Sorrow Turned to Comfort and Joy
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[Jeremiah 31:7-26]
Sometimes it’s hard to find something to be thankful for. If you’re sick or someone you love is sick or maybe you’ve just experienced the death of a loved one, thanksgiving becomes difficult, if not impossible.
But God’s promise to his people is that their sorrow will be turned to comfort and joy. God’s promise isn’t to take the tragedy and turn it into something we’re happy about but to lead us from a place of sorrow to a place of comfort and joy.
Christmas, for example, is a holiday that is all about comfort and joy, yet it has a gruesome dark side that is rarely told.
After the wise men visited Jesus in Bethlehem they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. In Matthew 2:16 it says, “Then Herod, when he realized that he had been outwitted by the wise men, flew into a rage. He gave orders to massacre all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, in keeping with the time he had learned from the wise men.”
So the Christmas story as wonderful as it is starts out with grief and sorrow. And as Matthew recalls the events he thinks of the words of Jeremiah...
A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.
While Mary and Joseph and the wise men were celebrating birth of Jesus the town of Bethlehem was weeping. And they can’t be comforted because their suffering is so intense.
To fully understand the connection Matthew is making, we need a little background information about Rachel. Rachel was the wife of Jacob and she became pregnant with Benjamin. The pregnancy was a difficult one and she died while giving birth just outside of Bethlehem in a little-known town called Ramah.
When Rachel died we can say in a sense she lost her children. She was separated from them and so Matthew says she “wept” over her loss. So Rachel is a symbol of any person who has ever experienced loss of a loved one— the loss of a child, the loss of a friend, the loss of a parent or a spouse.
Now, the point of this sermon isn’t to get all theological and try to show us how death and suffering can actually be good things. The truth is the answers to why God allows bad things to happen are complicated and difficult. Not even Jeremiah had all the answers, but he knew where to turn for comfort.
So the message for today is that by God’s grace you too can be comforted. Your tears of sorrow can turn to tears of joy. Not because you all of a sudden see the tragedy of what you’ve gone through as good but because the God of all comfort will give you new experiences to laugh and rejoice about.
This is what the Lord says: Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for the reward for your work will come— this is the Lord’s declaration— and your children will return from the enemy’s land. There is hope for your future— this is the Lord’s declaration— and your children will return to their own territory.
During the days of Jeremiah Ramah was a refugee camp. It’s where the Babylonians took their prisoners before the long forced march to Babylon. Mothers were separated from children. Starvation and disease were rampant. Families were in despair.
So Rachel wept. Their misery was real and needs to be acknowledged but there is still hope for a bright future. Lasting comfort was promised to them if not in this life, in the next. Sometimes our grief is so severe we will carry it with us to the grave, but eventually our sorrow will turn to joy.
So God’s promise to his people is that while you may weep now your tears will not last forever. There is hope for a better tomorrow as God gives his people comfort.
There are 9 ways that God promises to comfort his people.
1 Comfort of Worship
Jeremiah 31:7 (CSB)
For this is what the Lord says: Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations!
The term “foremost of the nations” is a word that can also mean the “remnant of Israel” but it’s meaning here is not just of those who have survived but of those who have remained faithful. The faithful sing for joy and receive comfort as they worship.
Jeremiah 31:12–13 (CSB)
They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion...the young women will rejoice with dancing, while young and old men rejoice together.
These public displays of worship aren’t just for show. They shout and sing and dance praises out of genuine joy to their God.
In verse 23 God says they worship him with specific words...
Jeremiah 31:23 (CSB)
“When I restore their fortunes, they will once again speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities: ‘May the Lord bless you, righteous settlement, holy mountain.’
“May the Lord bless you, righteous settlement, holy mountain” is a quote from Psalm 48. So the people are worshiping God corporately out of their version of a hymnal!
Every Sunday as we gather together we receive comfort from worship. For the Christian there is no substitute for singing praises to God and being reminded of his grace. We may feel like we need to be alone after a particularly hard week or an upsetting event but the quickest path to recovery is through through worshiping with God’s people.
How many times have forced I forced myself (before becoming a pastor) to go to a church event that I didn’t feel like going to? And then after I went I was sure glad we did. God gives us comfort through our worship together.
2 Comfort of answered prayer
In the second half of verse 7 Jeremiah says...
Jeremiah 31:7 (CSB)
Proclaim, praise, and say, “Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel!”
