Jeremiah 31

New Covenant

I have shared before probably some years back of a dream I had once that was without doubt one of the most beautiful dreams I have ever had.

It is the simplest dream possible: It is a tree, a single tree standing in a field, a meadow of light green grass gently waving in the wind. And it is the most beautiful tree I have ever seen, it’s beauty was such that it made me cry. And the dream was not hazy or confused or unreal in the way that most dreams are. In fact, in some ways the tree seemed like the most real thing I had ever seen with the brightest colors, the sharpest possible outline. But it was stunning.

And I wanted so badly, with every fiber of my being to go to that tree. But I couldn’t because I was in a house. And I was in a stairwell, between the first and second floor and I was seeing the tree through a window, a paned window that could not be opened. The house was not a terrible place. It was peaceful and quiet, the stairwell was nice and clean. But I couldn’t get to the tree. The tree was freedom, the tree was joy, the tree was a gift. I put my hand on the window, and just wished, crying, wished that I could go to that tree. I just wished that I could go to the tree. And then I woke up.

I will never forget that dream. There was no plot to that dream. Nothing happened in that dream. But there was a simple message that was fully conveyed to me through it that I will never forget. It is something that Karen eloquently reminds us of every Sunday in her Sunday Psalms...that there is something far greater, something far more glorious, something far more joyful and full of perfect love that exists, somewhere. And my soul is crafted such that even to glance upon it briefly in a dream is to yearn for nothing more than that place, that garden, that Eden of God’s making.

That dream tells me exactly why it was that Adam and Eve did not leave the Garden willingly, but rather were driven out by God and had to be kept out by threat of violence, as it were, by an armed angel. No human would willingly leave Eden. What tears and distress must have been theirs to exchange Eden for this fallen Earth.

The Lord speaks sometimes to His people through dreams. And at some point in the narrative, beginning in Chapter 30 verse 1… “The Word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah from the Lord...” and up to Chapter 31:26, Jeremiah was himself in a dream.

Jeremiah 31:26 “At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.”

At some point Jeremiah is receiving visions of glory in his sleep. Now if I had to guess I would say it WAS at the beginning of Chapter 30. For one, chapter 29 is historical narrative dealing with false prophets and Jeremiah’s letters so we know the dream can’t have started at least until Chapter 30. And, if you will recall it is at the beginning of Chapter 30 where the Lord tells Jeremiah to write down everything in a book...which has faint overtones of John’s vision in Revelation or Ezekiel’s vision where they are commanded to speak and write to God’s people. It seems like the kind of thing the Lord might tell someone in a dream. But it is hard to say. Jeremiah doesn’t tell us exactly when the dream starts.

It isn’t really that important in the end, but what IS important, just like my dream of the tree, is the beauty and longing expressed here in this Chapter.

Let us consider this rapturous dream together.

Chapter 30 ends with the fierce anger of the Lord being spent

Jeremiah 30:24 “The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intentions of his mind. In the latter days you will understand this.”

As in the entirety of the book of Jeremiah, there is the immediate meaning to Jeremiah’s listeners, which is the destruction of Judah by Babylon, and there is the deeper meaning, alluded to throughout the book, of God’s larger designs for the salvation of all the nations.

In the latter days, God says, Israel will understand why suffering. They will understand why exile. They will understand that these things are not random or purposeless, but intentions of the mind of God that are being executed and accomplished because He has a greater end game in mind than anything that we could have imagined.

And what does the suffering accomplish? Here we have the answer at the beginning of 31. At that time- this is revelation, prophetic language, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people. The suffering restores Israel’s identity and unity and restores the Lord’s relationship to them.

The emphasis in Chapter 31 is that ALL of Israel, including Northern Israel, which had been destroyed long ago by the Assyrians, would be restored along with those who are in Exile in Babylon. The Lord would, miraculously and against all worldly expectations, restore the entire land of Israel.

This would have been how the Israelites, hearing this prophecy from Jeremiah for the first time in the 6th century before Christ, would have heard it, as the full restoration of the 12 tribes of Israel to a glorious future. And that would have been an accurate and true prophetic word to them.

But this prophecy was not just for them. It was also for us. It was also about the restoration of all who would follow God in this world and all who would trust Him and believe in Him.

The prophecies of the Bible are like the layers of an onion, they have an initial meaning, but as time marches on and as history unfolds we find deeper meanings still underneath them. So much of the Old Testament that was unclear or unfulfilled came to perfect light in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Jeremiah 31 is one such prophecy that goes deeper and contains revelations that its initial hearers knew nothing of.

