SUMMARY:
We have to say, “I have never noticed these specifi c verses before!” This has happened to me recently. And the chapter that I cannot seem to get away from is Jeremiah 30.
By MAL COUCH Editor and President Tyndale Theological Seminary
EVERYONE has experienced what I call “the great awakening” in which some passage of the Word of God suddenly becomes overpowering and relevant.
We have to say, “I have never noticed these specifi c verses before!” This has happened to me recently.
And the chapter that I cannot seem to get away from is Jeremiah 30.
Jeremiah 30 may be one of the most important prophecies in the Old Testament. It contains without apology the remarkable premillennial doctrine about the return of the Jews to the land.
What do some of the greatest Bible teachers write about this chapter?
Old Testament Jewish-Christian scholar Charles Feinberg (who was one of my seminary professors) rightly observes that the prophet Jeremiah is not occupied with events in the near future in this chapter but with the distant consummation of Israel’s history.
Jeremiah “predicted the permanence of the nation, the coming of the Gentiles to the truth, the institution of God’s new covenant of redemption, and the rule of [Christ] the Davidic King over cleansed Zion.” (Jeremiah:
A Commentary, Zondervan, 202) In his great commentary (published by Tyndale Seminary through AMG Publishers), Unger calls this chapter the “Book of Consolation”.
Along with chapters 31-33, together they “are indeed signifi cant, since Jeremiah was so largely taken up with the message of judgment.
But Israel’s bright hope issues from the grace of God guaranteeing a glorious future for the nation” (p1416).
Jeremiah is told to “Write all the words which I have spoken” (v2) about Israel and Judah, and their future return to the land. God promises to “restore the fortunes of My people Israel [the northern kingdom] and Judah [the southern kingdom]” (v3).
Note that God said all the words, plural, meaning every detail of what He says in a literal and normal sense. “I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers, and they shall possess it” (v3b).
The Lord then forewarns the Jews of the pain of the “birth pangs” that will take place before Israel is restored.
He is speaking about the Day of the Lord that will fall upon Israel, and upon the nations as well. “Alas! for that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he [Jacob—the Jewish people] will be saved from it” (v7).
esus repeats this in Matthew 24:21, and Paul alludes to it in 1 Thessalonians 5:3.
The present day pain of the Jewish people in Israel is likened to a yoke (of suffering) that is upon the neck of the people. God will remove the yoke, and “will tear off their bonds; and strangers (the Gentiles) shall no longer make them their slaves” (v8b).
Concerning the Gentile powers: “I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you, only I will not destroy you completely” (v11).
Europe, Russia, and the Arab nations need to take this warning to heart.
A judgment is coming upon all those who violently turn against the holy land, and the Jewish people who are now settled within its borders.
But the time of Jacob’s distress is also a purge upon sinful Israel.
A judgment will come upon Israel, “But I will chasten you justly, and will be no means leave you unpunished” (v11b).
And of course, their greatest sin is in rejecting their Saviour and King, the Lord Jesus Christ! But that will be changed.
The eyes of the people will be opened and the children of Abraham will turn to Him someday in a most dramatic way.
In their present unbelief, the Jews are like someone with an incurable wound, a serious injury (v12).
There is no one to plead Israel’s cause; no healing for your sore, no recovery for you (v13).
And, her lovers (the Gentiles who temporarily gave the Jewish people favour) “have forgotten you” (v14). Israel’s present “iniquity is great and your sins are numerous” (v14b).
The build up of the hatred against the Jews in the holy land is increasing.
The present political manoeuvring of the Palestinians, along with the efforts of President George W. Bush, will not succeed!
The world will re-gather its emotional disgust with the Jews and turn against the people in the land.
“This is what we have to do,” the world powers will argue, “in order to bring about peace!”
However, I believe very soon God will be the physician of the people of the land of Israel!
For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds, declares the Lord, because they [the Gentiles] have called you an outcast, saying: “It is Zion, no one cares for her” (v17).
At the end of the Day of the Lord, God will restore “the fortunes of the tents of Jacob…and the city [Jerusalem] shall be rebuilt on its ruin” (v18).
The Lord has a “leader,” a “ruler” who He will bring near, “and he shall approach Me” (v21).
More than likely this is a reference to the King Messiah, the Lord Jesus, the Son of David! No one can approach God, the Lord says, but this one [the Messiah]! (v21b). The result is that Israel again “shall be My people, and I will be your God” (v22).
The tribulation is described as “the tempest of the Lord,” “Wrath,” and a “sweeping tempest” (v23).
It will burst on the head of the wicked!
It is “the fi erce anger of the Lord” that He will not turn back His work of judgment! (v24).
It is indeed going to happen! “He will perform, until He has accomplished the intent of His heart” (v24a). “In the latter days you will understand this” (v24b).
Those of us who are premillennialists rejoice in such wonderful promises of deliverance for the Jewish people.
And of course, all of this heralds the coming kingdom of the Lord Jesus.
Jeremiah goes on in chapter 31:
God loves Israel with an everlasting love, even though they presently do not trust Him (v3). God will rebuild Israel (v4).
The Jews will cry out when this deliverance arrives, “Let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God [which must mean the Lord Jesus]” (v6). The Lord will save His people, the remnant of Israel (v7).
The Lord will gather His people “from the remote parts of the earth” (v8).
A great company of the Jews will return here [back to Israel] (v8b).
The Jews will return to Zion weeping (v9). God is a father to Israel (v9b).
He who scattered Israel will gather him [back to the land] (v10).
The Lord will ransom Jacob, the people of Israel (v11).
They shall come to the heights of Zion (v12).
What a blessing it is to interpret the Bible in the way it was intended, and to be able to glean the great truths that are so plain and obvious.
What confusion for those who attempt to disregard, or to allegorise such fantastic promises from the Word of God!
Premillennialists are being proven right.
Present day history “is about Israel”.
And God will bring about the great period of wrath when the nations turn against the Jews who have been gathered back in the land.
As a preterist had to honestly admit to a friend of mine: “One thing that shakes my preterism is, what can I do with the fact of the Jews going back to the land?
I have no answer to this historic fact!”
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Appeared in Issue 36 CETF 12.2 NR June 2006
"...contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" -- Jude v3
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-Last revised-
Monday, October 09, 2006
