WWUTT 2504 God Will Restore His Remnant (Jeremiah 31:1-9)

Jeremiah 31 speaks of a new covenant. The New Testament references this covenant as being fulfilled in Christ. You and I are in that covenant by faith in Jesus when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Jeremiah, we have come to chapter 31. This is a big chapter in the book of Jeremiah. Chapter 29 may be the most famous. Chapter 31 may be the most significant.

New Covenant Promises in Jeremiah 31 and the Last Supper

Numerous references in the New Testament to chapter 31. We just read of one, actually, as we were finishing up Luke chapter 22, when Jesus was with his disciples in the upper room for the Last Supper.

He passed the cup and said, this cup represents the new covenant in my blood. That's a reference back to Jeremiah chapter 31. This is part of the book of Consolation, where God is promising Israel that he will restore them to their land.

Though they are being punished, they've been exiled to Babylonian captivity, he would restore them again and even give them a king from the line of David who would rule over them. We read that in chapter 30.

That of course is in reference to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And we'll see references to the Messiah in this chapter as well. Let me begin by reading verses one through nine of Jeremiah 31. Hear the word of the Lord.

At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel and they shall be my people. Thus says the Lord, the people who survived the sword found graces in the wilderness when Israel sought for rest.

The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you and you shall be built. Oh, virgin Israel.

Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of merrymakers. Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit.

For there shall be a day when watchmen will call in the hill country of Ephraim, arise and let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God. For thus says the Lord, sing aloud with gladness for Jacob and raise shouts for the chief of the nations.

Proclaim, give praise and say, oh Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth. Among them, the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor together, a great company.

They shall return here. With weeping they shall come and with pleas for mercy, I will lead them back. I will make them walk by brooks of water in a straight path in which they shall not stumble. For I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn.

So we come back up to the start of the chapter here. As we go through this, this is probably going to take us a while. First of all, because the chapter is 40 verses. That's a pretty big chapter when we come across those kinds of chapters in the book of Jeremiah.

It took us three weeks to get through chapter 29. It may take us a little bit longer than that to get through chapter 31 because we're going to stop and see the sites along the way. As I said, there are various references in the New Testament to what we read in Jeremiah 31.

Hebrews 8 verses 8 through 12, the most complete quotation of of Jeremiah 31 is in those verses there in Hebrews chapter 8. And then also in chapter 10 verses 16 to 17, that quotes chapter 31 verses 33 to 34 to support the argument that's being made there by the writer of Hebrews concerning the new covenant that is fulfilled in Christ.

Romans chapter 11 verse 27 refers to Jeremiah 31, 34. We're not going to get to that verse for a couple of weeks, but that verse says no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and his brother saying, no, the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.

In the sermon series that I'm doing right now at my church, I'm going through Romans. So at some point in the sermon series that you hear on Sunday on this particular podcast, I'll get to that. We'll talk about that reference in Romans 11 27.

Also in in Matthew, Mark and Luke, Matthew chapter 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, which we just finished up. You have the, in the synoptic gospels where Jesus institutes the Lord's supper. And he says to his disciples concerning the cup, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.

That's a reference to Jeremiah chapter 31. And in second Corinthians three, six, it refers to being servants of a new covenant. And that may not be a direct quotation from Jeremiah 31, but that is what Paul is referring to there.

When saying that we are the servants of a new covenant, this is the new covenant that we are in. We who are Christians are in that new covenant. And we read of the promise of that covenant here in Jeremiah chapter 31.

Israel, the Remnant, and the Lost Northern Tribes

So let me come back up to the top of the chapter again in chapter 31 verse one, at that time declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel and they shall be my people. Remember that we read back in chapter 30, that God would restore not just the Jews, but also Israel.

You have 10 tribes of Israel that occupied that Northern territory. Now Israel would not be able to assume those land allocations again. So remember when Joshua came into the promised land and he brought all the tribes of Israel in, there were various lands that were appointed to each of the 12 tribes.

Well, the 10 tribes of the Northern kingdom of Israel would not resume that land the way that it's promised here in verse one, at that time declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel and they shall be my people.

Okay.

So there's not a promise in there that they will resume their respective land plots. Some have taken this to mean therefore that what is promised in chapter 31 verse one has not been fulfilled yet. And this is going to be a future restoration of Israel.

I don't agree with that because later on, even in the section that we have read, God will preserve his remnant. And that's what's going to return to the land. It's the remnant. The 10 Northern tribes of Israel are lost.

