Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith Jehovah I will not make my face dark upon you; for I am merciful, saith Jehovah; I will not keep [anger] for ever.
God speaks these words to a people already scattered. The northern kingdom had gone north as captives, and God now sends this call after them. So the verse raises two questions. How can God invite back a people He has already judged? And why does He base that invitation on His own character rather than on anything they have done?
(The ESV says "faithless Israel." Older translations say "backsliding Israel." The writers quoted below use that older wording.)
God sends the message in one direction. That direction has a history.
Here is a message to proclaim toward the north, calling on backsliding Israel to return. He promises mercy to them. One hundred years before, the house of Israel had gone northward as captives. The Lord knew where they lived, and He sent them this message of mercy. He knows today where the house of Israel is, the ten tribes. At some future time the gracious offer given here will be completed in their return.
Just before this call, God says that faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. One writer explains that comparison.
Israel's uncleanness was well known, and God had called her back without result. But Judah was even more treacherous. She despised the warning, though she knew better, and sinned even more boldly.
Israel sinned in the open. Judah kept up appearances. God prefers the first.
God would rather have what is real, even if our souls are far from Him, than what is unreal — a nearness we claim but are not actually in. There was open backsliding and rebellion on the part of the ten tribes. But what did Judah do? "Judah did not fear." "Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD." We get a great lesson there. The Lord will not have anything but what is real.
The term first appears in chapter 2 and then dominates chapter 3. It is not a word of dismissal.
Now here is the first time we get the word "backsliding." You then find the expression again in verses 6, 8, 11, 12, 14, and 22 of Jeremiah 3. It is the characteristic word in the early part of Jeremiah. But the word assumes recovery. It assumes the heart will turn back to God, because that is what the Lord wants. He longs to have us very near Him.
God gives a reason for holding back His anger, and that reason lies in Himself, not in Israel. The chapter opens by showing how far gone the people were.
God, however, is nowhere more Himself than in His mercy and pity toward His fallen people. A man could not take back the wife who had left him for another. Israel had been unfaithful with many lovers, and still the Lord says: return to me. He points out how often and how shamelessly they had been unfaithful, even while they called Him the father and guide of their youth. But whatever they said, they persevered in evil-doing.
The same writer says when that mercy appears.
He shows them that Judah would turn out no better than Israel, bad as Israel had been. Judah had held out for a time and had made fair promises under King Josiah. The crisis would surely come; but when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
The call does not come with a list of conditions. Verse 13 names a single one.
Backslider! He called them then, and told them to come back. Now He calls you back. You might ask, How can I get back? You say: God has spoken to my soul through His Word. I am drinking at broken cisterns. How am I to get back? Listen. "Only acknowledge your guilt." There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession.
Verse 14 supplies the reason underneath verse 12 — He is married to them.
The whole history of Israel as a nation proves that the Lord hates sending His people away. If He did not hate it, He would have renounced Israel long ago, and many times over. They broke His covenant again and again, and so lost every claim on His favour and love. But He bore with them with great patience, for His gifts and His calling are never taken back. In the prophets He kept reminding them that He was joined to them, that He was married to them, and that He could not cast them off.
- Return — the word. "Backsliding" already points to a way back. The name God gives the wanderer leans toward her coming home.
- Return — the cause. The anger is withheld "for I am merciful." The reason sits in God's character, not in Israel's record.
- Return — the condition. One thing only: acknowledge the wrongdoing. Confession, not repair work, is the road back.
- Return — the reach. God aims the message north, at exiles carried away a century before. He knows where they are.
- Return — the ground. He is married to them. That bond, not their faithfulness, is why the call keeps coming.
Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against Jehovah thy God, and hast turned thy ways hither and thither to the strangers under every green tree; and ye have not hearkened to my voice, saith Jehovah.
God speaks here to Israel, the ten northern tribes. He had already put them away for their unfaithfulness. Now He names the one condition for their return. It is startling how little He asks: an honest owning of what they have done.
This call comes after a long list of charges against the nation. God exposes both kingdoms before He invites either one home.
