Chapter Eighteen: Yearning Bowels

Chapter Eighteen: Yearning Bowels (Jeremiah 31:20)

Before we dive into our discussion of “Yearning Bowels,” I want to take just a moment to discuss the wonders of inspiration. We learn about inspiration most pointedly from 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

That phrase “breathed out” or “inspired” comes from one word, θεοπνευστος, meaning God-breathed. Paul tells us something vitally important about all Scripture (i.e., the Old and New Testaments). It is that every word in the Bible is breathed out by God, it is placed by God into the text for our growth toward Christlikeness.

This means that particular words, with their individual meanings, matter. It also means that the structure of books, their order, or why one verse proceeds another, matters. For example, the first three chapters of Ephesians precent doctrinal matters: God’s election, His gracious salvation, His uniting of Jews and Gentiles into His family, et cetera, are the first issues addressed. Following this, however, are the practical implications of those doctrines. Because God has chosen both Jewish and Gentile people they are exhorted to unity in chapter 4. We see the other implications of the doctrinal matters in chapters 1-3 further explained in the second half of the book of Ephesians, chapters 4-6.

TREE OF LIFE

This is important for us to keep in mind any time we read Scripture. It matters what comes before and after the passages we read and study. The Old Testament book of Jeremiah is a book that is structured in a particular manner. It is not arranged in a chronological manner, which is how we are accustomed to having books structured. Rather, it is structured in what Zuck and Walvoord refer to as a “logical order arrangement” (Walvoord and Zuck, 1128).

Ortlund presents this at the beginning of chapter 18, and it is worth our revisiting. The first half of the book, chapters 2-45 address God’s impending judgements against Israel and Judah. Chapters 46- 51 present God’s judgements of the Gentiles. Wedged in between is what many people call “The Book of Consolation.” The New Covenant and its blessings are the primary focus of these chapters. In order to keep our minds focused on the subject at hand, I want to offer you the London Confession of Faith’s summary of this New Covenant:

“This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament; and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect; and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency.”—London Baptist Confession, 7:3

It is within this context of covenant that we read about yearning bowels. Now, Jeremiah uses the term Ephraim, which, if you remember, is the name given to one of Joseph’s children (Gen. 41:52). Ortlund writes, “‘Ephraim’ is just another term for Israel, God’s people, though it appears to be a sort of divine term of affection for Israel throughout the Old Testament.” (164)

I. The Beautiful Covenant Relationship- 31:20a

God uses two phrases to describe Israel: “my dear son” and “my darling child.” We need to spend a few moments unpacking these phrases.

First, notice the word my. My implies possession. This is my iPad. These are my clothes. Those are my children. They belong to me. This is God, the almighty one, speaking about His covenant people (i.e., us!). We are His. We belong to Him. That alone would be enough for us to praise Him for all eternity! If we were able to be His slaves (a term Paul regularly uses to describe himself in particular and Christians in general), we could still sing Amazing grace! How sweet the sound!

But that is not what God calls us. He calls us son and child. God calls us His children. Now, remember this is a covenant relationship. 1 John 3:1 “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

This is blessed, good, and glorious truth! But it gets even better. We are not just children of God, we are called dear and darling. We are His dear son, and the word for dear is the only time this particular Hebrew word is used. Both terms are terms of endearment, of a particular love and delight. Darling could also be rendered delight. If you have children, you know that you delight in them. You are so proud of them. When you see them younger and they learn how to walk, you could not be more proud. When that math problem finally clicks in their brain, you delight in them. We could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. God delights in His children.

This is the beautiful covenant relationship, planned by the Father from eternity past, procured by the Son, and applied by the Spirit. But this brings us to our second and final point: the unbreakable covenant relationship.

II. The Unbreakable Covenant Relationship- 31:20b

After setting up this wonderful, covenant relationship, God then makes a profound statement: “For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still.”

The word remember, as you may recall from Ortlund, does not mean that God forgot something. It is, Ortlund states, “not as the alternative to forgetting but as the alternative to forsaking.” (165) That forsaking is found specifically in God’s covenantal relationship with His people. In other words, while Ephraim sins against the Lord, and they undergo His discipline, He does not cast them aside. He does not forsake them. He remembers them, because He made a covenant.

Listen to the summary of this blessed covenant,

“To all those for whom Christ hath obtained eternal redemption, he doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same, making intercession for them; uniting them to himself by his Spirit, revealing unto them, in and by his Word, the mystery of salvation, persuading them to believe and obey, governing their hearts by his Word and Spirit, and overcoming all their enemies by his almighty power and wisdom, in such manner and ways as are most consonant to his wonderful and unsearchable dispensation; and all of free and absolute grace, without any condition foreseen in them to procure it.”—London Confession of Faith, 8:8

It is an unbreakable covenant relationship. To offer Paul’s understanding of this, we need to read Romans 8:31-39.

III. The Unimaginable Covenant Love- 31:20c

Therefore, because of the above, God says my heart (literally bowels) yearn for Him.

Ortlund writes, “God, of course, does not have guts. It is his way of speaking of his innermost reflex, his churning insides, his deepest feelings of which our emotions are an image—in a word, as the text renders it, his heart.” (165)

And His heart yearns, which Ortlund says this, “The yearning heart of God delivers and redelivers sinners who find themselves drowning in the sewage of their life, twenty-nine chapters deep, in need of a rescue that they cannot even begin on their own, let alone complete.” (166)

God’s covenant love is truly unimaginable. We end our time this evening with Ortlund’s last words, “Repent of your small thoughts of God’s heart. Repent and let him love you.” (170)