much else, is a disciple of Hosea. Both prophets have the same tender, affectionate interest in this wayward child of God. Hosea mourns over Ephraims sin and punishment: "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee to thine enemies, O Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim?" {Hos_11:8}
Jeremiah exults in the glory of Ephraims restoration. Hosea barely attains to the hope that Israel will return from captivity, or possibly that its doom may yet be averted. "Mine heart is turned within Me, My compassions are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, I will not again any more destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee." {Hos_11:9} But Jehovah rather longs to pardon than finds any sign of the repentance that makes pardon possible; and similarly the promise-"I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon" - is conditioned upon the very doubtful response to the appeal "O Israel, return unto Jehovah thy God." {Hosea 14} Jeremiahs confidence in the glorious future of Ephraim is dimmed by no shade of misgiving. "They shall be My people, and I will be their God," is the refrain of Jeremiahs prophecies of restoration; this chapter opens with a special modification of the formula, which emphatically and expressly includes both Ephraim and Judah-"I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be My people."
The Assyrian and Chaldean captivities carried mens thoughts back to the bondage in Egypt; and the experiences of the Exodus provided phrases and figures to describe the expected Return. The judges had delivered individual tribes or groups of tribes. Jeroboam II had been the saviour of Samaria; and the overthrow of Sennacherib had rescued Jerusalem. But the Exodus stood out from all later deliverances as the birth of the whole people. Hence the prophets often speak of the Return as a New Exodus.
This prophecy takes the form of a dialogue between Jehovah and the Virgin of Israel, i.e., the nation personified. Jehovah announces that the Israelite exiles, the remnant left by the sword of Shalmaneser and Sargon, were to be more highly favoured than the fugitives from the sword of Pharaoh, of whom Jehovah sware in His wrath "that they should not enter into My rest; whose carcases fell in the wilderness." "A people that hath survived the sword hath found favour in the wilderness; Israel hath entered into his rest,"-hath found favour-hath entered-because Jehovah regards His purpose as already accomplished.
Jehovah speaks from His ancient dwelling place in Jerusalem, and, when the Virgin of Israel hears Him in her distant exile, she answers:-
"From afar hath Jehovah appeared unto me (saying),
With My ancient love do I love thee;
Therefore My lovingkindness is enduring toward thee,"
His love is as old as the Exodus, His mercy has endured all through the long, weary ages of Israels sin and suffering.
Then Jehovah replies:-
"Again will I build thee, and thou shalt be built, O Virgin of Israel;
Again shalt thou take thy tabrets, and go forth in the dances of them that make merry;
Again shalt thou plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria,
While they that plant shall enjoy the fruit."
This contrasts with the times of invasion when the vintage was destroyed or carried off by the enemy. Then follows the Divine purpose, the crowning mercy of Israels renewed prosperity:-
"For the day cometh when the vintagers
Shall cry in the hill country of Ephraim,
Arise, let us go up to Zion, to Jehovah our God."
Israel will no longer keep her vintage feasts in schism at Samaria and Bethel and her countless high places, but will join with Judah in the worship of the Temple, which Josiahs covenant had accepted as the one sanctuary of Jehovah.
The exultant strain continues, stanza after stanza:-
"Thus saith Jehovah:
Exult joyously for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations;
Make your praises heard, and say, Jehovah hath saved His people, even the remnant of Israel.
Behold, I bring them from the land of the north,
And gather them from the uttermost ends of the earth;
Among them blind and lame,
Pregnant women and women in travail together."
None are left behind, not even those least fit for the journey.
"A great company shall return hither.
They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them."
Of old, weeping and supplication had been heard upon the heights of Israel because of her waywardness and apostasy; {Jer_3:21} but now the returning exiles offer prayers and thanksgiving mingled with tears, weeping partly for joy, partly for pathetic memories.
"I will bring them to streams of water, by a plain path,
Wherein they cannot stumble:
For I am become once more a father to Israel,
And Ephraim is My firstborn son."
Of the two Israelite states, Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom, had long been superior in power, wealth, and religion. Judah was often little more than a vassal of Samaria, and owed her prosperity and even her existence to the barrier which Samaria interposed between Jerusalem and invaders from Assyria or Damascus. Until the latter days of Samaria, Judah had no prophets that could compare with Elijah and Elisha. The Jewish prophet is tenacious of the rights of Zion, but he does not base any claim for the ascendency of Judah on the geographical position of the Temple; he does not even mention the sacerdotal tribe of Levi. Jew and priest as he was, he acknowledges the political and religious hegemony of Ephraim. The fact is a striking illustration of the stress laid by the prophets on the unity of Israel, to which all sectional interests were to be sacrificed. If Ephraim was required to forsake his ancient shrines, Jeremiah was equally ready to forego any pride of tribe or caste. Did we, in all our different Churches, possess the same generous spirit, Christian reunion would no longer be a vain and distant dream. But, passing on to the next stanza, -
"Hear the word of Jehovah, O ye nations,
And make it known in the distant islands.
Say, He that scattered Israel doth gather him,
And watcheth over him as a shepherd over his flock.
For Jehovah hath ransomed Jacob and redeemed him
From the hand of him that was too strong for him.
They shall come and sing for joy in the height of Zion;
They shall come in streams to the bounty of Jehovah,
For corn and new wine and oil and lambs and calves."
Jeremiah does not dwell, in any grasping sacerdotal spirit, on the contributions which these reconciled schismatics would pay to the Temple revenues, but rather delights to make mention of their share in the common blessings of Gods obedient children.
"They shall be like a well-watered garden;
They shall no more be faint and weary:
Then shall they rejoice-the damsels in the dance-
The young men and the old together.
I will turn their mourning into gladness, and will comfort them,
And will bring joy out of their wretchedness.
I will fill the priests with plenty,
And My people shall be satisfied with My bounty-
It is the utterance of Jehovah."
It is not quite clear how far, in this chapter, Israel is to be understood exclusively of Ephraim. If the foregoing stanza is, as it seems, perfectly general, the priests are simply those of the restored community, ministering at the Temple; but if the reference is specially to Ephraim, the priests belong to families involved in the captivity of the ten tribes, and we have further evidence of the catholic spirit of the Jewish prophet.
Another stanza:-
"Thus saith Jehovah:
A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children.
She refuseth to be comforted for her children, for they are not."
Rachel, as the mother of Benjamin and Joseph, claimed an interest in both the Israelite kingdoms. Jeremiah shows special concern for Benjamin, in whose territory his native Anathoth was situated.
"Her children" would be chiefly the Ephraimites and Manassites, who formed the bulk of the Northern Kingdom; but the phrase was doubtless intended to include other Jews, that Rachel might be a symbol of national unity. The connection of Rachel with Ramah is not obvious; there is no precedent for it. Possibly Ramah is not intended for a proper name, and we might translate "A voice is heard upon the heights." In Gen_35:19, Rachels grave is placed between Bethel and Ephrath, and in 1Sa_10:2, in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; only here has Rachel anything to do with Ramah. The name, however, in its various forms, was not uncommon. Ramah, to the north of Jerusalem, seems to have been a frontier town, and debatable territory {1Ki_15:17} between the two kingdoms; and Rachels appearance there might symbolise her relation to both. This Ramah was also a slave depot for the Chaldeans (Jer_40:1) after the fall of Jerusalem, and Rachel might well revisit the glimpses of the moon at a spot where her descendants had drunk the first bitter draught of the cup of exile. In any case, the lines are a fresh appeal to the spirit of national unity. The prophet seems to say: "Children of the same mother, sharers in the same fate, whether of ruin or restoration, remember the ties that bind you, and forget your ancient feuds." Rachel, wailing in ghostly fashion, was yet a name to conjure with, and the prophet hoped that her symbolic tears could water the renewed growth of Israels national life. Christ, present in His living Spirit, lacerated at heart by the bitter feuds of those who call Him Lord, should temper the harsh judgments that Christians pass on servants of their One Master. The Jewish prophet lamenting the miseries of schismatic Israel contrasts with the Pope singing Te Deums over the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
Then comes the answer:-
"Thus saith Jehovah:
Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears.
Thou shalt have wages for thy labour-
It is the utterance of Jehovah-they shall return from the enemys land.
There is hope for thee in the days to come-
It is the utterance of Jehovah-thy children shall return to their own border."
The Niobe of the nation is comforted, but now is heard another voice:-
"Surely I hear Ephraim bemoaning himself:
Thou hast chastised me;
I am chastised like a calf not yet broken to the yoke.
Restore me to Thy favour, that I may return unto Thee,
For Thou art Jehovah my God.
In returning unto Thee I repent; when I come to myself, I smite upon my thigh in penitence."
The image of the calf is another reminiscence of Hosea, with whom Israel figures as a "backsliding heifer" and Ephraim as a "heifer that has been broken in and loveth to tread out the corn"; though apparently in Hosea Ephraim is broken in to wickedness. Possibly this figure was suggested by the calves at Bethel and Dan.
The moaning of Ephraim, like the wailing of Rachel, is met and answered by the Divine compassion. By a bold and touching figure, Jehovah is represented as surprised at the depth of His passionate affection for His prodigal son:-
"Can it be that Ephraim is indeed a son that is precious to Me?
Is he indeed a darling child?
As often as I speak against him, I cannot cease to remember him,
Wherefore My tender compassion is moved towards him:
Verily I will have mercy on him-
It is the utterance of Jehovah."
As with Hosea, Israel is still the child whom Jehovah loved, the son whom He called out of Egypt. But now Israel is called with a more effectual calling:-
"set thee up pillars of stone, to mark the wady;
Make thee guideposts: set thy heart toward the highway whereby thou wentest.
Return, O Virgin of Israel, return unto these thy cities."
The following verse strikes a note of discord, that suggests the revulsion of feeling, the sudden access of doubt, that sometimes follows the most ecstatic moods:-
"How long wilt thou wander to and fro, O backsliding daughter?
Jehovah hath created a new thing in the earth-
A woman shall compass a man."
It is just possible that this verse is not intended to express doubt of Israels cordial response, but is merely an affectionate urgency that presses the immediate appropriation of the promised blessings. But such an exegesis seems forced, and the verse is a strange termination to the glowing stanzas that precede. It may have been added when all hope of the return of the ten tribes was over.
The meaning of the concluding enigma is as profound a mystery as the fate of the lost tribes, and the solutions rather more unsatisfactory. The words apparently denote that the male and the female shall interchange functions, and an explanation often given is that, in the profound peace of the New Dispensation, the women will protect the men. This portent seems to be the sign which is to win the Virgin of Israel from her vacillation and induce her to return at once to Palestine.
In Isa_43:19 the "new thing" which Jehovah does is to make a way in the untrodden desert and rivers in the parched wilderness. A parallel interpretation, suggested for our passage, is that women should develop manly strength and courage, as abnormal to them as roads and rivers to a wilderness. When women were thus endowed, men could not for shame shrink from the perils of the Return.
In Isa_4:1 seven women court one man, and it has been suggested that the sense here is "women shall court men," but it is difficult to see how this would be relevant. Another parallel has been sought for in the Immanuel and other prophecies of Isaiah, in which the birth of a child is set forth as a sign. Our passage would then assume a Messianic character; the return of the Virgin of Israel would be postponed till her doubts and difficulties should be solved by the appearance of a new Moses. This view has much to commend it, but does not very readily follow from the usage of the word translated "compass." Still less can we regard these words as a prediction of the miraculous conception of our Lord.
The next stanza connects the restoration of Judah with that of Ephraim, and, for the most part, goes over ground already traversed in our previous chapters; one or two points only need be noticed here. It is in accordance with the catholic and gracious spirit which characterises this chapter that the restoration of Judah is expressly connected with that of Ephraim. The combination of the future fortunes of both in a single prophecy emphasises their reunion. The heading of this stanza, "Thus saith Jehovah Sabaoth, the God of Israel," is different from that hitherto used, and has a special significance in its present context. It is "the God of Israel" to whom Ephraim is a darling child and a firstborn son, the God of that Israel which for centuries stood before the world as Ephraim; it is this God who blesses and redeems Judah. Her faint and weary soul is also to be satisfied with His plenty; Zion is to be honoured as the habitation of justice and the mountain of holiness.
"Hereupon," saith the prophet, "I awaked and looked about me, and felt that my sleep had been pleasant to me." The vision had come to him, in some sense, as a dream. Zechariah {Zec_4:1} had to be aroused, like a man wakened out of his sleep, in order to receive the Divine message; and possibly Zechariahs sleep was the ecstatic trance in which he had beheld previous visions. Jeremiah, however, shows scant confidence {Jer_23:25-32; Jer_27:9; Jer_29:8 cf. Deu_13:1-5} in the inspiration of those who dream dreams, and it does not seem likely that this is a unique exception to his ordinary experience. Perhaps we may say with Orelli that the prophet had become lost in the vision of future blessedness as in some sweet dream.
In the following stanza Jehovah promises to recruit the dwindled numbers of Israel and Judah; with a sowing more gracious and fortunate than that of Cadmus, He will scatter over the land, not dragons teeth, but the seed of man and beast. Recurring {Jer_1:10-12} to Jeremiahs original commission, He promises that as He watched over Judah to pluck up and to break down, to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so now He will watch over them to build and to plant.
The next verse is directed against a lingering dread, by which mens minds were still possessed. More than half a century elapsed between the death of Manasseh and the fall of Jerusalem. He was succeeded by Josiah, who "turned to Jehovah with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might." {2Ki_23:25} Yet Jehovah declared to Jeremiah that Manassehs sins had irrevocably fixed the doom of Judah, so that not even the intercession of Moses and Samuel could procure her pardon. {Jer_15:1-4} Men might well doubt whether the guilt of that wicked reign was even yet fully expiated, whether their teeth might not still be set on edge because, of the sour grapes which Manasseh had eaten. Therefore the prophet continues: "In those days men shall no longer say, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the childrens teeth are set on edge; but every man shall die for his own transgression, all who eat sour grapes shall have their own teeth set on edge." Or to use the explicit words of Ezekiel, in the great chapter in which he discusses this permanent theological difficulty: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." With the fall of Jerusalem, a chapter in the history of Israel was concluded forever; Jehovah blotted out the damning record of the past, and turned over a new leaf in the annals of His people. The account between Jehovah and the Israel of the monarchy was finally closed, and no penal balance was carried over to stand against the restored community.
The last portion of this chapter is so important that we must reserve it for separate treatment, but we may pause for a moment to consider the prophecy of the restoration of Ephraim from two points of view-the unity of Israel and the return of the ten tribes.
