And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more reduce him to servitude.
A broken yoke, burst chains, and no foreign master left — this promise belongs to one particular day. Commentators press one question above all: has that day come, and if not, when will it?
The promise opens with "in that day." That points back to the day of trouble the chapter has just described, and the link settles the timing.
So we find that the deliverance and restoration foretold here come at the moment of Israel's worst trouble — a day like no other. This has surely not happened yet. The next verse also proves the event is still future… Has anything like this ever been accomplished yet?
One writer holds the promise up against Jewish history and asks whether the yoke has ever come off.
"Foreigners shall no more make a servant of him" — that is, Jacob. Why, strangers have been making Jacob serve them right up to this hour! The Jews have never yet gained their national independence — never.
Someone could point to the many hard times the Jews have already come through. The same writer answers that none of them ended the way this prophecy does.
So while there have been many times of trouble for the Jews, there has never yet been an unequalled trouble after which they were saved. All the large-scale troubles they have passed through so far have only ended in further troubles. Things have always gone against the Jew, with the one exception of the Maccabean risings, and their results were very small indeed compared with the terms of this prophecy.
The chapter names the people it is about, and it names them plainly.
The language here is so precise that comment is almost unnecessary. "Alas! that day is great; so that none is like it." It is impossible that there should be two periods of unequalled trouble. What is more, the trouble ends in final and complete deliverance for the people of God… But who are the people the prophet has in mind? Whose appalling sufferings will end in deliverance and blessing? Verse 4 gives the answer: "These are the words that Jehovah spoke concerning Israel and concerning Jerusalem."
The name Jacob covers a man as well as a nation. One writer takes the promise back to the man's own story.
It was so with Jacob himself; it shall be so with his descendants. One certain night 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, but the heaviest weight will fall upon the Jews… Still, just as Jacob was freed from serving another, so verse 8 tells us that Israel also shall be freed from the future yoke of Babylon.
Freedom is not the whole promise. The deliverance moves Israel from one service to another, under a king this writer names as Christ.
Yet it is the day of deliverance for Israel: "…they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king [Christ] … but I will not leave you altogether unpunished," Jer. 30:8-9, 11. These promises have clearly never yet been fulfilled, for it will be a final deliverance.
Later in the chapter God says who will govern the restored people.
"Their nobles also shall be of themselves, and their governor shall come from among them" (verses 17-21). Usually the case was the very opposite: the governor came from the conquering power. And Jehovah added, "You shall be My people and I will be your God," This shows the restoration would be more than revival as a nation. It would bring communion with God in worship and service.
- Dated — The promise belongs to one day, the day of trouble like no other.
- Unfulfilled — Past troubles have only led to further troubles, and strangers keep their hold on Jacob to this hour.
- Unique — There cannot be two periods of unequalled trouble. This one ends in complete deliverance for Israel and Jerusalem.
- Personal — Jacob himself came through a night of anguish and went free from serving another. His descendants will too.
- Transferred — The yoke breaks so that service changes hands. Israel will serve the Lord their God and David their king, with a ruler from among their own people.
But they shall serve Jehovah their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.
This promise comes at the turning point of the chapter: God breaks the yoke off Israel and gives them a Master and a King to serve. Two questions follow: when does this happen, and who is the "David" raised up long after David himself died?
Commentators say this promise has not happened yet. The reason is how far it reaches: the whole people, not a part of them.
"But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them" (verse 9). These will be the days of the Messiah: "the LORD their God and David their king." The prophecy certainly applies to the Jewish people as one whole, undivided nation. So the prophecy is still future.
The chapter names who it is talking about. That blocks any attempt to read Israel as a picture of something else.
Some explain such prophecies away by applying them to the Church and to Christianity. As if to guard against that, we are told, "And these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and concerning 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.
The name David has a meaning of its own, and that meaning explains its use here.
In all prophecies we have to tell two things apart. One is the near event that the prophet hangs his prophecy on. The other goes in spirit far beyond that immediate prophecy. For instance, in Jeremiah 30:9 and 33:21 we find mention of David. The name means "beloved," and there it clearly refers to Christ.
One writer states the point plainly, after quoting the promise of freedom that comes just before it.
"In that day, says the LORD of Hosts, I will break his yoke from your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and strangers shall no longer make him serve them" (Jer. 30:8). There is hardly a need to say that David their king, raised up here, is none other than David's greater Son, the Lord from heaven.
This service begins at the darkest hour of the chapter. God rescues His people at their lowest point, and because God Himself acts, the rescue is complete.