In other words, God’s people are specifically told to pray for salvation and it they do God promises to answer.
Jeremiah 31:8 (CSB)
Watch! I am going to bring them from the northern land. I will gather them from remote regions of the earth...
When God’s people pray for salvation they are comforted by the assurance that he will answer. Perhaps when you became a Christian you prayed a prayer like this…
“Lord, I admit I am a sinner. I need and want Your forgiveness. I accept Your death as the penalty for my sin, and recognize that Your mercy and grace is a gift You offer to me because of Your great love, not based on anything I have done. Cleanse me and make me Your child. By faith I receive You into my heart as the Son of God and as Savior and Lord of my life. From now on, help me live for You, with You in control. In Your precious name, Amen.”
J.D. Greear says, “It’s not the prayer that saves; it’s the repentance and faith behind the prayer that lays hold of salvation.” But when a person prays in faith for salvation, God will save them. That’s a comforting truth.
3 Comfort of promised preservation
In the second half of verse 8 it says...
Jeremiah 31:8 (CSB)
... the blind and the lame will be with them, along with those who are pregnant and those about to give birth. They will return here as a great assembly!
God’s promise of preservation means he’s going to keep you alive until your tasks in this life are complete. We don’t have to worry about dying before “our time.” For the Israelites it meant that even the weakest among them would make it back home safely. God wasn’t finished with them yet.
The blind, the lame, and those that are pregnant are the last people you would expect to survive and yet they do because of God’s preservation. In fact God has a special care for those who are weak.
So there is great comfort in knowing that God cares for the weak and will be faithful to accomplish all that he sets out to accomplish in our lives.
4 Comfort of promised return and repentance
Return and repentance go together. In fact, to repent means to turn and go in the opposite direction. When the Israelites were brought home they returned with repentant hearts...
Jeremiah 31:9a (CSB)
They will come weeping, but I will bring them back with consolation.
Consolation is a word that means “supplication” or a humble request for mercy. In other words God comforts or consoles us through the process of repentance.
I have surely heard Ephraim moaning, “You disciplined me, and I have been disciplined like an untrained calf. Take me back, so that I can return, for you, Lord, are my God. After my return, I felt regret; After I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.”
These are the words of repentant people. Ephraim represents the people of Israel, especially those from the north who are on their way home. And the reason they receive comfort is because they come back to God with repentant hearts and they know God will receive them.
True repentance involves recognition and remorse. The Israelites that returned recognised their sinfulness. In other words, they didn’t try to make excuses for what they were. They were sinners and the recognized it.
But they also felt remorse. They didn’t just have an academic understanding of their sinfulness, they felt sorry, they felt ashamed, humiliated, and full of grief.
But through their repentance they recieved comfort as all people do who get right with God. Nobody on their death bed is comforted by the fact of how “great” they are. As we struggle for each breath we are humbled as we think about meeting our maker face-to-face.
But don’t wait until you are on your deathbed. Confess your sinfulness and let God welcome you back home today.
5 Comfort of promised forgiveness
Every sinner who truly repents receives forgiveness.
Isn’t Ephraim a precious son to me, a delightful child? Whenever I speak against him, I certainly still think about him. Therefore, my inner being yearns for him; I will truly have compassion on him. This is the Lord’s declaration.
How could a good father fail to forgive his son? Even when God the Father thinks of the sins we’ve commited, his heart is drawn toward the fact that we are his children. His heart yearns for his children and he has compassion on us. He promises to forgive.
Think of the prodigal son. When he came home sorry for wasting his inheritance on worldly pleasures the father “was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).
Through Jesus Christ we are the Father’s adopted children. When we repent he welcomes us back and forgives us. That’s so comforting.
6 Comfort of promised guidance
When we’re lost there is nothing more comforting than finding someone who knows the way. God always knows the way...
Jeremiah 31:9b (CSB)
I will lead them to wadis filled with water, by a smooth way where they will not stumble, for I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
God’s promised guidance doesn't involve taking the most difficult path possible. He promises to lead his people along the smooth way where they will not stumble. There will be plenty of water along the way.
But we shouldn’t be naive or stupid. If we stray from the path we can expect trouble so...
Set up road markers for yourself; establish signposts! Keep the highway in mind, the way you have traveled. Return, Virgin Israel! Return to these cities of yours.
