Mahler's Resurrection Symphony #2 and Jeremiah chapter 30: God's love is massive

 Truth and Consequences: 

A study in the prophecy of Jeremiah

Chapter 30

By Bob Mendelsohn

Given 22 July 2022

 

Lesson Thirty: Hope begins

 

INTRODUCTION

Last night I watched the ABC broadcast of the Resurrection Symphony, Mahler’s 2^nd. What a majestic concert and brilliant performance by all the choir and the orchestra and the soloists. And as I read this chapter again late last night, I heard the crashing sounds of the Resurrection symphony continuing in my ears. It’s a marvelous 90-minute piece in five movements and it’s like the title it is full of hope. One cannot listen to the whole symphony and not celebrate and rejoice on its ending. I honestly hear that ending as Jeremiah writes this chapter into his new book. It’s a chapter full of hope, and is in stark contrast to the previous chapters, certainly the entire opening chapters where the prophet laid the case for the judgment of God on Judah. There was no hope. Now, he changes the tune and the orchestra and the soloists join him. 

As in any art of this length there are repeated phrases that the author or the composer uses to underline his thesis. And not to disappoint, Jeremiah uses a phrase seven times (30.3, .18, 31.23, 32.44, 33.7, .11, .26) in the next four chapters, and that’s not something to miss. The phrase in verse 3 

וְשַׁבְתִּי אֶת־שְׁב֨וּת עַמִּ֧י יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל 

Is repeated over and over. Shavti et sh’voot. I will restore the fortunes. Or I will turn your captivity. It’s about a big U-turn. The turnaround. And for the Judeans, captive in a foreign land, with no real hope except what a sometimes madman prophet has said, their fortunes were limited and really where could they turn? Jeremiah had told them their only hope was to stay the course, to live and seek the shalom of the mayor, to plant trees, to build houses, to make life in Babylon for at least two generations. And yet, now he’s saying, “Shavti et sh’voot.” The orchestra is playing it for the first time, and just warming up.

Let’s listen as the conductor approaches the podium.

1.   First Movement: Write this book (.1-.4)

The first movement then. Verse 2, God says that what Jeremiah has already heard, he needs to write in a book. Remember a sefer is a scroll, not a bound volume like you see in a library today. God has spoken and Jeremiah has declared and now God wants this recorded permanently, or at least, as permanently as a scroll can be in 590 BCE. 

Verse 3, For behold, this is the reason the people should have significant hope. God explains himself; that’s rare indeed. I will restore; I’m going to make things right. And now, because I’m going to do that, you can have real hope, I will bring you back to Judah, to the sworn land of promise. I made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and I keep my promises. You, fallen Judah, you break your covenant promises, but based on me, and my own faithfulness, ‘they shall possess it.”

Verse 4, here’s the words of God, not Jeremiah’s own ideas. And this is like we have the title of a book. This then is “GOD’S WORDS re: JUDAH and ISRAEL” I like that God included Israel, about whom we read very little in Jeremiah. They had gone into captivity in 722 BCE approximately 150 years earlier. And even though there is little mention of them, and we don’t know much of their maintenance of their religion in Assyria, God keeps good records and kept us until he brought us back during this era and certainly at the time of the return after the 70 years of Jeremiah’s prophecies.

Keown says, “It is a sort of promissory note or written guarantee of the survival of God’s people into the future.”

2.   Second Movement: From Panic to Peace (.5-11)

Then the 2^nd movement begins. Verse 5: Again, thus says the Lord. Jeremiah is making sure we get this book’s author clearly understood. Jeremiah is scribing (and we find out in a few chapters he actually is not the scribe, but the orator) and the real author is God himself. That’s either extremely boastful or actual. And we here in this zoom room are of the opinion that it’s actual. That’s why we 2500 years later are studying these words weekly, to learn from God what he has to say to us as 21^st century people.

Verse 6 begins as did verse 3 with the Hebrew preposition KEY. Because. For. There is a cause here and the causation is the Word of God and then a surprise. The word “I have heard” is actually “we have heard.” The poem begins with a report from an unidentified plural subject, a sort of chorus, which announces the words they have heard spoken by a fearful voice.

This is the same message we have heard from the beginning. This induced panic in the people. “Dread” and “no peace.” Even the army seems to have been almost paralyzed “every man” and “hands on hips” Nebuchadnezzar’s army is coming and they are like women giving birth.

So it’s as if we have heard those sounds from the orchestra before, and it’s titled “Jacob’s trouble” and I’m imagining the multiplied voices of the choir singing about our ancestor Jacob and the woes of his lost son, lost sons, famine, weary travels and much more, and so it’s titled in verse 7, but then… just then… when you least expect it, the sound of the piccolo and the flute, the violins and the trumpets begin to play a new theme, an almost joyful theme, a theme of hope. Look at end of verse 7, “but he will be saved from it.”