I need not dwell on the bitter charges of the prophet. The Jews did a double evil. They forsook the Lord, the only source of living waters. They turned instead to cisterns that could hold no water, rushing into idolatry and all its corrupting influences. But in Jeremiah 3 we have a pleading of the Lord with them. He shows them that bad as Israel might have been, Judah would turn out no better. Judah had held out for a time and gave fair promises under Josiah. The crisis would surely come; but when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
Just before this call, God sets the two kingdoms side by side. Israel sinned in the open. Judah made a show of returning, but her heart was not in it. That contrast explains why God asks first for honesty.
God would rather have reality, even though our souls are at a distance, than unreality and a claimed nearness we are not in. There was open backsliding and rebellion on the part of the ten tribes. But what did Judah do? "Judah did not fear." "Judah did not return to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD." There is a great lesson there. The Lord will not have anything but what is real.
The verse points to what they did "under every green tree." That was not a private failure. It covered the whole land.
High places for idol worship dotted the whole land, and in the shade of every green tree the people carried on the detestable practices of the nations. These unholy and unclean rites deserved the name the prophets so often give them: harlotry. It fits in both senses, the spiritual and the literal. What could God do with such a nation but put them away?
The small word "only" carries the weight of the verse. It marks out a single road home, and one that anyone can take.
Backslider! He called them then, and told them to come back. Now He calls you back. You might ask, How can I get back? You say, I feel God has spoken to my soul through His Word, I am drinking at broken cisterns — how am I to get back? Listen. "Only acknowledge your guilt." There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." How tender that call is. There was no break of relationship on God's part.
This word came in the days of Josiah, when the nation had turned back to God and blessing had returned. Even then, God did not drop the call to confess.
The historical books of the Old Testament show us how the merciful Lord renewed His blessing whenever the people returned to Him. But if we read the prophets, we see how God searches deeply. He judges the evil that must not remain after the blessing has returned. In the time of Josiah we see a good return of the people towards God, and abundant blessing with it. Even so, at the Lord's command, Jeremiah still says to the people, "Acknowledge your guilt."
What follows the call is a promise far larger than a return from exile. It looks to a day still ahead.
Nothing can be more distinct than this prediction, and nothing more gracious. Here we clearly have God's grace stepping in for the whole people in the last days. That is after both the Assyrian captivity, which had already happened, and the Babylonian one that was about to happen. After all that, God would recall His people — not part of them, but all of them. He would recall Israel, and He would recall Judah. He would bring them both back into the land. He would bless them there so richly that all the ancient blessing they had known, even what was known under David and Solomon, would fade beside the brighter glory of the whole united people. From that time they would never depart from the Lord again.
- Bottom — God lays every charge first. Then, when a person has sunk to the lowest, He appears in His grace.
- Real — God prefers honest distance to pretended nearness. Judah's return was only "in pretense," and He will not have anything but what is real.
- Only — God asks one thing, and anyone can give it: own the sin. Confession is the single road back.
- Deep — Even a real revival does not cancel this word. God still judges the evil that remains after blessing returns.
- Beyond — On the far side of confession is more than pardon. God brings His whole people home, and they never depart from Him again.
Return, backsliding children, saith Jehovah; for I am a husband unto you, and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
The Lord calls a runaway people home, on the ground of a bond He still holds. Two questions press: what is that bond, and who are the "one from a city and two from a family" He promises to bring to Zion?
The chapter first sets out Israel's failure. What makes the appeal remarkable is its timing.
I need not dwell on the bitter charges of the prophet. The Jews did a double evil. They forsook the Lord, the only source of living waters. They turned instead to cisterns that could hold no water, running to idolatry and all its corrupting influences. But in Jeremiah 3 we have a pleading of the Lord with them. He shows them that Judah would turn out no better than Israel. Judah had held out for a time and gave fair promises under Josiah. The crisis would surely come; but when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
Another writer sees the same order: judgment first, then grace.
Once judgment has fallen on Israel, God can let His heart flow out in the testimony of grace. This must give a place to Judah as well, since the two are to be united.
The ESV gives God's reason as "for I am your master." The writers here quote older translations, which read "I am a husband to you" or "I am married to you." Either way, God holds Israel in a bond her unfaithfulness did not dissolve — and Isaiah uses the same language.