In the first place, this chapter is an eirenicon, intended to consign to oblivion the divisions and feuds of the Chosen People. After the fall of Samaria, the remnant of Israel had naturally looked to Judah for support and protection, and the growing weakness of Assyria had allowed the Jewish kings to exercise a certain authority over the territory of northern tribes, The same fate-the sack of the capital and the deportation of most of the inhabitants-had successively befallen Ephraim and Judah. His sense of the unity of the race was too strong to allow the prophet to be satisfied with the return of Judah and Benjamin, apart from the other tribes. Yet it would have been monstrous to suppose that Jehovah would bring back Ephraim from Assyria, and Judah from Babylon, only that they might resume their mutual hatred and suspicion. Even wild beasts are said not to rend one another when they are driven by floods to the same hill top.
Thus various causes contributed to produce a kindlier feeling between the survivors of the catastrophes of Samaria and Jerusalem; and from henceforth those of the ten tribes who found their way back to Palestine lived in brotherly union with the other Jews. And, on the whole, the Jews have since remained united both as a race and a religious community. It is true that the relations of the later Jews to Samaria were somewhat at variance both with the letter and spirit of this prophecy, but that Samaria had only the slightest claim to be included in Israel. Otherwise the divisions between Hillel and Shammai, Sadducees and Pharisees, Karaites, Sephardim and Ashkenazim, Reformed and Unreformed Jews, have rather been legitimate varieties of opinion and practice within Judaism than a rendering asunder of the Israel of God.
Matters stand very differently with regard to the restoration of Ephraim. We know that individual members and families of the ten tribes were included in the new Jewish community, and that the Jews reoccupied Galilee and portions of Eastern Palestine. But the husbandmen who had planted vineyards on the hills of Samaria were violently repulsed by Ezra and Nehemiah, and were denied any part or lot in the restored Israel. The tribal inheritance of Ephraim and Manasseh was never reoccupied by Ephraimites and Manassites who came to worship Jehovah in His Temple at Jerusalem. There was no return of the ten tribes that in any way corresponded to the terms of this prophecy or that could rank with the return of their brethren. Our growing acquaintance with the races of the world seems likely to exclude even the possibility of any such restoration of Ephraim. Of the two divisions of Israel, so long united in common experiences of grace and chastisement, the one has been taken and the other left.
Christendom is the true heir of the ideals of Israel, but she is mostly content to inherit them as counsels of perfection. Isaiah struck {Isa_11:13} the keynote of this chapter when he prophesied that Ephraim should not envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim. Our prophet, in the same generous spirit, propounds a programme of reconciliation. It might serve for a model to those who construct schemes for Christian Reunion. When two denominations are able to unite on such terms that the one admits the other to be the firstborn of God, His darling child and precious in His sight, and the latter is willing to accept the formers central sanctuary as the headquarters of the united body, we shall have come some way towards realising this ancient Jewish ideal. Meanwhile Ephraim remains consumed with envy of Judah; and Judah apparently considers it her most sacred duty to vex Ephraim.
Moreover the disappearance of what was at one time the most flourishing branch of the Hebrew Church has many parallels in Church History. Again and again religious dissension has been one of the causes of political ruin, and the overthrow of a Christian state has sometimes involved the extinction of its religion. Christian thought and doctrine owe an immense debt to the great Churches of Northern Africa and Egypt. But these provinces were torn by the dissensions of ecclesiastical parties; and the quarrels of Donatists, Arians, and Catholics in North Africa, the endless controversies over the Person of Christ in Egypt, left them helpless before the Saracen invader. Today the Church of Tertullian and Augustine is blotted out, and the Church of Origen and Clement is a miserable remnant. Similarly the ecclesiastical strife between Rome and Constantinople lost to Christendom some of the fairest provinces of Europe and Asia, and placed Christian races under the rule of the Turk.
Even now the cause of Christians in heathen and Mohammedan countries suffers from the jealousy of Christian states, and modern Churches sometimes avail themselves of this jealousy to try and oust their rivals from promising fields for mission work.
It is a melancholy reflection that Jeremiahs effort at reconciliation came too late, when the tribes whom it sought to reunite were hopelessly set asunder. Reconciliation, which involves a kind of mutual repentance, can ill afford to be deferred to the eleventh hour. In the last agonies of the Greek Empire, there was more than one formal reconciliation between the Eastern and Western Churches; but they also came too late, and could not survive the Empire which they failed to preserve.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Vide on chap. 30. These two…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Vide on chap. 30. These two chapters form an unbroken prophecy, “a triumphal hymn of Israel’s salvation.” The former chapter pledges the recovery from captivity of both “Israel and Judah;” this addresses “all the families of Israel,” then distinctively the ten tribes; and finally returns with separate assurances to Judah, then to Israel and Judah together.
Geographical References.—Jer_31:15. “Voice heard in Ramah,” a city of Benjamin, near where Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, was buried. Jer_31:38. “Hill Gareb, to Goath.” “Gareb” means the hill of lepers, and must have been outside the old walls of Zion, towards the south-west. “The tower of Hanameel” was at the north-east corner of Jerusalem. Of “Goath” nothing is known; the Targum translates it cow-pool. Jer_31:40. “Valley of the dead bodies,” &c.: i.e., the valley of Ben-hinnom.
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Personal Allusion.—Jer_31:15. “Rahel weeping for her children.” As the mother of Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, Rachel is here regarded figuratively as weeping for the scattered ten tribes of Israel.
Natural History.—Jer_31:5. “Vines upon the mountains of Samaria.” The mountains of Samaria produced specially good vines; see Jdg_9:27. Jer_31:12. “For wheat, and wine, and oil,” &c. suggestive of the fertility and richness of the land of Canaan. Jer_31:29. “Eaten a sour grape.” A proverb; see Eze_18:2.
Manners and Customs.—Jer_31:4. “Adorned with tabrets.” Usual for the women to go forth with timbrels and dancing in times of public joy and festivity (Exo_15:20; Jdg_11:34, &c.). Jer_31:19. “Smote upon my thigh:” an action indicating extreme astonishment and sorrow (Eze_21:12). It is represented as having this significance by several classic authors. Jer_31:24. “Husbandmen and they that go forth with flocks.” Referring to the pastoral life of their ancestors, when every one was literally a “husbandman” and “shepherd” in consequence of the allotment of land which he was forbidden to alienate. They should return to a similar pastoral life of simplicity and security.
Literary Criticisms.—Jer_31:2. “The people left of the sword.” This description points, not back to Israel in the wilderness of Sinai, for it would not describe their condition then, for they were not then “a people left of the sword;” but to Israel in captivity, after “the sword” of those who now carried them captive had ceased its destructive work. How then interpret “found grace in the wilderness”? what “wilderness”? Their Babylonish captivity may well be described as a wilderness condition. Or the allusion may be to the desert lying between Assyria and Palestine. And מָצָא may be taken as a prophetic future. And the words, “When I went to cause him to rest,” do not really point to past time; for the verb, הָלוֹךְ, is the infinitive absolute, lit., a-going. It has, however, the force of an imperative: Let me go; or, “I will go to cause Israel to rest.”
Jer_31:3. “Of old.” Henderson urges that מֵרָחוֹק expresses here distance of time not of place; but most commentators prefer the latter: “from afar.” See Jer_30:10. To a Jew’s thoughts, God’s dwelling was in Zion; and hence, when His mercy reached them in Assyrian exile, it came from afar (2Ch_6:20; 2Ch_6:38).
“With loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” מָשַׁךְ is rendered as prolonged, continued (Psa_36:11; Psa_109:12); “I have prolonged loving kindness to thee.” But Hitzig, Fuerst, and Naegelsbach prefer rendering it respited: “in loving-kindness have I respited thee.”
Jer_31:5. “Eat them as common things:” rather, “shall freely enjoy the fruit;” no injunction being placed upon the enjoyment. See Lev_19:25; Deu_20:6.
Jer_31:7. “Shout among the chief,” &c.: rather, “shout because of the chief of the nations,” i.e., Israel.
Jer_31:8. “A great company shall return thither:” no, hither. Not to exile, but to Palestine.
Jer_31:18. “A bullock unaccustomed:” lit., an untrained calf.
Jer_31:22. “A woman shall compass a man.” Variously rendered. Dr. Payne, Dr. Wette, Umbreit, &c., The female shall protect the strong man. Eward, “The woman shall be changed into a man.” Naegelsbaeh, “The woman shall turn the man,” becoming the stronger of the two. Wordsworth, with the Fathers, see in these words a hint of the miraculous conception of Christ. But Henderson gives the sense that Jehovah would make the feeblest of them [the woman] more than a match for the most powerful of their foes.
HOMILIES AND OUTLINES ON CHAPTER 31
Jer_31:1. Theme: THE GOD OF FAMILIES. “At the same time will I be the God of all the families of Israel.”
There is one solid Rock on which the hope and happiness of the moral universe may rest amidst all the vicissitudes of time; and that whatever dark appearances may surround the interests of the Church, like clouds which obscure the face of the heavens, the sun shall yet shine forth again with unquenched lustre and unabated strength. “The mountains may depart, the hills must be removed, but God’s loving kindness never shall depart, the covenant of His peace can never be broken.”
To this topic Jeremiah had recourse in the troublous times in which he lived, when he was called to deplore the fallen greatness of the Church, and to witness the dissolution and the breaking up of the Jewish state and monarchy. He looks back upon what God did for His Church in the captivity of Egypt, as the pledge and pattern of what He will do for it in the captivity of Babylon (Jer_31:2-3). So David teaches us to argue from the same principles when he says, “Oh, how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that fear Thee.” What is laid up in God’s promises, and what is laid out for them in God’s providences, form an equal ground of encouragement and hope. Paul in like manner ascends up before the springs of time: “Blessed be the God and Father, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy.”
I. Some of the truths which this promise implies.
II. Some of the encouragements it presents.
III. Some of the duties it involves.
I. Some of the truths which this promise implies. “I will be the God of all the families of Israel.” Not of the two tribes only, Judah and Benjamin, the royal tribes, but the ten tribes. Not of the house of Aaron only, and the families of Levi, but of all their families; not only of their state in general, but their particular families.
1. A deep interest in their welfare. That God takes a deep interest in family religion, and delights to see the succession of piety kept up in the dwelling-places of the righteous, is evident both by the tenor of His promises and by the train of His dispensations. No sight is more pleasing to man than that of a well-ordered family. The safety and well-being of a country must necessarily depend upon the moral training of the families of which it is composed. No less important is it to the well-being of the Church. Families are the nurseries of the Church. God therefore, in determining upon the stability of the Church, looks with watchful and tender eye upon the prosperity of families.
God delights to speak of Himself as standing in a domestic relation: “Like as a father.” The image most frequently used: “If ye being evil … your heavenly Father,” &c.
2. He calls your children His children. He makes distinguishing promises to them. The very first promise was made to Eve’s offspring. The covenant with Abraham incorporated his children’s name as well as his own: “I will be a God to thee and thy seed after thee.” He promises to David, “Instead of the fathers, the children;” to Isaiah, “This is the covenant I make with thee: I will pour out My Spirit on thy seed.”
3. Remember that Jesus Himself became a little child. He rose, not like Adam, in the fulness and meridian of His strength, but passed through the intermediate states of infancy and childhood. When the wise men came from afar “they saw the young Child and Mary His mother.” He did this that He might consecrate the state of infancy as well as the state of manhood; and assure parents that He can sympathise with the weakness and infirmities of childhood and youth, as well as those of riper years. He was a lover of children (Mar_10:13-16; Mat_18:3-14).
4. Do not omit to remark what a gracious aspect all this has upon the salvation of infants; and what comfort it affords those who have lost their offspring, that they are gathered to the fold of the Good Shepherd. In God’s world there is no waste of existence. “Millions of infant souls compose the family above.” David said, in reference to the loss of his child, “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” And if he reasoned thus under the darkness of that dispensation, surely our faith need not be less strong under the brightness of this. “If that which was done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is rather glorious.”
II. This promise encourages Christian parents in their endeavours to train their offspring in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Great duties devolve upon you; great anxieties perpetually occur in connection with your own responsibility; and great consolations are furnished in the Word of God.
1. No greater inducement can be furnished to avail yourselves of all means for their religious improvement than the thought that God sympathises with you both in the affections you cherish and in the difficulties with which you are surrounded. If it be true that God takes so deep an interest in the progress of religion in families—is concerned for the salvation of the young—if it be true that He builds up His Church chiefly from the families of His people, then it follows that great duties devolve on parents and heads of families, and it becomes them to seek the grace and blessing of God.
2. These promises should be earnestly pleaded in prayer, should encourage watchful effort. They are not given as a premium to indolence, but as an inducement to the faithful discharge of known duty.
3. God has made the love of parents to their children proverbially strong; for moral objects, that their interests for both worlds may be secured. There never was a Christian parent, touched with the love of God, who was not anxious for his children, anxious to lead them to the Saviour he loved and the heaven he sought; anxious that they who are partakers of all their hopes on earth should be partakers of all their joys in heaven.
4. Education is the great care with which you are entrusted. If negligent, on you as well as them the reproach and misery will fall. You may be regardless of your son’s morals, but you may live and die miserable from his want of them.
Think of the happiness of meeting them in a future world. Guide them to Christ. Endear the Bible, and the Sabbath, and the Saviour to them.
Remember the temptations they are exposed to, and how many fall into the snares of the wicked.
III. Some of the duties this promise involves—
1. Prayer for early conversion of children.
2. Training of families in godliness and faith.
3. Public dedication of our children by baptism, to God.
4. Recognition of God’s laws, and providence, and honour in all family plans.
5. Consecration by young persons of themselves to God.
6. Maintain domestic worship around the family altar.
7. Let families, in their entirety, come together to God’s sanctuary, and be united in the fellowship of the Christian Church.
See Homilies on chap. Jer_3:18.
Jer_31:2. Theme: “SPARED THROUGH GRACE. “The people left of the sword found grace in the wilderness.”
I. Spared, though others perished.
Many were cut off for their iniquities; some by the Amalekites (Exo_17:8), some by the hands of their brethren (Exo_32:28).
The destroyed around us witness to our like deserts.
II. Spared through sovereign grace.
1. To God’s praise. “The living, the living, they shall praise Thee, as we do this day.”
2. Witnessing to His compassion and patience.
III. Spared to inherit favours.
1. Conducted by Him into the promised land of rest.
2. Spared to enjoy all the fulness of covenanted privilege.
3. Blessed with prolonged realisation of Divine goodness and bounty.
See Homilies on chap. Jer_2:2.
