Jeremiah 10: Hope: Always

 Even after the defeat and destruction of Israel, Jeremiah had hope, not that vague wishing that stands in for hope these days but genuine hope.  He was confident that God had not deserted the people but would one day restore them to the land of their ancestors.  Such restoration was dependent upon the people knowing and acknowledging that they had acted like a petulant child or a rebellious teenager.  Fixing our mistakes means recognizing that they are mistakes in the first place. It is with a sigh of relief that we have learned that a majority (even if a small majority) of our friends to the south have seen the error of their ways and have taken a step towards moving in a different direction.  It is easy to see their mistakes.  In comparison we look a bit more righteous.  When we will honestly face the racism, the hubris, the greed, and the environmental destruction that has taken us so far from the Way of God?  Our faith gives us hope, indeed a confidence that God’s grace is always there for us so we can fix things and I believe we will.

(p.s. check out verse 31:22 where God promises something new and spectacular:  a woman will encompass (protect/surround/seek/shelter) a man.  Such a radical idea that translators don’t know what to do with it.)

photo by Raquel Raclette 

The Joyful Return of the Exiles:  Jeremiah 31

31 At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel,

and they shall be my people.

² Thus says the Lord:
The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness;
I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have continued my faithfulness to you.
⁴ Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel!
Again you shall take your tambourines, and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
⁵ Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; and shall enjoy the fruit.
Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
proclaim, give praise, and say, “Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel.”

¹⁶ Thus says the Lord:
Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears;
for there is a reward for your work, there is hope for your future, says the Lord:
¹⁸ Indeed I heard Ephraim pleading:
“You disciplined me, and I took the discipline; I was like a calf untrained.
¹⁹ For after I had turned away I repented; and after I was discovered, I struck my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was dismayed because I bore the disgrace of my youth.”
²⁰ Is Ephraim my dear son?  Is he the child I delight in?
As often as I speak against him, I still remember him.
Therefore I am deeply moved for him; I will surely have mercy on him,
says the Lord.

²¹ Set up road markers for yourself, make yourself signposts;
consider well the highway, the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities.
²² How long will you waver, O faithless daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encompasses a man.

 

²⁷ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. ²⁸ And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. ²⁹ In those days they shall no longer say: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” ³⁰ But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.

A New Covenant

³¹ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³² It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. ³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.