This also from Word commentary:

“8-9 The promise to remove “his yoke from off your neck” is also found in Isa 10:27, where it refers to the end of Assyrian domination of Judah. In this context, however, the yoke is Nebuchadrezzar’s (27:12), to which the LORD had commanded Judah and her neighbours to submit. Nebuchadrezzar is not “my servant” here, as in 27:6. He has become one of the (verse 8) “strangers” who have subjugated God’s people and is not even mentioned by name.

 עוד, “again,” at the end of v 8 arranges this promise in sequence with the command in chap. 27 to submit to Nebuchadrezzar and the subsequent conquest of Judah. In isolation, the promise of the shattered yoke would sound just like Hananiah’s false prophecy in 28:2. The present context indicates, however, that this promise of deliverance comes after Jacob had been carried “far away” into captivity (v 10) and after further action against the nations (v 11).”

 

Verse 9. They will serve, sounds like the Exodus story, right? We could not save ourselves, God saved us, but what did Moses request of Pharaoh there? Let my people go, that they may serve him. Here, the reflection is clear. Foreign power, we cannot save ourselves, God wants us free….in order to serve him!

Look, there is a triple promise of salvation (.7, .10, .11) but as we have noted before, judgment must be enacted on sin. Let’s be clear; the Jewish people are in Babylon due to our sins. We have said no to the Lord too many times to be freed just by asking in a moment. In fact, the issue of how we are delivered is clarified over and over in this book. Do not miss it. God alone is responsible for our captivity due to our sin. God alone is responsible for our continuing in judgment, but that judgment is only penultimate. The real story line is not “the Jews survived due to our own self-authorization or our own commitment to Torah or our strength of character.” The real story line is God and his character alone saves us. Look at verse 11, “I will chasten you justly and will by no means leave you unpunished.”  God’s justice is sure. He has to behave according to his own promises which include punishment. 

Remember the self-description of the Lord in Exodus (34.6-7)

“The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and ¹truth; ⁷ who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

That’s what is happening here. And dare I say, that may be what God is saying to us Jewish people in these days if we don’t listen to his voice and follow his ways.

I need to say something about verse 9 and the reference to David. In the same way that God uses historical figures to represent current situations (Jacob’s trouble), so he uses David as representative. God is not going to bring David back from the dead to rule over the Jewish people. That didn’t happen on our return to Judah and Jerusalem. It is not going to happen in the future. David is representative of the royal line that represented the Lord with a whole heart.

3.   Healing for our wounds (.12-.17)

The third movement begins at verse 12. The nation in exile again comes to the sefer. The French horns sound the sound of lament and our wounds are exposed. Not only are we wounded in verse 12, but we have no hope of repair. There is no one who is on call at the surgery. And worse for those who know religion well, is that no one is there to plead our case in verse 13. There is a cause to our woundedness and it’s our own sin. We have no one to stand in the gap. We are helpless. Verse 14 shows us that God has judged us and we have no one to help. Verse 15 says that God is the judge and the cause is our sin, our abundant sin. And sins. And why do you cry out for help? Listen, it’s impossible for man to repair himself. No man can by any means redeem his brother. We are desperately wicked, our heart is deceptive, who can know and understand this? And yet, there is a hope somewhere. We have to get to the admission of the impossible before the blessing of God’s possible comes to us. Otherwise, we will think we earned it. We will consider help as coming from ourselves. Friends, we have to admit our helplessness before any help will ever come our own way.

Then for whatever reason, verse 16 brings in the tympany and the sound of valiant relief. The nations which have carried us away into captivity will get their come-up-ence. Justice will be meted to them. What those nations did to you will be done to them. No one escapes the judgment of the Almighty. 

And an amazing word is used at the beginning of verse 16. English: Therefore. Hebrew לָכֵ֞ן

This makes no sense. The logical sequence which ends in a therefore should be related to justice on Judah. But it’s not. And there is no explanation. It’s as if God is saying, “I’ve got this one. Don’t ask.”

And in another shout of surprise in this new book of Jeremiah, what some call the Book of Consolation, God says he will personally heal us, our health will כִּי֩ אַעֲלֶ֨ה ALAH (that is, ascend, or translated “restore”). There is a lightness in the music. There is a new fragrance in the air. Our hearts are lifted. Our heads raise up. 

4.   Restoring the community (.18-21)

The fourth movement today is in verses 18-21. Simple. Direct. Restoration. We will go home. Again Shav shavoot. Homes are rebuilt. Palace and city rebuilt. The people increase in number; it’s as if life is back to square. Back to normal. The music is easy on the ears. We even have enemies who are held at bay as our new leader leads us well. This simple declaration of restoration is welcomed and has been painfully and at times desperately anticipated. It’s not immediate; you have to remember that. It’s written BOTH to the people hearing that book read AND for the people who returned 70 years later to remember and to make sure they don’t mess up this time and be sent back into captivity somewhere else. 

