Sunday Morning, August 11, 2019 AM Part 3

Hope, Sin, and Grief in Jeremiah 31

Now, Father, as we come to your word, I pray that you would help us to feast eagerly on the table that you set, the meal that you provide. Father, I pray that you would help us to be a people of hope, not a people of resources, not a people of power, not a people of foresight and intellect, but a people of faith, a people of hope, a people of love defined by Christ.

Help us today as we look at your word together. I pray that you would be honored and glorified by our response to your truth. We ask for these graces in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased.

Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 31. We'll be reading the second portion of the chapter again this week. Next week, Lord willing, we will look again at the first part of Jeremiah 31 and conclude our considerations of this portion of God's word.

And then our final Sunday this month, we are going to be having communion together. We'll be having the Lord's Supper together on the final Sunday, and we will be moving forward in Jeremiah chapter 31 to think about the new covenant.

After all, it is Christ when he gathered his disciples together at the last supper. He told them, this is the new covenant in my blood. So the Lord's timing is ever exquisite. And so now as we look at Jeremiah 31, we need to remind ourselves what we have been thinking about so far, what we have studied from the word of God.

And in this portion of Jeremiah's book that he's writing and sending to the exiles in Babylon, he is giving word to them not only about what God is up to in their lives, why it is that they're exiled in Babylon, what it is they're supposed to do until they come back home, but also he gives them a word about those they considered forever lost.

Ephraim, the name representing the tribes of Israel that were taken away by the Assyrians. And God has a word for the Jews about Ephraim. And that's where we are right now in Jeremiah 31. And we have something of a story in Jeremiah 31 in this first portion.

And we've been working our way through these essential points. First is this, sin is a wasteland. We see it throughout Jeremiah, we see it throughout the Old Testament, even in the New Testament. We see that those who indulge and celebrate and cherish sin, their lives, their city, their nation, their culture becomes a wasteland.

This is what happens every single time sin is enshrined in a culture. They become a wasteland. This is what happens every time sin is embraced in a person. Their life becomes a wasteland. This is the result every time that sin is treasured.

The second point that we talked about last week, grief. Grief is a compass. Grief is a compass. Now sometimes we misinterpret the compass and we go the wrong direction, but nonetheless, when we are in deep grief, when we are in deep sorrow, one of the major thoughts we have is, I don't want to be here.

I don't want to be in this situation. I don't want to be in this relationship. I don't want to be in this job. I don't want to be in this home. I don't want to be in this town. I don't want to be in this church.

Something about the grief is saying, I've got to move. I've got to change. I've got to do something. But the way in which God inflicts punishment and chastisement upon those in sin, it is designed to get their attention.

It is designed to activate that compass of grief that they would return back to God. They would turn back to God. And we are reminded in these first two points of the first two beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are those who recognize that sin has made a wasteland of their lives and they have nothing to offer to God. And then blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who grieve in their sin and turn back to God for in Christ, they shall be comforted.

First two beatitudes, first two points of our view here in Jeremiah 31. At this point, I would like to read the text again. So if you would please stand with me in honor of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, who is ruler of the kings of the earth.

Here is his word to us. We'll begin in verse 15 of Jeremiah 31. Thus says the Lord, a voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more.

Thus says the Lord, restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears for your work will be rewarded declares the Lord and they will return from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future declares the Lord and your children will return to their own territory.

I have surely heard Ephraim grieving. You have chastised me and I was chastised like an untrained calf. Bring me back that I may be restored for you are the Lord my God. For after I turned back, I repented and after I was instructed, I smote on my thigh.

I was ashamed and also humiliated because I bore the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a delightful child? Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him, I certainly still remember him.

Therefore, my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him declares the Lord. Set up for yourself road marks, place for yourself guideposts, direct your mind to the highway, the way by which you went.

Return, oh virgin of Israel, return to these your cities. How long will you go here and there, oh faithless daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth. A woman will encompass a man. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel.

Once again, they will speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities when I restore their fortunes. The Lord bless you, oh abode of righteousness, oh holy hill. Judah and all its cities will dwell together in it, the farmer and they who go about with flocks.

For I satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes. At this I awoke and looked and my sleep was pleasant to me. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. You know, sometimes it's hard to be hopeful.

Sometimes it's hard to speak in hope, maintain hope, respond to those who give an accurate yet depressing view of the world, to respond to such a person with hope. There's always the risk of being identified as someone who is pie in the sky, too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good, wearing rose-colored glasses, not paying attention.

