ISRAEL WILL ONE DAY POSSESS THE ENTIRE LAND MASS THAT WAS PROMISED TO ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB

In Jeremiah 30 the prophet once again declares hope in this midst of his continued message of coming judgment upon Judah.

Jeremiah 30:1–3 “The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.”

This chapter begins with the LORD instructing Jeremiah to make a formal record of all his prophecies. The reason—God wants this record to be available to the captives who will one day return home to reestablish their nation. The record will encourage them to remember that God is true to His word and in turn should strengthen their faith.

I am reminded that the LORD often encourages His people to “remember.”

Numbers 15:38–40 “Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.”

Deuteronomy 7:17–18 “If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt….”

Deuteronomy 8:2 “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.”

The ability to remember is important to our spiritual growth. The LORD instructed the people to put fringes in the hems of their garments to serve as a constant reminder that God is faithful to His word. Every spiritual victory provides a memory to help us understand that we have nothing to fear with God on our side. Memory is important to strengthening one’s faith during times of testing to understand that God will be just as faithful to provide in the present as He has in the past.

Jeremiah also clarifies that his message is for the whole of Israel, both Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Preceding that time, however, he prophesies of a time that he identifies as “Jacob’s trouble” in which the people of Israel will suffer a time of trouble that is without comparison.

Jeremiah 30:7 “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”

It is out of this time of trouble that Jacob will be saved. It is obvious to me that this is a reference to the people of Israel as a whole as the descendants of Jacob. I believe that both Daniel and the Lord Jesus referenced this same period of time.

Daniel 12:1 “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”

Matthew 24:15 & 21 “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)….For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

It is because Jesus directly connected this time to the words of Daniel that the tribulation, the 70th week of Daniel, especially the last 3.5 years before Jesus returns as King to establish His kingdom, is also often called the time of Jacob’s trouble.

Daniel 9:24–26 “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy….and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

The next verses in Jeremiah affirm the connection of this prophesied time to the time that David’s throne is once more occupied. It is significant to note that at this time the nation of Israel will “serve the LORD their God”

Jeremiah 30:8–9 “For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.”

The next verse again emphasizes that this restoration will affect the whole nation. Jeremiah is clear in declaring that this restoration of the nation and regathering of the people will usher in a time of rest and quiet in which no one or no other nation will be able to make them afraid.

Jeremiah 30:10 “Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.”