Born Anew

“At the same time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.” Jeremiah 31:1

The God of all the families of Israel! Not the exiles of the southern kingdom of Judah only, but also the ten tribes of the northern kingdom!

Paul rejoices in this promise in Romans 11:26, “And so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

The Deliverer is Jesus Christ!

“Thus says the Lord: the people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness—Israel, when I went to give him rest.” Jeremiah 31:2

The Israelites, who survived Egypt, experienced God’s gracious provisions as they crossed the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land. God provided for them in many miraculous ways. They also would survive the exile by His grace. Compared to paradise the entire earth is like a wilderness. God gives grace to all who believe in and profess His Son Jesus Christ to cross this wilderness and reach the other side, even heaven itself!

God promised Israel rest. Jesus is the answer to that promise of rest. In Mark 2:27-28, Jesus is the “Lord of the Sabbath.” He said, “The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath.” In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Revelation 14:13 speaks of those who die in the Lord as resting from their labors. Every Sabbath is a day to remember and celebrate the Sabbath that we will enjoy in paradise.

“The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” Jeremiah 31:3

God loves you. Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” If you are in Christ, it is because the Father drew you to Himself with lovingkindness. 1 John 4:19 says, “We love, because He first loved us.”

In 1 Peter 1:3, Peter wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

“Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! You shall again be adorned with your tambourines and shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice.” Jeremiah 31:4

God promised Jeremiah that he would root out, tear down, destroy and overthrow, but also would build and plant. Now, that Israel has been uprooted from their homeland, and that land is resting, he writes of the happy day when they will rebuild and replant their nation. It will be a very happy time of music, dancing to the Lord and rejoicing in His love.

In Acts 15:16-17, during a Church council meeting, James referenced God’s promise via Jeremiah to rebirth Jerusalem anew, saying, “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up.” James also referenced a promise that God had made to bring Gentiles into His family. “So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My Name.”

New Jerusalem is “Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone.” (Ephesians 2:20) When it is completed and presented there will be great rejoicing in God. “After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.” (Revelation 19:1) “He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” (Revelation 21:10)

“You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and eat them as ordinary food.” Jeremiah 31:5

Samaria was the capital of the northern tribes. The name Samaria synonymous with the entire northern region of Israel. The mountainous nature of that area is a suitable climate for growing grapes. In John 15:1-5, Jesus also spoke of vines and fruits is symbolic of Himself and the good works that He produces in the lives of those who remain in Him.

In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul wrote of the fruit of the Holy Spirit which comes forth from those who belong to Christ, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:24 speaks of pruning, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

“For there shall be a day when the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.’” Jeremiah 31:6

Mount Ephraim is symbolic of the northern tribes. Ephraim was one of the largest and most powerful northern tribes. Zion refers to Jerusalem and by extension to the house of the Lord.

The watchmen prefigure preachers of the Gospel. They shall summon Samaritans to believe in the Messiah.

Jesus summoned the Samaritans to believe in Him. Jesus told a Samaritan woman that He was the Messiah, saying, “I am He, the One speaking to you.” She believed in Him and testified of Him in her city. They came to Jesus and He stayed with them for two days. Many Samaritans believed in Jesus at that time. (John 4:25-26, 39-42)

Acts 8:5 says, “Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them.” Acts 8:14-17 says that the Samaritans received the Word of the Lord. Peter and John joined Philipp in Samaria. They laid hands on the new believers and they received the Holy Spirit. Acts 8:25 says that they preached the Gospel to many villages in Samaria.

“For thus says the Lord: sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘O Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Israel!’” Jeremiah 31:7

The Lord urged people to seek restoration with glad songs, shouts, proclamations of praise and with petitions to the Lord for salvation. They are to praise God in advance of the restoration as though already accomplished. In Mark 11:24, Jesus said to His disciples, “I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Jesus is looking for believing believers. In Luke 18:8, Jesus asked His disciples, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

“Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and the one who labors with child, together; a great throng shall return there.” Jeremiah 31:8

“Not even the most infirm and unfit persons for a journey shall be left behind, so universal shall be the restoration.” (Jamieson Fausset Brown Commentary)

Isaiah 40:11 says, “Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.” Matthew 12:20 says of the Messiah, “A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory.” Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

Thus, to be Christlike, Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” Hebrews 12:12 says, “Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble.”