This deliverance finds Israel at the height of the distress. That is the first thing shown to the prophet. No day could be compared to this day of Jacob's trouble… But at this extreme point God comes to help His people, and He will deliver them. God has now carried out His judgment and has acted according to His own purposes in grace. So this deliverance will be full and complete. Israel will serve the LORD their God and David their king… Israel will be the people of the LORD, and the LORD will be their God.
David began as a shepherd. One writer follows that picture to Christ, and to resurrection.
David the king started out as David the shepherd. From childhood he grew in the skills that fitted him to be the shepherd of Israel. But David is only a faint picture of the true David, the true Shepherd, "great David's greater Son", the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in resurrection that the Lord Jesus holds this relationship to us, just as Psalm 23 follows Psalm 22. And it is in resurrection that He will fulfil this new and everlasting covenant relation with Israel.
Serving a king is only good news if the king is good. David and Solomon both failed the people who served them.
What a King Christ will be to them! David and Solomon both pictured Him, but how faintly! David sinned, and so brought a plague on the poor sheep. Solomon dazzled them with glory and splendour, but his yoke was heavy and his oppression was harsh, and the bright season of glory ended in gloom and disaster. But the true David will bring peace and blessing to His people. The true Solomon will show them a brighter glory, and His rule will be in righteousness and fairness, with no failing on His part at the end.
- Trouble. God sets this promise at Israel's worst hour. Deliverance meets them at the height of the distress, not before.
- Freedom. God breaks the yoke so that service changes hands: no longer strangers, but the LORD their God.
- King. "David" means beloved. The name points past the shepherd of Bethlehem to Christ, David's greater Son, whom God raises up for them.
- Reach. The promise covers the Jewish people as one undivided nation, named in the text. That is why writers say it is still future.
- Rest. This King rules in righteousness and never fails. David and Solomon did fail. So under Him the blessing lasts.
And thou, my servant Jacob, fear not, saith Jehovah; neither be dismayed, O Israel for behold, 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 at ease, and none shall make [him] afraid.
God says this to people who are about to lose their city, their land and their freedom. Yet He tells them not to be afraid. That raises two hard questions. When does a scattered people finally come back to rest? And how can God comfort the very people He is punishing?
The command not to fear follows straight on from what God has just promised. One writer notes that the comfort does not cancel the discipline. Jacob would still be corrected — but he would not be destroyed:
Because of this, the word comes: "Fear not, O Jacob my servant" (v. 10). Even if other nations were brought to an end, it would not be so with him. He needed chastening and correction, and he would get it, but the Lord was with him, even though his false lovers had failed him and forgotten him.
Behind the command not to fear lies a fact that history itself shows. Other nations have vanished. This one has not.
God has made a full end of other nations, but not of Israel, and He never will. That is how the promise runs: this people are outcast, but not destroyed. It is true that they have gone back as far as they could into the flesh that circumcision had outwardly brought them out of. In principle they have returned to Egypt, or made themselves at home with the ways of an uncircumcised world. Yet there they are to this day, kept by God's present hand for God's coming purposes. Their whole history marks the working of a divine hand over them.
The obvious candidate is the return from Babylon. One writer tests it and says no. The rescue here comes at the moment of Jacob's worst trouble, not after the trouble has passed.
Has this been done yet? Only as a first instalment of it. It is His work, and it will not fail when He carries it out in power. One of the striking things about 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 matches that description... And Titus's siege of Jerusalem, however severe a time of trouble it was for the Jew, cannot be the time either. Jacob was then led away captive and scattered more than ever, instead of being delivered.
The verse promises two things, and the second is easy to miss. God does not only save. He also brings a people home. One writer marks off that hope from the Christian's:
Here the LORD renews His promise. He will not only save Israel; He will also bring them back and give them rest, out of the land where they are held captive. This is not the gospel. Christianity holds out other and higher hopes — grace that gathers people to Christ on high, not rescue by God's judgments falling on their enemies among the nations, as here.
"None shall make him afraid" describes a settled state, not a pause between wars. One writer traces that rest from the defeat of Israel's enemies right through to the very end:
So, when God brings rest to Israel after the defeat of all their enemies, He promises, "Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid" (Jer. 30:10). No nation will want to stir up Israel's anger through the whole thousand years of peace. At the end of that time the nations do come together against Israel. Even then Israel need not fear, because God will destroy their enemies with fire from heaven (Rev. 20:7-10).