How do we respond in hope? Are we not supposed to be a people of hope? Hope is key to God's instructions here in the text. You know, Jeremiah ends by saying, I woke and my sleep was pleasant to me. When's the last time you woke up and your sleep was pleasant to you?

Somehow you woke up and everything seemed right. And that's an elusive feeling when I'm awake with coffee, to have that when you wake up. That's amazing. But why did Jeremiah wake up and his sleep was pleasant to him?

Well, it's because of the content of what he just wrote about here in chapter 31 and even in the previous chapter in chapter 30. What a wonderful vision of hope, a vision of a people who were lost but then restored, a people who had been full of sin but now pursued righteousness, a people who were desolate but now full.

The pictures here in the text are just full of hope. And when Jeremiah wakes up, his sleep was pleasant to him. He didn't go, he may have gone to sleep, burdened for his nation, crying for his fellow citizens, ashamed of his culture.

But when he woke up, having been filled with the truths of God's special revelations, his special word, he woke up and his sleep had been pleasant to him. He may have been living in a nightmare, but the truths of God were a pleasant dream to him, filled him with hope.

We thought about the first two points of our story of the journey and what is called the point of low return. The point of low return is repentance. Many people believe in the point of no return and the Bible actually talks about that, that there is a point of no return, that some go so far that there's no coming back.

But what is more important to focus on is the point of low return, that the way that we return, the way that we come back to God is always in a lowly fashion. That we recognize the wasteland of our sin, we recognize the point of our grief, and that we return.

And how we return is by hope. We'll talk about that this morning. But I want to clarify again that when we talk about sin, we do not speak about sin the way that the devil speaks about sin. When we speak about sin, we don't speak about sin the way that our worldly culture speaks about sin.

We speak about sin in the way that God does in the scriptures. When we say that sin is a wasteland, we're talking about the sin that God actually calls sin, and it's not something that forever defines the Christian.

It is not something that is the primary identity of those who believe in God. And when we talk about grief and the grieving of sin, we're not talking about a constant groveling in endless penance for something that we can never be free of.

We talk about grieving, we're not grieving as those without hope. We are not like those in Jeremiah 18, 12, who say, it's hopeless, we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.

It's hopeless, there's no change, there's no possibility for repentance. We are not like those. The point of low repentance, the idea of the point of low return, the point, the idea of repentance is inherent in what it means to be a Christian.

When God says the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and believe the gospel, he didn't mean just once. He didn't mean repent once and you're done repenting for the rest of your life. You're done changing and turning away from yourselves and and turning to Christ.

He didn't mean believe me once. When he calls us to repentance and faith as Christians, he's calling us to a lifetime of repentance and faith. That we are ever turning away from self unto Christ. We are ever turning away from excuses to submission to Christ.

Ever turning away from false hope and and false gospel to Christ and Christ alone. With that in mind, we talk about hope. Hope is a signpost. Sin is a wasteland, you need to leave. Grief is a compass, the reason why we leave.

But then when God turns us around by his godly sorrow, he does not leave us without further encouragements and our repentance. He gives us and signs of hope and tells us to make signs of hope. And each one of these signposts of hope is to help us in our parade of grace unto Zion.

You know what signs are. You know what signs are. Some of you travel a lot and you've seen a lot of signs on the side of the road and each and hopefully each one is telling you a little bit of good news, you're getting closer.

And if you don't pay attention to the signs, that's when you find out that you weren't going in the right direction. I've been on two trips that did that. We were supposed to leave Flagstaff for New Mexico and we ended up going to Phoenix.

And another time we were supposed to be heading up the middle of Kansas and Nebraska towards Alliance, but we went towards St. Louis. It's a really bad feeling when you realize you've not been paying attention to the signs, you've been going the wrong direction, but still nonetheless get on track and follow the signs.

Now there are two particular signposts of hope in our passage. Remember that Jeremiah is writing his message to the exiles who are in Babylon and now he's speaking of Ephraim who had 140 years earlier been taken into captivity by Assyria and taken as far away as 800 miles away from their home.

And he's writing to them and he's going to say two things about Ephraim, two things about those who have been lost. And one thing he says about Rachel, the mother of Ephraim, and the other thing that he said, the grandmother of Ephraim really, and then the second thing he says is about Ephraim coming back to the land because God is going to do something special in the lands.

There's two signs of hope and the first one is this, that Rachel's weeping will end. Rachel's weeping will end. This is the first signpost of hope. Last week we talked a lot about Rachel, that she as the second wife of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, that Rachel gave birth to Joseph and Joseph was Jacob's favorite son and Joseph had two sons of his own, Ephraim and Manasseh, but Ephraim was the second born and Jacob favored Ephraim over Manasseh and that Ephraim and Manasseh, they both became tribes in Israel, giving Joseph a double portion, a double representation among the tribes of Israel.