“They shall come with weeping, and with supplications I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.” Jeremiah 31:9

Weeping, perhaps, because the veil that kept them from perceiving the grace and kindness of God has been removed from their eyes. Romans 2:4 asks, “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” They were wrong about God. He loves them. He straightened the path before them. They are His firstborn because God imparted to them the righteousness of His Son.

Romans 4:22-25 says, “It [Abraham’s faith in God] was accounted to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it [righteousness] was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”

A former Pharisee, Paul wrote in Philippians 3:8-9, “I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”

Jeremiah wrote, “I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters.” Revelation 7:17 says, “The Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

“I will cause them to walk in a straight way.” In John 14:6, Jesus is the straight way to the Father, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

“Hear the Word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’” Jeremiah 31:10

The Heavenly Father proclaimed to the farthest ends of the earth His promise to bring Israel back to Himself. He who scattered them knows where to find them. The bulk of the captives that the Lord brought back to Israel had been scattered to Assyria, Babylon and Persia.

Just before Jesus was crucified, the High Priest “Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.” (John 11:50-52)

In Acts 2:9-11, on the day the Holy Spirit baptized the twelve apostles, there were Jews present from many nations. Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, and Cappadocians, Cretans and Arabs. Jews from Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, and Rome. Acts 2:44 testifies that faith in Jesus Messiah brought them together, “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common.”

In Revelation 10:11, an angel said to John, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.” In Revelation 14:1-5, there are 144,000 Messianic Jews from every tribe of Israel following the Lamb wherever He goes.

“For the Lord has redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than him.” Jeremiah 31:11

In Matthew 20:28, Jesus spoke of Himself as Goel. Goel is the Hebrew word for a kinsman-redeemer. “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” He came to redeem us from our captivity to sin.

In Matthew 12:28-29, Jesus is the One who frees people from demon powers by the Spirit of God. He is stronger than other strongmen. By His mighty power, demonic strongholds over people are broken and destroyed. Hebrews 2:14 says, “Since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.”

“Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, streaming to the goodness of the Lord—for wheat and new wine and oil, for the young of the flock and the herd; their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, and they shall sorrow no more at all.” Jeremiah 31:12

The people did sing to the Lord. They did stream back to the Lord when they returned to Israel from captivity. But even more so in Acts 2:4-47! Jesus Messiah blessed them with the oil of His Holy Spirit. Oil symbolizes the anointing power of the Holy Spirit. Then, they broke bread together reminiscent of Him who gave to them wheat (bread) and wine to remind them of His body and blood given for the forgiveness of their sins.

“They shall sorrow no more.” In Revelation 21:4, our Lord Jesus “will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

“Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together; for I will turn their mourning to joy, will comfort them, and make them rejoice rather than sorrow.” Jeremiah 31:13

The above prophecy was partially fulfilled when the Lord brought back the captives from Babylon to Israel. This prophecy was more completely fulfilled in Acts 2:4-47, when the Holy Spirit poured out on sons and daughters and they began to prophesy. When young men saw visions! When old men dreamed dreams! When God’s Spirit of prophesy poured out on both His male and female servants. I have seen the Holy Spirit fill God’s servants with joy. I have seen God’s people dance and sing praises to God with overflowing joy.

“I will satiate the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness says the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:14

When the people of Israel returned to their homeland, they had great priests and governors like Ezra and Nehemiah, and like Joshua and Zerubbabel (Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 3; 4:6-10).

In 1 Peter 2:9, the Holy Spirit makes believers in Christ a royal priesthood: “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Revelation 5:10 says of Jesus, “You have made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” The Lord satiates the souls of His servants with spiritual holiness.

“Thus says the Lord: a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” Jeremiah 31:15

It is amazing to me that with so many of the verses in this chapter alluding to Jesus Messiah and the Holy Spirit, that now 600 years prior to the birth of Jesus, God connects Jeremiah’s writings with the massacre of babies that happened after Jesus was born.