Jer_31:3. Theme: PROGRESS OF MAN’S SALVATION.
A condensed view of the origin, progress, and consummation of man’s salvation.
I. The feeling with which God regards each of His people: “I have loved thee.”
II. The kind of love with which God has regarded His people: “Everlasting love.”
III. The visible operation and effect of this love: “I have drawn thee.”
(a.) A change of position or state.
(b.) A change accomplished by God: “I have drawn thee.”
(c.) A change not accomplished without resistance: “Drawn.”
IV. The means which God employs in drawing His people: “Loving-kindness.”—Rev. James Stewart, Aberdeen, 1862.
See Addenda: EVERLASTING LOVE.
Theme: DRAWN WITH EVERLASTING LOVE.
God has often “appeared” to man. In His visible creation He reveals Himself, lavishing the wealth, garniture, and beauty of nature upon a sinful race. In His daily providences He appears to man; fresh fountains of mercy spring up at my feet. But especially God appears in the mystery of grace and redemption, showing the fulness of His mercy in Christ Jesus.
Thus, in Creation we discern the print of His footsteps; in Providence we behold the operations of His gracious hand; but in Redemption we are allowed to see the very movements and purposes of His all-gracious heart.
I. View this love of God in its far-reaching compass and largeness. “Of old,” as to time; but more correctly “from afar,” as to place. God’s love reaches out to the exiles far removed from Zion.
1. To the banished ones—captive and exiled—removed “afar.”
2. To those estranged—spiritually at a distance, “alienated from the life of God,” wilfully “afar.”
3. To men everywhere. Gathers in all with a world-wide embrace.
II. View this love of God in its absolute directness and inalienable purpose. “Yea, I have loved thee.”
1. Its positiveness. “Yea, I have” Not equivocal, and conjectural, or conditional.
2. Its intensity. “I have loved.” Great-hearted affection.
3. Its personality. “I have loved thee.” “The Lord knoweth them that are His.”
4. Its conscious reality. God Himself felt and realised that He had loved Israel. It was a conscious passion to God Himself. He yearns with strong ardour over the objects of His great affection.
III. View this love of God in its ceaseless constancy. “With everlasting love.”
1. In retrospect it is “everlasting.” Not recent, but vastly remote in its origin.
2. In covenant fidelity it is “everlasting.” Not vacillating, not insecure as was theirs!
3. Amid their changeful history it is “everlasting.” Whether they were in Zion, or “afar” in exile; whether they as a nation maintained His worship, or became “lost” to their own identity and to their holy religion, He loved and would cherish them still.
4. Throughout all future ages it is “everlasting.” God’s nature is not “variable;” “the thoughts of His heart are to all generations.”
IV. View this love of God in its gracious action and powerful attractiveness. “Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.”
1. Hence, with God begins the work of alluring souls into reconciliation. It is not the sinner who commences; God’s grace “draws” him, and thus he is “made willing,” “made nigh.”
2. The force which draws the soul is “love.” As all the coin of the kingdom bears the image of the sovereign, so all the blessings of salvation bear the stamp of love. “With loving-kindness have I drawn thee.”
3. When the heart rests in God’s love, it finds its own love for Him to be the result of and response to His love for us. “We love Him because He first loved us.”
4. All drawings of God should be yielded to with gratitude, wonder, alacrity, and joy.
Note—
(a.) This is a MOST TOUCHING AND SUBLIME ASSURANCE. When we look at ourselves we wonder that God can love us at all. And if His love had to be caused by anything in us, He could never find occasion for His love. But the love which God has for us comes not from us to Him, but from Him to us. He loves us, not because we are lovable, but because He is loving.
(b.) This “everlasting love” is A MOST STUPENDOUS THOUGHT TO GRASP. Before we had any objective existence; before we stood out as individuals of the human race, He loved us. The moment we were born into the world, that moment we began to live in the love of God.
The ray of light from a star has been running down the measureless path of space long, long centuries before earth was peopled by man; but before the wave (which made the starlight shine in the heavens) was started in the ether by the pulsations from that distant star, God was loving me. Oh, that vast eternity of love!
If that love was from everlasting, shall it not be to everlasting? Yes.
(c.) There is A PROPHETIC SWEEP OF HOPE IN THIS FACT. Can that end which had no beginning? Shall we fear that a fountain which flows perennially and freely can at some far-off age run dry? Ages have not exhausted it. It is “everlasting love.” Surely this both wins and shall hold our love to God.
“Infinite Goodness! Thou art dear
To Thy poor creature’s heart;
It blesses Thee that Thou art God,
That Thou art what Thou art.”
Theme: EVERLASTING LOVE.
I. Sovereign in its character.
II. Costly in its manifestation.
III. Glorious in its results.
Jer_31:6. Theme: THE WATCHMEN’S CALL. “There shall be a day that the watchmen upon Mount Ephraim shall cry, “Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God.”
I. God’s heralds. “Watchmen,” stationed on eminences (not on one mountain only, but the whole mountainous region of the ten tribes), see the auspicious hour, call to the alien and exile tribes. Type of the preacher of the Gospel:—(1.) Elevated above the people; (2.) Discerns their gracious opportunity; (3.) Summons the wanderers and outcasts home.
II. Reunion in Zion. The ten tribes are here called to go up to the annual feasts at Jerusalem, and there join with the tribes of Judah in keeping the appointed festivals of Zion. The schism between the twelve tribes was healed.
1. Those who were estranged one from the other become united in fraternity and fellowship in Zion. See Isa_11:13.
2. The sacred festivities and privileges of the Church of Christ cast all human divisions and differences into oblivion. Many members, but one body. Many nations, but one kingdom. The world gets back to unity again, away from its feuds and strifes, when it gets into and becomes the Church.
III. God sought. “Unto the Lord our God.”
1. From whom we formerly revolted. Now again “our God;” accepted, desired, and sought.
2. In whom we again unite. “The Lord;” none but He. No rival deity; “God all in all.” “All one in Christ Jesus.”
Note—
Cowles remarks: “God’s grace loves to triumph over the most inveterate prejudices. No words could represent a greater or more benign change in national feeling than these: Samaria saying, through her spiritual watchmen, Let us go up to Zion to worship, for our God is there.”
Jer_31:7-9. Theme: RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. God’s command that the males of all the twelve tribes should go up thrice a year to worship the Lord at Jerusalem.
We may conjecture what such a concourse will take place, in due season, from every quarter of the world.
In reference to the restoration of the Jews, we have here—
I. A command to us. God enjoins us—
1. To take an interest in the welfare of His people. “Sing with gladness for Jacob,” &c. We ought to keep in view God’s gracious designs respecting them, so as to have our hearts filled with joy in the contemplation of the blessings awaiting them.
2. To express that interest in every suitable way. “Publish it” to Jew and Gentile alike: “praise ye” God for it, and in fervent prayer seek God on their behalf. Say, “O Lord, save Thy people,” &c.
II. A promise to them. This promise includes—
1. Their restoration to God (Jer_31:8), however distant they are from Him, or however discouraging their circumstances. “A great company shall return thither.”
2. The manner in which it shall be effected (Jer_31:9). “With weeping,” &c., as in Zec_12:10. Under gracious Divine leading: “I will cause them to walk by rivers,” &c. He will guide them by His counsel, strengthen them by His grace, and comfort them by His Spirit, till He bring them in safety to His glory.
3. The pledge that it shall be surely accomplished. “For I am a Father to Israel,” &c. When Moses urged Pharaoh to liberate Israel, he enforced his request by the plea that they were “God’s firstborn.” In this light He still regards them, and will prove Himself their “Father” (Jer_31:37, with Isa_54:9-10).
Application—
1. Look well to it that you are yourselves restored to God.
2. Endeavour to help forward the restoration of others.—C. Simeon, M.A.
Jer_31:9. Theme: PILGRIMS TO ZION.
“They shall come with weeping,” &c.
The text unites the dispensation of God to His people with the affections which they cherish towards God. It refers to the deliverance of the Church from the captivity of Babylon, and to the feelings which they cherished on their return; and the same principles are developed in the experience of all who are born of God and bound for glory. Zion’s pilgrims are distinguished—
I. By the various emotions which they cherish. “Come with weeping.”
II. By the safe-conduct under which they journey: “I will lead them.”
III. By the high alliance they are permitted to claim. “I am a father.”
IV. By the prosperous issue of their eventful pilgrimage. “Sing in Zion.”
I. The various emotions which they cannot but cherish. “Weeping and supplication” not unmixed with joy. The return from Babylon was a season of joy and congratulation, yet productive of mixed feeling—they came with weeping and supplication. Great events in life often produce opposite emotions. The moment of transition is a critical one—calls up many recollections of the past, many anticipations of the future. The prisoner has been known to sigh at leaving his dungeon; the bride trembles at the altar; the prince receives the crown not without emotion; the Christian takes upon him the vows of God under mingled impressions. Tears and prayers do well together. There is no entrance into the path of life but through the valley of weeping; and repentance characterises the Christian all his journey through. Tertullian said of himself that he was born to nothing but repentance. It was the saying of a godly minister that, if he were to die in the pulpit, he should like to die preaching repentance; and if out of the pulpit, he would wish to die practising repentance. This is always needful, and especially when we go to seal a covenant with God, or to seek the witness of the Spirit with ours. When did Jacob find God in Bethel but when he wept and made supplication? When did Mary meet with Christ but when she sought Him sorrowing? When did angels minister to Christ but after strong crying and tears in the garden? Behold the print of the footsteps of all the cloud of witnesses in this road. “They come.”
They weep and pray under the—1. Consciousness of their sins. Unprofitable.
2. The remembrance of their captivity. Remembering affliction and misery.
3. The difficulties of their course. A rough journey, many impediments.
4. The sorrows of those with whom they are associated. Sympathy.
5. The mourning over those they have left behind in Babylon. It was only a remnant, two tribes at most came from Babylon. They were attached to Babylon, had many connections, and filled important posts there, and Zion in her ruins was forgotten. The Christian is not careless of the state of his relations and friends yet strangers to God. Bunyan makes it a heavy part of Christian’s sorrow that he could not persuade his wife and children to travel with him.
It is to mourners that promises are made: “Come unto Me.” The influences of the Spirit are quite as likely to produce contrition as joy.
II. The safe-conduct under which they journey. “I,” says God, “will lead them;” or they would never attain their journey’s end. “I will gather them;” or they would never be collected. “I will cause them to walk;” or they would never have the inclination. God brings us into the way of truth, God protects us in it, God furnishes us with adequate support, and God brings us to the termination of our career in peace. We may doubt as to the reality of our religion, but if we are conscious of possessing it we cannot doubt to whom we owe it. “Who hath saved us.”
The guidance of mortal spirits into the paths of holiness and to the perfection of heavenly rest has been a favourite object with God from the beginning. He teaches “to walk in a strait way”—preserves from falling—going back—“keeps feet.”
“By the rivers of water”—not without refreshment—not without happiness—not without a constant sense of obligation. It denotes both refreshment and supply, and these are granted where least expected, and to those who could not perform the journey without guidance and assistance not their own—“the blind and lame.” Grace triumphs over all obstacles.
III. The high alliance they are permitted to claim. “I am a father.” This wandering band, outcasts to the world, may call the Sovereign of the universe a Friend and Father. This title indicates the richness of God’s condescension and the Principle whence salvavation flows.
IV. The happy issue of their eventful pilgrimage. “Height of Zion” (Jer_31:12).
“Come to Zion.” 1. Blissful. 2. Restful. 3. Fruitful.
Application—
1. Strangers to prayer and penitence are not on the path to heaven.
2. Those who trust their own resources may expect to wander, to faint, or to fall.—S. Thodey, 1825.
See Addenda: TEARS OF PENITENCE; and also Homilies on chap. Jer_3:21-22.
Jer_31:10-14. Theme: GOD’S PROCLAMATION OF GRAND PURPOSES FOR HIS PEOPLE. Jehovah would have the nations know—
I. How He guards His people with fostering care. Though He chastises them—“scattered them”—yet He cherishes and fosters them with watchful care and purposes of restoration; and will suffer no harm or loss to them, for He “shepherds” them constantly.
II. How mightily He has wrought for His people’s redemption.
Jer_31:11. “With outstretched arm,” “travailing in the greatness of His strength, mighty to save.”
1. Past rescues. These have proved God’s almightiness and all-sufficiency.
2. Pledge of future redemption. No foe can “stay His hand.”
III. How luxuriant are the blessings with which He will crown and enrich their future (Jer_31:12).
1. Religious and ecclesiastical privileges. “To the heights of Zion.”
2. Divine beneficence. “To the goodness of the Lord.”
3. Abounding fulness of enjoyment, “Sing;” “for wheat,” &c.
4. Sadness lost in blessedness. “Their soul as a watered garden;” and sorrow no more at all.
IV. How all-inclusive shall be these sacred delights of the Church.
1. Every sex and age shall have full share of holy bliss (Jer_31:13).
2. Priests and people alike “satisfied” with the “goodness” of the Lord (Jer_31:14). “Both he that soweth and they that reap shall rejoice together.”
Jer_31:12. Theme: THE FUTURE OF BELIEVERS. “And their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more.” What is to be the future of the true Israel of God?
I. One of spiritual faultlessness and perfection. Beautiful as a “garden;” fertile, well graced, rich in fragrance and fruit.
II. One of boundless resources. Of joy, for they shall sorrow no more. Of satisfaction, for no inward lack shall give them distress. Of rest, amid the blessedness of happy employ.
III. One of vast possessions. So that their “soul” is filled with the treasures of spiritual good; filled as a “garden” stored with choicest blossoms, fragrant with richest perfume.
Jer_31:12. Theme: SOUL FERTILITY. “Their soul shall be as a watered garden.”
This was really fulfilled in the Jews, who returned to Jerusalem after the miseries they had suffered in Babylon; many of whom (see Ezra and Nehemiah’s records) were men of eminent piety and zeal for God. Having rebuilt the Temple, and thus opened “the wells of salvation,” they drew thence the waters of consolation and spiritual life.
But in the Gospel times we see these words fulfilled in every pious soul when in a flourishing and prosperous state.
I. Thoughts suggested by a comparison of a pious soul with a garden.
1. A garden is a spot of ground upon which extraordinary cultivation is employed. Thus the souls of believers are “the garden of the Lord”—the objects of His peculiar care and cultivation (Isa_5:1-2).
