Jeremiah 30

Jeremiah 30:1-9

These two chapters, very different from the former, are wholly taken up with precious promises of a return out of captivity, and that typical of the glorious things reserved for the church in the days of the Messiah. 1. Notwithstanding their fanatics from a variety

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of circumferment appeared desperate, they shall be refused, ver. 2—7. 2. That at their return they should every singular blessing spiritual and tempered, ver. 18—24.

1. THE word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2. Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. 3. For lo, the days come, faith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, faith the LORD, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. 4. And these are the words that the LORD (take concerning Israel, and concerning Judah. 5. For thus faith the LORD, We have heard a voice of trembling, + of fear, and not of peace. 6. Ask ye now, and let whether I am not of the truth, and I do not have a word of the truth, and I do not have a word of the truth, and I do not have a word of the truth, and I do not have a word of the truth, and I do not have a word of the truth, and I do not have a word of the truth, and I do not have a word of the truth, and I do not have a word of the truth, and I do not have a word of the truth, and I do not have a word of the truth, and

The them are not and not present. I like a male. I hope it. I feel it. I am a lot. I hope it. I do.

To perpetuate the memory of the great and gracious promises, God commands the prophet to write in a book all the words he had spoken to him; either all the preceding prophecies, or those he had now spoken to him, relative to the enlargement of the Jews from their captivity, and the coming of the Mefiah; and this to support the faith and hope of the people of God, both of Israel and Judah.

1. They are represented under the greatest terror and distress. It was a strange fight, but deficiency of the acuteness of their pains, to behold the men of war, like women in travail, with their hands on their loins, trembling, pallid, and crying out in their pangs, that for that day is great, is that none is like it, to terrible and afflictive; and this may refer to the destruction of the Jews by the Chaldeans, or to their more terrible desolations by the Romans: and some suppose that it hath a farther respect even to the reign of Antichrist, when the witnesses shall be slain, and the church of Christ reduced to the most abject state of wretchedness.

2. The prophet must write a word of comfort for that gloomy and dark day. Though it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, he shall be forced out of it; God will stand by his suffering people, and refuse them from the hands of their enemies. He will break their yoke, deliver them from the Babylon’s chains; or rather from their present state of bondage, when strangers in all nations whither they are dispersed, shall serve themselves of them, oppress and harrahs them to more; or, both of all, from the bondage of his and Satan, their unbelief and impenitence, when they shall be turned unto the Lord, and serve the Lord their God, and David their king, which hath certainly a farther view than to the refraction of the temple service, and the governors of David’s line, who prelisted over them after the captivity in Babylon, even to the abored Mefiah, David’s Son, raised up to Se on his throne, and David’s Lord, whose divine character they should acknowledge, submit to his government, and join with his church in his waging, whom I will raise up to them; God, according to his promises, having contributed him to be a Prince and Saviour, to whom every knee must bow, and whom every tongue must confess. Note, They who take Christ for their king, are bound to prove their professions by their fidelity. Loyalty consists not in words but deeds.

The 10. 2

10. Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, faith the LORD, neither be dismayed, O Israel; for lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity, and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest and quiet, and none shall make him afraid. 11. For I am with thee, faith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. 12. For thus faith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. 13. There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayst be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines. 14. All thy lovers have forgotten thee: they seek thee not, for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of

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thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased. 15. Why a crest thou for thine affliction? thy forever is incurable, for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee. 16. Therefore all they that devour thee shall be detestered, and all thine adversaries, every one of them shall go into captivity: and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey. 17. For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, faith the LORD, because they called thee an outcraft, saying, ‘This is Zion,’ whom no man seeketh after.

Jeremiah 30:10-17

When God visits his people, he still in wrath remembers mercy.

1. Their state appears very deplorable; yea, to human view utterly desperate. Their house invincible, their wound grievous, ver. 12. So that all restoration was despaired of; God himself seemed to be their enemy, their cruel enemy, ver. 14. So severe, so long continued were the broken of his judgments upon them, they had not a friend in their troubles to plead for them, either with God or man; or so much as a kind hand stretched out to bind up their gaping wounds, or administer the healing medicine of confidation or advice, v. 13. Their lovers, the neighbouring nations, who courted them in their prosperity, deferred them in the day of their distress, v. 14. and looked upon their case as desperate, regarding Zion as an outcry, whom no man seeketh after, abandoned to destruction; all which extorted from them bitter complaints, v. 15. not that they had any cause to charge God as severe, for because of the multitude of their iniquities and their aggravated sins, had these visitations been sent upon them, and their suffering were less than they deserved; for however heavy the visitation seemed to them, God corrected them in measure, and for their good, that he might not leave them wholly unpunished; as a father chastising them, that they might be reformed, and not ruined. Note, (1.) If God’s people sin, they may not hope for impunity; the bonger shall family come upon them, as well as others. (2.) In our sufferings we are too apt to call the rod of a father the chastisement of a cruel one. (3.) Sin hath a mortal sting; none be. God can heal the guilty toil. (4.) Whatever burden God lays upon us, we are bound to acknowledge it less than our iniquity hath deserved. (5.) When the sinner is reduced to the depths of self-defeate, then is the time when God magnifies the riches of his grace in his salvation.