They were exiled out when the Assyrians came and conquered them. They were assimilated with the people. Dan being one of those Northern 10 tribes and Dan is gone. When you read in Revelation chapter seven of the 12 tribes of Israel that are among the 144 ,000 that are sealed, Dan is not listed there.

So Dan is so gone that they're not even among the 12 tribes listed in Revelation chapter seven. I'm going to start going through Revelation on Sunday night at my church. This is going to be my first time preaching through Revelation.

I've taught through it before. I've taught through it at least twice. Once was actually to a youth group. It was the youth group at our church. They just said, we want to go through Revelation. And I had a book that was specifically for students.

It was a workbook that they could go through. So I said, great, let's do that and we'll have this accompanying workbook with it. And then right before I left Kansas, the small group that I had on Thursday evenings, when did we meet?

It wasn't Wednesday night. It was either Tuesday or Thursday night that we met. Oh, it was Thursday because that's what led to me doing the Old Testament study on Thursday on the podcast was because I was already meeting on Thursday nights with a group at my house and we were going through Old Testament study.

So the very last book I did before I left Kansas, they said, could you give us like a crash course on Revelation? It wasn't a real in-depth teaching because I didn't have a whole lot of time, but we went through the entire book.

So I've taught on it before, but this is going to be the first time in a teaching capacity where you might attribute these as being sermons that I'll be going through the book of Revelation. And that's Sunday night at my church.

Those sermons end up online on our church website as well, if you want to listen to those because they're not going to get on the podcast right away. Not until I start teaching through Revelation a little bit later on anyway.

So in Revelation, you have the 144 ,000 sealed. You have the 12 tribes of Israel that are listed there. Dan is not there. So Dan, because of their idolatry and because of their rebellion against God, they are not one of those tribes that ends up being restored.

So what are we to make of this verse then? This promise in Jeremiah 31, one, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel. They will be my people. Well, again, as I said, it's with reference to the remnant.

There was still a remnant of other tribes that would come back in with Judah. Those who had not been assimilated when they were driven out of the Northern kingdom by the Assyrians. So there would still be some Israelites that would therefore be intermingled with the Jews and they weren't separate peoples.

Now they were one people and there were other tribes that are mentioned, including Ephraim. We have Ephraim mentioned here, Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, the tribe of Levi. So there were people from respective tribes that are mentioned in the restoration back to the land, even though those tribes would not reoccupy the land allotments that they were given at the, at the time that they had first come into the promised land.

So thus says the Lord here in verse two, the people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness when Israel sought for rest. So you're talking about people that came from those 10 Northern tribes.

The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. So Israel was not completely wiped out. But those that were brought back into the land by the Assyrians were assimilated in with other groups, the Mesopotamians and other nations that the Assyrians had brought into that land and stuck there.

And so the people that live there end up becoming mutts, so to speak. They didn't have a defined nationality because they had, they lost their identity through all of the interracial marriage. And they end up with Sumerians at the time of Jesus.

And it's why the Jews hated them so much because they weren't really Jews. They weren't really Israelites. They weren't anybody. The Gentiles didn't like them either because, again, they didn't have a clearly defined nationality.

They had been a bunch of different nationalities that had children together and now had no defining characteristic as an ancient people. And so the Sumerians were hated by Gentiles. They were hated by Jews.

They really were kind of outcast during the time of Christ. But there were still people from Israel who had escaped from the sword of the Assyrians and God is bringing them back into the land. They would dwell even with the Jews when they were restored from Babylonian captivity.

Restoration, Purity, and Zion in Christ

So verse four, again, I will build you and you shall be built, O virgin Israel. Again, you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. Again, you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria.

The planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit. Now, I don't want to go too quick past what was said there in verse four. Again, I will build you and you shall be built, O virgin Israel. Because what has been said about Israel up to this point, leading up to their eventual exile and the punishment while they were in exile.

And now we have this promise of them being restored and they're called virgin Israel. What were they called before? You're going to see this more pronounced in Ezekiel than we've seen it even in Isaiah and Jeremiah, but they were called a whore.

They were called prostitutes because they had whored themselves out with the false gods of the pagans around them. And so now God has gone from calling them prostitutes to now he's calling them, O virgin Israel.

This is a promise of the kind of restoration that God would give to this land. He would heal them. He would purify them and bring this people back to their home. You shall adorn yourself. You shall plant vineyards.

You shall enjoy the fruit. So all of the flourishing that you had experienced before God would restore to them again, verse six, for there shall be a day when watchmen will call in the hill country of Ephraim, arise and let us go up to Zion to the Lord, our God.

