Chapter 31

2021 - This chapter ought to be called "The Return"

2023 - It is also VERY long!

Vs 1 is worth seeing:

1 "At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people." [Jer 31:1 ESV]  This was a future time to Jeremiah, and is a future time still.

Then we switch to the poetry format again in vss 2-6. 

2021- This seems familiar:

2 Thus says the LORD: "The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest, [Jer 31:2 ESV]  Sounds a little like this:

13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. [Rev 12:13-14 ESV]

These sure seem to match up well...

This verse:

4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. [Jer 31:4 ESV] 

This is something that I've noticed several times lately (2020).  Israel as a nation referred to as female.  As a virgin in this case.  We also have references to the bride of Christ - the church - in the New Testament.  There is 31:22 still coming...a woman encircling a man...that MSB doesn't understand.  Go backwards to 30:6 where it asks if a man can bear a child, where men are walking around "like" a woman in labor.  There is 30:14 where "all your lovers have forgotten you", portraying  Israel as an unchaste woman.   Israel starts over, in the Millennial - a virgin again, with a chance to get it right in that time.  All overlooked, all in the past, all forgotten, as NT salvation makes our sins invisible to God, covered by the opaque blood of Christ. 

I like vs 5:

5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit. [Jer 31:5 ESV]

This may have also had a near term fulfillment, but I think it means that in the Millennial reign, people won't just sit around.  They'll have jobs to do.  They'll plant and harvest and consume their own food.  Remember that many in this time will still have their unchanged bodies.  They will live longer, because God will control diseases and such, but they will still have to work, live, and eat.  I think even in heaven we'll have work to do - just as Adam had work to do in Eden.

Next section is vss 7-9...I think. Can't tell if it's a section break or a page break after 9.

Vss 8 talks about how God will bring them back.  The blind and lame will be included, as will pregnant women.  A great company shall return.  At the end of vs 9 God says this, in the OT, for all to see:

9 ...for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. [Jer 31:9b ESV]

God tells us His relationship with Israel.  Islam maintains that God has no children and was not born.  They also believe the OT is God's own word.  Yet here God contradicts the Quran itself, and says He is father to Israel.  The firstborn, as spoken of  in the Bible, is pretty much universally male.  So after the references to Israel above as female, now we see this very male portrayal.

Vs 7 started with "Sing...", vs 10 with "Hear..."  I think 10 starts a new section running through vs 14.

11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. [Jer 31:11 ESV]

A little short verse, but look what all it might be saying.  God sent Christ to redeem man from the power of sin, which man of himself could never ever have overcome.

vss 15-20, in poetry format are the next section.

"A voice is heard in Ramah..."  MSB says this is about the children killed when Babylon conquered Judah.  Says the NT used it as a fitting allegory for what Herod did to try and kill Jesus.  BUT, it is not a prophecy of that time.

This section is a prayer from Israel to God, repenting, acknowledging the justice of God's punishment, and being ashamed of it and repenting.  An OT picture of NT salvation, yet again.  God answers with this verse:

20 Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the LORD. [Jer 31:20 ESV]

Clearly Ephraim, the firstborn of God, is a son.  Male.  Then immediately after....

Vss 21, 22 formatted poetry.  Tells them to set up guideposts and return to Israel.  Then this phrase:

21 "...Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities. [Jer 31:21b ESV], and right after it:

22 How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encircles a man." [Jer 31:22 ESV]

Even MSB says this is one of the "most puzzling statements in Jeremiah".

Perhaps this last phrase is Jeremiah recognizing also that Israel has been referred to repeatedly as male, and repeatedly as female.  The central reference in all these has been the nation of Israel, God's people, those who will accept Him ultimately as their God.  So I think the human, physical, gender reference is a characteristic of created man that is being applied to a nation.  A woman encircles a man when that man is in her womb...I think only then....This would be the human reference.  So a woman pregnant with a male child is female, but carries male within her.  Israel as a nation is referred to as female - still the convention today, except maybe for Germany with their Fatherland - but from Israel comes the Messiah, the redeemer of all.  Best I can do, and I am sure that is not original. 

2022 - This, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, makes much of the word used for "woman":

And here are the notes from Barnes on verse 22:

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Israel instead of setting itself to return hesitates, and goes here and there in a restless mood. To encourage it God gives the sign following.

A  woman shall compass a man - i. e., the female shall protect the strong  man; the weaker nature that needs help will surround the stronger with  loving and fostering care. This expresses a new relation of Israel to  the Lord, a new covenant, which the Lord will make with His people (Jeremiah 31:31 following). The fathers saw in these words a prophecy of the miraculous conception of our Lord by the Virgin.

From 23-34 we are in regular format.  I must hurry.  IT is Friday and babysitting looms...(2019).  It is Saturday in 2020.