The Jewish body was so married — "for I am married to you, says Jehovah" (Jer. 3:14; Isa. 54:4-6). "For your Maker is your husband; Jehovah has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth when you were refused, says your God."
One writer uses this verse to mark a difference between what Israel had with the Lord and what the church has now.
The prophet Jeremiah addressed Israel as married to Jehovah (ch. 3:14). But the Church is only promised in marriage; the wedding is still ahead.
The call is to return, and the verse just before names what returning involves.
Backslider! He called them then, and told them to come back. Now He calls you back. You might ask, How can I get back?... Listen: "Only acknowledge your iniquity" (Jer. 3:13). There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). What a tender call it is.
"One from a city and two from a family" sounds like a thin harvest. God picks them out one by one, yet what He gathers is a whole nation restored.
Nothing can be more distinct than this prediction, nor more gracious. Here God's grace steps in for the whole people in the latter day. That is after the Assyrian captivity, which had already happened, and after the Babylonian one, which was still to come. After all that, God would recall His people — not part of them, but the whole of them. He would recall Israel and He would recall Judah. He would bring them both back into the land. He would bless them there so richly that even the ancient blessing they once had — the ark of the covenant, and all that was known under David and Solomon — would pass away. It would be completely outshone by the brighter glory of the whole united people in the latter day. And from that time they would never leave the Lord again.
One writer places the fulfilment of this promise ahead of us, not behind.
The call which follows is a call to return and confess to the One who is married to them. It looks on to a future day. Then the ark of the covenant of the Lord will be outshone by a greater glory, and the true King will reign... This has never yet taken place, as we know. It supposes the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to Israel as David's greater Son. Their conscience will be truly reached then, and they will return to the One they had forsaken and forgotten.
- Bond — the appeal rests on a tie God still owns. He speaks as a husband to a wife who left Him, and her unfaithfulness did not cancel it.
- Bottom — the call comes after the failure is complete: when a person has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
- Confession — there is one way back. Own the sin, and God forgives and cleanses.
- Gathering — He takes them one from a city and two from a family. Yet the whole people come to Zion, never to leave again.
- Fulfilment — none of this has happened yet. Writers point to the return of Christ as David's greater Son, when Israel's conscience answers at last.
And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Jeremiah 3 shows God pleading with a people who had left Him for idols. In the middle of that appeal He promises them shepherds of His own giving, which raises two questions: what makes a shepherd "after God's own heart," and when does this promise come true?
God does not make this promise to people who have cleaned themselves up. He ties it to an invitation to come back, and one writer names the single condition:
Notice how beautifully He works with these backsliding ten tribes to bring them back... "Turn, O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you... and I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." Backslider! He called them then, and told them to come back. Now He calls you back. You might ask, How can I get back?... Listen. "Only acknowledge your iniquity." There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession.
The word translated "pastors" is not a church title. It is a working word about food, and in Jeremiah it names men who had already failed at the job:
In the Old Testament the word is raah, "to feed," and refers to those who should have helped God's people. They, like all others, had failed; they had destroyed and scattered the sheep... In the New Testament it is poimēn, which is applied to Christ Himself as the good Shepherd. The pastor is one of the gifts in the church, Ephesians 4:11. He is gifted to help the saints one by one. He enters into their trials and difficulties, and brings the word to instruct and comfort them, or to challenge and counsel them if needed.
Jeremiah traces that failure through his whole book. That is why the promise of new shepherds matters:
After speaking of the ignorance of the priests, Jeremiah adds, "The pastors also transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal." He tells us, "The pastors have become brutish and have not sought the Lord." ... The Lord says, "My people have been like lost sheep, and their shepherds have caused them to go astray."
The measure of these shepherds is God's own heart, not their skill or office. One writer links the phrase to the charge Jesus gave Peter after his failure, and to what Peter later told other leaders:
The pastors promised to Israel for the last days, who "shall feed them with knowledge and understanding" (Jer. 3:15), are described as being after God's "own heart." Compare those words with the parting charge the Great Shepherd of the sheep gave to Peter, the fallen but now "converted" son of Jonas (John 21:15-17; Luke 22:32). Compare them too with what that same Peter, as a mature apostle, later told his fellow elders in the Church (1 Peter 5:1-4).
