And these are the words that Jehovah hath spoken concerning Israel and concerning Judah;
Jeremiah has spent chapter after chapter announcing ruin, and here the tone changes: a short line of introduction announces that what follows is a message addressed to both parts of a divided nation. Everything in the four chapters that follow hangs on how seriously we take those two names.
The placing of this prophecy matters. It arrives at the point where the nation's whole future looks cancelled, and one commentator sets out the question it answers:
This great prophecy, which begins with the thirtieth chapter, is quite in order after all these judgment messages, announcing the doom of Jerusalem and of the nation. What then about the future, that future which all their fathers had cherished, the promises which rested upon the covenant Jehovah made with David? Was now everything to be blotted out and no national hope left? The last siege of Jerusalem was in progress; soon all the threatened judgments would pass fully into history. How perfectly in order is it that now should be given a message of the glorious future of the nation.
The verse looks like a mere heading, but commentators treat it as one of the most decisive sentences in prophecy. It names the parties, and it names them twice:
As if to guard against the "spiritualizing" way of reading, which explains such prophecies away by applying them to the Church and to Christianity, we are told, "These are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah." They are not words about something else pictured under the names of Israel and Judah. They are words the Lord spoke — a solemn thought! — about Israel and about Judah.
Another writer draws the same line, and adds who is not in view:
But who are the sufferers contemplated? Not the Church, of which Jeremiah knew even less than the disciples who sat with the Lord on the Mount of Olives… When God says "Israel" and "Judah," we may be assured that He means what He says.
Since both names appear, the promise cannot be limited to the small group that came home from Babylon. Both houses are covered, and only one of them ever returned:
Here is a promised return not only of the house of Judah, but a return of the ten tribes also. This has never taken place… every sane Bible reader realizes that the house of Israel is still scattered among the nations. This restoration promise will be accomplished in the future.
Two later candidates are also weighed and rejected — the return from Babylon, and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem under Titus:
The return from Babylon in no way meets such a description; for their return from that captivity was preceded by the day of the Lord on the proud city of the Chaldeans, and in no sense the time of Jacob's trouble. Again, the siege of Titus, however severe a time of trouble to the Jew, cannot possibly be regarded as the time; for Jacob was led captive and scattered more than ever, instead of being then delivered.
The words announced here open with terror before they offer relief, and the name chosen for the sufferers is deliberate:
Jacob, "that worm Jacob," is the name used for the people regarded in their weakness, as Israel is their name of power… We have Israel and Judah in question, called by the name that expresses their weakness as exposed to every kind of calamity from without. It is a day of unparalleled trouble, and the Israel of that day are to be delivered.
The pattern is read as the nation repeating its ancestor's own story — Jacob, who wrestled through one terrible night before his name was changed:
Like his, the nation's way to the glory is through trial and trouble… It was so with Jacob personally: it shall be so with his descendants. There was a certain night which stands out in Jacob's history: there will be a certain time of tribulation, of great tribulation, which shall distinguish Israel's history.
That wording of verse 7 comes from an older translation.
If these promises belong to Israel, Christians are not to claim them — and lose nothing by not claiming them:
Israel's is an earthly calling… When, in days to come, grace shall restore and save them, and when they shall stand in grace, no longer holding their blessings on the tenure of their own obedience, their blessings — the blessings distinctive of their calling and position — will still be earthly. Ours is a heavenly calling.
- Named. The verse names Israel and Judah on purpose, so that the promises cannot be quietly transferred to somebody else.
- Timed. It comes after the judgment messages, when the nation's hope looked finished, to answer whether God had cancelled His covenant with David.
- Unfulfilled. Neither the return from Babylon nor the fall of Jerusalem under Titus matches it; the ten tribes have never come home.
- Weak, then delivered. They are called by Jacob's name — the name of weakness — and, like Jacob, they pass through one terrible night on the way to blessing.
- Distinct. Israel's promised blessings are earthly; readers who belong to Christ have a heavenly calling and need not borrow another people's portion.
for thus saith Jehovah We have heard a voice of trembling, there is fear, and no peace.
God tells Jeremiah to write his words in a book, because they reach far past his own lifetime. The first sound in that future is not comfort but panic. That raises three questions: whose fear is this, when does it come, and why does a promise of restoration open with terror?
Why put the message in a book at all? Trotter finds the answer in the promise that follows, and in a rescue that has not happened yet.
Jeremiah 30 is full of instruction on our present subject. You can judge the importance of what is coming from the opening words: "Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you." Why were they to be recorded so permanently? "For behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will restore the fortunes of My people, Israel and Judah… and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers." We then hear of a time of terrible, widespread panic… So the deliverance and restoration foretold here come at the moment of Israel's worst trouble — a day that nothing matches. Surely this has not happened yet.
This is not ordinary fear. Kelly matches it with the unequalled time of trouble in Daniel, and says why the people are called Jacob and not Israel.
This is a state of things beyond anything that is normally reasonable. Men are filled with the deepest anguish, and it shows in their faces. Their courage is gone in the face of dreadful trouble… As in Daniel, it is a time never seen before. Jacob, "that worm Jacob," is the name used for the people seen in their weakness, as Israel is their name of power.
If this panic had already come, history could name it. Kelly tests the two obvious candidates — the return from exile in Babylon, and Jerusalem's fall to the Roman general Titus — and finds that neither fits.
One strange feature of it is this. It is the day of their greatest trouble, yet it is at once their complete and, as we shall see, final deliverance. The return from Babylon in no way meets such a description. The day of the Lord fell on the proud city of the Chaldeans before that return, and the return was in no sense the time of Jacob's trouble. Again, the siege of Titus was a severe time of trouble for the Jew, but it cannot be the time. Jacob was led captive and scattered more than ever then, instead of being delivered.
The panic has a purpose. One writer calls it labour — pain that ends in a birth. It comes before the appearing of the Lord Israel rejected.
But before He appears, Israel will be getting ready to recognise and receive her rejected Lord. This happens in the middle of a time of trial such as the world has never seen, and will never see again… It is indeed the labour-time of Israel's new birth.
The name Jacob points back to the man himself. One writer sets a single night in Jacob's life beside the time of trouble still waiting for his descendants.
It was so with Jacob personally; it shall be so with his descendants. There was a certain night that stands out in Jacob's history. In the same way, a certain time of tribulation, of great tribulation, will mark Israel's history… The whole world will feel it, yet the heaviest weight will fall upon the Jews. Even they, who have suffered so much, will never have known before such "a time of trouble" (Daniel 12:1).
The panic is not where the chapter ends. Darby notes what the prophet is shown first, and how complete the rescue turns out to be.
Now this deliverance found Israel at the height of the distress. This is the first thing presented to the prophet. No day could be compared to this day of Jacob's trouble. It is the day spoken of in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. But in this extremity God comes to the help of His people, and they shall be delivered. God has now carried out His judgment and acted according to His own counsels in grace. So this deliverance shall be full and complete.
- Written — God had the words written down because their day had not yet come. The fear belongs to a future still ahead.
- Panic — the terror goes past anything reasonable: courage gone, anguish showing in every face.
- Jacob — that weak name marks the people at their most helpless, right before their rescue.
- Travail — the pain is labour pain. It ends in a birth: a nation that welcomes the Lord it once rejected.
- Saved — deliverance lands at the very height of the distress, and it is full and final, not a partial reprieve.
Ask ye now, and see, whether a male doth travail with child? Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail; and all faces are turned into paleness?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.