Chapters 30 - 33
CHAPTER 30
In the middle of a number of chapters on the deportation of
Judah to Babylon and their eventual return to Jerusalem, God
gives us the prophecy of the deportation of Israel and Judah to
the lands of their enemies at the end of this age, and the
eventual delivery back to the Holy Land, at the coming of the
Messiah in glory and power and the new age to come.
These chapters are BREATHTAKING in scope and there can be no
misunderstanding as to WHEN they are to be fulfilled.
The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. He was to WRITE DOWN
ALL THE WORDS THAT GOD HAD SPOKEN! This is one of the two main
purposes for the books of the prophets to be WRITTEN DOWN (the
other is for our admonition and examples, for lessons we can
learn from, to help guide our way in the correct light - see 1
Corinthians 10:1-12). Notice what God says, "For, lo, the days
COME, says the Lord, that I will BRING AGAIN the captivity of my
people ISRAEL and JUDAH, and I will cause them to RETURN to the
land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall posses it. And
these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning ISRAEL and
JUDAH (verses 1-4).
You will notice Israel and Judah as still SEPARATE! All
prophecy shows clearly that Israel (the ten tribes) and Judah
(the three tribes) are NOT UNITED TOGETHER UNTIL the coming of
the Messiah is power and glory. That is a fundamental truth to
understand Bible prophecy. Without knowing (shall I say admitting
this truth, which many false prophets will not admit) this clear
fact you cannot understand Bible prophecy.
There is to come a VOICE OF TREMBLING, of FEAR, and not of
peace! It is as mighty a fear as the strange happening of a man
giving child-bear. All faces are turned to paleness! Alas! For
that day is GREAT! SO THAT NONE IS LIKE IT! It is the same time
Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24:21 and the same time Daniel tells
us about in Daniel 12:1-3. Jeremiah says it is JACOB'S TROUBLE -
it is ISRAEL'S TROUBLE (Jacob had his name changed to Israel you
mighty remember) - it is the time of the GREAT TRIBULATION for
the whole 13 tribes of Israel. But they will be saved, some of
them, out of it (verses 5-7).
It is the time when Jesus will come and break the yoke of
captivity from off the neck of Israel and Judah. The time when
Gentile strangers will no more serve themselves with Israelite
slaves in the lands of their captivity. But they will serve the
Lord their God, and David their king, whom God will RAISE UP for
them! (verses 8-9).
This is not talking about Christ as being David. It means
what it says, it is David in the RESURRECTION at the coming of
Christ. It is the time of the resurrection of the saints of God
from all ages, to be gathered together by the angels and taken
through the air to meet Christ in the clouds (see Matthew 24:15-
31; 1 Thes.4:13-18; Zechariah 14).
THE CONTEXT OF THIS PROPHECY IS THE SECOND COMING OF
CHRIST!!!
God says fear not Jacob/Israel: for God will come and save
them from the lands of their captivity; and Jacob shall return
and be at REST! There is no way this prophecy can apply but to
the days and time of the Messiah's coming in glory to establish
the Kingdom of God on earth. If, as the false idea is, that we
are here talking about the Jews only, then it is still a prophecy
for the future. The Jews have never been at REST, where none
shall make them afraid (verse 10).
Many of the nations who will carry away Israel into
captivity shall be destroyed in no uncertain way, but Israel will
not be. They will be corrected but not fully destroyed. Other
prophecies show it is about ONE in TEN that will remain alive to
the coming of Christ.
The friends and lovers of Israel and Judah will not come to
the rescue and save them. The punishment is from God because of
the multitude of their sins (verses 12-15).
The adversaries of Israel and Judah will go into captivity,
they that spoil them shall be soiled, all that prey on them will
be given to the prey. God will RESTORE HEALTH to Jacob, He will
heal the wound, and they shall no longer be a laughing stock to
their enemies (verses 16-17).