"Feed" is the test. One writer draws a sharp line between feeding and mere talk:
A pastor is one who feeds the sheep of Christ. He is not one who stands up and talks a great deal of airy stuff about the higher criticism of Scripture, and usually leads his hearers away into a mist of darkness where they cannot follow him... A teacher of that sort is certainly no pastor. The pastor that Christ gives is one who feeds the hearts of His saints with the bread and water of life.
Neglecting that work is no small thing:
The pastor is a gift Christ gave when He went up on high. He is placed in the body of Christ as a joint that supplies it. So he is responsible for using this gift, like a talent entrusted to him; Eph. 4:11. Woe to the pastor who does not feed!
One writer reads the promise as grace for a day still ahead, later than both captivities:
Nothing could be more distinct than this prediction, nor more gracious. Here we have God's grace stepping in for the whole people in the latter day. That is after the Assyrian captivity, which had already happened, and after the Babylonian one, which was still to come. After all that, God would recall His people — not part of them, but the whole of them.
Behind the shepherds God gives stands the Shepherd Himself:
He foretells the day when the Lord Himself will recover His scattered people, and "gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock." Of the seed of David, the shepherd king, he tells us, One will be raised up, and in His days "Israel shall dwell safely." The believer knows this Shepherd now, and receives eternal life from Him before He returns to gather Israel.
- Return — God ties the promise of good shepherds to a call to come back. The one condition is confession: "Only acknowledge your iniquity."
- Failure — Israel's own shepherds — older versions call them "pastors" — sinned, grew brutish, and led God's people astray.
- Gift — God gives what failed men could not: shepherds measured by His own heart. Christ's charge to Peter, and Peter's charge to elders, echo the same standard.
- Food — The test is feeding hearts with the bread and water of life, not talk that leaves hearers in a mist.
- Fulfilment — Writers see grace for the whole nation in a day still to come, resting on the Shepherd of David's line whom believers know already.
And it shall come to pass, when ye are multiplied in the land and become fruitful, in those days, saith Jehovah, they shall say no more, Ark of the covenant of Jehovah! neither shall it come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit [it]; neither shall it be done any more.
Jeremiah 3 is a plea to a people who had wandered from God. In the middle of it comes a promise about a day when Israel is back in the land and growing. The strange part is what that day will not hold. Israel's most sacred object, the ark of the covenant, will not even come to mind.
The promise reaches past captivity, and it outruns Israel's best days.
Here we have God's grace stepping in for the whole people in the latter day — after the Assyrian captivity, which had already happened, and the Babylonian one, still to come. After all that, God would recall His people — not part of them, but the whole of them. He would recall Israel. He would recall Judah. He would bring them both back into the land. He would bless them there so richly that even their ancient blessing, the ark of the covenant, would pass away. The ark was the great mark of David's faith. David made a resting-place for it on Zion, and it was lost soon after Solomon... So great would be the blessing of that day that even what David and Solomon knew would be altogether eclipsed by the still brighter glory of the whole united people. From that time they would never depart from the Lord again.
The ark stood for God's presence with Israel. Scripture stops mentioning it around Jeremiah's time, and the verse may hint at how people were treating it then.
Josiah tells the Levites to put the ark in its proper place in the temple, and to stop carrying it on their shoulders. That is the last historical mention of the ark in Scripture. From Jer. 3:16 it would almost appear that people had turned it into a showy display, and that the Levites may have carried it in procession through the streets of Jerusalem. It is never heard of again, and probably perished when the Babylonians burned the temple.
Some have said Jeremiah hid the ark away for a future day. One writer finds that unlikely, and points to this verse.
That it disappeared is certain. That he hid it, to come out at a future day, we think most unlikely, with the words of his prophecy (Jer. 3:16) before us... A stone took its place in the rebuilt temple, and Ezekiel's temple of the future never mentions it. Jeremiah has told us that it will not be needed, and we can all understand why. The ark was the symbol of the Divine presence, and God needs no symbol when He Himself is there.
This is no downgrade. The picture gives way to the Person it pictured.
The ark had the greatest significance in Israel when it was made. Yet it was only a symbol of Christ. The symbol must vanish away, while the One it speaks of remains for ever in all the excellence of His beauty and glory.