Verse 19 I hear the echo of the chorus from Abraham’s day about increase and being the people of God to represent him throughout the world. 

5.   Judgment will make sense later (.22-23)

The final and fifth movement today is the final couplet. Keown says, “The same two verses appear in 23:19–20 as an epitome of the divine word of judgment, which was heard by those who stood in the LORD’s council. It was the opposite of the false prophets’ message.” Covenant matters. Judgment happens. And yet, wrath is swallowed up in mercy. That’s not only good news; it’s great news.

Do you hear the music? Do you hear what God is saying to you and the choir is singing to you just now? God wants you to return to him and to trust him with all your heart and soul and strength? Will you do that? What is stopping you? What really matters in your fleeting life? In a moment Jimmy will end our session with a prayer, a prayer of repentance, and you can join him in saying that prayer, and joining with us in our family of faith. Nothing else will matter once you do that. Will you trust God with your life just now?

 

CONCLUSION

God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? He is risen from the dead! Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life. 

 

PRAYER

Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up. 

We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 27. Until then, Shabbat shalom!

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnes, Albert, Albert Barnes’ Commentary on the Old Testament.

Henry, Matthew, Commentary.

Keown, Gerald, Scalise, Pamela, Smothers, Thomas, Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah (Part 2).  1995. 

McConnville, Gordon, Jeremiah, New Bible Commentary. 

Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.

 

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ACTUAL TEXT

 

Deliverance from Captivity Promised

 

Jer. 30:1   The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, ² “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Write all the words which I have spoken to you in a book. ³ ‘For behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah.’ The LORD says, ‘I will also bring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers and they shall possess it.’”

 

Jer. 30:4   Now these are the words which the LORD spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah:

 

Jer. 30:5      “For thus says the LORD, 

         ‘I have heard a sound of terror, 

         Of dread, and there is no peace.

⁶        ‘Ask now, and see 

         If a male can give birth. 

         Why do I see every man 

         With his hands on his loins, as a woman in childbirth? 

         And why have all faces turned pale?

⁷        ‘Alas! for that day is great, 

         There is none like it; 

         And it is the time of Jacob’s distress, 

         But he will be saved from it.

 

Jer. 30:8   ‘It shall come about on that day,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘that I will break his yoke from off ¹their neck and will tear off ¹their bonds; and strangers will no longer make them their slaves. ⁹ ‘But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.

¹⁰       ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant,’ declares the LORD, 

         ‘And do not be dismayed, O Israel; 

         For behold, I will save you from afar 

         And your offspring from the land of their captivity. 

         And Jacob will return and will be quiet and at ease, 

         And no one will make him afraid.

¹¹       ‘For I am with you,’ declares the LORD, ‘to save you; 

         For I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you, 

         Only I will not destroy you completely. 

         But I will chasten you justly 

         And will by no means leave you unpunished.’

 

Jer. 30:12             “For thus says the LORD, 

         ‘Your wound is incurable 

         And your injury is serious.

¹³       ‘There is no one to plead your cause; 

         No healing for your sore, 

         No recovery for you.

¹⁴       ‘All your lovers have forgotten you, 

         They do not seek you; 

         For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, 

         With the punishment of a cruel one, 

         Because your iniquity is great 

         And your sins are numerous.

¹⁵       ‘Why do you cry out over your injury? 

         Your pain is incurable. 

         Because your iniquity is great 

         And your sins are numerous, 

         I have done these things to you.

¹⁶       ‘Therefore all who devour you will be devoured; 

         And all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity; 

         And those who plunder you will be for plunder, 

         And all who prey upon you I will give for prey.

¹⁷       ‘For I will restore you to health 

         And I will heal you of your wounds,’ declares the LORD, 

         ‘Because they have called you an outcast, saying: 

         “It is Zion; no one ³cares for her.”’

 

Jer. 30:18             “Thus says the LORD, 

         ‘Behold, I will restore the ¹fortunes of the tents of Jacob 

         And have compassion on his dwelling places; 

         And the city will be rebuilt on its ruin, 

         And the palace will stand on its rightful place.

¹⁹       ‘From them will proceed thanksgiving 

         And the voice of those who celebrate; 

         And I will multiply them and they will not be diminished; 

         I will also honour them and they will not be insignificant.

²⁰       ‘Their children also will be as formerly, 

         And their congregation shall be established before Me; 

         And I will punish all their oppressors.

²¹       ‘Their leader shall be one of them, 

         And their ruler shall come forth from ¹their midst; 

         And I will bring him near and he shall approach Me; 

         For who would dare to risk his life to approach Me?’ declares the LORD.

²²       ‘You shall be My people, 

         And I will be your God.’”

 

Jer. 30:23             Behold, the tempest of the LORD! 

         Wrath has gone forth, 

         A sweeping tempest; 

         It will burst on the head of the wicked.

²⁴       The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back 

         Until He has performed and until He has accomplished 

         The intent of His heart; 

         In the latter days you will understand this.