2. The Lord declares his purpose of mercy towards them. Desperate as their case seemed, both from their sins and sufferings, God bids them not fear, or be dismayed; he owns them still as his servants, v. 10. and engages to save them; and when he will work, who shall let him? Though far dispersed in distant lands, he will bring them back, and give them, for all the wars and tumults with which they had been harassed, peace and quiet in their own land; which seems more applicable to their last recovery, when they shall be gathered into the gospel church, than to their return from Babylon, when their settlement met with many obstructions. As for their enemies, God threatens to destroy them utterly; I will make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: the mightest monarchs are long since utterly subverted, and all other nations, among whom they had been captives, devoured, destroyed, and incorporated with their conquerors, v. 10. but to this hour we for the people of the Jews as much a distinct and separate people, as if they had been still shut up from all other nations in their own land, preferred for the promised mercy: and notwithstanding all their sins and dire calamities, God promises to pardon the one and heal the other; to restore their health, and heal their wounds, bringing them into a state of temporal prosperity, and saving them from the power of corruption; converting their souls, and causing them to puff take of all the blessings of his spiritual kingdom in Christ Jesus. Note, (1.) No sinner’s case is to far gone, as to be past the divine physician’s cure. (2.) They who believe God’s promises, will be delivered from distressing fears. (3.) The present state of the Jewish people is a great and constant evidence of the inspiration of the prophetic word.

3. Thus faith the LORD, Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwelling-places: and the city shall be busied upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof. 19. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of them that make mercy: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. 20. Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them. 21. And their + nobles shall be of themselves, and their governors shall proceed from the midst of them, and I will cause

him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who it is that engaged his heart to approach unto me? faith the LORD. 22. And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 23. Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a t continuing whirlwind, it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked. 24. The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the tments of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.

Jeremiah 30:18-24

The same subject is here pursued, and the promise here spoken have a twofold respect.

1. To the return of the Jews from Babylon. Then their city should be rebuilt on the same spot, the temple raised from its afore, v. 18. the sacred festivals be restored, their numbers be multiplied, their nation be respected, their children be playing in the thorns in peace, their congregation at the temple are disturbed, their oppressors punished; their rulers, of themselves, not strangers; their governor one of their own nation, appointed of God, accepted of him, a pattern of devotion and piety to his subjects, v. 21. The covenant of peculiarity shall be re-established, God their God, they his people, v. 22. whilst if the wicked, who had persecuted them, shall be swept away at with a whirlwind, through the force anger of the Lord, that shall not return until he hath done it, fully established his people, and destroyed their foes.

2. To their return to the church of God from their present dispersion, and this seems chiefly intended.

(1.) They shall be recovered from their captivity. Some suppose literally that they shall be collected in Judea, and that the city of Jerusalem shall be rebuilt in all its former magnificence; however, they shall come into the church of Chrift, the city of the living God, the spiritual Jerusalem, and the voice of thanksgiving for gospel-grace shall sound louder than the song which accompanied the sacred festivals.

(2.) Their numbers will be great in the day of their conversion, and a most glorious appearance will they make, when they shall be at once brought to the faith of the gospel, and a nature to have in a day. At that day the children of the church shall be multiplied in a more astonishing manner than at the first preaching of the gospel, and no more persecuting powers remain to disturb the congregation of the faithful, v. 25.

(3.) They will then be brought to know and acknowledge the true Messiah. His male one, his glorious, or mighty one, as the word may be rendered, shall be of themselves; and their governor, the Prince of Peace, able to save and to destroy, shall proceed out of the midst of them, rise up from the flock of Israel; I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me as mediates, appointed to be the furety and advocate of his people, and ever living in heaven to make intercession for them, in consequence of his having engaged his heart to God in the covenant of grace, to draw near to him by an obedience to death, even the death of the cross, in behalf of his people, who by the were excluded from the divine favour and presence. And this may well deserve a note of admiration, Who is this? This is Jesus, by whom lost souls are restored to the favour of the justly offended Jehovah, and he becomes their God, and they his people, which will be the case with the Jews at the latter day.

(4.) All the wicked will be cut off; they who will not submit to the Messiah’s government, must perish under his wrath terrible and irresistible, which sinners will be made to feel, if not before, at least at the great day of his appearing and glory, and then it will be too late to consider when wrath comes upon them to the interment: or, in the latter day ye shall consider it, shall see this prophecy accomplished, all the purposes of God’s love to his people, and of wrath to his enemies, being fully performed.