It is the time when Jacob Israel shall be built up again, a
time when they will sing and praise and give thanksgiving to
their God. They shall be multiplied and not a few. It is the time
that God will punish all that oppress them. That is not happening
today, the enemies of Israel and Judah are NOT being punished
today, in fact many of them prosper and are winning the battles
(verses 18-20).
It is the time when Jacob Israel will be able to approach
God and they will be His people and the Lord will be their God
(verses 21-22).
God will go forth with ANGER and FURY and perform that which
He has said will come on the earth. IT IS IN THE LATTER DAYS -
THE TIME OF THE END - THAT WE SHALL CONSIDER IT!! (verses 23-24).
YES, THE WHOLE CONTEXT OF THIS CHAPTER IS FRO THE END TIME,
THE LAST 42 MONTHS OF THIS AGE, AS BROUGHT OUT IN THE BOOK OF
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 31
It is at the SAME TIME (verse 1) that the Lord will be the
God of all the families of Israel.
Some of Israel will find grace even in the wilderness. God
will still love them. They will come and be built, they shall
once more sing and dance, they will plant vines on the mountains
of Samaria. Those watchmen on mount Ephraim shall cry, "arise
you, and let us go to Zion unto the Lord our God" (verses 2-6).
Jacob Israel shall be brought from the NORTH, and from the
coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the
woman with child, a GREAT COMPANY shall return. They will come
with WEEPING AND WITH SUPPLICATION GOD WILL LEAD THEM. He that
SCATTERED Jacob will GATHER them, as a shepherd does his flock.
The Lord has redeemed Jacob, and delivered them from the hand of
the enemy. There will be singing and prosperity as a watered
garden; there will be no more SORROW AT ALL, ANY MORE! (verses 7-
14).
This prophecy has NEVER be fulfilled! There is no way anyone
can say Jacob Israel has "not sorrow any more at all" (verse 12).
God will hear the cries of the people of Ephraim (the
British Commonwealth) in their captivity. Those people will
REPENT, they will be INSTRUCTED, they will be ASHAMED. God loves
the people of Ephraim. The Lord will be troubled for their
captivity and He will once more show MERCY upon them. The Eternal
will cry out for them to SEE and to RETURN to Him. It is the time
when there will be more women than men, when a woman will court a
suitor (verses 15-22).
It is the time when Judah will be inhabiting the land and
the cities once more, when there will be shepherds with their
flocks, and all sorrowful souls will be replenished. Jeremiah
woke from his sleep and it was sweet unto him (verses 23-26).
It is the time when God will sow the House of Israel and the
House of Judah with the seed of men and beast. All will be ONE
and all will be well, peace will come on the earth, for all
peoples and even the nature of animals will be changed as we saw
in the wonderful prophecy of Isaiah 11.
As God had thrown down and plucked up and destroyed Jacob
Israel, so He will watch over, to build, to plant, and restore
them. It will be the days of all dying for their own sins, the
ones who eat sour grapes, their teeth will pucker. It is the days
of true and equal justice for all people (27-30). Those days have
never yet come on this earth. This is a prophecy for the new age
to come.
"Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a NEW
covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the
land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was an
husband unto them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I
will make with the House of Israel; After those days, says the
Lord, I WILL PUT MY LAWS IN THEIR INWARD PARTS, AND WRITE IT IN
THEIR HEARTS; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY
PEOPLE. AND THEY SHALL TEACH NO MORE EVERY MAN HIS NEIGHBOR, AND
EVERY MAN HIS BROTHER, SAYING, 'KNOW THE LORD' FOR THEY SHALL ALL
KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST OF THEM TO THE GREATEST OF THEM, SAYS THE
LORD, FOR I WILL FORGIVE THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER
THEIR SINS NO MORE" (verses 31-34).
