Behold, Days Are Coming
Jeremiah 31:27-34
You know, the life of an OT prophet was not an easy life. When a prophet speaks the word of God into the life of a person or persons who have fallen into apostasy through the worship of false gods and have been following the words of false prophets, as Israel and Judah were so prone to do, that prophet would offend a great many people. Sinners prefer to feel good about their sin, and when someone comes along and tells them that what they’re doing is wrong and will cause God’s judgment to fall upon them, well, let’s just say they won’t like it. They REALLY won’t like it.
Well, this has been much of Jeremiah’s prophetic career. He butted heads with most of the rulers of Judah, and the religious leaders, and the so-called prophets of his day. They hated him and did all sorts of bad things to him hoping he’d give up and shut up.
Our text today is found in that part of the book of Jeremiah that many people refer to as the Book of Consolation or the Book or Comfort. Chapters 30 and 31 stand out in the book of Jeremiah because they offer something completely different from what he normally preaches. His usual sermons to the people of Judah dealt with plucking up, breaking down, throwing up, destroying, and afflicting (31:28), in other words, they were sermons of judgment and doom because of their sins against God. But in chapters 30 & 31 we find a message of hope and restoration. This is why he was able to say, Jer 31:26 At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.
Apparently, Jeremiah lost a lot of sleep during his ministry. It’s not easy to always be the “Debbie Downer” or the “squeaky wheel” at the party. So, when the Lord gave him a message of hope and restoration, it was pleasant and appealing. He could finally get some peaceful sleep.
I can imagine those restless nights Jeremiah probably experienced. I know that when I get some bad news or maybe had a bad experience that day or was expecting a bad day ahead, I would toss and turn all night with my eyes closed and being fully awake. But the sleepless nights I might experience really wouldn’t hold a candle to what Jeremiah would have experienced.
You see, Assyria had conquered and removed the northern kingdom of Israel around 150 years earlier. At the time that Jeremiah wrote chapters 30 & 31, Babylon had already conquered Judah, and two of the three Babylonian deportations had already occurred. It was during the 2nd Babylonian invasion that the temple and Jerusalem were destroyed. Jeremiah had been prophesying for decades, and he witnessed all of this, but he faithfully continued to warn the people of Judah about the consequences of their disobedience to God.
But like I said, these two chapters deviated from his normal message of judgment and doom to hope and restoration. So, looking at our text today in chapter 31, verses 27-34, we’ll begin with the…
1. Promised Restoration
Jer 31:27 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast.
Israel was gone. Assyria had taken them away and brought in other conquered people from other lands to take their place. Many of the common, country folk had been left behind, and over the years the apostate faith of Israel melded with the foreign beliefs of the newcomers, creating an amalgamation of true and false. These people would one day be known as the Samaritans.
In Judah, the best and the brightest had been taken to Babylon. Jeremiah had told them not to fight it. This was of God, and they should do what they could to better themselves and build lives in Babylon until the time that God called them back. He wrote to them, Jer 29:28 "…'The exile will be long; build houses and live in them and plant gardens and eat their produce.'"
To the average person, all hope was lost. There had been no Israel for 150 years. Judah has been taken away. All that was left were commoners. No doubt many of them died as Babylon swept through Judah on their way to Jerusalem and the seat of the government, but many remained. To all of those who heard Jeremiah’s message, the idea that both Israel and Judah, would be restored and they would grow and become prosperous would be a difficult thing to believe. All the people who were living at that time, whether left behind in Judah or on their way to Babylon, none of them had any first-hand knowledge of Israel. Everyone who knew anyone from those northern tribes was long gone. All that remained was stories that were told at the supper table, in the markets, or in the now destroyed temple.
But God had promised through Jeremiah that He would Jer 31:27 …sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. Clearly speaking of the restoration of the people to the land. The lands of both Israel and Judah will be repopulated with people and livestock, which speaks to a future filled with life and prosperity. Without regard to what the world may look like around them, the people will be restored, and the land will be filled.
And friend, just as God promised to restore Israel and Judah, He also offers restoration to us. It doesn’t matter what our past looks like, He can and will rebuild and renew us when we turn to Him. God was actively working to bring about a new beginning for His people in Jeremiah’s day, but today, we live with the truth that He has already done a work for us through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Oh friend, we still look forward to a day that’s coming, a day 1Co 15:24 … when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. We look forward to the day when, 1Co 15:28 …all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
Beloved. God has done so much more for us than we can ever know, but until that day comes when we see Him coming in the clouds, we continue to live our lives with our view toward our goal of glorifying God and worshipping Him forever.
He promised the Jews of a day to come when they would be restored, but now the prophet goes on to speak of…
2. Individual Responsibility
Jer 31:28-30 "As I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant," declares the LORD. [29] "In those days they will not say again, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' [30] "But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
When Jeremiah received his call from the Lord to be His prophet, years earlier, God told him Jer 1:10 "…I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." And Jeremiah remained faithful to that call.
Much of his ministry was an affront to those he prophesied to. They were sinning and they needed to repent, and he wasn’t shy about telling them so. This was what he was supposed to do—to pluck up, break down, destroy, and overthrow. It speaks to warning people of the consequences of sin and disobedience. It’s telling them that judgment is coming if you don’t change.
Now, generally speaking, the OT prophets prophesied to nations and kings because they were the ones who led the people toward sin or righteousness. Their faith in God or the lack thereof drove the nation and its people in one direction or the other. What God is telling the people here is that just as He was attentive in watching over them to uproot, tear down, and bring judgment, He will now be just as watchful in building them up and planting them. His watchful eye is always over them for the good or the bad, the building or the breaking.