And this northern nation that had split off from David, this northern nation, the northern ten tribes who said to Judah, what do we have to do with you, oh David? We're not going to have any portion with you, oh son of Jesse, and they left.

This northern nation of Ephraim had been taken away by the Assyrians and this is why Rachel is weeping. Thus says the Lord, verse 15, a voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children.

She refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more. This is a poignant scene. Rachel is weeping from Ramah, probably the place where she was buried, definitely a city given to Benjamin.

The tribe of Benjamin owned Ramah and so Rachel's grandson Benjamin, that tribe lived in Ramah, so it's a good place for Rachel to be heard. It's the most Rachel-esque place in all of Israel. It's probably where she was buried, it's owned by the tribe, one of the tribes that came from her, Benjamin.

So there's lamentation and bitter weeping in Ramah and we can understand why. We can understand, we can see in our minds the picture of a mother weeping and refusing any comfort at all because her children are gone, they are no more.

They're never coming back, she has no comfort, no consolation, and so she's weeping. We can see that. This is Rachel. And yet God says in verse 16, restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears for your work will be rewarded, declares the Lord, and they will return from the land of the enemy.

There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children will return to their own territory. There is hope, God says. There is hope. Well I've got to tell you in preparation for this passage, I read all over the Old Testament trying to find where the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Ephraim, Manasseh, and the ones I forgot, where did they actually come back to the land?

I mean I looked all over the place, I was very hungry to find it. I went to Nehemiah, I went to Ezra, I read through the lists of the people and the tribes that they came from, and the only tribes that ever get mentioned are those of Judah and Benjamin and Levi.

That there were Levites who remained in Jerusalem because they were the priests. They were the priests who served in the temple. So obviously some of them survived, and the Levites' cities were, some of them were in Judah as well, so some of these Levites survived, it makes sense.

After all, when Jeroboam first became king of the northern kingdom of Ephraim, of Israel, he didn't even use the Levites to worship the golden calves anyway, so it makes sense the Levites would gather in to where God was being worshipped correctly.

And there's also Benjamin who stuck with Judah, and so there were Benjamites, and there were Levites, and there were the Jews, the descendants of Judah, but I couldn't find anybody else. I went looking all over the Old Testament trying to find where they were.

I read a first century historian, Josephus, and he wanted to know where they were too, and his best guess was that they were still out there beyond the river in countless numbers. I couldn't find them.

So the place where I finally see this prophecy coming true is in the Gospel of Matthew. So let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew chapter 2. Now it's a very strange thing that this passage says here is the fulfillment of Rachel weeping, but this is going to be instructive for us in our repentance, in our point of low return, that when we recognize that sin is a wasteland and grief is a compass that turns us around back to God, if we continue in repentance that the signposts of hope that we put up may not be entirely perfectly crystal clear to us, but they are pointing us in the right direction.

So when we come to Matthew chapter 2, I'm going to read for us beginning in verse 13. This is a passage that you would often hear around Christmas or just after. Now when they had gone, meaning the three wise men having left their gifts there, now when they had gone behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said get up take the child, meaning Jesus Christ, and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.

So Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet out of Egypt I called my son.

Come back to that. Verse 16, when then when Herod heard that he had been tricked by the magi he became very enraged and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity from two years old and under according to the time that he had determined from the magi.

Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled. A voice was heard in Ramah weeping in great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and she refused to be comforted because they were no more.

It's important to recognize that when you read in the New Testament a quote from the Old Testament it's important to remember something about the Holy Spirit who is inspiring these apostles to write these things down.

He is not a twister of scripture and the Holy Spirit does not get the interpretation wrong and in fact through the apostles the Holy Spirit shows us how to read the Bible in that when he quotes a portion of scripture something of the Old Testament in the New Testament he does not mean for us to take that verse, wait for it, out of context.

We all know we're not supposed to do that, right? Read a verse out of context? You took that out of context. You know the danger of reading things out of context, don't you? If your habit is to read your Bible every morning, praise be to God.

If your method of Bible reading in the morning is the flip and point method then you might be at risk. Right? You may open your Bibles to something about Judas went and hung himself and then flip it open and then it says go and do likewise.

You're going to be in trouble if you keep with that method. Whatever we're reading in the Bible we have to read it in its context and when the Holy Spirit through one of the apostles says this was to fulfill or quote something out of the Old Testament we're not supposed to simply say oh yeah well there's the quote and go back and read that passage in the Old Testament, read it in its context.

