Jeremiah (1-31) 30:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Jeremiah (1-31) 30:7

Comments

Verse 7 is a significant verse: ‘Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble.’ What an interesting statement. The Hebrew is time or age but it seems in this context that it hints that this is the end; this is the completion of the age. It doesn't exactly say that in the Hebrew, and yet the language hints at it. ‘But he [Judah] shall be saved out of it.’ Out of the turmoil will come liberty for the Jewish captives or at least those who wish to return. Babylon will fall, but as we know in the end she fell peacefully; the city collapsed without a struggle virtually, and there was no turmoil among the captives, and Cyrus the Mede gave his magnificent statement and allowed them to return and rebuild their city and their temple. ‘For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke’ – obviously the Babylonian yoke – ‘from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.’ Here is another problem: they didn't get a Davidic King. This is a progressive fulfilment. They got deliverance. Without doubt, something amazing, astonishing has taken place, but not yet David their King; that awaits the coming of Christ. ‘Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.’ But that was not fully carried out, because as we know from the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, there is constant trouble from the neighbours; there is no peace. They are intimidated all the time. Because the full peace awaits the spiritual peace to the children of God with the coming of Christ, and the spiritual and physical resurrection, perfect peace of the Lord's return and the everlasting kingdom. It's a progressive fulfilment of the prophecy.

Application

Doesn't this comfort us? We can all say this, ‘I am just an ordinary person of limited mind and intellect. I am no genius. I cannot accomplish great things in this world; I cannot understand rocket science, and wonderful and deep and profound things. And yet, no matter what troubles I may have to go through, I have so much knowledge given to me by the Lord. I know about the end of the world. I know about Christ, what he did when he came. I understand the need of the human race, the solution of God. I used to read the Bible before I was converted, and I read it without understanding, with unseeing eyes. But then God worked in my heart and delivered me, and I know what God plans, and I know his character and the way he thinks. I have more understanding and all my secular teachers.’ Sometimes we may say, ‘Well, I have got a huge problem and difficulty, a very difficult situation in my life. I do not know how it will be resolved. I cannot see to the end of it.’ But you do know what will happen at the end of the world, and you know what will happen when Christ returns, and you know many things that are far higher and far more significant and far greater than the end of your current problem. God has given all of us so much knowledge. Though we may be very ordinary people. What a consolation! Aren’t we prepared to go through all sorts of mysteries and problems on earth, standing for him, living for him, trusting him, when we have been shown so much? So knowledge is a source of consolation and a form of consolation.

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Jeremiah (1-31) 30:7 Commentary and Bible Study