Turn with me to Jeremiah and I wanted to take a look at Jeremiah chapter 31 this evening. We’re going to jump ahead a few chapters. The last few weeks we’ve been looking at Jeremiah and it’s kind of been repeats of the same message because that’s what much of the book of Jeremiah is, Jeremiah’s burden that he’s given from the Lord about what is to happen to the nation of Judah and that they are not seeing the danger and peril that they’re in and they’re not repenting and turning to God but they’re continuing in their sinful and evil ways and God’s judgments drawing ever nearer and they’re not acknowledging it.
And Jeremiah continually warns them and then the responses from them to Jeremiah is one of rejection, one of, often times we’ve seen that even his neighbors and friends, the so-called friends, plotted to get rid of him because they were tired of hearing his message, which was a message that they didn’t want to hear. They’d rather listen to the false prophets that said peace and prosperity is coming. Well, God is giving Jeremiah in chapter 31 a message of hope to the nation of Judah and also Israel.
Israel, remember, there were some of the people in Israel that had migrated down to Judah, some of them were still in Israel from the time that the Assyrians had invaded and taken them into captivity and Israel has not been lost. There are not the lost ten tribes of Israel. God knows where the Jewish people are.
God knows where the ten tribes are. In the book of Revelation, as a matter of fact, it talks about how there’s going to be men out of every tribe of Israel, except it doesn’t mention the tribe of Dan, it mentions Manasseh and Ephraim, and it doesn’t mention Dan, but there’ll be 12,000 men out of every tribe, so there’ll be 144,000 men that will go throughout the world proclaiming the gospel during the time of the tribulation. And so we know that all the tribes are still accounted for.
And there’s been a lot of people that have even developed false cultic religions based on the fact they say, well, we’ve discovered the lost ten tribes and we are them, and they’re not. The Mormons aren’t some of the lost tribes. The Church of God, the Armstrong Church of God, isn’t the lost ten tribes.
They are Jewish people that God scattered amongst the earth because of their rebellion, which Jeremiah was talking about. But chapter 31 is a chapter of tremendous hope that he lays out as a message from God to both Judah and Israel. He says it to both of them.
And today, many people don’t want to read this chapter because then you can’t say the Church is Israel, because according to this chapter, then God’s a liar, and if God’s a liar about this, then He’s also, how can we trust Him with our salvation? Let’s just take a look at chapter 31, and we’ll read it quickly, and then I want to take a special look at the last portion of it. At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. That sounds pretty interesting, like God didn’t abandon them.
Jeremiah 31:1-40
At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
2 Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
3 The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
4 Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
5 Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.
6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God.
7 For thus saith the Lord; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.
9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
11 For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14 And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.
15 Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
16 Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
17 And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
18 I have 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.
19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
20 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.
21 Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
22 How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.
23 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.
24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks.
25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.
26 Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.
27 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
28 And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord.
29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
31 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:
32 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, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
33 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.
34 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.
35 Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name:
36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
37 Thus saith the Lord; 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 that they have done, saith the Lord.
38 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner.
39 And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath.
40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.
- Let’s just bow in prayer. Lord, I pray that you just speak to us through your word. What a promise. Lord, this is coming after Jeremiah has come time after time after time telling the people of what was coming to them, your judgment, and it was real. It came. They didn’t listen. They didn’t repent. Judah and the remnant of Israel were taken captive into Babylon for 70 years. And Lord, when they came back into the land, it was for a period of time and then they were scattered again during the time of the Romans. But Lord, you brought them back. And just as your word is said, things are happening in Israel today that can only be explained by fulfillment of the promises you have given to Judah and Israel. Lord, speak to us now and help us to be encouraged by your word. This we pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
The sad thing is many people in the church today don’t seem to want to read Jeremiah chapter 31. They don’t want to look at the promises that God has given to Israel, that He’s not done with Israel, that He never will be done with Israel, because they are a special people unto Him.
And also He had made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that are still to be fulfilled. If you look at the land that was to be given to them that God promised first to Abraham and then reconfirmed to Isaac and then finally to Israel or Jacob and then to the descendants of Jacob which were Israel, they have not been fulfilled completely. As I mentioned in the last time we met, the land that was promised to Israel to inhabit that was to be theirs, that was promised to all of their fathers, has not fully been given to them.