So it is that, yes, Jeremiah 31 promises that all of Israel, north and south, will be reunited, but the promise just keeps on going- there will be no enemies for Israel. They will live in a land of peace and abundance. The whole people of God will be known by their joy and their merrymaking. The image that is painted is one of heavenly bliss and unity in fellowship, all under this New Covenant, that we will get to in due time here.

Some of these promises of the Lord did indeed get fully realized, but some only partially, and some not at all. Which means some remain to yet be fulfilled.

What are some of the promises of the Lord that did get fulfilled? Well, after the Babylonian Exile the Jewish people never worshiped other gods again. They would rather die. Lesson learned. Sort of. In lieu of other gods, the Israelites started down different paths of idolatry, namely legalism and self righteousness.

Did all the clans of Israel worship God again? Sort of. The 10 tribes of Northern Israel that had been destroyed by Assyria 200 years earlier never really became cohesive tribes again, geographically speaking. But some of the individuals from those tribes did return to the Lord after the Babylonian Exile and did become part of Israel again. But only the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi retained their cohesion and lineage, as it were. But nevertheless some people retained their tribal lineage. For example Anna

Luke 2:36 “And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.

So, yes, the suffering did accomplish God’s purposes. But not fully. It’s not the end of the story. Sin and death remain, the fullness of the promises remain unfulfilled. SLIDE

Jeremiah 31:2 “Thus says the Lord: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest,”

I love this sentence. What does it mean to survive the sword? Obviously literally in this moment it means those who were not killed by the Babylonians. But what else does it mean? What does it mean to be killed by the sword? What is the sword here? The sword is God’s punishment for sin. The wages of sin is death.

So if the Lord spares you, if you are not killed by your sin- and our presence here in this room indicates that that has been up until now our story- then where will you find grace to cover your sin?

In the wilderness. Grace is found in the wilderness. The people who survived the sword find grace in the wilderness.

What is the wilderness? It is many things. For one, the wilderness is a place you cannot control. That is part of what makes it wilderness. You cannot find God’s grace or experience His provision when your life is perfectly controlled, perfectly stable, and you have created a Kingdom of your own that feeds the illusion that Satan is so desiring you to believe that you have no need of God.

Israel was formed in the wilderness during the Exodus and their sojourn there was so chaotic and so unpredictable that they could only rely on the Lord who sent them Manna from heaven and other unexpected graces during moments of their greatest need. In Egypt they needed no such provision because they were slaves in Egypt. As slaves they could not worship God or be who they were called to be, but they were fed and clothed and housed. Not out of love, but simply to be used and then discarded. And this is what sin does..it makes you a slave, it makes you dependent on something other than God, and then it discards you. But slavery has this going for it- you are provided for in slavery.

In this regard there is no difference between the homeless drug addict and the idolatrous billionaire who worships wealth. Both feel safe and cared for...the drug addict when the heroin or meth is running through their system and they feel calm and content and they want for nothing and the billionaire when the return on investments assure them once again that they will never want for anything. Their slavery provides for them. If the Lord’s severe mercy breaks into their life and cuts off the junkie from their drug or empties the billionaire’s bank account then it will feel like death to them as the world becomes a wilderness, but should they find Christ in that wilderness then they shall never know slavery again and never look back once in longing since there is no real competition. Money or drugs or any worldly good is a trembling shadow compared to the Kingdom of God which Christ rules with love and holy grace.

What else is the wilderness? The wilderness is a place of danger. There are elements in the wilderness that will destroy you unless you are on your guard and prepared. There are brigands, there are wild animals, there are storms where you don’t want to be caught without shelter. Need can drive someone to the throne of grace, but so can danger. Famously it was Martin Luther who was caught out in a lightning storm in Germany. At that time he was a young law student with a promising career ahead of him. But when a bolt of lightning nearly hit him he vowed to God that if he survived the storm he would become a monk in the Church, dedicating his life to God.

Fear of one’s life, fear of death, can drive a person to the throne of grace.

But grace is found in the wilderness. And when you are in Christ the veil is stripped from your eyes and you see with the eyes of your heart (Eph 1:18) and you see the Lord for who He is and this world for what it is and the whole world becomes a wilderness for you.

Hebrews 11:13–16 “These all died in faith (abel, enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah), not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

The Lord gives promises of Restoration to His people Israel here in chapter 31, and these promises are being given to a people in Exile, a people who have no realistic hope of ever seeing their home again. And why these promises? What is God’s motivation, as it were, for making such promises? Love.

