The Restoration Of Israel – Jeremiah – Part 5 – Chapter 31 (Part B) – Rachael Weeps But Will Be Gloriously Comforted And Restored Series

THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL – JEREMIAH – PART 5 – Chapter 31 (Part B) – RACHAEL WEEPS BUT WILL BE GLORIOUSLY COMFORTED AND RESTORED

We continue this study in the Restoration of Israel as detailed by God in Jeremiah. Currently we have entered into the glorious truth of Chapter 31 and there are two more postings for this Chapter. This chapter 31 is probably the most enlightening in all the bible for Israel’s future restoration and blessings that happen when Jesus Christ the Messiah returns to Jerusalem to reign after the dark days for Israel in the Tribulation that follows the Rapture of the Church.

{{Jeremiah 31:15 Thus says the LORD, “A VOICE IS HEARD IN RAMAH, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”

Jeremiah 31:16 Thus says the LORD, “Restrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears for your work shall be rewarded,” declares the LORD, “and they shall return from the land of the enemy.”

Jeremiah 31:17 “AND THERE IS HOPE FOR YOUR FUTURE,” DECLARES THE LORD, “AND YOUR CHILDREN SHALL RETURN TO THEIR OWN TERRITORY.”}}

VERSES 15-17. Verse 15 is quoted in the New Testament at the time of the slaughter of the infants by Herod. To apply that verse to Herod’s time only is very limiting because it could also have application to the double destruction of Jerusalem and even to the Nazi atrocities. The remainder of the verses in this section is significant as it goes beyond those times and into the Tribulation and the Restoration of Israel. The Jews will be terribly persecuted in the Tribulation and one can hear Rachel weeping.

Verse 15 is not final for we move to verse 16 and the sunshine of hope bursts on the scene. God will reward their work as the recompense for all this trouble they underwent, and now the time arrives and they enter into blessing. This verse, when speaking of the return from the land of the enemy, definitely can apply to the return from the Babylonian captivity, but to confine it to that is imperfect.

They were murdered and exiled from their land in 70 AD and in 135 AD. The greater application for verse 16 is the return at the start of the Millennium from the lands today, nearly all of them enemies of the Jews. Verse 17 is one of great hope, for in their future they will come to their own territory. There is not much hope in returning, as from the Babylonian captivity, only to find yourself confronted by enemies, and then the horrible Seleucids, and then the Romans and then full destruction of their land – and later on the Roman Catholic Church, Luther, Hitler and the anti-Semitism of today. No, when they return in the future it will be permanent and in great hope and joy, never to be bothered by enemies again. We must get the setting correct.

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{{Jeremiah 31:18 I have surely heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You hast chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained calf. Bring me back that I may be restored, for You are the LORD my God,

Jeremiah 31:19 for after I turned back, I repented, and after I was instructed, I smote on my thigh. I was ashamed, and also humiliated, because I bore the reproach of my youth.’

Jeremiah 31:20 “Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a delightful child? Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him, I certainly still remember him. Therefore My heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” declares the LORD.}}

This follow-on section will place these prophecies in the correct context and that is for the future. It can not apply to the return from captivity for the following reasons –

1. It speaks of Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom, destroyed by Assyria in about 722 BC, some 135 years before Jeremiah. They had nothing to do with Babylon.

2. Ephraim (Samaria) was dispersed far and wide and there was no way whatever they have been restored up to this point.

3. In verse 20 God is going to have mercy on Ephraim/Israel because of their repentance. They are requesting restoration. That has not happened.

VERSE 18. God is saying He has heard Ephraim grieving with repentance and requesting restoration. There is an acknowledgement of their failure, and that Jehovah is their God. That has never happened because the Northern Kingdom after their dispersion became a disparate people. However when God works in the Tribulation through the gospel, all Israel (remembering it will be a remnant) will turn to God and be saved and then restored to their land. God knows the lineage of His Jewish people and who are the rightful descendants of Abraham, even though the Jews of today do not know their tribal descent, and many are descended from Jacob in the world and do not know it, because the line has been lost over time. Failure to know they are of direct Jacob descent, does not bar them from blessing that comes to the descendants of Jacob.