Look at vs 26!  How did I miss this before:

26 At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me. [Jer 31:26 ESV]

So from 30:1 until this verse has been a vision that Jeremiah had one night???  Or has only  part of it been a dream?  I saw no "marker" to tell us where it went from waking prophecy to night vision???

Are 27-30 Jeremiah's waking interpretation of the dream he just had?  A summary of that dream?

Vs 27- "sow the house..."  with the seed of man and beast?  So house does not refer here to a family.  Does it refer to geography?  To national boundaries?  This verse:

29 In those days they shall no longer say: "'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' [Jer 31:29 ESV]

This is quoted elsewhere I believe....MSB says it was possibly a proverb used by the children of those in exile to say that their circumstances were the result of their father's sins, and not their own, yet they were the ones suffering for it.  It is quoted again in Eze 18:2.  Hmm...I thought it was in the NT, but perhaps not.  As it goes on, the point seems to be that in the future - the Millennial I believe - we are only going to be punished for what we ourselves do.  There won't be this "national punishment" that applies to the evil and the good because of the majority evil.  This is a restoration of cause and effect, lost at the fall.  In the Millennial, no one will have to suffer for the sins of another, either of those close by or those of our ancestors.  Israel today still suffers in exile all over the world for the sins that led to Babylonian conquest and the 1st century rejection of Christ.  They are still paying the double punishment of these sins.  In the Millennial, it won't work that way anymore.

Vs 31 is labeled "The New Covenant". 

31 "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, [Jer 31:31 ESV]

Specifically says this covenant will be with Israel and Judah.  Does not say Gentiles.  Is the church under a different covenant?  Seems it should be.

"...I will put my law within them..."

Note that vs 32 says this covenant won't be like the Mosaic.  This verse contrasts God's covenant with his people Israel in the future with the covenant in place in Jeremiah's time, which had been severely broken, to the extent that it was not longer fixable.  It was over.  And the NT covenant is with Gentiles, not with Israel.  But the Millennial Covenant will again be with Israel, and apply to them and NOT to Gentiles.  God "focuses" on these large people groups with covenants.  They cross over, but are offered primarily to one group or the other.  I don't believe this is about the Holy Spirit indwelling, as I have so often heard, but about something not yet seen in the world, that will come in the Millennial.  MSB says that the indwelling Holy Spirit we have now is sort of a "beginning" of this kind of covenant that will come to full fruition in the Millennial when the Abrahamic, Davidic, and New Covenants find their confluence in the Millennial when Christ rules over all.

2023 - Agree with the MSB position just above.  What we have now is perhaps a beginning, a taste, of this covenant, but we as Gentiles are receiving the full dose.  Note this phrase, from vs 34:  34 ...for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD..." [Jer 31:34 ESV].  There is no possible way that, right now, ALL know him and have no need to be taught.  This is about Israel in the Millennial, when ALL Israel will come home, and will be His people and He will be their God.  We may be getting a taste of this, as the spiritual gifts of the early church gave us a preview of the gifts that will, I think, return in even greater strength before the rapture.  These verses promise more than what we Gentiles are receiving now, though we have far more communion directly with God than old Israel ever had. 

Poetry format for 35-37.

36 "If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever." [Jer 31:36 ESV]

So only if the fixed laws - the physical laws governing the movements of the sun, stars, moon, and waters cease, only then will God give up Israel.  Who could overturn these laws?  No one!

Then vs 37 is added:

37 Thus says the LORD: "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the LORD." [Jer 31:37 ESV]

Makes you understand why they can't figure out if the universe is expanding or contracting.  Why they have to add dimensions and curve space to explain it.  It CANNOT BE MEASURED!

2021 - And now this big IR telescope going to L2, so it can see still further into the past and discover the origin of the universe.  I bet it doesn't work.  Surely they will see more, and they will say they see further, but the won't see the end, they just cannot. 

2023 - Wow!  Look at the prediction I made in 2021 about what the James Webb would see!  I had it right.  It sees further back than we've ever seen and what is it telling us?  That it cannot be as we have believed for decades.  The galaxies that far back cannot exist according to our rules, and yet they are there.  It means our theories about galaxy formation are completely wrong, and if they are wrong, what else is wrong???  What an awesome example of God's promise here!

This really ought to go on FB. 

In vss 38-40, some dimensions are given of the restored Jerusalem, seemingly superimposed on the Jerusalem of Jeremiah's day.  Dimensions that will never be overthrown again.  Would be interesting to see those outlined, noting that they seem to include the Valley of Slaughter, and see if Ezekiel's Temple could be centered there?  Or perhaps his temple will be...I don't know...2020 - I don't think this is where Ezekiel's temple will be...2021 - But it's not like I know for sure.  It might be.  These dimensions are pretty specific.