Jeremiah 31:3–6 “...I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit. For there shall be a day when watchmen will call in the hill country of Ephraim: ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.’ ””

What an image of peace and abundance this is. Why do watchmen exist, what is their purpose? Their purpose is to watch for enemies, for invading armies. But a day will come when the watchmen will call out to those in Northern Israel, that was taken and destroyed by the Assyrians centuries before- they will say let’s all go to Zion, to Jerusalem to worship our Lord. They will be leaders of worship, not ones who bring tidings of invasion or danger. And they will go as well- let US go to Zion. There isn’t even any need of watchmen, they will will all be able to worship in peace, untroubled, unconcerned. It is an image of heaven, not one we will ever see here on Earth before Christ’s return.

What is the end result for those who experience the discipline of the Lord and allow it to be discipline from His loving hand? What is the end result for those who trust in the faithfulness of the Lord to His people through all the trials and tribulations of life?

We become merrymakers. We laugh, we dance, we sing when our eyes our fixed upon heavenly things. Now it is also true that we mourn, we cry, we lament when we look upon the sinful world. We are not meant to be Stoic or uncaring when we gaze upon this world of sorrows. This is why James tells us to weep and to mourn in his letter with regard to our own sin- we are not to take it lightly. So it is that when we consider our own fallen state and the state of the world then sorrow and remorse are appropriate and Godly responses.

So how then are we merrymakers? How is that we spend so much time in songs of praise and how is it that joy is the hallmark of the man or woman of God? Because we see God and know His faithfulness to us and we know the plans He has for us, for shalom, and not for evil. For eternal life with Him, and not the grave. We see the Lord and we see Him far more clearly and more gloriously than the men and women of Jeremiah’s time ever could, because we see Jesus Christ.

John 14:9 Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

We celebrate because the Lord is one who restores. He restored Israel. He disciplined them, then restored them. And they did return to Him. And His purpose in allowing all of that to happen was, in part, that we who sit in worship today here at Cornerstone, can see that the Lord is a God who restores so that we might return to Him for our own restoration.

Now I want to mention briefly here the weeping in Ramah because it is a well known verse from the New Testament Matthew 2:18 that we will likely be quoting here again soon during our Advent times together. It is one of those verses, again, that has deeper meanings.

Ramah was a small town near Jerusalem, just as Bethlehem was, and what the Lord is saying to His people in Jeremiah’s time is that Rachel, one of the mothers of the nation of Israel, is weeping because her are no more. And Rachel gave birth to Joseph whose territory was split between Ephraim and Manasseh, and she also gave birth to Benjamin (Genesis 35:18) a southern kingdom, and she died giving birth to him, with many tears, in fact she named him as she was dying, son of my sorrow.

And where was she when she died? In Bethlehem. Roughly 1,200 years before Jeremiah and the Exile. Her tears would be echoed in Ramah centuries later as the Northern and Southern part of Israel, as symbolized by her sons Joseph and Benjamin, were destroyed. This is a unique kind of sorrow, a sorrow for children and their suffering. And this passage turned out to be prophetic in the end as children were killed centuries later in the same geographic area as Herod impotently raged against a prophecy he didn’t understand but knew he feared it.

Few things strike our hearts as dearly as the suffering of children.

I know some of you have had to see your children suffer. Perhaps some of you suffered as children in some physical or emotional way. And the loss of a child is one of the most painful things we humans can endure on this Earth.

Jeremiah 31:16–17 “Thus says the Lord: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country.”

This verse is yet another pebble thrown into a lake with ripples of meaning ever expanding over the centuries.

Do not mourn, do not weep, says your Lord, for there is a reward for your work. What is our work? Our work is the work of suffering and dying, for this is what Rachel did. And this is what her children did at the hands of pagan nations.

Suffering and dying is what we mourn on this Eart

ring and dying are not pointless or purposeless. Indeed, they are our work. They are what we do when we take up our Cross we are accepting our suffering as purposeful and going somewhere, namely to die, but we can do all these things while merrymaking and singing and dancing because we have hope for our future because our God is a God who restores broken things.

We all know this deep in our heart, that we are strangers and exiles on the very Earth we call our home. How many movies and TV shows have been made with the premise that actually not all is as it seems, that behind the curtain something else is going on- that we are aliens that arrived here, that we are actually living in a computer program (a la the Matrix), that somehow behind the scenes there is something sinister or illusory about this world- and not just in our fiction but people are prone to conspiracy theories about this as well, otherwise perfectly sane and reasonable people who believe that this world is somehow not their home. The reason for that is because they are accurately picking up a piece of the Gospel but don’t know where to go with it or what to do with it. Because this world is not our home in the end. It is God’s creation. It is a beautiful and wild world and I love God’s creation and we should care for it because men and women together are SUPPOSED to be stewards of it, but it is not our home it is a broken fragment of what should have been and poor facsimile of what will be.