In Genesis 30:1, Rachel wanted to have children. In Genesis 35:18-19, she died in Ramah while giving birth to her son whom she named Ben-oni meaning “son of sorrow.” Jacob renamed him Benjamin meaning “son of my right hand” or “son of strength.” Rachel was buried at Ramah. She is represented as “weeping” as Bethlehem is depopulated of her son’s descendants. After Herod massacred the baby boys, many mothers there had “sons of sorrow” (Ben-oni).

“Thus says the Lord: ‘refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope in your future, says the Lord, that your children shall come back to their own border.” Jeremiah 31:16-17

In Jeremiah 40:1, Ramah was the place from which Nebuzaradan deported the Jews to Babylon. Thus, God consoles ‘Rachel’ with the promise of their restoration. The removal of the Jews to Babylon compares with Rachel’s babies being massacred by Herod. The return of the Jews from exile to Jerusalem compares with her sons being resurrected from the dead.” (Jameison Fausset Brown Commentary)

“Your work shall be rewarded.” Rachel named her son Ben-oni, meaning “son of my sorrow.” Her work was to weep for her children. Her work was rewarded when the Lord resurrected her, when the Lord brought her descendants back from Babylon, and when the Lord resurrected her sons that King Herod massacred in Bethlehem. A town that belonged to the tribe of Benjamin!

“I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself: ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained bull; restore me, and I will return, for You are the Lord my God.” Jeremiah 31:18

“Before my chastisement I needed the severe correction I received, as much as an untamed bullock needs the goad.” (Jamieson Fausset Brown Commentary). How can anyone be a yoke fellow with Jesus if he or she has not received the power from God, and has not been mentored by Him? This metaphor relates with the yoke which Jeremiah wore to illustrate Israel’s need to be yoked (submitted) to God’s will.

Before Saul of Tarsus met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was like a wild bull. In Acts 9:5, Paul asked Jesus, “’Who are You, Lord?’ Then the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’” The goad is a tool for guiding oxen in the right direction. It hurts them, but also helps them to be useful.

Later, in Philippians 2:13, Paul wrote to fellow believers saying, “It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

In Revelation 3:19, Jesus told the Laodicean believers, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.” His loving-kindness leads us to repent.

“Surely, after my turning, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh; I was ashamed, yes, even humiliated, because I bore the reproach of my youth.” Jeremiah 31:19

Repentance is coming to one’s senses in Luke 15:17, “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger!’” The prodigal’s money was gone. He was lonely. He was so hungry that pig slop looked appetizing to him. Suddenly, a humble thought popped into his mind. He was ready to do it.

The tax collector in Luke 18:13 came to his senses when he prayed, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” In 2 Corinthians 7:10, Paul wrote, “The sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation.”

“Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For though I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still; therefore, My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:20

“Who would have thought that one so undutiful to His heavenly Father as Ephraim had been should still be regarded by God as a pleasant child? Certainly, he was not so in respect to his sin. But by virtue of God’s everlasting love.” (Jameison Fausset Brown Commentary)

Though Ephraim (the northern tribes) had been evil toward God, God earnestly remembered them, yearned for them and desired to have mercy on them. Like the father in the story of the prodigal son “when he saw his son yet a great way off, he ran to him and had compassion on him.” The father declared, “This son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” And the celebration began! (Luke 15:20, 24)

“Set up signposts, make landmarks; set your heart toward the highway, the way in which you went. Turn back, O virgin of Israel, turn back to these your cities.” Jeremiah 31:21

God urged the exiles to set up signs and landmarks as caravan leaders do to mark the way through the desert because they would be returning by the same path. The Lord calls her a virgin daughter despite her previous adulterous affairs with idols. He forgave her.

“How long will you gad about, O you backsliding daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth—a woman shall encompass a man.” Jeremiah 31:22

“For the Lord will create” implies divine power put forth in the creation of a body in the Virgin’s womb by God’s Spirit. “A new thing” a man at once God and man! A woman at once mother and virgin. A child conceived by the Holy Spirit without the help of a man.

