IN our study of the book of Isaiah we learned much about the blessing that will be the portion of the children of Israel when reestablished by God’s power in the land of Palestine. What we find in that way in Jeremiah’s prophecies has a special interest to the believer because of the time the message was given, namely, when the times of the Gentiles (Luke 21:21, Rom. 11:25) were beginning: and God’s earthly people were just about to be (or were already being) transferred to Babylon as the captives of the first great Gentile power.
It was given to Jeremiah, as perhaps to no other prophet of the Old Testament, to tell of the love of God for Israel; this is the more striking because of the then state of the people—so bad that they were being cast out of the land that was their inheritance. It is the knowledge of the love of God, without cause and without measure (declared in the Old Testament and marvelously proved in the New), that draws forth the believer’s adoration and praise. Had it not been for His love, all without a single exception, would be in nature’s darkness and under condemnation, but “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. Precious truth!
Verse 1: “At the same time” is really “At that time,” referring to chapter 30; “all the families of Israel” takes in the lost ten tribes who are yet to be brought back and united with Judah. Verse 2 is also future, for the true reading is “when I go to give him rest”; it speaks, we believe, of the ten tribes and the way God will deal with them before bringing them into the land of their forefathers. (See Ezek. 20:35-88.)
Verse 3: The marginal reading “from afar” should be taken instead of “of old” “The Lord (Jehovah) hath appeared from afar unto me”; the people were in heart far indeed from Him. In accents of infinite tenderness, nevertheless, He addresses them— “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. I will build thee again, etc.” Why should love be thus felt and expressed by God for a people so wayward? we may ask; yet we need only consider that the Gentile world is at least equal with Israel in departure from the living God. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” as says Romans 3:28, which adds: for all that believe: “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Because of His love, which nothing can turn away from its objects, utterly unworthy in themselves, He, with lovingkindness, draws them to Himself. Perhaps you beloved reader, have resisted Him in seeking to draw you to Himself. Yield yourself, if yet unsaved, to that loving Saviour; if now a child of God, to that compassionate Father who seeks to bless you; and taste to the full that everlasting love of which Jeremiah witnessed to the children of Judah twenty-five centuries ago.
Verses 5 and 6: “Samaria” and “Ephraim” both speak of the former home of the ten tribes; note the positive assurance in these verses, telling of what God in sovereign mercy will do.
Verse 8: “the coasts of the earth” means the uttermost parts of the world. Verse 9: Why is Ephraim called Jehovah’s first-born? Gen. 41:51, 52 shows that Manasseh was the elder, Ephraim the younger of Joseph’s sons; yet in Genesis 48 Ephraim is given the firstborn’s blessing. A number of scriptures may be referred to in seeking the answer to the question, but we shall here refer only to Deut. 33:13-17, Psa. 108:7, 8 and Ezek. 37:15-19, bearing in mind that both Judah and Joseph are used in the Word of God to foreshadow Christ—one as possessor of the title to reign upon earth and the other as the once rejected, now exalted Kinsman, revealing Himself as their abundant Blesser when Israel is at extremity. Ephraim then, whose name means “double fruitfulness”, stands for the reborn nation of Israel in the passages referred to. As to what Ephraim was, historically, in the land of promise, the prophets speak with one voice and that of condemnation; but in Jer. 31 The blessed prospect through mercy of God, and not the dreadful past, is in view.
Verse 10: God has not forgotten Israel, and the nations will learn it to their astonishment and bewilderment and sorrow. He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock. In verses 12-14 is shown what the Millennium will bring to those who are spared through the judgments to be poured out on the earth at the Lord’s appearing; fulness of blessing in earthly things together with the joy of the ransomed. Satan; the deceiver, will be confined then, and all of Israel at least, will be children of God by faith. What a change that day will bring, from the times in which we are living! But for the Christian there is a prospect far more entrancing (Phil. 3:20).
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