Jeremiah (1-31) 30:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Jeremiah (1-31) 30:1

Comments

Although it is not certain when this prophecy was given, – there is no date attached to it as Jeremiah often does – it is either just before or just after the beginning of the captivity. It is about the restoration or the return of the Jews. In looking at this it is helpful to have a number of principles of prophecy almost spelled out for us in this particular chapter. In the previous chapter we are given the length of time during which the people will be in captivity: ‘For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place’ (Jeremiah 29:10). It was disclosed even earlier in chapter 25 in two different verses. The false prophets in Babylon – Judeans who appointed themselves and spoke out of their imagination or desire – had said that the captivity would last only two years and then collapse. But the word of God through Jeremiah was that it would be for seventy years. In due course the seventy years would be up, and the people would return. Babylon would fall, and there would be a significant but not total shaking of the powers of darkness. That would literally take place after seventy years, and some of the Israelites would come with the Judaean returnees. The names listed in the Scripture are mainly families from Judah, but there were also Israelites among them from the ten tribes, returning from those lands of captivity and death. ‘For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD.’ The verse particularly mentions ‘my people Israel and Judah’, and so at once we have a problem. What does this prophecy refer to? If, as it appears, it has a literal sense and it applies to the return of the people after seventy years, then Israel did not return. Some considerable time before, the ten northern tribes, compounded under the term Israel, had gone into captivity. Samaria had fallen and they would never be returned. There would never be any historic re-establishment for the ten northern tribes. Of course, individual Israelites among those ten tribes who fell and were removed into captivity may have returned. Some individuals may have been pious believers, and when there was a return of the remnant of Judah after seventy years, they may well have accompanied them. Scripture doesn't actually say so, but there are one or two verses that just give a hint that it may have been so. We read for instance at the time of the nativity in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 2, there is Anna, and you read to your surprise that Anna is descended from the tribe of Asher. What is she doing there in Judah when the infant Christ is brought to the temple? She is an indication of the presence of others who were godly people among the dispersed Israelite tribes of Israel who did as individuals follow the promises of God and return with the captives who went home again. Perhaps that is what is referred to here.

Application

What a comfort and consolation to Jeremiah. He had so much knowledge given to him by the Lord, insight and revelation to see so clearly exactly what would happen. ‘I have more understanding than all my teachers:’ says the psalmist in Psalm 119:99, ‘for thy testimonies are my meditation’, and so it is with us.

Questions

But clearly, there will be more a much greater return. Now, this brings us to deal with a principle of Scripture. We are not obliged to say that this prophecy is only about the literal return of the remnant of the Jews after seventy years. Throughout this chapter some Bible teachers twist and turn, and they say, that bit is about the return of the captives after the Babylonian captivity; that bit is about a millennium; that bit is about the return of Christ at the end of Satan's little season. And there's a sort of picking and choosing going on as though various prophecies are all brought together into this one chapter, and each prophecy refers to a different event, and only to that event. One points to the literal return from Babylon, while another speaks of the more distant future. Now, that shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how these great prophecies work. It is much more straightforward than that. These prophecies are fulfilled in stages, over time. So, one prophecy will find a measure of fulfilment at the release of the captives from Babylon, but it won't be totally fulfilled then. More of it will be fulfilled at the coming of Christ, but even then it will not be perfectly and totally fulfilled. The ultimate fulfilment, the completion of the fulfilment, will be at the return of Christ and the events of the last days, up to the ushering in of the new heaven and the new earth. Now that is how prophecy in the Old Testament works. When the Old Testament speaks about the coming of Christ, it doesn't distinguish between his first coming and his second coming. It sees it as one event.

Now, it is not that it misleads us. Old Testament prophecy doesn't actually say it is one event, but it puts it all into one prophecy: that coming day of the Lord. Is it the Incarnation and the Church and the destruction of Jerusalem, the great judgment of the Old Testament order? Or is it the coming of Christ and the marriage supper of the Lamb, the day of judgment and the new heavens and the new earth? The answer is the prophecy is about all of it, but it is progressively fulfilled stage by stage. If the prophecy begins with the return of the captives, then it is fulfilled in three stages: the return of the captives so that the Jews will be re-established in their own land for a time, but that is not the ultimate fulfilment. There are three things that will not be fulfilled at this first stage. This chapter will prophesy a Davidic king, a king in the line of David, when the return comes. At the return from Babylon there was no king in the line of David; there were only governors of Jerusalem: Zerubbabel, of course, and then Ezra and Nehemiah. The coming of a king awaited, for the next stage of fulfilment, the coming of Christ, the Davidic king, the Messiah himself. At his coming there will be great blessing, a better peace, spiritual peace for the converted, and a great judgment, as the Old Testament order is formally closed with the destruction of the temple and the priesthood. But still, not everything is fulfilled. The tremendous and permanent victory, which is part of the prophecy, waits for the final stage, the return of Christ and the eternal kingdom. Now, when that is understood these great prophetic passages become much plainer. And not only are they much plainer, they accord perfectly with what we are taught by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. Also they are consistent with the other prophets. You can reconcile Jeremiah with Isaiah.

For instance, it is often pointed out that Isaiah is full of the Gentiles. A great feature of these parallel prophecies in Isaiah is that the Gentiles will be brought in. You hardly see any sign of that in Jeremiah. That is not his task. Only once in chapter 16 does he refer to the coming in of the Gentiles. Very mysteriously, in a tremendous statement, he says that the Gentiles will be saved and brought in alongside. Well, tell us more, Jeremiah. But he doesn't. But all these prophecies in chapter 30 reconcile with Isaiah, who tells us the Gentile part. How they will come in? Do you understand Isaiah? That is easy. Chapter 53, the suffering servant, the atonement. Chapter 54, the tent is enlarged and the Gentiles come in. Chapter 55, the nature of the gospel of grace that they will preach. Chapter 56, how this new Jewish Gentile church will be mightily helped, and so on. Jeremiah is looking at it from a different direction, the suffering the people have to go through as a punishment for their waywardness and idolatry. But you can reconcile the two.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Jeremiah (1-31) 30:1 Commentary and Bible Study