August 23: Jeremiah's Visions of Restoration

In today's passages, we see a *hopeful* Jeremiah, confident in a coming restoration, both physically to the Promised Land and spiritually. As God served as architect of the fully deserved judgment, He will also bring about the people's restoration in all separate forms. This passage overflows with God's grace, His unmerited favor.

God's judgment had demanded the punishment that the Israelites had faced. The language throughout the passage reminds us that God is a loving Father and that He does not flippantly punish; instead, as Hebrews 12, He disciplines His children for their reproof and growth. In Jeremiah 30:14,15, we read:

"I have struck you as an enemy would
and puniushed you as would the cruel,
because your guilt is so great
and your sins so many.
Why do you cry out over your wound,
your pain that has no cure?
Because of your great guilt and many sins
I have done these things to you."
　
Still, Jeremiah foresaw a day in which the Lord would restore -- in His mighty power. The Israelites would return in joy and prosperity and would lift up praise to God, saying:

"Give thanks fto the LORD Almight;
for the LORD is good:
his love endures forever."
　
The Lord would bring healing to the land and return it to the state that the people had previously known, filling it again. Yet, these transformations would not solely occur as physical happenings; the people would clearly sense and appreciate God's design and intervention. After many years of rejecting intimacy with the Lord, the people will no longer shun His presence, but rather embrace Him and praise Him.
　
God's lovingkindness and compassion will again become the ruling force in Israelite life:

1. In addition to this physical restoration, God would remove the people from their bondage:

"'In that day,' declares the LORD Almighty,
'I will break the yoke off their necks
and will tear off their bonds;
no longer will foreigners enslave them.
Instead, they will serve the LORD their God
and David their kind,
whom I will raise up for them.'"
　
The slavery to foreigners had broken the dignity and value of the Isralites; now, God would help them to give their allegiance only to God.

2. He would slake their thirst and make their paths straight:

"They will come with weeping;
they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel's father,
and Ephraim is my firstborn son."
　
3. He would overturn their previous experience:

"They will be a well-watered garden,
and they will sorrow no more.
Then maidens will dance and be glad,
young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
and my people will be filled with my bounty,"
declares the LORD.