The temple Ezekiel describes for that age has no ark in it.
In the holiest place there is no sign and no ark needed: Jehovah fills it alone.
The next verse names what replaces the ark: Jerusalem becomes the throne of the LORD, and the nations gather to it. Three things arrive together there, and history has not yet seen them together.
Some events have looked like the fulfilment of many of the prophecies about their restoration — for example, the return of the people from Babylon. But God has given His own marks. He has tied circumstances together that have never yet come true, as in this passage: "All the nations shall be gathered unto it."... In a word, we see three things happening together which surely have not yet happened at the same time: Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; Judah and Israel united; and the nations assembled to the throne of God. When the church began, Israel was scattered. When Israel returned from Babylon, there was neither church nor gathering of nations.
The verse has a present edge. It settles the question of chasing after sacred objects. The writer quotes an older translation here: where the ESV has "or missed," it reads "neither shall they visit it."
He sees the living glory and covenant coming in Christ with surpassing splendour, and so he says, "Neither shall they remember it, neither shall they visit it!" A greater glory outshines it. This helps those who cling to the living Lord today. Many are trapped in superstition and darkness by vague and mysterious teaching about "The Ark," and I have met some of them in great distress of mind. We have the living Christ, and we are to follow Him.
- Outshone. The sign that once marked God's presence is not destroyed. The glory it pointed to has come, and it outshines the sign.
- Outgrown. Israel's future blessing goes far beyond the days of David and Solomon. Their finest treasure will not even come to mind.
- Untraceable. The ark's story stops in Jeremiah's day. Guesses about a hidden ark run against the very verse that says it will never be needed again.
- Unnecessary. Ezekiel's temple of the future has no ark: no symbol of God's presence is needed when God Himself is there.
- Unfulfilled. A throne at Jerusalem, Judah and Israel together, and all nations gathered — these three have never yet happened at once. The promise still stands open.
At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem; and they shall no more walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
Jeremiah looks ahead to a day when Jerusalem carries God's throne. The promise raises two hard questions. What does it mean to call a city the throne of the Lord? And when has anything like this ever happened?
The title given to Jerusalem is a title of rule. One writer will not soften it into something spiritual and present. He uses an older translation that prints God's name as "Jehovah"; the ESV has "the LORD".
Here the prophet speaks of a state that goes beyond everything known under their best kings. Is it the gospel, or what we now know under Christianity? There is not the slightest resemblance. "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah." Now that is not the gospel. The gospel is not the throne of Jehovah. The throne of Jehovah means governmental power. It is put forth over the whole earth, according to His name, Jehovah. There are to be no idols. There are to be no rivals. The name of Jehovah is to be the one universal name owned and honoured over the whole earth.
Some say this came true when the exiles returned from Babylon. Others say it pictures the church. One commentator answers both.
Certain early signs have looked like the fulfilment of many prophecies about their restoration. The return of the people from Babylon is one. But God has given His own marks. He has linked circumstances together which have never yet come true. In this passage, "all nations shall gather to it." That did not take place at the return from Babylon. But you will reply, It is the church. No. We see three things happening together which have not yet happened at the same time: Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; Judah and Israel united; and the nations assembled to the throne of God. When the church was founded, Israel was dispersed. When Israel returned from Babylon, there was neither church nor gathering of nations.
The ark was the gold-covered chest in Israel's sanctuary. It was God's throne among His people, and it is gone. One writer shows what this verse puts in its place — and what changes in the people themselves.
The literal ark has passed away, as Jeremiah tells us, and it will never return. But instead of that throne of His of old, a far greater grace has declared that Jerusalem itself "shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it... and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart."
The verse opens with "At that time." Commentators place that time after judgment has cleared the ground.
Besides the warrior-judgment, there is a judgment from the seat of authority. It comes when Christ has destroyed the beast and Antichrist and has taken the throne of Jehovah on the earth at Jerusalem. For Jerusalem is to be called the throne of Jehovah.
The same writer names who has tried to build a worldwide rule. He also shows that Christ's kingdom will not be limited to the earth.
"All nations shall gather to it." The papacy has tried under the gospel to set up a universal spiritual monarchy. That will really be done by the only One entitled to it, the Lord Jesus. He will have this kingdom upon the earth, Jerusalem His centre, and all the nations His sphere. At the same time He will have the heavens, and the new Jerusalem will be the capital.