What all is going on there? So for instance if we're going to do justice to understanding this signpost of hope and just how it is that Rachel stops weeping. How is it Rachel's going to get comforted?

How is this the fulfillment of what Jeremiah wrote? Well we have to come back here and look at what is said in verse 15. Joseph took the child Jesus and Mary his mother and they went down to Egypt and they hid there until the death of Herod and then they came back up to the land.

So they were in exile they were hiding out from the from the threat they were in exile down in Egypt and then at a certain time they came back to the land. Okay now and this is said this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets verse 15 out of Egypt I called my son.

Now that quote comes from Hosea 11 verse 1 which depends on Exodus 4 22. Context matters. God chose Moses to lead Israel up out of Egypt. Moses led Egypt up and led Israel up out of Egyptian slavery and Moses was told by God to say this to Pharaoh thus says the Lord Israel is my son my firstborn so I said to you let my son go that he may serve me but you have refused to let him go behold I will kill your son your firstborn which of course God did through the tenth plague the angel of death but he passed over the people who had sacrificed the lambs and put the blood over their doorposts.

Now God describes Israel this way his son his firstborn and this is the same phraseology that we have in Jeremiah 31. Is not Ephraim my son my firstborn is he not precious to me God says right so we also so we're alerted that God is speaking of Rachel's children the way that he speaks of Israel and then this particular quote out of Egypt I called my son calls comes from Hosea 11 verse 1.

So God says there when Israel was a youth I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son. There's the exact phrase when Israel was a youth I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they called them the more they went from them.

They kept sacrificing to the bales and burning incense to idols. Yet is it is I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them in my arms. They did not know that I healed them. So in Hosea God is pointing to the fact of Israel is is my son I I called him up out of Egypt but he kept worshipping false gods.

Now you notice there in Hosea. In Hosea chapter 11 there's nothing there no formula there that says in latter times and latter days it shall come to pass that I will call out my son from Egypt. Doesn't say that does it.

There's no prophetic formula there in Hosea 11 verse 1 there's just this phrase out of Egypt I called my son. And God is obviously talking about Israel whom he had delivered from bondage in Egypt. That is what he's talking about.

And now we read in Matthew the Holy Spirit through the apostle. Matthew says that Jesus Christ having fled down to Egypt to from the wrath of Herod the fact that he was going to come back to the land after Herod's death that that was to fulfill what God had said in Hosea 11 verse 1.

I have a question for you. Do you believe it. Do you believe it. Are we going to criticize the Holy Spirit's way of interpreting the Old Testament. We have to be. We have to be careful thinking we're smarter than God about how prophecy gets fulfilled.

Shouldn't we. And in fact we may say God that was unfair. You didn't say in Hosea 11 verse 1 that this was a prophecy. There's no formula here. And I think God will probably chuckle a little bit. You didn't know but I knew this was to fulfill.

Jesus Christ is called the Son of God. And that God bringing Jesus Christ up out of Egypt back to the land that this is the fulfillment of what God was talking about in Hosea 11 verse 1. Now of particular importance we recognize that God calls Israel his son and now he's calling Jesus Christ his son as he called Israel up out of Egypt.

So he called his son up out of Egypt. So who are we going to be looking for the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel. This is one of many passages that says. If you want to find the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel you look at the one whom he's treating like Israel and that is found in the person of Jesus Christ.

Now we come to our next signpost of hope. In Jeremiah 31 verses 15 through 17. It's Rachel weeping. Okay this is Rachel weeping. Matthew quotes this as fulfilled. So Matthew records the abominable act of Herod when he slaughters all the male children two years and under in and around Bethlehem.

And just like Pharaoh before him and all demonically evil persons since Herod butchers infants to keep and promote his power. Anytime people kill infants it's always in the name of power. The reason why 60 million infants have been killed in the United States of America in the last 50 years has been the name of the empowerment of women.

Every time infants get killed it's because somebody is claiming power in all the history of the world. We are not unique in that. So Matthew states that Herod's evil fulfills Jeremiah's words about Rachel this verse 17.

Then what had been Matthew 2 then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled when Herod came and killed all these children in Bethlehem. All these male children two years younger two years old and younger.

This was to fulfill what Jeremiah the prophet had said. Verse 18. A voice was heard in Ramah weeping in great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children and she refused to be comforted because they were no more.

And again there's the instant complete Matthew come on. This is Bethlehem. It's not Ramah. Ramah is on the way south out of Bethel on the way to Bethlehem. So how can you say that weeping over children in Bethlehem is the fulfillment of of of Rachel weeping in Ramah.

