Year 9, Day 83: Jeremiah 30

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Jeremiah 30 is a deep passage when it is allowed to be.  The problem is that people who are looking for iconic verses settle in on a few specific verses and pluck them out of context.  For example, Jeremiah 30:11 is a strong verse.  “I am with you to save you, declares the Lord.”  What a powerful message!  Or Jeremiah 30:22, which says, “You shall be my people, and I will be your God.”  This is another great verse with an easily overlooked context.  These are great verses, indeed.  But the context of the verses should not be overlooked.

How many times in this passage does God talk about pain and anguish?  God speaks about people holding their stomachs like pregnant women.  He speaks about cries of panic and terror without peace.  He speaks repeatedly about the incurable hurt of the Hebrew people.  The exile has been hard.  We need to remember God’s message of salvation comes within the midst of a message of mourning.  God will indeed save them, but He will save them out of a time of misery. 

To be fair, I think it is always worth noting that in order to be saved, one must be in a location with poor enough circumstances to warrant being saved.  One is not saved out of the lap of luxury.  One is not saved out of a time of peace and prosperity.  One is saved out of misery and turmoil!

Yes, God will save.  That is the overarching point of all of God’s Word!  God knows that human beings are inherently sinful.  We need His salvation at every moment of our life and at every turn of a decision.  We need His Son’s death.  We need His Spirit.  We need His grace and mercy.  But we need it because as human beings we are either in or put other people in times of concern, turmoil, or misery.

God Himself reminds the people that they have been put in exile because their guilt was great.  They brought this upon themselves over the span of generations of rebellion against Him.  They pursued the desires of their own hearts.  They oppressed the easy victim – the foreigner, the orphan, the widow.  The powerful took what the powerless could not protect.  They needed saving, sure.  They needed saving from themselves.

I think this is the point of this chapter.  The salvation started at the beginning of the exile.  God sent His people into exile to start the salvation process.  He needed them to be placed in a situation where they didn’t have control of their life to pursue the evil in their own hearts.  When their freedom for evil was stripped away, He could show them their pain.  Once their pain was revealed to them, then He could save them in truth.

God does restore us.  He is the great redeemer!  His restoration often begins well before we think it does.  He begins restoring us in the pit of our misery.

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