Read those words again friends. There is no way this
prophecy has ever been fulfilled, to any people, whoever you
think Jacob Israel is today. It will only come to pass when Jesus
the Christ, the Messiah, comes back to earth to re-establish the
people of Israel and Judah in the Holy Land, when He will pour
out the Holy Spirit upon them and forgive their sins. When they
will all have a personal relationship with their God. You will
notice that this personal relationship (no more having some
having to tell others about Christ and God) means THE LAWS OF GOD
ARE WRITTEN IN THE HEART! There is no "doing away with" the laws
of God (as many false teachers tell you today), BUT IT IS HAVING
GOD'S LAW IN THE INWARD PARTS. Jesus came to AMPLIFY the law not
"abolish" it, as can be seen from the famous "sermon on the
mount" in Matthew 5,6,7.
God as creator of the heavenly bodies and all physical
things on earth, says that if those ordinances depart from Him
then, and only then, shall Israel cease from being a nation
before Him forever. If you can measure the universe, or find the
foundations of the earth, then He will cast off the seed of
Israel (verses 35-37).
The time will come, after the GREAT TRIBULATION, the DAY OF
THE LORD, as we have seen in many other prophecies, that
Jerusalem will again be re-built (verses 38-40).
WHAT A WONDERFUL TWO CHAPTERS WE HAVE JUST STUDIED, BUT THAT
IS NOT ALL, THERE ARE TWO MORE TO BACK UP THE FIRST TWO.
CHAPTER 32
Jeremiah is shut up in the court of the prison, in the king
of Judah's house, as the Babylon army besieges Jerusalem. The
king Zedekiah had shut him up because of the things he was
preaching against him and Judah and Jerusalem. Often people just
do not want to hear the truth of God. They want to continue in
their own ways, they want to be sweetly relaxed to sleep, just do
not desire to be corrected and shown their sins and errors.
The next verses go into detail about Jeremiah buying a
field, for it was in the plan of God that "houses and fields and
vineyards, shall be possessed again in this land" (verses 7-15).
Jeremiah prays to the Lord in verses 16 to 25. God gives His
answer in verses 26 to 44.
The children of Israel and Judah have done evil, as is their
long term nature. All, their kings, their princes, their priests,
their prophets, the men of Judah and Jerusalem. Yes, it is all in
Israel and Judah that have sinned. Our leaders have sinned, our
religious leaders have sinned, our prophetic teachers have sinned
(and we sure have a glut of prophetic books on the book-shelves
today) - all have sinned. There is no true righteous people but a
very few in our lands today. We have turned our back to God,
though the Lord has His true servants teaching the truth of His
word. But we have set even the abominations of evil in the very
house of God, the temple of God, the Christian church. We have
sacrificed our children to false ideas and the way of life that
is towards false gods. Yes, even the Jews in Judah, are sinners
and follow false abominations. So our nations will be driven out
and our peoples scattered in captivity one day by the end time
Babylon spoken about in the book of Revelation.
This is the message for us in verses 30-36.
Then comes the GOOD NEWS!
"Behold I will gather them out of all countries, where I have
driven them in my anger, and in my fury, and in my great wrath;
and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them
to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their
God. And I will give them a new heart, and ONE WAY, that they
shall fear me for ever, for their good, and for their children
after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them,
that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will
put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant
them in this land as surely with my whole heart and with my whole
soul. For thus says the Lord; Like as I have brought all this
great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the
good that I have promised them. And fields shall be bought in
this land, whereby you say, It is desolate without man or beast;
it is given into the hands of the Babylonians. Men shall buy
fields for money, and subscribe evidence, and seal them, and take
witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about
Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the
mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of
the south; for I will cause their captivity to return, says the
Lord" (verses 37-44).
As you read those previous verses slowly you will see that
NO SUCH IN-DEPTH happening has EVER come on Israel and/or Judah.
They have never had ONE HEART, ONE WAY, to FEAR the Lord forever.