How is this possible that what happened in Bethlehem is saying is the fulfillment of what happened in Ramah. But again we are not looking at something that is quoted out of context. It's important to remember that Jacob was on his way south out of Bethel heading towards Bethlehem when Rachel died and he buried her.

Ramah is right there. And Matthew connects these contexts not only because Bethlehem was mentioned in Genesis and it's the focus here but he really is identifying Jesus Christ as his true son. And what he said about Ephraim being his firstborn is being fulfilled in Christ.

This is only begotten. So God tells Rachel and Jeremiah 31 to stop weeping. Why. Because a remnant of Ephraim is going to come back. He says she's weeping for her children because they are no more but wait there's a remnant that's an exile who's going to come back.

The mothers of Bethlehem are weeping for their infants who are no more but wait there's a remnant. There's one infant who did survive and he's coming back to the land. So why should Rachel stop weeping.

Where is her comfort. That the hope of Israel has survived and he is coming back to the land. In Matthew 2 verses 19 through 23 this is only emphasized when Herod died. Behold an angel the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said get up take the child and his mother go into the land of Israel.

For those who sought the child's life are dead. So Joseph got up took the child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelius was reigning over Judea in the place of his father Herod he was afraid to go there.

And then after being warned by God in a dream he left for the regions of Galilee and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken to the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene.

Now this is really objectionable. I mean there's not a single verse in all the Old Testament. Search for it. Whatever you. King James version. New King James version. Revised Standard version. So take out go search for that.

That verse is not in the Old Testament. But what does it say. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets. There's an idea among the prophets that the Messiah that the Christ the promised one would be a Nazarene not a Nazarite.

You know the one who wouldn't cut his hair and wouldn't drink the wine and so on. Not a Nazarite but a Nazarene. Do you know what. The name the place name of Nazareth means branch. And the Messiah in the Old Testament more than once is called the branch man.

He's a man of the branch. He's a Nazarene. For instance Isaiah 11 verse 1. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse. And a branch from his roots where will bear fruit. Who is this branch. From Jesse.

It is Jesus Christ. So what is Rachel's hope. Those who had those who had been missing for so long. Where is the comfort for her tears. Ephraim long ago rebelliously declared what portion do we have in David.

We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse to your tents. Oh Israel. Now look after your own house David. And so Ephraim said enough with you David enough with you descendant of Jesse. We're gonna be on our own.

And they did that until God destroyed them and took the rest that were alive in captivity to Assyria. But now here is the hope for the future of Rachel's children. They may have at one point broken themselves off from David and Jesse.

But God answers with the branch. God answers with the branch the Nazarene. The branch man is the hope of Israel. Rachel can stop weeping. God has called his son up out of Egypt. He is the branch in which God's people are restored.

Now you say well there is no possible way no possible way that the exiles in Babylon would know that. That's what all that meant in Jeremiah's book that he sent them. They wouldn't have any idea about those details.

And you're absolutely right. But you know that's how hope works. Hope that is seen is not hope. Right. The hope is pointing you in the right direction. Hope is pointing you in the right direction. It's a signpost.

It's not the destination. And and many many times. And when the the signpost of hope that God wants us to live our lives by we're not going to have the exact details of how that's all going to work out.

But nonetheless we must live by hope. Now the second signpost in Jeremiah not only does he say to Rachel stop weeping. Stop weeping. There's hope for your future. There's going to be a return. Not only does he say that but he also says I'm going to create a new thing.

So he says how that. He's gonna have mercy on Ephraim. He's gonna have mercy on his people. And then he gives instructions. He gives instructions in verse 21. Set up for yourself road marks. Place for yourself guideposts.

Direct your mind to the highway the way by which you went. Return. Oh Virgin of Israel. Return to these your cities. How long will you go out. Go here and there. Oh faithless daughter. For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth.

A woman will encompass a man. So here's the picture. God is calling out to to Ephraim to those who have long been distant and away from him. And he's saying come back to the land. Come back to the cities.

Stop wandering around. Stop being faithless. Come home. Why. Why. Come home. The first part of the chapter. I mean there is promise of of of better vineyards. There's promise of tambourine dancing. I mean that might be an attractant.

I don't come home for better better wheat and better oil. Why would they come home. Why would they come back. Because the Lord has created a new thing in the earth. God has created a new thing. God has created something new.

A woman will encompass a man. So the prophet speaks as if it's if it's already in the past. It's a proleptic way of speaking. The sign is as good as done though yet still in the future. So God creates something new.