Jeremiah says almost the same thing again later in his book, after a series of judgments on the nations. The repeat meets one fear head on: that God's own people were finished. One writer comments, quoting an older translation:
The chapter ends by comforting the chosen people. After their folly and self-will, they might well have feared that they were now to be wiped out for good... "Fear not, O Jacob my servant, says the Lord, for I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I will not make a full end of you. I will correct you in measure, yet I will not leave you wholly unpunished." The Lord is full of pity and tender mercy.
- Corrected, not consumed. Jacob needed the correction and would get it. But God stayed with him, and the correction was measured, not endless.
- Kept, not cancelled. Other nations have come to a full end. This people is outcast, yet kept — held by God's hand for God's coming purposes.
- Future, not past. The return from Babylon fails the test. So does the siege of Jerusalem under Titus. This rescue comes at the height of the trouble, not after it.
- Brought home, not only rescued. The promise is rescue, and return, and rest in the land. That hope is not the gospel's call to Christ on high.
- Quiet that lasts. The rest is not a truce. No nation will stir Israel again, and even the last outbreak of hostility ends with God acting for them.
For I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to save thee for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee; yet of thee will I not make a full end, but I will correct thee with judgment, and will not hold thee altogether guiltless.
God speaks here to a people in ruins, and gives them two promises that sound like opposites: He will keep them, and He will still punish them. The verse puts God's way with the nations beside His way with His own people, and the difference is the whole point.
The chapter names the crisis as the time of Jacob's trouble, and the rescue comes out of the worst of it, not before it. Commentators note that no past event in Israel's history matches that description.
One strange feature of it is this: the day of their greatest trouble is at once the day of their complete and final deliverance. The return from Babylon in no way meets such a description. That return came after the day of the Lord had fallen on the proud city of the Chaldeans, and it was in no way the time of Jacob's trouble... So the hour of trouble like no other, coming before their great deliverance, is still future. God will surely fulfil it.
God Himself scattered them, and He names two different endings: a full end for the nations, but not for Israel. History has already begun to show which promise is which.
This exactly describes Israel's position today. They are away from their possessions, but the ever faithful God has His eye on them, and He keeps them as a nation still. What a striking witness to the man who disbelieves God's word! They have been through ups and downs like no other people, and through heavy discipline under the holy hand of God. They have borne the hatred and persecution of the boastful Gentile, east and west. Still they remain. Where is Moab? Where Edom, Assyria, Babylon? Men may dig up the ruins of their palaces and fortresses. But as nations they are dead and gone; they ceased to exist long ago. But Israel remains as distinct a people as ever.
God's disciplining of His people runs right through the book.
Jeremiah also refers to God 'correcting', 'chastising' or 'instructing' — that is, disciplining — them. The same Hebrew word for this occurs seven times in the book: 2:19; 6:8; 10:24; 30:11; 31:18 (twice); and 46:28.
God used foreign armies against His people. But the hand behind the blow was His own, and He never aimed to wipe them out.
The Assyrians were only instruments in His hand. He would Himself strike, but not wipe out His guilty people. He does not destroy, but chastens them. This humbles, but it comforts; for love is there.
The measure is not only about how much Israel suffers. It also sets a limit on the nations God uses to do the correcting.
God will not let the nations treat His poor erring people as they please. He will use them as His rod of discipline. But the moment they give way to their own bitter hatred and go past the limit He set, He will break the rod in pieces. He will make it clear to all that He Himself is dealing with His beloved, though erring, people — for their ultimate blessing and His glory.
The salvation promised here is a return to a land and rest in it. Commentators are careful to keep it distinct from the hope held out to Christians.
Here the Lord renews His promise. He will not only save Israel; He will bring them back from the land of their captivity to rest. This is not the gospel. Christianity holds out other and higher hopes — grace that gathers people to Christ on high. It is not deliverance through God's judgments on their Gentile enemies, as here.
Across the whole book, God's discipline has a clear aim.
When the hearts of His people turn away from Him God may have to act in discipline. The goal of discipline is to restore, correct and bring about repentance... Bowing under God's discipline brings blessing. God condemns the world but disciplines His own. Even in discipline God shows grace.
- Presence first. The first word here is not punishment but presence. God Himself is with them, and He is with them to save.
- Measure, not softness. The word for correcting appears seven times in Jeremiah. It means discipline that aims to restore.
- Measured on both sides. The nations used as the rod have an appointed limit, and when they exceed it the rod itself is broken.
- Measure decides survival. He strikes His people but does not wipe them out; the empires that struck them are gone, and Israel remains.
- Measure ends in blessing. The trouble is real and deserved. Yet it leads on to return, rest, and a deliverance that commentators still place in the future.