There has never been a time when it could be said of any of the
tribes of Israel that they had the fear of the Lord in their
hearts "that they shall not depart from me."
ALL THIS PROPHECY IN ITS FULL FORM IS YET TO TAKE PLACE. IT
IS FOR THE TIME OF THE END WHEN GOD IN THE PERSON OF THE MESSIAH
CHRIST, WILL COME TO REGATHER ISRAEL AND JUDAH, AND POUR OUT HIS
SPIRIT ON THEM AND GIVE THEM THE HEART THAT WILL NEVER GO ASTRAY
FROM THEIR GOD AGAIN - EVER!!
CHAPTER 33
Jeremiah is given again the word of the Lord, the promise of
the Lord.
"And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of
Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first" (verses
1-7).
Note it is BOTH Israel and Judah, they both at the end time,
go into captivity together, at the same time, and so they will
both be delivered from their captivity at the same time.
God will cleanse them from their iniquity. They shall be a
joy to Him. They shall be an HONOR before all nations of the
earth (verses 8-9).
It can never be said that any tribe/s of Israel have EVER
been HONORED before all the nations of the earth. Many nations of
the earth have ALWAYS hated or had hostility towards some of the
peoples of Israel and Judah. When this prophecy is fulfilled in
its fullest form, at the coming of the Messiah and the new age,
then indeed ALL nations will HONOR the peoples of Israel and
Judah.
After the captivity at the end of this age, once more joy
and praise will fill the land of Judah (verses 10-13).
God has promised GOOD to come to Israel and Judah. It will
be: "In those days, and at that time, will I cause the BRANCH OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS to grow up unto David; and HE shall execute
judgment and righteousness in the land" (verse 15).
All students of the Bible know that this is talking about
the Messiah, who is to come and rule the world in judgment and
righteousness.
"In THOSE DAYS shall Judah BE SAVED, and Jerusalem shall DWELL
SAFELY: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, 'The
Lord our Righteousness'" (verse 16).
Judah, the Jews are NOT SAVED today! They are not saved
spiritually, nor even in any physical way. Many people still hate
them and fight against them. Jerusalem is still not a safe city.
The city and the Jews are NOT today called "The Lord Our
Righteousness."
This prophecy is yet to come to pass. It is for a future
time, when the Messiah shall come and reign in glory from the
city of Jerusalem, for a THOUSAND YEARS!
It is the time when Jesus will sit on the throne of David,
which is now within the peoples of the House of Israel. Now
occupied by the British kings and queens, but will at the end
time, go to the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is the time
when the Ezekiel Temple is built, when the Levite priesthood will
be re-established, when sacrifices will again be instituted in
that Temple at Jerusalem. All of this is fully expounded upon in
various studies on this Website (verses 17-18).
It will be an unbroken time when for 1,000 years this will
remain the state of Judah and Jerusalem (verses 19-22).
The prophecy ends with the fact that during the days of
Jeremiah people were saying that God could not be faithful to his
promises because BOTH Israel and Judah were now CAST OFF. And no
doubt it will be said again at the end time when Israel and Judah
will go into captivity and be to the world, "cast off."
God answers by saying that if the covenant with night and
day can be cast off, if the ordinances of the heaven and earth
can be cast off, then God will cast away the seed of Jacob, and
David His servant, so that He will not take someone of David's
seed to rule over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God says He will cause the captivity of Israel and Judah to
return, they will be delivered from their enemies; God will have
MERCY on them! (verses 23-26).
The whole three chapters we have just studied from Jeremiah
is a great and wonderful prophecy to yet come to pass in its full
detail. It is written because as God told Jeremiah, there is to
be an END TIME captivity of Israel and Judah and a restoration of
all things, to take place when the Messiah Christ comes to
deliver the people of Jacob from their captivity, to restore them
to the Holy Land, and when the Messiah will sit upon the throne
of David, ruling all nations from Jerusalem for 1,000 years.
...................
To be continued
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