Slices
Prepare
Read verses 2–4 several times out loud to yourself. You might like to use the Authorised Version for this.
Bible passage
31 ‘At that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.’
2 This is what the Lord says:
‘The people who survive the sword
will find favour in the wilderness;
I will come to give rest to Israel.’
3 The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:
‘I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
4 I will build you up again,
and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt.
Again you will take up your tambourines
and go out to dance with the joyful.
5 Again you will plant vineyards
on the hills of Samaria;
the farmers will plant them
and enjoy their fruit.
6 There will be a day when watchmen cry out
on the hills of Ephraim,
“Come, let us go up to Zion,
to the Lord our God.”’
7 This is what the Lord says:
‘Sing with joy for Jacob;
shout for the foremost of the nations.
Make your praises heard, and say,
“Lord, save your people,
the remnant of Israel.”
8 See, I will bring them from the land of the north
and gather them from the ends of the earth.
Among them will be the blind and the lame,
expectant mothers and women in labour;
a great throng will return.
9 They will come with weeping;
they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel’s father,
and Ephraim is my firstborn son.
10 ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you nations;
proclaim it in distant coastlands:
“He who scattered Israel will gather them
and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.”
11 For the Lord will deliver Jacob
and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.
12 They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;
they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord –
the grain, the new wine and the olive oil,
the young of the flocks and herds.
They will be like a well-watered garden,
and they will sorrow no more.
13 Then young women will dance and be glad,
young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
14 I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
and my people will be filled with my bounty,’
declares the Lord.
15 This is what the Lord says:
‘A voice is heard in Ramah,
mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.’
16 This is what the Lord says:
‘Restrain your voice from weeping
and your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded,’
declares the Lord.
‘They will return from the land of the enemy.
17 So there is hope for your descendants,’
declares the Lord.
‘Your children will return to their own land.
18 ‘I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning:
“You disciplined me like an unruly calf,
and I have been disciplined.
Restore me, and I will return,
because you are the Lord my God.
19 After I strayed,
I repented;
after I came to understand,
I beat my breast.
I was ashamed and humiliated
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.”
20 Is not Ephraim my dear son,
the child in whom I delight?
Though I often speak against him,
I still remember him.
Therefore my heart yearns for him;
I have great compassion for him,’
declares the Lord.
21 ‘Set up road signs;
put up guideposts.
Take note of the highway,
the road that you take.
Return, Virgin Israel,
return to your towns.
22 How long will you wander,
unfaithful Daughter Israel?
The Lord will create a new thing on earth –
the woman will return to the man.’
23 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘When I bring them back from captivity,[c] the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: “The Lord bless you, you prosperous city, you sacred mountain.” 24 People will live together in Judah and all its towns – farmers and those who move about with their flocks. 25 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.’
26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me.
27 ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,’ declares the Lord. 29 ‘In those days people will no longer say,
“The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
30 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes – their own teeth will be set on edge.
31 ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord,
‘when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,’
declares the Lord.
33 ‘This is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,’ declares the Lord.
‘I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbour,
or say to one another, “Know the Lord,”
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,’
declares the Lord.
‘For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.’
35 This is what the Lord says,
he who appoints the sun
to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars
to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar –
the Lord Almighty is his name:
36 ‘Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,’
declares the Lord,
‘will Israel ever cease
being a nation before me.’
37 This is what the Lord says:
‘Only if the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth below be searched out
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
because of all they have done,’
declares the Lord.
38 ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah. 40 The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.’
Explore
This is one of the most beautiful chapters in the Bible. Its over-riding theme is the outworking of the love of God for his people. This idea is practically and literally inexpressible. Jeremiah, therefore, chooses to convey it through layer after layer of rich, beguiling imagery. Some of the points, such as in verse 5, may be describing actual events. Others may be metaphorical: from verse 9 we might wonder whether Jeremiah has read Psalm 23! Does it matter on this occasion whether these images are literally or metaphorically true? I would suggest not. Through his prophet, God himself is celebrating and asking us to share his joy in the time, now come, when he can be reunited with his children. Anyone who suggests that this book is all doom and gloom should be asked to consider all the affirmations in this chapter. I count well over 50.
It is characteristic of Jeremiah that, in verse 15, the mood shifts briefly to utmost grief. Again, we might think of the literal biblical character of Rachel, mother of Joseph, or Rachel as a symbolic representative of motherhood. (Note that the reading includes diverse masculine and feminine images.) At any rate, here, once again God declares, as only he can, hope for the future.
Respond
Verse 34 tells us that God has forgotten altogether about our sins. How do you propose to celebrate?
Deeper Bible study
Give thanks to God for his forgiveness and the blessings of the relationship you have with God in Christ.
This chapter is one of the high points of Jeremiah and of the entire Old Testament. Here God expresses his intention to bless ‘all the families of Israel’ (v 1) and restore them from Exile. It is striking in this chapter how certain expressions are repeated. Seven times we read, ‘This is what the Lord says’, fourteen times we read, ‘declares the Lord’ and there are eighteen ‘I will’ promises of restoration and blessing from the Lord for his people.
Two of these ‘I will’ promises are fundamental. The first is the covenant formula in verses 1 and 33: ‘I will be their God and they will be my people’. This was the basis of God’s relationship with his people, first declared in Exodus 6:7 and still there in Revelation 21:3. The other fundamental promise is in verses 31–34. When God exiled his people, the covenant relationship would have seemed to them to be over. They had broken the covenant and God was judging them. Here, however, God promises to make a new covenant, unlike the former one. Two new covenant promises stand out to me. Under the old covenant God’s laws were to be on their hearts.1 That did not happen, but now God had a remedy. He himself would write the Law on their hearts and minds, enabling them to keep it. The other promise is that God would forgive their wickedness and resolve to remember their sins no more.
The New Testament applies the new covenant promises to Christ and the church. One example is in Jesus’ words concerning the bread and wine at the Last Supper. As James Denney wrote over one hundred years ago, ‘It is as though he had pointed to the prophecy in Jeremiah, and said, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled before your eyes”.’2
Spend time meditating on some of the other ‘I will’ promises of Jeremiah 31 and apply them to your life.
1 Deut 6:6 2 James Denney, The Death of Christ, Hodder & Stoughton, 1902, p55
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Ezekiel 6,7; James 2
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray for the young people who attended the Rooted retreat in the summer and for the planning of an autumn Rooted retreat for Rooted hubs across the north west.
