"A Ray of Hope"
Jeremiah 31:15-22
If you get lost in Brooklyn, New York, and wander into the section called Williamsburg, prepare yourself for a surprise. Boys playing baseball
look rather odd... long, uncut curls of hair trail from above their ears down to their chests. Men in black, with long, untrimmed beards, coach from the
sidelines. All the women you see wear wigs because they have shaved their heads. You might wonder if this a new cult from California or the latest punk fashion from London.
Actually, you have stumbled into a community of Hasidic Jews. They live, not by the latest fad, but by ancient rules based on Old Testament laws.
They follow complicated dietary regulations. They keep one set of bowls for meat, and another for dairy products. Young men devote long hours of study to the Hebrew Old Testament. Though they are Americans, living in New York, their cultural focus points to Mount Sinai, where God gave Moses the Law.
The Jewish people have survived, astonishingly. The book of Jeremiah gives us a window into the lives of people who were continually hemmed in
and threatened with destruction. Because they continued to remove themselves from the presence of God through sin and apostasy, they suffered exile, punishment, and slaughter. No other nation of people has had such destructive measures taken, and yet they have survived. Even more remarkably, this survival was predicted in writing 2,500 years ago.
Jeremiah was called by God to speak His words to the people. God continued to proclaim His promises to His children throughout Jeremiah’s
life. He was to lead them, to supervise them, and yet, they would not listen. God repeatedly describes Israel’s actions as those of an unfaithful wife. And
yet, chapter 30 begins with these words from the LORD, "Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you. The days are coming, when I will bring
my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their forefathers to possess." A promise from God... a ray of hope to
a desolate, oppressed people.
Our passage today reveals that hope... that promise of restoration and reconciliation. It begins in desolation as the LORD speaks of great weeping
and mourning in Ramah. Ramah was supposedly the burial place of Rachel, mother of Israel. It was now the place where the people were assembled for
exile. Just as Rachel had cried over her lost children more than one hundred years earlier, her voice is now heard weeping over the exiles. But now, the LORD answers these cries of anguish. He says, "Stop your weeping, for the children will return... there is hope for your future." The LORD says, "I have heard Ephraim’s cries." Ephraim was a son of Joseph and this word denotes his descendants (the people of Israel). The people cry out in
remorse, like wayward children who have suffered the wrath of a strict father. They are ashamed of their actions and now beg to return home once again.
How often our lives mirror those of the children of Israel! You would think that after all this time the Jews would have learned. But, can’t the
same be said for us? Why can’t we learn from the past? The people of Israel were blessed above all nations and all they had to do was worship
God and follow His commandments. All God asks us to do is to love Him and worship Him above all else and to love our neighbors as ourselves. He promises that if we do that, we will have life and have it abundantly. We have the same promise He made through Jeremiah to the people of Israel. Why do we continue to rebel against Him? Granted, we don’t consider
ourselves as "rebellious" as the Israelites... after all, we don’t worship other gods, do we? We don’t seek fulfillment from things other than God, do we?
We don’t realize how far we are from God sometimes, because we move away gradually. The glitter and gold of the world serves to draw us,
albeit subtly, away from God’s presence. Mike Yaconelli writes in The Wittenburg Door that he lives in a small, rural community. The area has lots of cattle ranches and every once in a while a cow wanders off and gets lost. If you ask one of the ranchers how a cow gets lost, chances are he will reply, "Well, the cow starts nibbling on a tuft of green grass, and when it finishes, it looks ahead to the next tuft of green grass and starts nibbling on that one, and then it nibbles on a tuft of green grass right next to a hole in the fence. It then sees another tuft of green grass on the other side of the fence, so it nibbles on that one and then goes on to the next tuft. The next
thing you know the cow has nibbled itself into being lost." Maybe we haven’t created a flagrant separation from God, but it is possible that we have "nibbled" our way right out of the green pastures God has provided for us. The means may differ, but the result is the same. Like the children of Israel, we experience a great and difficult separation from God.
Israel said, "We have been like a young bull, unaccustomed to the yoke.. we fought it... we wanted our freedom, but we have learned our lesson." "We understand now LORD, we want to come home."
In seems to be inherent in our nature that we must sink to the lowest point of despair and hopelessness before we are ready to "come home".
Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) tells the story of a young man who left his family and ventured out into the world. He wanted to do things his way. He did not want to listen to his father. When it came to his life, he knew best. Only after he had squandered his inheritance and found himself feeding swine (which was the ultimate insult to a Jew) did he begin to realize what he had given up. When he found himself eyeing the pig’s food, he knew there was only one thing he could do... go home! The young
man said, "I am going to climb out of this pig sty and return to my father. I will say to him, ’Father, I have sinned against heaven, and against you. I am
not worthy to be called your son, but Father, if you will only take me back, I will be as one of your servants’". We all know the end of this story: the
father graciously and lovingly welcomed his son home again!
Israel had reached that point of hopelessness. The people cried out to the LORD, "Please, LORD, we have learned our lesson. We were stubborn and rebellious. Let us come back home again!" God promised hope to them, even after this great sin of apostasy. He assured them of a return to
their land. We have that same assurance. Yet, we must reach that same point of repentance and remorse that Israel did. We must realize that there have been times when we have refused the yoke of obedience. Remember that Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is
easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:29-30) He still promises us rest if we return to His green pastures.
The LORD said to Israel, "Take note of the highway, the road that you take...", that is the way you must return home again. There is an old cliché
which says ’you can’t go home again’. Well, it may be old, but the LORD never said it. He tells Israel that they can always come home again... a ray of hope in an otherwise desperate situation. Jeremiah refers to this highway in chapter 50:5 when he writes, "They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it."
We have that same ray of hope today. No matter how far we have strayed from the LORD... we can always turn our faces toward Zion, we can always come home again. Just as the children of Israel returned home... just as the prodigal son returned home. We return to a loving Father who embraces us and receives us back as one of His own.
The LORD ends this oracle with a promise. He will create a new thing on the earth... the incarnation of Christ. The word ’man’ in verse 22 comes from the Hebrew word geber which means ’mighty warrior’. God is call Gibbor, the powerful God, as is Christ in Isaiah 9:6. He is El-Gibbor, the mighty God. We have hope through this mighty warrior, this Son of the mighty God. We are able to return from our separation, our exile, through the blood of this mighty warrior.
Jeremiah’s message to the people of Israel shows that God’s plans for them go far beyond punishment to a more fulfilling future. The exile is not permanent. God has not forgotten them. God will bring a renewed covenant that will bring inward change and a new knowledge of God. Israel continues to live today because of God’s promises.
The message to us today is one of hope. God is present always, even when we are far removed from Him because of our sins. He never forgets His people, regardless of the circumstances. No matter how far we stray, no matter how rebellious we become, God, through His compassion and grace... through His love for us... through His Son... welcomes us back
home again.
