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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 31:27 - 31:40
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The New Life and The New Covenant
v. 27. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah, the congregation of true believers in Him, with the seed of man and with the seed of beast, with great spiritual blessings, as a field of exceeding fruitfulness.
v. 28. And it shall come to pass that like as I have watched over them, regarding them with wakeful attention, to pluck up, and to break down, or "to root out," and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict, the heaping of the synonyms emphasizing the thoroughness of the Lord's punishment upon His apostate people, so will I watch over them, namely, in the promised restoration, to build and to plant, saith the Lord.
v. 29. In those days they shall say no more, according to a proverb which had been coined during the years of tribulation in Israel, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge, the meaning being, of course, that the transgressions of the fathers were visited upon the innocent children, a statement intended to express that they suffered the evil consequences of their fathers' sins rather than of their own.
v. 30. But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. Cf Lam_5:7; Eze_18:2-3.
v. 31. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, a covenant concerning all those who were His children in truth,
v. 32. not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which My covenant they brake, although 1 was an Husband unto them, saith the Lord, surrounding His bride, the Church represented in the children of Israel, with the fullness of His loving care;
v. 33. but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, when in the realization of His mercy the justice of His judgments will freely be acknowledged, After those days, saith the Lord, in the Messianic era, I will put My Law, the glorious message of His eternal Gospel, in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, so that it would become the inmost possession of all believers, and will be their God, and they shall be My people. The Word of the Gospel, implanted into the hearts of men by faith, is the fundamental principle, the guiding and driving power in their lives, by and through which the relation of the believer to the God of his salvation is established and maintained. Cf 2Co_6:18; 1Pe_2:9.
v. 34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, such admonitory instruction in the knowledge of Jehovah being no longer required; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, the Spirit of God Himself having enlightened and instructed them, Isa_54:13; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more, the remission of sins through the merits of the Messiah being the central thought of all New Testament instruction. It is clear, of course, that this knowledge and experience of the grace of God does not exclude, but rather presupposes, the proclamation of God's gracious will in Christ Jesus.
v. 35. Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who established the laws of nature to endure as long as the earth stands, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar, exciting its billows and lashing them into a fury as His almighty power chooses; The Lord of hosts is His name, the almighty Ruler of the universe:
v. 36. If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, if the entire order of nature will be overthrown, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever, that is,. His Church would be maintained so that the very portals of hell will not be able to overcome it, Mat_16:18.
v. 37. Thus saith the Lord, in another solemn affirmation of His unchanging mercy toward His spiritual children, If heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, the heavens being immeasurable and the profoundest depths of the earth unsearchable to this day, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord. In spite of the fact that the justice of God compels Him to reject the willful transgressors, His mercy will always find some whom He will save from the general fate, for He does not desire the death of the sinner.
v. 38. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord, for the honor of His holy name, from the tower of Hananeel, in the northeastern corner of the city wall, unto the gate of the corner, on the north or northwest, near the present Jaffa Gate, the entire northern wall of the city being included in this description.
v. 39. And the measuring-line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, probably the hill of the lepers, to the northwest of the city, and shall compass about to Goath, a hill with a sharp ascent to the southwest of Jerusalem.
v. 40. And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, where the ashes of the sacrificial fires were dumped, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, on the east side, unto the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord, consecrated to His service; it shall not be plucked up nor thrown down any more forever, never suffer destruction. The entire passage is evidently figurative, the purpose being to set forth the increase and the glory of the New Testament Church, especially in its final perfection. It is proper that this description of Jehovah's Church should form the conclusion of the prophecy concerning the restoration of the Lord's people, since it includes both the redemption through the Messiah and the establishment of the holy Christian Church in its beginning here on earth and in its glorification in heaven.