2. A garden is generally stored with productions of either a useful or ornamental order. So from the soul springs up every Christian virtue and heavenly grace which is either pleasing to God or useful to man (Isa_41:19-20; Isa_55:13).
3. A garden does not arrive at its full perfection and glory at once. The Christian’s course is progressive.
II. Consider those Divine influences by which this spiritual garden is watered.
1. The influences of the Spirit of God are imparted to every real Christian, and produce effects that resemble those which warm and refreshing showers produce upon a garden (Isa_64:3). If these are withheld, how does the garden droop! It is the office of the Holy Spirit to “shed the love of God abroad in our hearts,” &c.
2. These influences are enjoyed and conveyed to the soul by the means of God’s Word and ordinances (Isa_55:10-11). It is in the exercise of reading and hearing God’s Word, and in prayer, that the communications of God’s Spirit are enjoyed.
III. Mark how this happy state and those enriching influences are to be desired by every soul.
1. Till we attain these, we are in a desolate, wild condition (Heb_6:8).
2. It is only by attaining this state that we can arrive at true happiness either here or hereafter (Heb_6:7).
3. Unless we are in this state we cannot glorify God, nor be useful to our fellow-creatures, as we ought. When we are “fruitful in every good word and work,” God is pleased with us, &c.
Learn: The need we have daily to ask for Divine influences.—Rev. J. Sewell, Thaxted, A.D. 1842.
Jer_31:13. Theme: GOD OUR COMFORTER. “And I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow.”
In Greenland, when a stranger knocks at the door, he asks, Is God in this house? And if they answer “Yes,” he enters.
Let me knock at the door of your hearts and inquire, Is God in this house? Are you frequent at His throne? Do you love and belong to Christ? Are you living in the daily exercise of faith and repentance? Do you sorrow for sin? Are you aspiring to heaven? If so, you are the persons to whom this promise is made.
I. The particular character which God here assumes. The Comforter. I “will comfort them.”
Not only after it but “from” it. Their joy takes a lustre from previous sorrow, as the brightness of morning from the darkness of night.
1. This is a much-needed office, for there are many mourners. The voice of weeping is often heard in our land. Our earth teems with mourners who are seeking a sad asylum from the sorrows of life in the darkness and silence of the grave.
Many mourners here. Some under the afflictions of life; some under the disappointment of their hopes of happiness from the world; some under the baseness of deceitful friendship; some under the loss of near and dear connections; some under the straits and difficulties of a trying path; and some under the burden of sin.
Spiritual sorrows are specially referred to in the text. “They shall come with weeping.” The Christian life begins with sorrow, ends with joy. Some “sorrow after a godly sort:” over evil habits; weakness of faith; decline of hope.
2. This is an office to which God only is equal. As when the sun is set none but God can cause it to rise again; so when hope is lost and comfort gone, none but God can restore it. Hence David prays, “Restore to me the joy,” &c. Jeremiah could not do it. He could only speak the comfort to others which God spake to him; but God can convey the consolation direct to the heart.
God speak of Himself as “the Hope of Israel and the Consolation thereof.” Jesus is described as “the Consolation of Israel.” The Holy Spirit is “another Comforter.” Thus all the Persons in the Godhead conspire in this most needed and most delightful work.
God only can do it, because He only knows what the trial is—how heavily it presses—and how to apply to the burdened spirit the needed relief.
All creatures might shrink from the task and say, “Am I in God’s stead?”
3. This is an office which God delights to exercise. “He delighteth in mercy.” It is His nature and property always to have mercy. It is not more natural for the sun to shine, or for the fountain to pour forth its streams, than for God to show compassion. He is “the Father of mercies,” “the God of all consolation.” “As one whom his mother comforteth,” &c.
4. It is an office in which the Father of mercies has had large experience. All the tears wiped from human faces have been removed by His hand. All the hopes awakened in penitent bosoms have been inspired by His mercy.
II. Some of the methods He employs for this purpose. The instrumentality is various, the Agency is One. Sometimes by friends, sometimes ministers, sometimes ordinances, sometimes by strangers, sometimes by enemies. But God is the Source of all these streams. He “makes us rejoice from sorrow.”
1. By the application to the mind of the sense of pardon and acceptance by Christ. Thus, by Nathan, He restored to David the joy of His salvation: “The Lord hath put away thy sin.” Thus, by Isaiah, He comforted Hezekiah. Thus, by Ananias, He comforted Paul.
In various ways He enlarges our perception of the fulness and freeness of redeeming love, shows us His covenant, teaches us out of His law, enables us to apply the promises. “My thoughts are not your thoughts.”
2. By the teaching and influence of His Spirit. We read of the “comfort of the Holy Ghost;” and we cannot doubt that that blessed Agent has direct access to the human mind, in stirring us up to prayer, in strengthening holy purposes and resolutions, in giving efficacy to religious ordinances and especially to the Word received and preached.
3. By the agency of His providence, in removing afflictions when their end is answered—as in bringing Israel out of Egypt and back from Babylon. So He can turn again our captivity, raise up friends, make our path straight, disperse the clouds.
4. By translating the soul from earth to heaven.
III. The course of conduct we should pursue.
1. Seek consolation by prayer.
2. Avoid whatever tends to bring the spirit to bondage.
3. Be comforting.
4. Cherish hope—happy thoughts.
Seek to be acquainted with higher rules of self-denial, and charity, and mortification of sin, than you have yet known. Beg of God to teach you what you know not of the spirituality of the law and exactness of the rule.
Jer_31:14. Theme: THE SATISFYING NATURE OF GOD’S GOODNESS. “And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, saith the Lord.”
Our subject contains a striking prediction of the ingathering of the Jews, and the joyous events which should distinguish the occasion. Among the rest this is one, that “they should be satisfied,” &c. The text is capable of a general application, and belongs equally to all the household of faith and family of God. Let us, then, consider—
I. The character. “My people.” God’s people were not always such. “I have made you a people,” &c. Once afar off, aliens, &c. They became God’s people by the attractive power of the Gospel, by the influence of the grace and Spirit of God, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They repented of sin, and fled by faith to the hope set before men in the Gospel. Many are the distinguishing features of God’s people.
1. They are separated from the world. Not “of the world,” “Come out,” &c. Thus, too, they are united to His Church. “We will go with you,” &c. “This people,” &c. They profess, and confess Christ before men.
2. They reflect the image of the Saviour; are “partakers of His nature and spirit; and hence are likeminded with Christ, renewed into His holy and blessed likeness.
3. They are obedient to Christ’s authority. “As His sheep,” &c. As His pupils, &c. They follow Christ, and hear His commandments to do them. They call Him Lord, and do the things, &c. “Whoso doeth the will of My Father.”
II. The declaration. “Shall be satisfied,” &c. Sin began by dissatisfaction. This is one of the constant exhibitions of evil in the world. The general inquiry is, “Who will show,” &c. The soul in the midst of the riches, honours, pleasures, &c., is still unsatisfied; formed for an infinite good, God alone can meet its desires; but God is holy and just, and the soul trembles and flees. God’s goodness, then, comes down to the capacities, &c., of the soul. The soul is satisfied with—
1. God’s goodness in the dispensations of His grace. God’s love in Jesus Christ, infinite and overflowing. The soul is melted by it, constrained, subdued, saved; exclaims with rapture, “Who loved me,” &c.
2. God’s goodness in the arrangements of His Providence. This is ever connected with the other. We are first reconciled, and then admire His doings, works, and ways. It is the same goodness in both providence and grace. It never fails nor changes. It is always “goodness,” in adversity as well as prosperity, in sickness and health, in sorrow and joy. It is always rich, free, and adapted.
3. God’s goodness in the consummation of glory. “I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.”
Application.—1. Are we the characters? 2. Have we the satisfaction? 3. It is our privilege.—J. Burns, D.D.
Jer_31:15. Theme: RACHEL’S LAMENTATION. “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping: Rahel weeping for her children, and refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.”
I. A poetic figure representative of the woes of the exiled tribes of Israel. Jeremiah, foreseeing the coming captivity of his people and destruction of their national life, vividly and dramatically represents Rachel (as if stirred from her grave by the tearing of her children from their natal soil) weeping for her offspring about to be slain by the Chaldean sword. As the mother of Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, she is alluded to as if to her belonged all the ten tribes.
1. A mother’s grief over her slaughtered sons.
2. Exile from Zion and God is an evil as dreadful as if they were slain. “They were not!” (chap. Jer_9:1).
3 A mother’s heart has no room for “comfort” when her children are perishing from life—and from the living God.
II. A prophetic vision of the massacre of the Bethlehem children at the Saviour’s birth. Its primary fulfilment was the murder of Rachel’s children by the Chaldeans. Its typical significance received realisation in Herod’s slaughter of the Innocents (Mat_2:17-18).
1. The inhumanity of man brings destruction on innocent victims and anguish upon tender hearts.
2. In God’s foreseeing gaze, all deeds of outrage on those He loves (Israel and children) are kept in faithful record. “Whoso toucheth them toucheth the apple of His eye.”
3. Out of events, woeful and cruel, purposes of good are divinely evolved. Rachel’s children were carried into exile, yet God wrought redemption for His captive people. Bethlehem children were slaughtered by Herod, yet the Divine Babe was at hand, to become the Redeemer of humanity, and to fold all childhood life within His arms and raise children into eminence in His earthly and heavenly kingdom.
Jer_31:16-17. Theme: CONSOLATIONS AND HOPES. “Refrain thy voice from weeping: there is hope in thine end.”
Two points in this connection: Rachel weeping for her sons, and Ephraim weeping for his sins; and to both classes the voice of sympathy and commiseration is addressed.
The history refers to the captivity. Rachel was the common mother of Benjamin and Ephraim—Benjamin representing here the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which were united into one under the house of David; and Ephraim the ten tribes, commonly called Israel. Rachel’s tomb was in Ramah, confines of both, on the border of Judah or Benjamin—on the border of Ephraim or Israel.
By a beautiful figure, the sorrows of the captivity are described as raising Rachel out of her grave to weep for the desolations of her sons. At Ramah Nebuzaradan called a council of war, and brought before him the captives. It seems to have been the first halting-place in the journey to Babylon. Jeremiah was present and witnessed the grief of the mothers of Israel; and, with the eye and imagination of a poet, calls Rachel from her grave to join the general grief, and ministers to them support and consolation by the promise of their return. And as their grief (parent-like) was more for their children than themselves, so the promise particularly respects their restoration and return. “Thy children shall come again,” if you do not; just as though the fathers fell in the wilderness, the children entered Canaan. “There is hope in thy posterity.”
I. The consolations which the Gospel affords in this world.
II. The hopes which it furnishes for a better.
I. The consolations which the Gospel affords in this world.
1. It is a world of weeping, of disappointment, vicissitude, and trial; and afflictions are sent by God, not from severity and harshness, but to produce results nothing else could. It is the death of the sin, and not the death of the soul, God contemplates.
2. The Gospel only furnishes consolation. The world cannot. All the sounds of sympathy and tenderness come from another world. The only available consolation must bear this inscription, “Thus saith the Lord.” I said, Rachel was described as weeping for her sons, and Ephraim for his sins: these two constitute the great divisions of the sorrows of life: worldly, spiritual.
i. Under worldly calamity, the Gospel provides consolation. Losses, crosses.
1. The God that sends the trial sends the support with it, and often proportions the consolation to the distress. When He sends Rachel into captivity He gives her a promise to carry in her bosom.
2. The doctrine of God’s providence is a greater support, and especially when we view the system of Providence as part of the plan of grace.
3. The promises of grace afford consolation, and show how minutely observant of the interests of His children God is.
4. The Christian is assured that there shall be no more suffering of any kind under the Divine government than is absolutely necessary to the well-being of His people. “He doth not afflict,” etc. While to the eye of bystanders the sufferer seems to have reached the extremity, an unseen Hand assuages the grief with unsuspected mitigations.
ii. Under spiritual distress. The sorrow for sin. “I have heard Ephraim,” &c. No one else heard him or would have noticed him. But God did. Ephraim felt himself unobserved and alone. The sin that was heaviest upon his heart was the non-improvement of God’s afflictive dispensations. We are first turned, and then repent.
Under these apprehensions the Gospel brings relief, by leading us to Christ, the sin-atoning Lamb. “Behold the Lamb;” “Who is a God like,” &c. The Gospel proclaims pardon, reveals a full and ample relief.
II. The hopes the Gospel furnishes of a better life. “There is hope in thine end.” As Israel was delivered from their captivity, so we shall be from ours. “The ransomed shall return.” The Gospel ministers largely to hope. It tells us the hour of conflict is succeeded by eternity of triumph. Here we are in a state of exile and bondage.… Heaven is complete deliverance—
i. From the captivity of sin. Here we are often in bondage to the power of evil; there, sin shall have no more dominion. A state of perfect holiness and perfect love.
ii. From the captivity of Satan. Wicked are led captive. Christians are exposed to his temptations; feel the mark of chain and fetter. Christ conquered Satan for us on the cross, shall dispossess him finally at death.
iii. From the captivity of sorrow. All tears wiped away.
iv. From the captivity of death.—Anon.
Jer_31:18. Theme: DISCIPLINE. “I surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn Thou me, and I shall be turned: for Thou art the Lord my God.”
There are chastisements in life which cannot be classed amongst great afflictions. There are little checks, daily disappointments, irritations, defeats, and annoyances—shadows which chequer what else would be a sunny way—things which themselves cannot be treated with dignity, yet they tease and wear the heart.
I. Human life is established upon a disciplinary basis. There is a “yoke” everywhere—in sin, in repentance, in grace. No one can have everything just as he wants it. Man is made to feel that there is somebody in the world besides himself. He conceives a plan, and is laughed at for his pains; he tells his dream, and men suspect his vanity; he points out his high tower, and whilst his finger is lifted the mocking wind hurls the boasted masonry to the ground. So we are jostled, pulled back, and mortified. We are made to feel that our very life is a vapour, and that every respiration is but a compromise with death. We should ask ourselves the meaning of these things. Discipline touches the whole scheme: boy at school, going from home, bodily affliction, oversights and miscalculations, losses, &c.
II. The value of discipline depends upon its right acceptance. We may become desperate under it: “as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke.” Men may mourn, complain, rebel; they start arguments against God; they justify themselves; they become lost in secondary agencies and incomplete details.
Then there is a better way. “Ephraim bemoaned himself,” repented before God, and said, “Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned.” In this state of mind see—(1.) Self-renunciation. (2.) Devout and joyful confidence in God’s sovereignty and graciousness.