And I mentioned on Sunday the closest it came was during the times of David and Solomon, but even then it wasn’t fully theirs. And we see that it’s coming. There is not going to be any dividing of the land or partition of the land.
The land is the Lord and He has established it. He’s given it to Israel to be their inheritance and it shall be theirs. Now as you look at what’s happening today in the church, much anti-Semitism is coming in.
And as I mentioned, they don’t want to read passages like this. Why? Because you can’t be anti-Semitic against the Jewish people and read this. What God loves we cannot hate.
And many Christians today say that the church is Israel. Well, these promises haven’t been given to church. The land was never given, promised to the bride of Christ.
It was given and promised to the descendants, as I mentioned, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now one of some of the things that this verse really makes clear, that this promise is still in effect, are in the last portion of the verse, which should begin at verse 35, where it says, Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, which divided the sea and the waves thereof, the Lord of hosts is his name. If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.
Well, the last time I looked, yesterday and today, the sun came up. The sun is setting, even as we’re speaking now, just as God ordained that it would do. If you go out at night, and we don’t have smoke from Canada here blocking it, you could see the stars and the moon, just as God said they would be.
If you went to the ocean, and we had some of the people from church here that just went down to Florida on a vacation, and they were at the ocean. And if you went to the ocean, you’d see the waves coming in, and the tides coming in, and the tides going out, just as God ordained. And it’s the same.
When my wife and I, the first time we went to Hawaii with our girls, was way back in 1997 or 1998. And as we went, the ocean was coming in and out. We went swimming in the ocean.
The last time we went, it was just my wife and I, and we went in 2018, and the ocean was coming in and going out, just like it was the last time we were there. God’s ordinances haven’t changed. God said, as long as this remains, the nation of Israel will remain, because they’re mine.
This is God’s Word. This is God’s power. This is God’s authority.
Somebody said that when the Houthis and those of Hezbollah and Hamas and Iran were shooting missiles and rockets at Israel, they should have been pointing them at the sun and the stars, trying to shoot them down, because that’s the only way they were ever going to get rid of Israel. They are not going to get rid of Israel. God has brought them back into the land.
They’re going to remain in the land. And guess what? More Jewish people than ever are doing Aliyah and returning to the land of Israel. More returned last year than the year before.
And they’re returning from all over the world. God is calling them to come home. The Bible and Scripture tells us that He would do that.
This particular passage of Scripture refers to the fact that they’re His sheep, and His sheep had been scattered. He had allowed His sheep to be scattered. It was chastisement against them for their lack of faith and obedience to Him.
And it began and was emphasized for Judas and the remnant that was from the north during the time of Jeremiah. And that prophecy was given over and over and it occurred, and we talked about that on Sunday, because of their lack of obedience and keeping the law of the year of Shabbat, for seven years of Shabbat. And so they were going to be gone and kept in the land of Babylon for 70 years so the land could rest for those years that they had not allowed it to rest.
But then God brought them back. And He gathered them back again after they were scattered during the time of the Romans. It made reference in here to Rachel weeping for her children.
When did that occur? Well, that occurred at the time that Jesus was born. If you remember, there was an event that occurred when Jesus was born. Herod was the so-called king of Israel.
He was really appointed by the Roman government to oversee the land of Israel and called the king of Israel. But he was really an Edomite. He wasn’t even Jewish.
And he was a very vile and wicked man. And when he heard that the king of the Jews was being born and the wise men came, he was very distressed because he viewed that Jesus was going to usurp his power and authority. And so he wanted to kill him.
Now he was being inspired by Satan because Satan wanted to stop the Messiah from coming. If he could stop Jesus from going to the cross, then God would be a liar because Jesus had been foretold by the Lord to Adam way back at the Garden of Eden that he would crush the serpent’s head. And if Satan could prevent him from crushing his head, if he could prevent him from going to the cross, God would be a liar and he wouldn’t be God.
And so what Herod the Great did, and I believe it was a satanic inspiration, he went into Bethlehem where he heard that Jesus had been born and he killed all the baby boys that were under two years of age in that region of Israel. And Rachel was weeping for her children because they’d been slaughtered. But God says there will be a day of no weeping.