The people, either in bondage or headed that way, were apparently using a common expression of the time to lay their guilt upon someone else, usually their parents. They were saying that Jer 31:29 …'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' And of course, what that means is that our parents sinned and we’re now paying the price for their sin.
Now, the idea for this probably came from a scripture like Exo 20:5 (which says) "…I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but other verses like Ezekiel 18:20 and Deu 24:16 state that each individual is responsible for their own sins. Deu 24:16 "Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.
And right before Jeremiah quotes the proverb these folks were using to shift the blame, he told them that Jer 31:29 "In those days they will not say again… So, they’re not going to be able to use this excuse because they can’t blame their punishment on someone else. Each person is responsible for their own sin, and no one else. And then he reiterated this point by adding something similar to what we read in Deuteronomy. Jer 31:30 "But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
Friends, what this says to us today is that we are personally responsible for our relationship with God. It says that I cannot think I’ll get into heaven on my father’s coat tails and that my sins have no effect in God’s eyes upon my sons and daughter. Past generations may have influenced us, but each and every one of us is accountable for our own actions and the choices we make. We cannot blame our spiritual condition on our heritage or our upbringing alone.
Each of us must seek a personal relationship with God, rather than relying on the faith of our family or community. And we should take responsibility for our sins and seek forgiveness. Our God offers restoration if we would only come to Him. He is more than ready to restore us if we will take responsibility for our actions and repent of them.
If we will do this, then we can enjoy the benefits of…
3. A New Covenant
Jer 31:31-34 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, [32] not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. [33] "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. [34] "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Up until this point in the lives of the people of God, the only covenant they knew was the one God had with them as it was given on Mt Sinai. It was given shortly after the Exodus from Egypt, and it was written on tablets of stone and given to the people. The problem though, was that the people couldn’t keep that covenant. Even as God was writing the commandments down on those stone tablets, the people were worshipping a golden calf, a false god, down in the camp. Speaking of that and the many other times they had turned from God and committed adultery with foreign gods, He said Jer 31:32 …My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD.
They broke His covenant many times over the years and centuries leading up to this moment when God finally said, “Enough!” Throughout the Scriptures, the relationship between God and the Children of Israel has been likened to a marriage between a man and a woman, where God is the loving and faithful husband and Israel is the wandering wife. When the wife turns from her husband and goes after other men is a picture of Israel turning from God to false gods in spiritual adultery. And the prophets have used this picture over and over in their preaching and illustrations.
Hosea is a well-known example of this, where he actually marries a prostitute who turns away from him and goes after other men, but Hosea pursues her to bring her back. He used his own life to illustrate the dysfunctional situation between God and Israel. God loves His people, but His people continue to chase after other gods. They have not and cannot keep His covenant, so a new covenant is needed. The old covenant was given as preparation for the new covenant to come. Tablets of stone were never enough. The outward, external tablets of stone could never produce the inward change of heart that was needed to faithfully follow God and enjoy an entirely new relationship with Him forever. And that’s the key here. The old covenant only produced an external faith built upon the efforts of man, so a new covenant was promised that would give man a new heart and built upon the effort of God, not man.
Jer 31:31, 33 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, "…I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
I…I…I…I… I will make… I will put My law… I will write it… I will be… Friends, beloved, this is what God does, not us. His new covenant will bring about an inner transformation where the hearts and minds of His people are changed. It doesn’t do away with or renounce the law, but it makes the law closer and more important to the faithful by putting it in their hearts and minds. Under the old covenant, God demanded obedience to the law, but under the new covenant, God works obedience under the gospel.
This new covenant brings a new relationship. God says that He will be their God, and they shall be My people. Those who are connected to God by the new covenant have a personal and close relationship that wasn’t possible before. God said that He would put His law within them, and He would write them upon their hearts. He will write them, He will inscribe them, He will imprint them upon our heart.
So, let me ask you, “Why do birds strive to build nests?” Why do bees make honey? Why to young ducklings follow their parents? Similar questions could be asked repeatedly in nature, but the answer is always the same, “Because God imprinted in them to do so.” And God has imprinted His law upon our hearts. The old covenant, the sacrificial system could only cover sin and guilt, but the new covenant brings forgiveness so complete that it could be said that God no longer remembers the sins of those who are connected to Him through faith.
And that connection of faith is found only through Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus. Believing in Jesus. Trusting in Jesus. All of these are different ways of saying the same thing. Faith, belief, trust, these are actions that go far beyond a mere mental ascent. Believing that Jesus existed, even believing that He is the Son of God isn’t enough. The devils believe and tremble, right? What we’re talking about is a faith, belief, or trust that not only says “this is so” but it also follows after and obeys. It’s a faith that walks hand in hand with the understanding that faith without works is dead. Show me your faith without your works, and I’ll show you my faith by my works.
Friends, the old covenant was a shadow of reality, but the new covenant is the real thing. The old covenant was a portrait, but the new covenant is the Person Himself, and because it’s a Person, then we can know Him personally!
Jer 31:34 "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
They shall all know me. I love this. They shall all know me! Each and every one, regardless of who they are, what their status in life is, wealthy or poor, black, white, brown, or any of the various shades in between—they all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them!
Friends, Jesus knows you, personally. Do you know Him? If you have not trusted in His Son, what’s holding you back? If you desire restoration… If you want to know the Lord… then you can begin that journey today by repenting of sin and giving your life over to Jesus today. If you will do that, then His promise to you is Jer 31:34 …I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.
Invitation