Application—
1. There is a yoke in sin. “The way of transgressors is hard.”
2. There is a yoke in goodness. It is often difficult to be upright, noble, holy.
3. God helps the true yoke-bearer: “My yoke is easy.” We must bear a yoke; say, shall it be the bad yoke, or the yoke of Jesus Christ?—Dr. Joseph Parker (“Pulpit Notes”).
Jer_31:18. Theme: ON CHASTISEMENT RESULTING IN PENITENCE.
I. These words contain an acknowledgment. “Thou hast chastised me,” &c.
1. This expression we conceive to denote the inefficacy of former corrections.
2. Though corrections are calculated to produce amendment, though such is their tendency and design, it is evident, from observation and experience, they often fail in accomplishing the effect.
3. Ephraim is here represented as reflecting upon it. (Proximate causes of the inefficacy of correction by itself).
4. Inattention to the hand of God, and, as a natural consequence, their neglecting to pass from the contemplation of their sufferings to their sins. Religion begins with consideration.
5. In the serious purpose of a religious life, formed under afflictive dispensations, too many depend entirely upon resolutions formed in their own strength.
To such purposes may be applied the beautiful image of Nahum: “And as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known.”
II. The prayer. “Turn thou me.” This may be enforced by such arguments as these—
1. The plea of necessity. There is no other resource.
2. To entreat God to turn is not to ask an impossibility. The residue of the Spirit is with Him.
3. It is worthy of His interposition. The turning of the heart is a fit occasion on which Omnipotence may act.
4. The plea may be enforced by precedents. It implies no departure from His known methods.
5. We may force it by a reference to the Divine mercy.—Robert Hall.
Jer_31:18. Theme: EPHRAIM BEMOANING HIMSELF. Heathen described their fabled deity, Jove, as sitting far aloft, regardless of the common affairs of this lower world. Not such is Jehovah: “I have surely heard Ephraim!”
Conceive the nearness of God to every mourning soul. He is the greatest of Comforters, and also the most approachable. “He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.” See here—
I. A sinner bemoaning himself.
1. He was bowed down with a peculiar grief. Not as Rachel “for her children;” for nothing outside of himself, but “bemoaning himself.” Inward sorrow, true repentance.
2. Such godly sorrow is well-founded sorrow. Over guilt, outrage on God’s goodness and grace, &c.
3. This sorrow is humble sorrow. Not excusing himself, or flattering himself, or making new resolutions; but “bemoaning himself.” Self-abhorrence. “I have sinned!”
4. A thoughtful sorrow. For Ephraim reviews his past life: “Thou hast chastised me.” What came of it? “I was chastised,” and that was all! See, hence, that affliction, providences, &c., will not save your soul; you need effectual grace.
5. A hopeless, yet a hopeful, sorrow. Ephraim says, Lord, it is useless to chastise me, I only get worse; but do Thou turn me, and I shall be turned.”
Then think of—
II. The Lord observing him. Some hide yourselves when pricked in your consciences. But the Lord finds you out. Mothers! how quickly you find out, even in the night, if your child is ill.
1. God heard all Ephraim had to say. It may be but a stammering cry; but broken prayers are the best prayers.
2. God delights in the broken heart and contrite spirit. “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself.” If He should not hear the music of heaven, He certainly would hear the prayers of penitents.
3. Our God is full of compassion. He gave Ephraim what he asked. “Ye shall not seek His face in vain.”
III. The Lord working in His effectual grace.
1. The only turning in the world that is saving and divine, is the turning of the heart.
2. The Lord’s way of turning men varies in each case—
(1.) A distinct sight of wrath to come stops a sinner.
(2.) Or the awakened conscience is led to see the real nature of sin.
(3.) The grand turning-point is a sight of Christ on the cross.
(4.) One of the most blessed ways by which God makes a sinner turn is He manifests His everlasting love to him.
(a.) Are you bemoaning yourself?
(b.) Breathe the prayer, “Turn me, O Lord.”—C. H. Spurgeon, 1867.
Jer_31:18. Theme: TRUE REPENTANCE. “I surely heard Ephraim,” &c.
I. What feeling it expresses on the part of the returning penitent.
1. Mark the depth and intensity of his penitential emotions.
2. His total absence of all attempts at self-justification.
3. The promptitude and decision with which he acts up to his own convictions (Jer_31:19).
4. His concern to surrender himself to those Divine influences to which he already owed so much: “Turn Thou me.”
II. What illustrations it exhibits of God’s revealed character. It accords with other Scriptures: “I, even I, am He that blotteth out,” &c.; “As I live, I have no pleasure,” &c.
1. The essential and inherent compassion of the Divine nature.
2. His knowledge of the constitution of the human mind: attracted by kindness; repelled by severity.
3. His minute and condescending regard to the growth and progress of religious emotion. “I have heard.”
4. His infinite readiness to receive and pardon the returning sinner.
5. He reinstates the penitent in those privileges which sin had forfeited.
Jer_31:18-20. Theme: A PENITENT’S REFLECTIONS AND GOD’S REFLECTIONS OVER HIM.
A wide difference between ostentation and true piety. The sincere penitent desires privacy. God here declares how acceptable is such repentance.
I. The reflections of a true penitent over himself.
1. The beginning of his repentance. He—
(1.) Reflects on his incorrigibleness in the ways of sin.
(2.) Pleads with God to turn and convert his soul.
2. The progress of his repentance.
(1.) He reflects upon the advancing distress of his soul. Amazed—“smote on thigh;” then “ashamed;” then “even confounded.”
(2.) But he gives the glory of his advancement to God alone. It all resulted from the fact that “I was turned.”
II. The reflections of God over a true penitent. The penitent finds no words too severe against himself; but—
1. God accounts no honour too great for such a person. He owns him to be “a dear and pleasant child.”
2. He expresses His compassionate regard for him. “My bowels are troubled for him.”
3. He grants him all he himself could desire. “I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.”
Can God testify of us as of Ephraim? If not, we must expect shame and confusion (Mat_13:49-50). If He can, happiness will be ours here and hereafter (Psa_126:5-6).—Claude’s Simeon.
Jer_31:18-20. Theme: THE STUBBORN SINNER SUBMITTING HIMSELF TO GOD.
I. A description of the feelings and conduct of an obstinate, impenitent sinner while smarting under the rod of affliction. He is rebellious—till subdued.
II. The new views and feelings produced by affliction through Divine grace.
(a.) Convinced of guilt and sinfulness; (b) praying; (c) reflecting on the effects of Divine grace in his conversion.
III. A correcting and compassionate God watching the results, &c.
(a.) As a tender Father, mindful of His penitent child; (b.) Listening to his complaints and petitions; (c.) declaring His determination to pardon.—Payson.
See Addenda: CONFESSION.
With Jer_31:18-19, comp. Homilies on chap. Jer_3:21-25.
Notes on Jer_31:18-20.
i. “THOU HAST CHASTISED ME, AND I WAS CHASTISED.” In the first clause the chastisement itself is meant; in the second, the beneficial effects of it—in teaching the penitent true wisdom.
ii. “AS A BULLOCK UNACCUSTOMED” (cf. “stiffnecked” Act_7:51; Exo_32:9), an image from refractory oxen. Before my chastisement I needed the severe correction I received, as much as an untamed bullock needs the goad (cf. Act_9:5, where the same figure is used of Saul before he was converted).
iii. “TURN THOU ME, AND I SHALL BE TURNED;” by Thy converting Spirit (Lam_5:21).
But why does Ephraim pray for conversion, seeing that he is already converted? Because we are converted by progressive steps, and need the same power of God to carry forward, as to originate, our conversion (Joh_6:44; Joh_6:65; cf. Isa_27:3; 1Pe_1:5; Php_1:6).
iv. “AFTER THAT I WAS TURNED I REPENTED.” Repentance in the full sense follows, not precedes, our being turned to God by God (Zec_12:10). Repentance is the tear that flows from the eye of faith turned to Jesus. Himself gives it; we give it not of ourselves, but must come to Him for it (Act_5:31).
v. “AFTER I WAS INSTRUCTED, I SMOTE UPON MY THIGH.” Made to learn by chastisement. God’s Spirit often works through the corrections of His providence. “Smote,” &c. (Eze_21:12): a token of remorse, shame, and grief because of past sin.
vi. “I DID BEAR THE REPROACH OF MY YOUTH.” The punishments I bore were the just punishments of my scandalous wantonness against God in my youth; alluding to the idols set up at Dan and Bethel immediately after the ten tribes revolted from Judah. His sense of shame shows he no longer delights in his sin.—Jamieson.
Jer_31:20. Theme: GOD’S TENDER MEMORY OF THE SINNER. “Is Ephraim My dear son? is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore my bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.”
See Homily on chap. Jer_2:2 : “AN UNFORGOTTEN PAST,” pp. 41, 42, and Noticeable Topic, EARLY PIETY THE BEAUTY OF YOUTH, p. 50.
These questions—“Is Ephraim,” &c.—imply that a negative reply might naturally follow. Oh! who could have imagined that, after all this undutifulness, the Father could still regard him as a “pleasant child”?
I. Our sin is enough to estrange the heart of God from us.
II. Yet the Divine heart is tenacious of its cherished child. “How can I give thee up?” “I do earnestly remember him still.”
III. Human alienation from God is not oblivion with God. Ephraim might be indifferent to the God he had revolted from and wronged: “God not in all his thoughts;” but God could not forget—“I do earnestly remember.” God cannot bury in forgetfulness the child He loves. He “so loved the world,” &c.
IV. Infinite grace is intent upon the recovery of the alien child.
1. “My bowels are troubled.” God’s restless yearning for his return.
2. “I do earnestly remember.” “While he was yet a great way off the father saw him.”
3. “I will surely have mercy.” Quick to relent the moment he repents. God is in no doubt as to how He will receive the sinner. “The father ran, and had compassion upon him, and kissed him.”
Jer_31:21. Theme: SHEWING EXILES THE WAY HOME. “Set up way-marks.”
Keep the lights burning. Lift up the cross! Preach the Gospel still. Declare the precious promises.
I. “Way-marks” would be needed. For they should return from exile.
It is a prophecy. Souls who go astray may return; many shall.
II. “Way-marks” would be helpful. For their long banishment might obliterate the path and obliterate their remembrance. For long absence from God does make the way of right difficult to find.
III. “Way-marks” would be remembrancers, testimonies that God promised their return; for, seeing these “way-marks,” they would recall His promises and rejoice in His faithfulness and grace.
Jer_31:21. Theme: A RIGHTLY DIRECTED PURPOSE. “Set thine heart toward the highway.”
I. There is but one way back to God. “I am the Way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by Me.”
II. Misleading paths decoy the steps astray. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man,” &c.; ways of self-reform, sacramental efficacy, &c.
III. A heart intent upon the way marked out for our return to God.
Determined to tread it. Resolute to walk in none other. Earnest to be found therein quickly.
Jer_31:22. Theme: A NEW-CREATED WONDER: THE MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION OF CHRIST. “The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall compass a man.”
For other interpretations of the words, see Lit Crit. supra.
The words naturally and easily read thus:—Why longer “go about” looking everywhere, anywhere for helpers, as if crying, “Who will show us any good?” leaning on any helpful contingencies which may perchance offer themselves? Stay your hopes on Jehovah; for He has not exhausted His wonderful resources for Israel and humanity. A new era approaches—of grace in Christ Jesus. A new creation shall mark that era—the Incarnation of Christ; when the Virgin Woman shall compass a Man, and give birth to “the Man Christ Jesus.”
The ancient Jews acknowledged this interpretation, and applied the words determinately to the Messiah.
Augustine and most of the Christian fathers regarded the verse as predicting the event of the Virgin Mary compassing Christ in her womb.
i. The event was to be WHOLLY UNPRECEDENTED. “A new thing in the earth,” and a special Divine “creation.” Thus Mary “was found with child of the Holy Ghost” (Mat_1:18-20). It was an event out of the ordinary course of nature.
ii. PROPHECY HARMONISED with the fact described. The first evangelical promise described Christ as “the Seed of the woman,” not of man. So Isa_7:14, “A Virgin shall conceive.”
iii. There is a SPECIFIC PERSONALITY in the words, “A woman—a man.” Both distinct; not any “woman,” not an ordinary “man;” but definite, solitary. The Hebrew rendered here “woman” means an individual, and is not the word for “woman” collectively and in plurality. So the Hebrew rendered “man” is properly “mighty MAN,” the Geber; and Christ is called in Isa_9:6, El Gibbôr. (See also the word in Deu_10:17; Zec_13:7; and cf. Psa_45:3.).
iv. The LOCALISATION OF THE EVENT helps this interpretation. “A new thing in the earth;” literally, in “the land,” viz., of Judah, where Christ’s conception occurred (cf. Luk_1:39; Luk_1:41).
v. An occult allusion to the SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS IN BETHLEHEM associates this prediction with the Incarnation. See on Jer_31:14.
vi. Such a Messianic promise more fully explains the LONGING OF THE EXILES TO RETURN TO THEIR LAND, because Emmanuel should be born there.
vii. The prophet’s vision is through all these verses DIRECTED ON TO THE GOSPEL AGE, when “the new covenant” (Jer_31:29 seq.) shall dawn upon the world, of which the Incarnate Christ should be the “Alpha and the Omega.”
Jer_31:23-24. Comp. Homily on chap. Jer_3:17-18.
Jer_31:25. “Satiated the weary soul.” Comp. Jer_31:14.
Jer_31:26. Theme: SWEET VISIONS OF HUMAN GOOD. “My sleep was sweet unto me.” “My sleep”—my prophetic dream. It was a rare experience with Jeremiah to have visions so “sweet;” for usually his messages concerning “the Divine intent” were pensive and sad.
i. Happy outlooks for a woestricken world are sweetest to the Divine seer.
ii. There are gleams of day glory breaking the grim night of the world’s distress.
iii. It is in God’s purposes of grace, as distinct from man’s conduct of sinfulness, that these glad visions of good are possible.
Jer_31:29-30. Theme: EATING SOUR GRAPES: PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Popular sentiments, though crystallised into proverbs, may be misleading. Therefore “prove all things,” &c. Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah mention this as a proverb in currency. See, with Jer_31:29, Eze_18:2-4.
A law on Sinai that God would “visit the sins of the fathers upon their children.”
In distinction from the old covenant, a new dispensation was coming in which INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY should prevail as the law.