So that's a promise of the temple being reconstructed and that God would be with them again. Now, let me add a caveat to that. That doesn't mean that God would come down in his presence and dwell in the temple as he did before when Solomon built the temple, remember Solomon's dedication of the temple.

And then God comes down in fire and fills the holy place of the temple. And it was so intense that not even the priests could stand there and minister because God's presence would have completely incinerated them.

So they had to keep their distance and they bowed down. God dwelled with his people in the temple that Solomon had constructed for God to make his name there. But God removed himself from the temple. We'll see this picture even in the book of Ezekiel when we get there.

God removed himself and went away so that the enemy that came against them would conquer them because God wasn't with them anymore to protect them. So when God is talking about. Dwelling in Zion. And it will be said, arise, let us go up to Zion to the Lord, our God.

There's a couple of typologies that this actually points to. So, first of all, it points to the fact that Jesus Christ would come into the temple and that would be the place people will go up and be able to say, let us go up to Zion to the Lord, our God.

Not that they would go up to the temple, but that Jesus coming there is God returning to the temple. So what we read in Luke just a few weeks ago with Jesus teaching in the temple right before being arrested and taken away to trial and all these things, that's God's return to the temple.

When the temple was rebuilt by Ezra and Nehemiah, the reconstruction of Jerusalem and everything, when the temple was reconstructed there, God's presence never comes back into that temple. So the presence of God comes when the Messiah comes into the temple and teaches again, but then he removes his presence in Matthew, chapter 23.

You have the seven woes that are issued to the Pharisees. Jesus goes out from the temple up to the Mount of Olives. And that was supposed to be symbolically pointing back to when God had left the temple as Ezekiel had seen it.

And then the enemies came against them and conquered them. And Jesus talked about the Romans who would come against Jerusalem 40 years later. This is the Olivet discourse. But within the generation that all of the stones that made up the temple would be disassembled and thrown down.

And indeed, that was an incredible prophecy that actually came true. So then even Jesus being in the temple would point to a greater Zion that we can all come to. And that's Christ. Christ is Zion. Christ is the dwelling place of God.

Christ is how we have fellowship with God through the God man, Jesus Christ. So all of us now are able to go up and say, let us go to Zion, to the Lord, our God. Christ is our Zion, and he is how we have access to God.

As talked about in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews points to the fulfillment of all of this, by the way, that that even these prophecies were directed toward Christ who fulfills them. So let me finish up the section that we've read here today.

The Remnant of Israel and Fellow Heirs in Christ

Verse seven, for thus says the Lord, sing aloud with gladness for Jacob and raise shouts for the chief of the nations. Proclaim, give praise and say, oh, Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel.

God has always preserved a remnant. He always has a remnant that he will save, and even to this day, God saves Jews and brings them into his kingdom. When somebody who has Jewish heritage hears the gospel, puts their faith and trust in Christ, then he is added to the kingdom and he is a remnant of Israel.

And we are likewise, all of us who are Christians, we are the remnant. And when Christ returns and he takes up those who are still alive on the earth at the day of Christ's return, he will be taking up his remnant.

Verses eight and nine, behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth. Among them, the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor together, a great company.

They shall return here. With weeping, they shall come and with please for mercy, I will lead them back. That's any time a sinner comes to the Lord and asks for mercy and forgiveness. We come with weeping and please for mercy.

I will make them walk by brooks of water in a straight path in which they shall not stumble. For I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn. Not meaning that this is the first person that God had called to himself and made him a child of his own, but specifically that Israel and Ephraim, words that are interchangeable, that they are recipients of everything that belongs to God.

We are fellow heirs with Christ of his eternal kingdom. As said in the scriptures, Ephesians, Romans, Titus, fellow heirs with Christ. And we will receive the kingdom of God with him. So all who come to faith in Jesus Christ, we are the people of God, for there is no distinction, as said in Romans 3, 22, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

So everyone who believes in Jesus is the people of God. There is no more Jew or Greek, as said in Colossians 3, in Galatians 3. But we are all one in Christ Jesus. He is the fulfillment of these promises that we read here in Jeremiah chapter 31.

We'll stop there and pick up with this study in this chapter again next week. Heavenly Father, we thank you for calling us to yourself through your son, Jesus Christ, and by faith in him, we have become the people of God.

As said in 1 John 3, 1, how great the love the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called the children of God. And so we are. You have brought us from all different reaches of the world. And we have come to this place to be your people through Christ, our Savior.

Lead us in the way everlasting in Jesus name.

Amen.

This has been when we understand the text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

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