The tears will be stopped. And he’s foretelling and giving us glimpses, not of only when the nation of Israel and Judah would be brought into the land, what would happen then, but really of what is going to come when the Messiah comes and establishes his kingdom on earth and rules and reigns in righteousness from Mount Zion, from Jerusalem, and he sits on the throne of David. And there’s excerpts in this particular passage which refer to that as well.
And all of those require the nation of Israel to be in existence. God would not have said this if he didn’t mean it. And for the church and people that say they’re Christians to say that God is done with Israel, or like there’s some very well-known conservative radio hosts that have podcasts that say they’re Christians but are constantly speaking against the Jewish people and saying that all the problems we have in the world today are caused by the Jewish people and what’s happening in the Middle East is all Israel’s fault and they don’t see anything that has happened as being the fault of really the world coming against Israel.
And that’s exactly what God said the attitude would be in the last days where everyone would turn against Israel. But God says, I won’t. Because he said, I’ve scattered my sheep and now I’m going to gather my flock back unto myself.
Jesus said, I’m the good shepherd and he’s the one that shall gather his flock and he knows his sheep. And the day will come where even the nation of Israel will acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as it says in scripture when the whole world turns against him and Jesus comes to save them and to redeem them with his ten thousands of saints. You and I will be there.
And the thing is, we will be there to celebrate the deliverance of Israel and the day that the remnant of Israel in a day will be saved and acknowledge that Jesus is Messiah. This is a tremendous passage of hope. Now if you can imagine this message being given to a people that have been hearing Jeremiah day after day, day after day, day after day, day after day, bringing the same message.
A message of condemnation, a message of judgment, a message where they were going to be stripped from their land, where everything was going to become desolate in Israel and now he’s saying, but there’s a day that’s coming. A day that’s coming where you’ll be coming back into the land where God will call you back and the land will bloom again. He talks about how that there’s going to be things happening here that won’t have happened for a long time.
And we see that that’s exactly happening in our day in a way that it’s never happened in Israel before. The way that the land is blooming as a rose in the desert. If you look at the Middle East, it’s amazing.
One of the times that we were there, we took a trip and went to Jordan for a day over to Petra. And when we went to Petra, we got on a bus in Eilat, which is the southernmost city of Israel. And we went across the border into Jordan to go up to Petra.
It was about an hour or two hour drive, something like that to get up to Petra. The minute we got to the border, there’s a difference. On the Israeli side, everything was green.
There were trees, there were crops. The minute we crossed the border, we came to Aqaba. And our guide at that time was from Jordan.
And he was saying he was very proud of Aqaba. He said, this is, we’ve got such great five star hotels here. And we looked at these hotels and they were better than some, but they definitely weren’t like the five star hotels in Israel.
And then you saw the land. And you went out and the land was really, compared to Israel, barren. You looked around and there wasn’t any, we didn’t see any trees.
I’ve shared with you before, the one tree that we saw on the way to Petra, where we saw one tree that had green leaves on it. And there was a shepherdess out there pulling the leaves off the tree, feeding them to her goats. So I don’t know how long that tree was going to remain green.
But the thing is, it was totally different. And the attitude, you just felt the difference. And we got there and there was a difference even in the people.
Israel truly had become an amazing nation in a very short period of time. If you stop and think, 1948, when the people were called back into Israel and it became a nation, it’s not that long ago. There’s a lot of people still alive that were alive in 1948.
And some people, my mother and father-in-law went to Israel and they went in 19, I believe it was 1973, because the same year we got married, they went to Israel for our wedding. And the thing is, it was totally different when they went than it is today. It is so amazing what has happened in that little nation in the space of that period of time.
You just stop and think that’s not even 70 years, a little over 70 years and all of that’s occurred. You go there today and, as I mentioned on Sunday, your cell phone, if you got a cell phone, thank Israel. Much of your computers, the integral parts of the computer, are because of Israel’s inventions.
Many things in medicine that are good things are invented in Israel. It’s amazing. And then not alone the crops and the land blossoming like a rose.
And yet the world hates it. And all the nations around there aren’t like Israel. And God said this was coming.
And he was telling it to a people who were very discouraged and distressed because they’d experienced the judgment of God. But God says, I haven’t forgotten you. The Bible tells us that Jesus told the Christians that we should not be surprised if the world hated us because it hated him.