I. Facts in the Divine economy and procedure warranting this prevailing sentiment. “The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
1. Man’s inherited misery through Adam’s fall (Rom_5:12-14; Rom_5:18-19).
2. Great calamities were allowed to engulf the children in the ruin merited only by the fathers.
The Deluge; overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah; destruction of “families” of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, together with themselves. So, for David’s sin in numbering the people, 70,000 of his subjects were slain, himself spared. Manasseh (2Ki_23:26-27; 2Ki_24:3-4). On the Jewish nation too (Mat_23:34)
3. In civil and social relations the conduct of governors and parents casts its results on the children.
II. A spirit of sinful repining which cast blame upon God. The Jews intended to—
1. Exonerate themselves for their misfortunes. They implied that for no sin of their own were they suffering.
2. Reflect on the wisdom and justice of God. But surely God punishes us less than our iniquities deserve (Ezr_9:13). Even the lost souls must own God just (Rev_16:7). And the day of retribution will prove itself to be “a revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Rom_2:5).
III. A new era announced of individual responsibility and judgment.
1. God declares what shall be His settled rule of procedure (Jer_31:30). (1.) National and all-embracing judgments shall cease. (2.) Each soul shall stand on its own merits and bear its own responsibility.
2. This law of individuality is to be verified—(1.) In this life (Gal_6:5); (2.) In the future world (Gal_6:7-8).
IV. The awful burden of inevitable personal guilt.
1. Every man must give account of himself, and meet his just condemnation. For—
2. There is none who can stand before God without sin. And
3. Every sinner shall die his due death (Jer_31:30).
4. Can there be found no Sin-Bearer? Yes verily; Christ died “the Just for the unjust” (1Pe_3:18); was “made sin for us” (2Co_5:21). And so we lose our individual curse in the atonement and substitution of Calvary.
Jer_31:31-34. Theme: SALVATION TAKEN INTO GOD’S OWN HANDS. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they brake; though I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord; but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
It is useful to contemplate the duties devolving on us as agents, and the hopes arising from the agency of God. Our text refers to the latter. The old covenant was made with the Hebrews at Sinai, the covenant of grace under types; not an absolute but a conditional covenant, and in this it resembled the law. As a consequence, it is added, “which covenant they brake.” But it pleased God to promise a new covenant. In this He shows His own agency on the heart, and takes salvation into His own hands to accomplish it Himself: “They shall be My people and I will be their God.” Had a covenant of works been held out offering salvation upon perfect obedience, or a covenant offering pardon to man unassisted, none would have been saved. Both were tried, in Eden and at Sinai. The covenant made with Abraham still exists. Let us show—
I. According to the plan of grace revealed in the Gospel, GOD HAS TAKEN THE WORK OF SALVATION INTO HIS OWN HANDS.
II. THIS LAYS THE ONLY FOUNDATION FOR HOPE.
I. According to plan of grace in Gospel, God has taken the work of salvation into His own hands. The great design originated in the mind of God, it was His own choice and purpose, induced by a regard for His own glory and compassion for a sinful world. He organised the plan alone. Eternal ages before man was, the covenant of redemption between the Sacred Persons was formed, and all circumstances relating to the salvation of the world were settled. Man was then made, and fell; when an intimation of the purpose was made to him. Jesus Christ came in due time to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He rose from the dead for our justification. All this was done by God independently of His creatures. The Holy Spirit was sent out to subdue as many as the Father had given Christ. Through human instrumentality the world was enlightened by the preaching of the Word. The creation, care, support, and enlargement of the Christian Church was undertaken by the Trinity. In like manner God takes the salvation of every believer individually into His own hands.
II. That God has taken the work of delivering His own people into His own hands, is the only foundation of human hope. This doctrine is sweet to the Christian, but opposed by the proud; for had not God contrived and executed this plan, no provision could have been made for the salvation of man; and, beset as he is from without and within, he can only find help from the God of his salvation.
1. The Christian who feels his own weakness, and discerns the power of his enemies, resorts to this truth as the only ground for hope. “The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord,” and they feel that God can shield them from every enemy.
2. Those who would rather trust themselves than God, reject this truth; while the only encouragement for Christians to “work out their own salvation” is that “God worketh in them.”
3. This doctrine also affords encouragement to the Church generally. While looking upon the many who know not God, we can be sustained by nothing but the trust that the work of saving men is God’s work alone. In commending our loved ones to God, we feel peace in the knowledge that “God has taken their salvation into His own hands.” Ministers of God’s people, be content to leave their salvation there; it is His work and His cause. Pious and trembling ones, dwell upon this truth to your comfort; and to the unrenewed I would say, remember you are in God’s hands. Return unto the Lord, for He will have mercy upon you, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.—Ancient MS.
Jer_31:32. “Which covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them.” Comp. Homily on chap. Jer_3:14.
Jer_31:33. The new covenant. Comp. Homily on chap. Jer_3:16.
Jer_31:32. Theme: Is THE OLD COVENANT ABANDONED? “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.”
I. The covenant God made at the first with His people is not contradicted and destroyed by the new.
1. God had not changed His purpose, as if he had forgotten His faithfulness. The first covenant with Abraham was inviolable.
2. The law was a confirmation of, and based upon, that covenant. Consequently, God can make no new law inconsistent with the old.
3. Christians, under the new covenant, are partakers of that old and original Abrahamic covenant, are called “children of Abraham;” will be “gathered into Abraham’s bosom;” and shall “come from the east and west,” &c., “and sit down with Abraham,” &c.
These considerations show that God never abrogated the covenant made with Abraham and confirmed by and to Moses.
II. In what sense God has made a “new covenant” with His people. Here premising that—
1. The substance, or doctrine, remains the same; for God in the Gospel brings forward nothing but what the law contains. But—
2. In the form, or expression of the doctrine, all is new. Thus Christ, as substitute; Holy Spirit’s renewing grace; and the whole method of teaching men God’s will: these are new.
(a.) Thus, God made a new covenant when He accomplished through His Son what had been foreshadowed forth under the law.
(b.) Further, it was a new thing that God, by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, made the covenant, not only strike the ear, but penetrate the heart.
(c.) The outward mode of teaching is also new; for, comparing the law with the Gospel, we find that God speaks to us openly now, as it were face to face (2Co_3:13); for the veil is removed, and God in the face of Christ presents Himself to be seen by us.—Arranged from Calvin.
Jer_31:33. Theme: “MY LAW IN THEIR HEARTS.”
No longer a Sinaitic code of morals, external to man and enforced upon him; but an inner force, an inspiration of love, constraining the soul into sweet consent. The sermon on the mount is the old Mosaic law—but transfigured by love; speaking to the very heart of man in tones of mighty tenderness.
I. If God’s commandments are to sway the whole being of a man, they must move the inmost affections.
1. “Laws,” which only speak to the ear, and demand an unwilling attention, can affect men but feebly. But the voice of God is powerful in a soul when it finds its way inward to the affections, and speaks in tones which stir the keenest and strongest emotions.
2. The “new covenant” laws are voices of love from God, full of infinite tenderness and grace, and go deeper into the soul than commandments; they are more penetrating than a mother’s words. God speaks to the heart in the Gospel.
3. These laws of love—“Thou shalt love the Lord,” &c.; for “God is love”—which constitute the Gospel covenant, do rule the soul from within by the impulses and affections which they awaken. “We love Him, because He first loved us.” His laws are impressed upon our very hearts.
II. If man’s obedience to God is to be complete—the obedience of a willing soul, glad to obey—the inmost affections must move him thereto.
1. “Duty” is cold and hard as an inspiration to conduct. It awakens no enthusiasm, no delight, no eager volition in the soul. It enforces itself upon us, not awakens response within us.
2. But “laws” (interpreted and emphasised as they are in the life of Jesus—calling us to obedience for love of Him, and inspired with grandeur as they are in the cross of Christ—declaring the infinite importance to the sinner that he should not sin, but should obey and live)—laws of God thus enforced cast their pathos upon the heart of even the disobedient and stir to response.
3. The affections won by Christ’s personally obedient example and substitutionary death for man’s disobedience, prompt the soul to willing anxious concern to do the will of God with fervour and delight. His laws are obeyed from the heart.
III. Hence, love awakened within a soul is a grander force and a surer guarantee of full obedience to law than the sense of duty however majestically enforced.
1. The cross raised on Calvary is therefore a grander motive than the tables of stone given on Sinai.
2. Humanity can be drawn into allegiance to God more effectually and surely by the allurements of love than by the demands and threatenings of law.
3. The new covenant, therefore, supersedes the reign of penalty, with its appeals to duty and fear, by the reign of grace, in which the heart is won to glad obedience, inspired by gratitude and love.
Jer_31:34. Theme: UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD. “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.”
1. Its primary application is to the enlightenment of Israel. They shall know Christ as the Lord (Isa_54:13).
2. Its secondary reference is to all believers, who come to see Christ for themselves as their Saviour, Lord, and God (Joh_6:45; 1Co_2:10; 1Jn_2:2; 1Jn_2:20).
3. Its widest meaning is the ingathering of all people to the “one faith” (Psa_2:8).
I. By a Divine plan of instruction men shall be taught.
1. It is slow and feeble work this winning men by man’s teaching.
2. Not that the office of teaching will cease under the Gospel dispensation.
3. But the Divine Spirit will become the world’s Teacher, showing Christ to men.
4. And a purer light will by that Spirit shine in upon the human conscience, revealing to the sinner more clearly his state, his need, and the remedy of the cross.
II. With an all-embracing inclusiveness men shall be taught.
1. National barriers and distinctions shall no longer limit the spread of true religion. The Gospel shall be “unto all people.”
2. Social and educational divisions shall be utterly disregarded in the Divine diffusion of light. “Things despised” will be equally blessed with Divine light—“the least of them” as “things mighty”—“the greatest of them.” For “God is no respecter of persons.”
3. Childhood shall gather under the lustre of Christian knowledge as much as maturity; for Christ shall enfold the lambs, and the “little ones” shall be in “the kingdom of heaven”—“the least of them.”
III. Into a clearer knowledge of God men shall be led. “All shall know Me.”
1. Sinai’s revelations and Prophecy’s dim teachings failed to reveal God fully to the soul. They were but faint gleamings (Exo_33:23).
2. The Person of Christ—His life, teachings, character, and death—unveils God clearly to man (Joh_1:18).
3. By the Spirit’s illumination a familiar, happy, and satisfactory realisation of God is brought to each believing soul (1Jn_2:27).
Jer_31:35-37. Theme: GOD’S GUARANTEE TO HIS CHURCH. In prophecy we see the purposes of God unfolded, and, comparing past and passing events, see God so ordering every incident for the fulfilment of His purposes. Note—
i. With what majesty and glory the Almighty describes Himself!
ii. With what solemnity He enforces His declarations, equivalent even to oaths!
iii. And all this in order to assure His people of His exhaustless and inalienable mercy!
I. Contemplate the grandeur of these assurances of Jehovah to His people.
1. In their historic reference to Israel literally.
(1.) Their imperishable security; they shall always be under His care. So that, while other nations have become obliterated, they shall never be. Though their sins provoked Him to utterly cast them off, they should be restored to His favour as of old.
(2.) God’s infinite resources on their behalf. “The Lord, which giveth the sun,” &c.; the almightiness of Jehovah; “the Lord of Hosts is His name.”
(3.) The inviolability of God’s covenant with them. If impossibilities can be, “the heavens be measured,” &c., then this impossibility may happen, that God would sever His people from Himself, the people He betrothed in an everlasting covenant!
Note:—History confirms these ancient assurances of God to Israel. During their captivity in Babylon the nation kept its nationality intact, and were restored to Canaan. And even now, though for 1800 years Israel and Judah are scattered, God preserves them “a peculiar people;” and signs are not wanting that the “lost” ten tribes are still in distinct existence.
They are still “beloved for the fathers’ sake;” and God’s “gifts and calling are without repentance” (Isa_54:7-10).
2. In their larger application to the Church of God spiritually.
(1.) Guarded by the unfailing care of the Lord. “The gates of hell shall not prevail;” “Not one of them shall be lost.”
(2.) All the guarantees of Deity are pledged to its security. “My Father who gave them to Me is greater than all, and none shall pluck them out of My Father’s hand: I and My Father are one!”
(3.) With inviolable fidelity Christ’s people are bound to Him. Not a jot or tittle of His word shall fail: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away.” “Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.”
II. Ponder the value of these assurances of Jehovah to His people. To Israel indeed literally belongs these “covenants and promises;” yet Christians have a joint heritage in them; for Paul assures us that “God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us” (Heb_6:17-18).
1. By whom, then, may these assurances be appropriated? “All the promises of God are in Christ, Yea; and in Him, Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” Only those who are “in Christ” themselves can “inherit the promises” which are assured in Him.
2. For what purposes should these assurances be appropriated? For our enduring consolation amid all distresses, persecutions, &c. (Rom_8:35-39); yet not for delusive self-security and presumption. Unless we keep ourselves distinct from the world, as do the Jews as a nation, but distinct for our piety (2Co_6:17; Jas_1:27), we forfeit all part in the assurance that God will keep us perpetually before Him as His people.
3. In what spirit, then, should these assurances be appropriated? With faith in God’s word (Joh_14:1); with joyous hope (Rom_5:2); with lowly watchfulness (Rom_11:20).
Compare with the above Simeon’s Outline, on which this is based.
Jer_31:38-39. Theme: THE REBUILDING OF JERUSALEM, BOTH LITERALLY AND SPIRITUALLY.
Wordsworth here points out—
I. The city is here said to be built to the Lord (Jer_31:38). It is dedicated to Him. The Church (κυριακή) is the house of the Lord. It is called by His name, consecrated to His glory and service. Its name is Jehovah Shammah, “The Lord is there” (Eze_48:35).
II. Taken in its literal sense, this prophecy foretels that Jerusalem shall be rebuilt in all its extent, from the tower of Hanameel, on the north-east (see Neh_3:1; Neh_12:39) to the gate of the corner, on the north-west (2Ki_14:13; 2Ch_26:9). Comp. Zec_14:10. This was effected by Nehemiah.
III. But this was figurative of the greater rebuilding, when Jesus Christ built up the ruins of our fallen nature, and raised up the walls of the spiritual Jerusalem, His universal Church.
1. The names Hanameel and Gate of the Corner have a symbolical sense, suited to this fulfilment. “Hanameel” = graciously given by God. The building of the spiritual Jerusalem (so Jerome suggests) begins with the free grace of God (Tit_2:11-14; Tit_3:4-8), and extends to the gate of the Corner, Christ being the elect “Corner-stone;” for He is the “Corner” in which the walls of both peoples—Jew and Gentile—meet in one, cemented together in Him (Psa_118:22; Isa_28:16; Mat_21:42; 1Pe_3:6).
