Jeremiah 31
BBCJeremiah 31:1
B. The Country to Be Restored (31:1-30)31:1-20 In words of endearment, the LORD promises to restore Israel, the northern tribes; the people will return from all over the world; they will be filled with singing instead of mourning; Rachel weeping was a figurative expression signifying the sorrow of seeing captives go into exile. It will cease when Israel repents and God pardons. Matthew quotes verse 15 in connection with the massacre of the infants by Herod (Mat_2:18). Kelly comments: It is beautiful to see that the Holy Spirit . . . applies to that event the passage about sorrow but not that about joy . . . He only referred to what was fulfilled. There was bitter sorrow then, even in the birthplace of royalty. Deep anguish was in the place where there ought to have been the greatest joy. The birth of the Messiah ought to have been the signal for universal joy in the land of Israel. And there would have been if there had been faith in God and His promise, but there was not.
Moreover, since the state of the people was one of shameful unbelief so there was an Edomite usurper on the throne. Hence violence and deceit ruled in the land, and Rachel wept for her children and could not be comforted because they were not. . . . So the Holy Spirit applied the first part of the prophecy, but there He stops. 31:21, 22 Repentant Israel will return by roads marked by signposts and landmarks. Her days of unfaithfulness will be over, because the Lord has accomplished something newa woman will encompass or embrace a man. The woman here is Israel and the man is Jehovah. “The prediction,” writes Williams, “is that the virgin of Israel will cease to go ‘hither and thither after idols’ and will seek and cleave to Immanuel.” Kelly, a devout scholar of undoubted orthodoxy, explains why a popular interpretation of v. 22b is not valid: It has been common among the Fathers as well as the divines . . . to apply this passage to the birth of the Lord of the Virgin Mary, but the prophecy has not the smallest reference to it. A woman compassing a man is not at all the same thing as the Virgin compassing and bearing a son. Compassing a man has no reference whatever to the birth of a child. 31:23-30 Judah also will be restored, and her cities rebuilt. At this point Jeremiah awoke from a pleasant sleep. Both Judah and Israel will be repopulated. Men will be punished for their own iniquity, not for their fathers’ sin.
Jeremiah 31:31
C. The New Covenant Revealed (31:31-40)The days are coming when God will make a new covenant with . . . Israel and . . . Judah, not like the law, but a covenant of grace. Men will be given a new moral nature, and knowledge of the Lord will be universal (See Heb_8:8-13; Heb_10:15-17). God made the New Covenant primarily with Israel and Judah (v. 31). Unlike the Mosaic Law, it was unconditional. It emphasized what God will do, not what man must do; notice the occurrences of “I will” in verses 33, 34. Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenant because it is through Him that its blessings are secured (Heb_9:15). The Covenant was ratified by His blood (Luk_22:20). It will not become effective for Israel as a nation until Christ’s Second Coming. In the meantime, however, individual believers enjoy some of its benefits; e.g., their obedience is motivated by grace, not law; God is their God and they are His people; God no longer remembers their sins and iniquities. Universal knowledge of the Lord (v. 34a) awaits the Millennium. Those who would seek to wipe out Israel from the face of the earth would do well to learn verses 35 and 36. Israel will cease from being a nation only when and if the ordinances of the sun, moon, stars, and sea depart. Jerusalem will be rebuilt in a future day, and areas now unclean will be “holy to the LORD.”