Have you ever recieved bad directions? Maybe the directions we were given were good except for one little detail—turn left when you should’ve turned right. God always gives good directions and when we follow them faithfully there is great comfort.
7 Comfort of a promised shepherd
This is related to the last point of promised guidance but a little more specific...
Nations, hear the word of the Lord, and tell it among the far off coasts and islands! Say, “The one who scattered Israel will gather him. He will watch over him as a shepherd guards his flock,
On their way home the good shepherd promises not to scatter his people anymore. Instead he gathers them together, protects them, and watches over them.
Jesus is our Good Shepherd who watches over all his sheep. John 10:7 says Jesus is the gate for the sheep and “If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.”
8 Comfort from promised ransom and redemption
Ransom and redemption are two words for salvation but with different connotations.
for the Lord has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the power of one stronger than he.”
“Ransom” is a word for money paid to a kidnapper. What’s the ransom? It’s the price we pay to get our loved one back. “Redeem” is what a family member does to secure the release of a relative who has fallen into debt or slavery. It’s what Boaz did for Ruth when he married her in order to preserve the family line.
Matthew 20:28 says Jesus came “not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” In other words, Jesus gave his life to buy his loved ones back.
Or we could say Jesus redeemed his people. Gal 3 13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us...”
So ransom and redemption are both family matters. We don’t redeem or pay the ransom for those we are not related to. That’s why Jesus had to become a man. He had to become one of us in order to redeem us. And I think that’s what Jeremiah is getting at in verse 22...
How long will you turn here and there, faithless daughter? For the Lord creates something new in the land— a female will shelter a man.
What Jeremiah says the Lord creates is something the world has never seen before—a female will shelter a man. While the language here is open for interpretation, what is more “new” than when Jesus, the Son of God, was sheltered inside of Mary’s womb?
When Jesus, the God-Man who came into the world in order to ransom and redeem his people he brought the greatest comfort of all.
9 Comfort from God’s provision
God’s promise to his people isn’t that we will just barely scrape by, but that we will be completely provided for. For example, all the good food they could imagine will be ours...
They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will be radiant with joy because of the Lord’s goodness, because of the grain, the new wine, the fresh oil, and because of the young of the flocks and herds. Their life will be like an irrigated garden, and they will no longer grow weak from hunger.
This is speaking of a time of great comfort and thanksgiving when there will be unimaginable abundance and bounty. Even the priests will have plenty...
I will refresh the priests with an abundance, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness. This is the Lord’s declaration.
After church today we’re celebrating thanksgiving with a delicious meal. Normally, when we celebrate we focus on all of our past blessings, which is fine, but for Christians Thanksgiving isn’t all about the past. It’s about the future too.
The meal we will all enjoy is a reminder of God’s past blessings but it’s also a shadow of the promise of God’s future provision. So even if you can’t enjoy all of the food or even if you’re not feeling particularly thankful, today I encourage all to come because we’re also looking forward to the future fulfillment of God’s promises.
And that leads to one final point. We receive God’s promises by faith.
Received by Faith
When God told Rachel to dry her tears he wasn’t just comforting her in a patronizing way. He wasn’t saying “It’s OK, I’ve lost loved ones, too.” No, he was saying “dry your eyes because I’m going to make everything right.”
He was telling her that her sorrow will be turned to comfort and joy because she’s going to see her son’s and daughters again. In fact with the coming of the Messiah one day she will become part of a family greater than she could ever imagine.
So God’s hope isn’t just a consoling hope, it’s a real hope. Sometimes it’s difficult for us to have faith in the promises of God, especially when life is hard and full of suffering. But God says our suffering will not last forever.
Jeremiah 31:13 (CSB)
I will turn their mourning into joy, give them consolation, and bring happiness out of grief.
This is like what Matthew 5:4 says “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” That’s God’s promise to us and we receive it by faith the way Jeremiah did.
Remember, Jeremiah was writing from Jerusalem. He’s likely in some kind of prison cell and if he can look out the window all he likely sees is destruction and death.
And yet he holds on to God’s promises. He holds on to God’s promise...
Jeremiah 31:25–26 (CSB)
for I satisfy the thirsty person and feed all those who are weak.” At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.
So receive the comfort of God. Sleep well at night knowing that everything is going to be made right. Someday there will be no more tears, no more death, no more suffering. That’s God’s comforting promise for all his people.