Jeremiah 16:1-17:18
In case you haven’t noticed yet, things are not looking good for the people of Judah. Forget about life as usual. Forget about having kids, as it will most certainly not go well for them. (Jer. 16:1-4) It’s time for any partying to stop:
For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
Jeremiah 16:9
Further, the LORD declares that He will send His people into exile:
Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.
Jeremiah 16:13
None of that should be a surprise to anyone at this point. But look at what He says next:
Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.
Jeremiah 16:14-15
Did you catch that? On the one hand, the LORD is confirming the judgement of exile on the faithless people of Judah, but on the other hand He is simultaneously promising restoration. In His faithfulness, the LORD will bring His people back to their land.
One can certainly argue that the LORD fulfills this promise several decades hence when He brings the exiles back from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem and resettle the land in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. But it seems to me that Jeremiah 16:16-21 envisions much more:
O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,
Jeremiah 16:19a
my refuge in the day of trouble,
to You shall the nations come
from the ends of the earth…
What do you think? Are you part of that? Do you want to be?