“The restoration of Israel is grounded in God’s covenant in Christ. The Virgin Mary’s conception of Messiah in the womb answers to the ‘Virgin of Israel’ in Jeremiah 31:21. The reference to the conception of the child Messiah accords with the mention of the massacre of ‘children’ referred to in Jeremiah 31:15.” (Jameison Fausset Brown Commentary)

Matthew 1:21 says, “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” In Luke 1:34-35, “Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, seeing that I know not a man?’ And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God.’”

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: they shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity: ‘The Lord bless you, O home of justice, and mountain of holiness!’” Jeremiah 31:23

Jerusalem shall once again be the capital of the whole nation. Back home from exile, the Lord will bless them with justice and holiness.

“And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks.” Jeremiah 31:24

Farmers and flocks from Judah’s cities indicates ample food to meet their daily needs. In a spiritual sense, I think of sowers and harvesters who preach the Gospel and train disciples.

“For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.” Jeremiah 31:25

God is well able to refresh our souls. To fill our cup until overflowing! In Luke 1:53, Mary’s soul magnified the Lord after the angel told her the good news concerning Israel’s Messiah. She said of the Lord, “He has filled the hungry with good things.”

“After this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was sweet to me.” Jeremiah 31:26

The word “sleep” here means a dream. Jeremiah did not have to work or strain to obtain these words from God. God gave them to him while he was sleeping. These promises left a “sweet” impression on his mind. Jeremiah’s dream in this chapter relates to New Testament’s Joseph’s dreams by which God instructed him as he slept. (Matthew 1:20; 2:12, 19, 22)

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:27-28

What imagery! God sows human and animal seeds as a farmer spreads plant seeds on soil.

David wrote in Psalm 139:13-14, “You created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

“In those days they shall say no more: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.” Jeremiah 31:29-30

This was apparently a proverb among the children of the exiles born in Babylon to express that they suffered the evil consequences of their fathers’ sins rather than of their own. They said in Lamentations 5:7, “Our fathers sinned and are no more. It is we who have borne their iniquities.” But the Lord is saying to them that each person will be held accountable for their own actions and made to pay for their choices.

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with 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 lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to 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 Law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34

This new covenant answers to Israel’s need to know and remain in the Lord. This new covenant answers to the useless sash and to the marred clay pot mentioned earlier in Jeremiah’s prophecy. God wanted to wear His people close to Him like a treasured sash. He wanted them to be vessels of honor. The work of His own hands! This closeness would come about because God would forgive their sins and remember them no more based on the perfect obedience of His Son Jesus Christ. He would remember them in Christ His Son.

In Matthew 26:28, Jesus said, “For this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” In 2 Corinthians 3:6, Paul wrote that Christ “made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” God’s forgiveness of our sins and His Holy Spirit helps us to be good witnesses for God. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”

Hebrews 10:16 says, “I will put My Laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.” This is an intimate relationship with God’s Word. His Word is inside us! Jesus didn’t give us laws written on stones as Moses did. Jesus writes God’s Word on our hearts to help us know God in a personal way, and to abide with Him.

“Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (The Lord of hosts is His Name): If those ordinances depart from before Me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever. Thus says the Lord: if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:35-37

God spoke of signs that have been around since the beginning of the world: the sun, the moon, the stars, the sea, the heavens and the foundations of the earth, all this to emphatically say that Israel will not cease to be a nation. God guaranteed it. A very precious promise for the people in Babylon who had doubts about their nation of Israel’s future.

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the city shall be built for the Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. The surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath. And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.” Jeremiah 31:38-40

The valley of dead bodies (death valley) was going to be alive again thanks to the Lord.

Israel was dead to God, but she lived again. God’s great love, rich mercy and grace in Christ Jesus revived her soul. I see God doing this miracle among so many people today. Glory to God!

Ephesians 2:1, 4 says, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

“Thank You Heavenly Father for Your grace to us in Christ Jesus Your Son. And thank You Holy Spirit for filling making us anew in the image of the One True God.