The promise is startling because of who receives it. God names a guilty city as His throne.
Jerusalem then is to be the throne of Jehovah. Suppose it is worthy of God, suitable to His grace, and due to His Son, that He should show mercy to the vilest of sinners now. Then will it take from His glory, or lessen His grace, if He pours out His mercy over the earth? Will it, if He yet makes that guilty city a holy city, not in word only, but in deed and in truth? The time shall come when He who saw and wept over its growing wickedness will be its unhindered and eternal blessing, so that the nations may be blessed too.
- Throne — the phrase means real government. God rules the earth under His own name, with no idols and no rivals.
- Replacement — the ark, God's old throne among Israel, is gone for good. Grace answers that loss and names the whole city His throne.
- Gathering — the reach then runs outward. Jerusalem is His centre, all the nations His sphere, and the new Jerusalem the capital above.
- Timing — three things must meet at once: the throne, Judah and Israel united, and the nations gathered. They never have, so the promise still stands unfulfilled.
- Mercy — the city named as God's throne is the guilty one He wept over. The same grace will make that city holy in deed and truth, and its people will no longer follow their own evil heart.
In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel; and they shall come together out of the land of the north, to the land which I caused your fathers to inherit.
God speaks this promise to a people He is about to judge. It looks past their ruin to a day when the two long-divided halves of the nation come home together. When does this happen? Who comes back? Did the return from Babylon already settle it?
The chapter exposes what Israel and Judah have done. Yet it moves toward recovery, not ruin. One writer explains why Judah shares a promise spoken to Israel.
Jeremiah 3 announces that God will restore Israel out of His own sovereign goodness. It promises the blessing of the last days, when they return to Him... Now that judgment has fallen on Israel, God can let His heart flow out in the testimony of grace. This must give a place to Judah as well, since the two are to be united.
Some think the verse has already come true — in the return from Babylon, or in the church. One writer answers by pointing to the marks God attached to the promise.
Some events have looked like the fulfilment of many prophecies about their restoration — for example, the return of the people from Babylon. But God has given His own marks. He has linked circumstances together that have never yet come true... In a word, we see three things happening together, and they have never yet happened at the same time: Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; Judah and Israel united; and the nations gathered to the throne of God. When the church began, Israel lay scattered. When Israel returned from Babylon, there was no church and no gathering of nations.
The verse names two houses, and that detail decides its scope. One writer measures both how many come back and how great the blessing will be.
Here we plainly have God's grace stepping in for the whole people in the latter day. It comes after the Assyrian captivity, which had already happened, and after the Babylonian one, which was still to come. After all that, God would recall His people — not part of them, but the whole of them. He would recall Israel and recall Judah. He would bring them both back into the land, and bless them there... So great would be the blessing of the latter day that the brighter glory of the whole united people would eclipse even what they knew under David and Solomon. From that time they would never depart from the Lord again.
The ten tribes went north as captives long before Jeremiah wrote. Where they are now is unknown to us, but not to God.
One hundred years before, the house of Israel had gone northward as captives. The Lord knew where they lived and sent them this message of mercy. He knows today where the house of Israel is — the ten tribes. At some future time He will make good the gracious offer given here, and they will return... Israel will be converted. All the nations will be gathered to the Name of Jehovah; the house of Judah with the house of Israel will be reunited. That will be when the King, our ever blessed Lord, comes back.
The verse ends by calling the land a heritage God gave to their fathers. That word matters. The group that came back from Babylon held the land on very different terms.
Very few did return. Most of the nation stayed in Babylon and in the other countries where they were scattered. The ten tribes never returned at all. A second temple did go up, but no ark of the covenant stood in its holy of holies. There was no glory to mark the presence of Him who once dwelt between the cherubim. The restored captives held the land again, but not as an unconditional gift from God — only by permission of their Gentile masters.
Commentators differ on whether present-day events touch this verse. One writer reads the modern return of Jewish people to the land as an early stage of it, while noting the condition in which they arrive.