2. Similarly the names “hill Gareb and Goath” have a symbolical significance. These names are nowhere found in Scripture, and have no actual localisation; the reason, therefore, for the choice of such names is that we should not look to the letter but to the spirit[!] Mystical names were thus sometimes used by prophets (Son_2:17; Son_6:12; Jer_25:26; Eze_39:11, &c.)
But “Gareb” means a leper, and leprosy was a type of sin; while “Goath” is supposed by some to be the same as Golgotha or Calvary. Leprosy is the ban of death; but Christ by death “abolished death,” whereas on Calvary was opened “the fountain for sin,” and so sin and death found a remedy in Christ.
Thus the Christian Church, which has its origin and centre in Zion, extends its walls with a living and gracious energy to enfold the hill Gareb, and even Goath itself.
IV. Further, in Jer_31:40, it is affirmed that “the whole valley of the dead bodies”—the loathsome and idolatrous valley of Hinnom, and even “all the fields unto the brook Kidron”—to which all the abominations of idolatry were brought and burned (2Ki_23:4-6), i.e., all things most unclean by nature and by human corruption, will be purged from all impurity, and cleansed by the blood of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit of holiness in the Christian Church, and so be made “holy unto the Lord” (Zec_14:20-21; Joe_3:17; Isa_52:1, &c.)
This has been fulfilled, and is in course of fulfilment in the transformation of heathen basilicas and temples (as the Pantheon of Rome and the Parthenon of Theseus at Athens) into Christian Churches, and the conversion of heathen cities and nations unto Christ. The cross of Christ stands in the Colosseum, where Christian martyrs were formerly cast to the lions; and it surmounts the obelisks of Egypt; and human nature, once the stronghold of Satan, has now become the shrine of Deity by the incarnation of the Son of God,—Wordsworth’s Commentary.
Note.—Dr. Payne Smith remarks: “The main point in Jeremiah’s description of the New Jerusalem is not its great extent, though it would have covered somewhat more space than the old city, and much more than Nehemiah included within his walls, but that it took in and consecrated spots which previously had been unclean. If we compare this with Zec_2:4, the conclusion seems evident that Jeremiah’s words are to be spiritually understood. His city is one that renders what was before unclean ‘holy unto Jehovah.’ (Comp. with this John’s New Jerusalem, especially Rev_21:27.)”
Jer_31:40. THE PERPETUITY OF THE SPIRITUAL JERUSALEM. “It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down any more for ever.”
Calvin comments: “The promise of perpetual favour is added; for it would not be sufficient to have God’s mercy promised us for a short time. The city indeed was again destroyed by Titus, and at length wholly demolished by Adrian; but God gave some taste of His favour, in the external aspect of the city, till Christ came; but after Christ was manifested, the heavenly Jerusalem became the object to be sought, and then all types and shadows ceased.
“This promise pledges the perpetuity of the Church; for though God may permit it to be terribly shaken, and Satan and all the world may daily threaten its ruin, yet the Lord will preserve it to the end, so that it shall never perish.”
ADDENDA TO CHAP. 31: ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer_31:3. EVERLASTING LOVE. A father, whose affluence was considerable, mourned over a reckless son, whose misconduct brought shame upon himself and family. From home the prodigal went into another country, and for years he was lost to his relatives. A chance occurring, he sent by a friend this message, should he meet his boy, “Your father loves you still.” The bearer sought him long and in vain. At last he saw him enter a house of vice, and called him; and there, at a late hour of evening, he delivered this message. The dissolute gambler’s heart was touched. The thought that his father still loved him, and wished to forgive him, broke the spell of Satan. He abandoned his profligacy and returned to his father. Oh! the power of such a message of inalienable love from God!
“Could we with ink the ocean fill,
Were the whole world of parchment made,
Were every single grass a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade:
To write the love
Of God above
Would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll
Contain the whole,
Though stretched from earth to sky.”
“Not as the world loves doth God love. They love to-day and hate tomorrow, wearing their friends like flowers, which we may behold in their bosoms whilst they are fresh and sweet, but soon they wither and then are laid aside. Whereas the love of God to His people is everlasting, and He wears them as a signet upon His right hand, which He will never part with.”—White.
Jer_31:9. TEARS OF PENITENCE. A saint’s tears are better than a sinner’s triumphs. Bernard saith, Lachrymœ pœnitentium sunt vinum angelorum: “The tears of penitents are the wine of angels.”—Secker.
Jer_31:18. CONFESSION: “Bemoaning himself.” If I am working beside a man, and I see that he tries to shirk his work upon me, I am angry with him. But if he says to me, “I am ill and cannot work,” then the thought comes to me at once, “You shall not work; I will help you.” And so, if a man says to us, “I know I did wrong, but I am weak; blame me as little as you can, but help me out as much as you can”—the very confession disarms us, and we think better of him than we did before. Therefore it is that God so exhorts us to confess our sins to Him.
—H. Ward Beecher.
“All-powerful is the penitential sigh
Of true contrition; like the placid wreaths
Of incense, wafted from the righteous shrine
Where Abel ministered, to the blest seat
Of Mercy, an accepted sacrifice,
Humiliation’s conscious plaint ascends.”
—Hayes.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. Divine love is a fact; there can be…
Jer 31:3
I. Divine love is a fact; there can be no doubt of the teaching of the Scripture on this subject. The God of the Bible is a God of love, He is a Father in heaven. He cares for us, He watches over us, He guides us, He saves us. This attitude of Divine love is the very core of the Gospel. It may be said to encounter two obstacles within us: our fears at times, and then, what seems the very opposite, our pride and self-confidence. (1) The instinct of conscious guilt is fear, and when the sense of sin is strongly awakened we are apt to turn away from God, and to feel as if God must hate us. But God never hates us. He hates our sins and will punish those sins. But in the very hatred of those sins there is the reality of Divine love. (2) Not only does our fear sometimes turn us away from the thought of God, but our self-sufficiency. We feel as if the powers of nature were strong in us, and the sense of sin dies down; we feel as if God would overlook our sins, and that we are not so sinful after all; we feel as if we might trust to His goodness, as if it were, so to speak, good nature. But this is equally inconsistent with true spiritual experience. "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
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II. God not only loves us; He loves us everlastingly. The fact of Divine love is not only sure in itself, it is never uncertain in incidence. Whatever appearance there may seem to the contrary, it is still there. The voice of God is not still because man does not hear it, and the love of. God is not gone because man does not feel it. It is still crying to us; it abides as an everlasting fact. "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love."
III. The love of God is individual; it is personal; it is the love of one loving heart to another; it is no mere impersonal conception of supreme benevolence; it is the love of a father to a child, the love of a mother to a daughter; it would not be love otherwise, for it is a distinguishing idea of love that it discriminates its object. "With lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
J. Tulloch, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 209.
References: Jer 31:3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiii., No. 1914; Ibid., Morning by Morning, pp. 60, 355; S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 5th series, No. vii.; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 153.
Jer 31:12
I. A watered garden suggests the idea of fragrant freshness. The prophet was contrasting the weary, dusty, withered aspect of Israel during the exile, with the fresh, bright, happy look of a recovered and ransomed nation. The characters and lives of the people of God ought to be marked by a similar freshness. Godliness tends to keep the soul from withering, and replenishes the springs of the deepest life. There is a perennial freshness in unselfish affections and unworldly aims. The "eternal life" never grows old. It is selfishness that fatigues the spirit, and robs it of its freshness; but so long as a human soul is pervaded by the love of God and the love of man, the human life cannot, for that soul, altogether lose its zest.
II. A "watered garden" suggests the idea of a varied beauty. In a well-kept garden there is beauty of colour and of form; beauty of order and of tasteful arrangement; beauty of stem and leaf and flower; and amongst the flowers themselves a varied beauty, resulting from manifold varieties of form and colour. And even so the characters and lives of the people of God ought to be marked by that which is attractive and sweet to look upon. There is need that men be attracted by the "beauty of holiness." There are times when a man may get more good from the flowers of the garden than even from its fruits. The lovelier features of the Christian character have their own peculiar charm and peculiar power.
III. A watered garden suggests the idea of a rich fruitfulness. A gardener generally expects, not only flower and blossom, but also fruit, as the outcome of his toil. And certainly the lives of God’s people ought to be marked by a fruitfulness which ministers to the welfare and happiness of humanity. Israel was placed under a special culture for the glory of God, and for the benefit of the nations. And "herein," says Christ to His disciples, "is My Father glorified that ye bear much fruit."
F. Campbell Finlayson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 72.
References: Jer 31:12.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 276. Jer 31:15, Jer 31:16.—W. Walters, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., No. 102. Jer 31:16.—J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 234.
Jer 31:18
Compunctious visitings and repentant resolutions.
I. I will not enter now into what we may call the more exceptional regrets and remorses of sinful souls. Our Lord touches a different and a more thrilling chord when He makes the wanderer in His utmost destitution, think of the plenty of his home; compare what he might have been with what he is; and say, as he comes to himself, only just this, "How many hired servants of my father’s have had enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger?" This is the compunction which I would have to visit us.
II. The Resolution. "I will arise and go to my Father." (1) Mark first how the repentant resolution speaks of God. "My Father." Happy is he, who, in his remotest exile, in his uttermost destitution, still speaks, still thinks, of God as his Father. (2) "I will arise." There is need of exertion. Sit still and thou art bound; sorry, but not contrite; miserable, but not repentant. There is a journey, though it be but in the soul’s going, and therefore there must be a rising, a rousing of the whole man, like that, which, in the days of the Son of God below, enabled one whose hand was withered, yet, at the Divine command, to stand forth and stretch it out. (3) "I will go." Whither and how? (a) In prayer. The soul must arise and pray. Say, Father, I have sinned. Say it: He hears, (b) Go in effort. We must not trifle with or mock God, and therefore he who would pray must endeavour too. In particular, we must give up resolutely known sins. Give up your sin, is the first word of Christ to those who would return to their Father. (c) Go in the use of all means. God has furnished us with various means and instruments of access to Him. His Holy Word, public worship, Holy Communion. (d) "I will arise and go to my Father." We must get to Him somehow. If we do not get to God Himself, we have done nothing after all.
C. J. Vaughan, Voices of the Prophets, p. 291.
Jer 31:18
I. Human life is established upon a disciplinary basis.
II. The value of discipline depends upon its right acceptance.
III. Application. (1) There is a yoke in sin. (2) There is a yoke in goodness. God helps the true yoke-bearer.
Parker, City Temple, vol. i., p. 369; see also Pulpit Notes, p. 177.
References: Jer 31:18.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 743. Jer 31:29.—H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1645. Jer 31:31-34.—A. B. Bruce, Expositor, 1st series, vol. x., p. 65.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv36–37
Jeremiah
WHAT THE STABLE CREATION TEACHES
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Jer 31:36.
This is the seal of the new covenant, which is to be made in days future to the prophet and his contemporaries, with the house of Israel and of Judah. That new covenant is referred to in Hebrews as the fundamental law of Christ’s kingdom. Therefore we have the right to take to ourselves the promises which it contains, and to think of ‘the house of Israel’ and ‘the seed of Jacob’ as including us, ‘though Abraham be ignorant of us.’
The covenant and its pledge are equally grand. The very idea of a covenant as applied to God is wonderful. It is meant to teach us that, from all the infinite modes of action possible to Him, He has chosen One; that He has, as it were, marked out a path for Himself, and confined the freedom of His will and the manifold omnipotences of His power to prescribed limits, that He has determined the course of His future action. It is meant to teach us, too, the other grand thought that He has declared to us what that course is, not leaving us to learn it piecemeal by slow building up of conclusions about His mind from His actions as they come forth, but inversely telling us His mind and purpose in articulate and authentic words by which we are to interpret each successive work of His. He makes known His purposes. ‘Before they spring forth I tell you of them.’
It is meant to teach us, too, that He regards Himself as bound by the declaration which He has made, so that we may rest secure on this strong foundation of His faithfulness and His truth, and for all doubts and fears find the sufficient cure in His own declaration: ‘My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips.’ No wonder that the dying king found the strength of his failing heart in the thought, ‘He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.’
The weighty promises of this solemn bond of God’s cover the whole ground of our spiritual necessities-forgiveness of sins, true, personal, direct acquaintance with God, an intercommunion of mutual possession between Him who is ours and us who are His, and an inward sanctification by which His precepts shall coincide with our desires. These are the blessings which He binds Himself to bestow.
And of this transcendent pact, the seal and guarantee is worthy. God descends to ratify a bond with man. By it He binds Himself to give all possible good for the soul. And to confirm it heaven and earth are called in. He points us to all that is august, stable, immense, inscrutable in the works of His hands, and bids us see there His pledge that He will be a faithful, covenant-keeping God. Sun, moon and stars, heaven, earth and sea-’ye are My witnesses,’ saith the Lord.
God’s unchangeable love is the true lesson from the stable regularity of the universe. The tone in which Scripture speaks of external nature in all its parts is very remarkable, altogether peculiar. It does not take the aesthetic or the scientific, but the purely religious point of view.
I. The facts. All nature is directly the effect of God’s will and power. ‘He giveth,’ ‘He divideth’ {Jer 31:35}.
The physical universe presents a spectacle of stable regularity.
This regularity is the consequence of sovereign, divine will. These ordinances are not laws of nature, but of God.
II. The use commonly made of the facts.
Ordinary unthinking worldliness sees nothing noticeable in them because they come uniformly. Earthquakes startle, but the firmness of the solid earth attracts no observation. God is thought to speak in the extraordinary, but most men do not hear His voice in the normal.
Scientific godlessness formularises this tendency into a system, and proclaims that laws are everything and God a mere algebraical x.
III. The lesson which they are meant to teach.
God’s works are a revelation of God.
There is nothing in effect which is not in cause, and the stability of these ordinances carries our thoughts back to an unchanging Ordainer.
They witness to His constancy of purpose or will. His acts do not come from caprice, nor are done as experiments, but are the stable expression of uniform and unchanging will.
They witness to His unfailing energy of power, which ‘operates unspent’ and is to-day as fresh as at creation’s birth.
They witness to a single end pursued through all changes, and by all varieties of means. Darkness and light, sun rising and setting, storm and sunshine, summer and winter, all serve one end. As a horizontal thrust may give rise to opposite circular motions which all issue in working out an onward progress, so the various dealings of Providence with us are all adapted to ‘work together,’ and that ‘for good.’
