Jeremiah (1-31) 3:19 Commentary and Bible Study

But Jeremiah immediately breaks away from this wonderful vision of the future and of the gospel age, and returns to the present state of Isreal and Judah. Underlying the potentially positive words of verse 19 is the very negative assessment of Israel’s response to God in verse 20, which compels us to interpret verse 19 in a more gloomy fashion. ‘But I said …’ – the Lord is musing openly before mankind, and expressing what his intentions were (according to his revealed will, not his secret will) towards Israel (and Judah). He had intended to do them such good, and had made so many provisions for them which were calculated to assist them and make their obedience to him easy. It was as if God said to himself, ‘How can I put Israel among those who are regarded as my children? How can I bless them with the wonderful blessing of adoption and all the benefits that flow from it towards the true children of God? I will give them a land of their own, a beautiful land, a fruitful and fertile land where they will suffer no want, and which I will water with gentle rains and warm with gentle sunshine, and they will lack nothing that they could desire. It will be a “goodly heritage among the nations” which will distinguish them from among the surrounding nations and show my love towards them. Naturally, they will regard me as their Father and look to me for all their good, and they will remain loyal to me and not turn away from me.’ That is presented as the Lord’s vision for his people, and something that any reasonable person would expect to succeed.But if so, they have failed to reckon with the treacherous behaviour of the house of Israel (which includes Judah as originally envisaged). It is another expression of the unreasonableness of her response to God. Using the same image again, she is compared to a treacherous wife who through no fault of the husband has left him and departed because she lacked any loyalty, or faithfulness, or love for him.