What does the Word of God prophesy about the last days? It tells us that the Jews will return to their own land in unbelief... This prophecy is being fulfilled before our eyes. The Jewish people were scattered among the nations for nearly two thousand years. Now they are coming back to their own land in large numbers. Only a little under 50,000 came back in the times of Ezra and Nehemiah.
- Grace — judgment is not the last word; once sentence falls, God's heart opens toward the very people He judges.
- Union — the promise reaches Judah as well as Israel, because the two are to be one people again.
- All — the promise covers the whole people, not a returning fragment. God recalls Israel and Judah together.
- North — the ten tribes vanished northward and are lost to us, not to God, who will bring them out at the King's return.
- Heritage — the land is theirs as God's own gift, not on loan from foreign rulers. Nothing since Babylon has matched that.
And as for me, I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee the pleasant land, the goodly inheritance of the hosts of the nations? And I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from following me.
Jeremiah 3 is full of charges against a faithless people. Then God speaks like a father working out how to keep a wayward child in the family — and He answers His own question with a name.
One writer sums up the chapter as a promise of restoration resting on God's goodness alone, and says why grace can speak here at all:
Jeremiah 3 proclaims the restoration of Israel by sovereign goodness, and the blessing of the last days when they return to God. Notice only this. Before the pleading with Israel over their folly, the Lord first points out that there was no seeking of Himself, no longing after Him: neither people nor priests said, "Where is the LORD?" Since judgment falls on Israel, God can let His heart flow out in the testimony of grace.
The chapter opens with a marriage broken by desertion. What God does next has no human parallel:
God is nowhere more Himself than in His tender mercy to His fallen people. A man could not take back a wife who had left him for another. "Israel had committed adultery with many lovers: yet return again to me, says the LORD."
The writers quoted here use an older translation, which reads the first half of the verse as a question — "How shall I put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land?" — and the second half as a promise: "You shall call me, my Father, and shall not depart from me." God had given the land once already, and it had gone wrong. That is what makes the question so pointed:
That land was made a fit place to live for the chosen people, for it was a good land, flowing with milk and honey. But they did not make it a fit place for God… When Israel failed and Canaan became an abomination, God was not defeated… Here are these two things again — the sons of men brought into relationship with God, and the habitable part of His earth. But the question is asked: how could God bring these wayward men of Israel, how could He bring any of the wayward sons of men, to answer His thoughts in a place where He could dwell with them?
God had sent prophets and messengers, and nothing held. The second half of the verse names what was still missing:
Israel's sad history of backsliding proved beyond question that if God was to secure men for Himself, something other than the prophetic word, or even the ministry of angels, was needed. God knew this from the beginning, and gleams of light about it broke out here and there in those earlier fruitless days, as in His lament over Israel's continual treachery. This was what God held in reserve until the fullness of the times had come. He would reveal Himself as Father, and by this revelation secure a true and steadfast response.
Commentators read this promise as still future, waiting on a King:
The call that follows — to return and confess to the One who is married to them — looks on to a future day. Then a greater glory will outshine the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the true King will reign… Then, in a national sense, Israel will call Him "My Father", and "not turn away from following Him". This has never yet taken place, as we know. It supposes the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to Israel as David's greater Son.
Israel's sonship here belongs to a nation, and writers mark the difference:
We must not confuse the adoption of Israel with what we know in Christianity… As a nation Israel could indeed be called God's son, and, in relation to the nations of the earth, His firstborn… Still, this is completely different in character from Christian adoption.
The verse ends with a promise about staying, not only about coming back:
"You shall call Me, My Father, and shall not depart from Me," was God's word to a backsliding people in ancient days. It seems to us that this name, Abba, is what will keep us from wandering and preserve us from worry. In the knowledge of His perfect love and care for us we shall rest.
- Question. God Himself raises the problem. How can He set a faithless people among His children and give them a good land?
- Difficulty. He gave the land once, and they defiled it. The question is not property but how wayward people can live where God dwells with them.
- Answer. Prophets and messengers were not enough. God gives a name instead: He makes Himself known as Father, and that secures a lasting response.
- Reach. For Israel the words still wait on a coming day. The nation will call Him "My Father" — a place writers keep distinct from Christian adoption.
- Result. Knowing Him as Father is what keeps a wanderer from leaving again.