Bible Lessons: Jeremiah 30

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What kind of “book” did Jeremiah have, in which to write? The Hebrew word translated “book” actually means “a writing”, but in chapter 36 we come to “a roll of a book” written with ink, and this book, in the end, was cut with a knife and cast into the fire by king Jehoiakim. In Psalm 40:77Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, (Psalm 40:7), the same Hebrew words have been translated “volume of the book”: this passage is quoted in Hebrews 10:77Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. (Hebrews 10:7).
Although writing on stone and on clay tablets and cylinders was a common practice in Babylonia and adjacent lands, prepared skins of animals and papyrus were also in large use in the East, and we have little reason to doubt that it was on this form of writing material, made into a roll, that Jeremiah’s prophecies were written. It was in such “books” or scrolls that the Bible was handed down from generation to generation of the children of Israel, books as we now know them having come into general use after the invention of the printing press. It may be of interest to refer to Daniel 9:22In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. (Daniel 9:2); Deut. 31:24-2624And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, 25That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, 26Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. (Deuteronomy 31:24‑26); 2 Kings 22; Nehemiah 8.
Verses 4 to 7 are concerned with a time yet to be; the children of Israel have known many sorrows since they turned away from God, and more particularly since Judah delivered up their Messiah to be crucified, but the fearful days of Matthew 24 and Mark 13 have yet to be experienced by them.
God is love, we know, but it is equally true that God is light. Both these truths are found in 1 John, and we would not forget that the former is not first in that Epistle; chapter 4 includes it, but “God is light” is in the first chapter. Both are evidenced in the eleventh verse of our chapter; the testimony of His love is “I am with thee to save thee”; but “I will correct thee with judgment” betokens the character of light in which God dwells. Men delude themselves with the thought that He will not deal with sins and sinners, since “all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Pet. 3:44And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2 Peter 3:4)), See Eccles, 8:11; Rom. 2:3-103And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? 4Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 5But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 6Who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: 8But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 9Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; 10But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: (Romans 2:3‑10), and the last two verses of our chapter.
After the promised severe judgments upon the Jews, God will bless them, and before the blessing is really known, He will have broken the yoke of the oppressor (verse 8). This enemy of the last days is the to-be-revived Roman empire, composed of the nations who occupy the territory held by the Caesars when Christ was upon earth. The ancient Babylon will be duplicated in its character (in God’s sight), but its duration will be short, and its end complete destruction.
Verse 9: David the king is here used to foreshadow Christ—”great David’s greater Son.” See 1 Chron. 17; Isa. 9:77Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:7); Psa. 110. Though the ten tribes of Israel were gone into captivity (and have since disappeared from the knowledge of men), and only Judah and. Benjamin remained in the land God had given them, this chapter and the next look onward to a reunited and restored Israel and Judah. The lost ten tribes will reappear, as Ezekiel 37 testifies.
Mark the utterly undone condition of Israel, as expressed in verses 12 to 15, and the purpose of God in verses 17 to 22; this is nothing less than sovereign grace—of the same character as the Christian has experienced—love flowing out to the unworthy. And it is the more remarkable because of the assurance of unsparing judgment (verses 16, 23, 24) that flanks the promise of grace.
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