They witness that life, joy, beauty, flow from obedience.
Thus, then, these ordinances in their stability are witnesses. But they are inferior witnesses. The noblest revelation of the divine faithfulness and unchangeable purpose of good is in Jesus. And these witnesses will one day pass. Even now they have their changes, slow and unmarked by a short-lived man. Stars burn out, there have been violent convulsions, shocks and shatterings in the heavens, and a time comes, as even physical science predicts, when ‘the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment,’ but that to which they witnessed shall endure, ‘My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished.’ The created lights grow dim and die out, but in ‘the Father of lights’ is ‘no variableness, neither shadow that is cast by turning.’
Hence we see what our confidence should be. It should stand firm and changeless as the Covenant, and we should move in our orbits as the stars and hearken to the voice of His word as do they. Let us see to it that we have faith to match His faithfulness, and that our confidence shall be firmer than the mountains, more stable than the stars.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 1-22. Jeremiah speaks of the restoration first of Israel…
1-22. Jeremiah speaks of the restoration first of Israel (Ephraim, Jer_31:2-22), then of Judah (Jer_31:23.). Those who survive the sufferings of the captivity are promised a safe journey home. The words, 'found grace in the wilderness' (Jer_31:2) are probably an allusion to the journey from Egypt under Moses, which was thus a prophecy to the captive Israelites of the return from Assyria.
3. In this v. the people are the speakers.
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4. Tabrets] tambourines.
5. Shall eat them as common things] RV 'shall enjoy the fruit thereof.'
6. Watchmen] posted on heights to announce seasons of prayer and, according to Jewish tradition, the appearance of the new moon as determining the dates of festivals. In the present case they are posted on the hills of Ephraim that members of the northern kingdom may go up to keep the feasts in Jerusalem, thus betokening the reunion of the Twelve Tribes in worship.
8. The blind, etc.] None, even the feeblest, shall be left behind. Thither] RV 'hither' to Palestine.
9. With weeping] tears at once of contrition and joy. Ephraim is my firstborn] see 1Ch_5:1. God will not forget the house of Joseph, the head of northern Israel.
10. The isles] see on Jer_25:22.
12. To the goodness of the Lord] to receive from Him the blessings of a fruitful land. For wheat, etc.] RV 'to the corn, and to the wine.' Sorrow] rather, 'droop,' 'fade,' keeping up the image of a garden.
13. Both young men] RV 'and the young men' (shall rejoice with the old).
14. The sacrifices shall be so numerous that the priests and their families shall have abundance for their share: see Lev_7:31.
15. The mourning which took place at Ramah, whether on account of some unrecorded butchery there on the part of the Chaldean conquerors, or in reference to their general cruelty to the exiles there assembled for deportation to Babylon (see Jer_40:1), is referred to by St. Matthew (Mat_2:17.) as a forecast of the wailing at the slaughter of the Innocents by Herod. Rahel] the appropriateness of calling upon Rachel to weep in Ramah consists in this, that she, the one of Jacob's wives who had so ardently longed for children and the mother of Joseph and so of Ephraim and of Manasseh (whose lot was with Judah), should lament the overthrow of her offspring in a conspicuous border town of the two kingdoms, with both of which she was thus immediately connected.
16. Thy work shall be rewarded] Rachel by the death of her descendants had, as it were, been deprived of the reward for which she had laboured in bearing ajid bringing up children. Now by their restoration she shall at last receive her recompense.
17. In thine end] RV 'for thy latter end.'
18. Ephraim] i.e. the northern kingdom, which for over 100 years had been devastated by the Assyrians, and its people exiled.
19. Instructed] by punishment. I smote, etc.] in contrition. The reproach of my youth] the shame incurred through the sins of his youth.
20. God is represented as addressing Himself even as a father might do, when dwelling upon the ingratitude and rebellion of a son, whom, nevertheless, he cannot but continue to love.
Pleasant] i.e. beloved. Bowels] the supposed seat of the emotions.
21. High heaps] RV 'guide-posts' for the returning exiles.
22. Compass] i.e. as protector. In the peaceful future the women will be a sufficient guard against danger from without, while the men perform their daily tasks.
23-26. The Lord now turns from Israel (Ephraim) to Judah and promises her like blessings.
23. As yet] RV 'yet again.' Habitation of justice] the same expression is used of the Lord in Jer_50:7. Mountain of holiness] Jerusalem, or in particular the Temple mount.
26. The words of the prophet at the conclusion of his pleasant vision.
27. I will sow, etc.] a figure to express prosperity and rapid increase.
28. See on Jer_1:10.
29-34. The new covenant between Jehovah and His people.
29, 30. The proverb here quoted, which was common among the Jews, induced them to throw upon their predecessors the responsibility for their own misdeeds. Accordingly the prophet restates in an amended form the truth which it embodies. It was true that their fathers had sinned, but the children had repeated their sins and they were suffering the consequences of their own acts. The prophet emphasises individual responsibility for sin.
31-34. The new covenant is to be of a spiritual, personal character, rather than external and national. It shall supersede that of the exodus, and shall differ from the older Law both in permanence and in the spring of action. Under it the sense of forgiveness (Jer_31:34) ensures a willing service based on love, not on fear. 'God comes to man as giving and not as requiring': so Bp. Westcott on Heb_8:8-12, which reproduces this passage, applying it to the Christian dispensation.
34. The sense is not that there shall be no longer any need of instruction in religion, but that for both Jews and Gentiles there shall be directness of access to God. It was left for later times to reveal clearly Christ as the means of this approach.
35. Which divideth the sea when] RV 'which stirreth up the sea, that.'
36. Israel's national existence is as assured as the unchangeableness of the laws imposed by God on the universe, or as its limitless character.
38-40. See on Jer_7:31. Jerusalem in her future extension is to enclose spaces hitherto considered unclean. Tower of Hananeel] at the NE. corner. The gate of the corner] at the NW. (see on 2Ki_14:13). Gareb.. Goath] not mentioned elsewhere. Gareb means 'leper's hill.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv7, 11, 19 (See Scofield "Jer 15:21").
remnant
(See Scofield "Jer 15:21").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The home-going of the nation (Jer 31:1-9)
CHAPTER 31
1. The home-going of the nation (Jer 31:1-9)
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2. The joy of salvation (Jer 31:10-14)
3. The preceding tribulation, sorrow and repentance (Jer 31:15-21)
4. Assurance (Jer 31:22-26)
5. The new covenant (Jer 31:27-34)
6. The everlasting nation (Jer 31:35-40)
Jer 31:1-9. Sovereign grace will bring them back and give them the songs of salvation. It is true of Israel “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee”; --it is equally true of us. What a day of joy it will be when they go back home once more, never to leave the old homeland again! Then the watchmen on mount Ephraim cry, “Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.” Can there be anything more touching and beautiful than Jer 31:8-9?
Jer 31:10-14. The nations are addressed. oh! that the great nations of today might have an ear to hear this message, “He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.” His promises made to Israel will not fail. The nations should understand, as they do not, that Israel will yet become the head of all the nations of the earth. What singing that will be in that day of which the prophet speaks (verse 12). What rejoicing after their sorrow! What fullness will be theirs!
Jer 31:15-21. Rachel weeping for her children (Jer 31:5) is quoted in Mat 2:1-23 in connection with the killing of the boys in Bethlehem. It has also a future fulfillment, when once more Satan will manifest his power as the murderer during the tribulation. But the promise, “They shall come again from the land of the enemy” and “Thy children shall come again to their own border,” clearly shows that captivity is likewise meant from which Rachel’s children (Joseph and Benjamin, i.e., Ephraim) shall return after the final tribulation and weeping. Physical resurrection is not in view here. Therefore, the next verse speaks of Ephraim moaning and in repentance. Then God’s gracious answer “Is Ephraim my dear son?--I will surely have mercy upon him.”
Jer 31:22-26. Backsliding Israel is exhorted and the assurance is given, “A woman shall compass a man.” It refers to Israel as the woman, the timid, weak, forsaken one, who now will compass a man: that is have power given unto her to become the ruler. (Some have translated this difficult passage, “The woman shall be turned into a man.”) Then follows the promise of assurance.
Jer 31:27-34. In the preceding verse we read that Jeremiah awoke, so that this message must have come to him in a vision by night, and sweet was his sleep. How refreshing must have been to his troubled soul this wonderful prophecy! The great prediction in these verses is the one concerning the new covenant. This covenant is not made with Gentiles, nor even with the church as so often erroneously stated. It is the new covenant to be made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. This is fully confirmed in the Epistle to Hebrews Heb 8:8-13. The old covenant is the law-covenant, which the Lord did not make with Gentiles, but with Israel exclusively. The new covenant is of grace. The ground of this new covenant is the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ, His blood, as we learn from His own words when He instituted the supper. He died for that nation, and therefore all Israel will yet receive the promised blessing of this new covenant. This prophecy is therefore still unfulfilled, for Israel does not enjoy this new covenant now. In the meantime, while Israel has not yet the blessings of this new covenant, Gentiles, who by nature are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, believing in Christ, possess the blessings of this new covenant to the full. In that coming day of Israel’s return, the nation, Israel and Judah, will be born again, know the Lord, and their sins will be remembered no more.
Jer 31:35-40. This word of Jehovah is a complete answer to those in Christendom who think that God has cast away Israel, that they are no longer the chosen people. The Lord makes a condition, “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all they have done saith the LORD.” Neither has heaven been measured, neither has the depth of the earth been searched out, nor will this ever be accomplished. What a faithful covenant-keeping God He is! Jer 31:38-40 have never been fulfilled in the past.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 15, 27 The Decree Of Restoration and its Execution
The Decree Of Restoration and its Execution
v. 1. At the same time, saith the Lord, at the time of the Messiah’s rule, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, of all true Israelites, of His spiritual children, and they shall be My people.
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v. 2. Thus saith the Lord, The people which were: left of the sword found grace in the wilderness, that is, those who escaped the sword of Pharaoh by the Lord’s deliverance were objects of His merciful intervention against all enemies; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest, when He was leading them forward to occupy the peaceful habitations of the Land of Promise.
v. 3. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, so His Church sings in grateful acknowledgment of His grace, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee, giving them respite, preserving them from extinction. As He had done in delivering His people from the bondage of Egypt, so He intended to continue His mercy upon them.
v. 4. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel, be established for sound prosperity; thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, marching in processions with tambourines, or timbrels, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry, in agreement with the custom observed upon occasions of public rejoicings, but in holy joy, not in carnal mirth.
v. 5. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and shall eat them as common things, a reference to the ordinance which commanded the children of Israel not to eat the fruit of the orchard and of the vineyard the first three years after planting, the fourth year’s fruit being consecrated to the Lord, and only that of the fifth year being permitted to be profaned, that is, to be used by the owner. Cf Lev 19:23 ff. ; Jdg 9:27; Deu 20:6; also 28:30.
v. 6. For there shall be a day that the watchmen upon the Mount Ephraim, those who were delegated to observe the time of the new moon, which determined the date of most festivals in the Jewish church-year, shall cry, Arise ye and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord, our God. Thus the work of the Gospel-messengers summoning the believers to the worship of Jehovah, the true God, is pictured.
v. 7. For thus saith the Lord, Sing with gladness for Jacob, shouting over the Church’s good fortune in songs of praise, and shout among the chief of the nations, exult over the head of the peoples, for the Church is composed of members of all nations; publish ye, praise ye, and say, in loud psalms of thanksgiving and intercession, O Lord, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel, so that the blessings of redemption would be known to, experienced by, all its members.
v. 8. Behold, I will bring them, the members of Jehovah’s Church, from the North country and gather them from the coasts of the earth, from its most remote boundaries, and with them the blind and the lame, the poorest and the least important, the very outcasts of society. Mat 22:9; Luk 14:21-23, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together, even the weak and frail of every kind; a great company shall return thither, being welcomed into the Church of Jehovah.
v. 9. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them, with tears of mingled joy and penitence, on account of the unmerited grace of God in accepting them into His kingdom. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble, on paths of righteousness; for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My first-born, all His spiritual children being included in these terms.
v. 10. Hear the Word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, the Gospel-message being proclaimed in the most remote regions of the earth, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock, one of the Lord’s favorite pictures to describe His loving care for His people.
v. 11. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he, liberating His people from the hands of all tyrants.
v. 12. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, on its summit, that is, in the Temple of the Lord, and shall flow together, in a mighty stream of humanity, to the goodness of the Lord, to receive the blessing of Jehovah, for wheat and for wine and for oil, the greatest riches of His mercy, and for the young of the flock and of the herd, all these being types of the richest and fullest strength of life; and their soul shall be as a watered garden, Isa 58:11, and they shall not sorrow any more at all, enjoying, rather, all the riches of God’s grace.
v. 13. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, for the young women went out in processions with rhythmic movements, both young men and old together, that is, they would give expression to their joy; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow, so that they would be abundantly comforted.
v. 14. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, namely, by the great number of the fat pieces of thank-offerings, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, saith the Lord. Thus the Messianic promise concerning rest and peace, Mat 11:28, was brought out even in the Old Testament, for He gave His blessings in rich measure even at that time.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 21, 23, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 38 General Information:
General Information:
Jeremiah often wrote prophecy in the form of poetry. Hebrew poetry uses different kinds of parallelism. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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At that time
This refers to the time when God punishes the wicked.
this is Yahweh's declaration
Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 1:8. AT: "this is what Yahweh has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
The people who have survived the sword have found favor in the wilderness
The phrase "found favor" is an idiom. AT: "While the people who have survived the sword have been in the wilderness, I have had grace on them" (See: Idiom)
who have survived the sword
The word "sword" is a metonym for war. AT: "who have survived the war" (See: Metonymy)
wilderness; I will go out to give rest to Israel
Another possible meaning is "wilderness, where Israel went out to find rest."
Yahweh appeared to me
Jeremiah speaks of himself as if he were the people of Israel. (See: Metonymy)
I have drawn you toward myself with covenant faithfulness
The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be stated as "faithful" or "faithfully." AT: "I have been faithful to my covenant and brought you near to me" or "I have faithfully loved you and brought you near to me" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
Yahweh
declare
God
clan
Israel
people of God
sword
slaughter
favor
desert
love
eternity
covenant faithfulness
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 35, 38, 39, 40 31:1 In that day: This phrase refers to the…
31:1 In that day: This phrase refers to the return from exile that began in 538 BC. • all the families of Israel: The coming restoration included all twelve tribes of Israel.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.