Jeremiah 31:18 - Meaning and Application

Here we have Ephraim’s repentance and return to God. Not only Judah, but also Ephraim, the ten tribes, will be restored, and they are prepared for that by true repentance (Hosea 14:8). Ephraim says, “What have I to do with idols anymore?” The people of Ephraim are spoken of as one person to show their unity. They will repent together, with one mind and one voice, all of them honoring God.

This way of speaking also fits individual penitents, because the passage is meant to guide and encourage them. Ephraim is pictured here weeping over sin. That may connect with the Ephraim from whom the tribe got its name, a man of tender feeling who mourned for his children many days (1 Chronicles 7:21-22). Sorrow for sin is compared to grief for an only son.

The penitent here is shown first grieving over himself and the trouble his sin has brought. True repentance does this. He also blames himself, laying the weight of guilt on his own shoulders as a great sinner. He especially charges himself with the sin his conscience points out at that moment, impatience under correction: “You have punished me, and I have been punished.” He admits that the discipline was deserved, as a bullock that would never feel the goad unless it first resisted the yoke.

Those who truly repent see their troubles as loving discipline from a father. They can say, “You have punished me, and I was punished,” meaning, “It was good that I was corrected, or I would have been ruined. It was meant for my good, though I resisted it.” Or the words may mean that he did not really feel the lesson of the affliction. He was under the chastening, but it went no deeper than that. He was like a bullock unused to the yoke, stubborn and hard to manage, kicking against restraint, like a wild bull in a net (Isaiah 51:20).

This is the sin he sees in himself now, but in the next verse he looks back farther, to the sins of his youth. When one sin is uncovered, it should lead us to search out more. He remembers the shame of his youth. Ephraim, as a people, is also looking back on the failures of their ancestors when they first became a nation. The same is true for individual people. The sin of our youth was our shame in youth, and we should often remember it against ourselves with sorrow and shame.

He is also angry at himself, with a holy anger over his own sin and foolishness. He strikes his thigh, as the tax collector struck his breast. He is amazed at himself and at his own stubbornness and stubborn behavior. He is ashamed, even humiliated, and cannot confidently look up to God or comfortably think about himself.

He also commits himself to God’s mercy and grace. He sees that he is prone to turn away from God, and that he cannot keep himself close to God by his own strength. Much less can he bring himself back after rebellion. So he prays, “Turn me, and I will be turned.” This means that unless God turns him by grace, he will keep wandering forever. It shows his deep desire for converting grace, his trust in it, and his confidence that this grace will be enough to carry him through all the hard steps of returning to God. See Jeremiah 17:14, “Heal me, and I will be healed.” God works powerfully and can make the unwilling willing. If he takes charge of a soul’s conversion, that soul will be converted.

He also rejoices in what he has already experienced of God’s grace. “After I was turned, I repented.” All the good movements of our hearts toward God are the result of God’s own powerful work in us. Notice that he was turned, and he was instructed. His will was bent to God’s will through a true understanding of God’s truth. God usually converts souls by opening their minds, and then all good follows. After I was taught, I yielded. I struck my thigh. When sinners come to know the truth rightly, they will come into the right path.

Ephraim was chastised, but that alone did not produce the needed change. It went no farther: he was punished, and that was all. But when the Holy Spirit’s teaching went along with God’s discipline, then the work was done. Then he struck his thigh and was so humbled by sin that he wanted nothing more to do with it.

Now we see God’s compassion toward Ephraim and the kind welcome he receives from God. God acknowledges him as a child and as a prodigal son. “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child?” When Ephraim mourns over himself, God also mourns over him, like a mother who comforts her child even after correcting him (Isaiah 66:13). “Is this Ephraim my dear son? Is this that pleasant child? Is it he who is so sad and complains so bitterly?” It is like Saul’s words to David, “Is this your voice, my son David?” (1 Samuel 26:17). Or the words may be understood as, “Is not Ephraim my dear son? Is he not a pleasant child?” Yes, now he is. Now he repents and returns.

Those who have been disobedient and have gone back from God, if they truly return and repent, will be accepted by God as dear and pleasant children, even after they have been under the rod. Ephraim had humbled himself, and God now heals him. Ephraim had brought himself low, and God now honors him. It is like the returning prodigal who thought he was no longer worthy to be called a son, yet was given the best robe and a ring on his hand.

God also shows tender pity toward him: “Since I spoke against him,” by the warnings of his word and the rebukes of his providence, “I still remember him earnestly. My thoughts toward him are thoughts of peace.” Even when God afflicts his people, he does not forget them. When he drives them from their land, he does not drive them out of his sight or out of his mind. Even when God speaks against us, he is still working for us and planning our good in all things. That is our comfort in trouble, that the Lord thinks of us, even when we have forgotten him.

“I remember him still,” and so my heart is moved for him, as Joseph’s heart longed for his brothers even when he spoke roughly to them. When Israel’s troubles led him to humble confession and submission, it was said that his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel (Judges 10:16), because God always afflicts with great tenderness. God’s compassion softened Ephraim’s punishment. “My heart is turned within me” (Hosea 11:8-9). And now that same compassion receives Ephraim’s repentance.

Ephraim had pleaded, “You are the Lord my God, so to you I will return; I will depend on your mercy and grace” (Jer 31:18). God shows that this was a good plea and one that would win a response, because he proves that he is God and not merely man, and that he is indeed Ephraim’s God. Then he makes his promise: “I will surely have mercy on him,” says the Lord. God always has mercy ready, rich mercy, sure mercy, and fitting mercy, for all who honestly seek him and submit to him. And the more we are humbled by sin, the better prepared we are to receive the comfort of that mercy.

God then gives gentle calls and encouragement to his people in Babylon, so they will get ready to return to their own land. They must not lose heart, and they must not waste time. Instead, they are to set their minds firmly on the journey and make ready to leave (Jer 31:21, Jer 31:22). They must think only of going back to the land from which they had been driven. “Return, O virgin of Israel,” he says, calling her a people to be brought back and newly joined to her God. “Return to these your cities.” Though the cities lay in ruins, they were still their cities, the ones God had given them. So they must be content in Babylon only until they had permission to go back to Zion.

They must also return by the same road they had taken before, so that the memories of past sorrows would make them thankful for deliverance. The places where trouble had once met them would remind them, by local memory, of what they had suffered. In the same way, those who have turned away from God into the bondage of sin must return by the path where they went astray. They must go back to the duties they had neglected and do their first works again. They must also give their full attention to the journey: “Set your heart toward the highway.” They are to fix their minds on it, understand their duty and their true good, and then go forward willingly.

The way from Babylon to Zion, and from the bondage of sin to the glorious freedom of God’s children, is a highway. It is straight, clear, safe, and well-traveled (Isa 35:8). Yet no one is likely to walk it unless they set their heart toward it. They must also prepare for the journey with every needed aid: “Set up waymarks, make guideposts.” They should arrange directions in all the places where the road could be missed, especially from those who know the way best and go first. They must also steady themselves for the trip: “How long will you wander, O backsliding daughter?” Their minds must not keep wavering. They should not be torn by fear or scattered by worry. They must stop running after human help in a restless way, for that had often been part of their drifting from God. Instead, they must cast themselves on God, and let their minds become firm.

God strengthens them further by promising to “create a new thing” in the earth, something strange and surprising. “A woman shall compass a man.” This may mean the church of God, weak and unfit for war like a woman, yet able to surround, press in on, and overcome a mighty man. Scripture often pictures the church as a woman (Rev 12:1). So, while enemies gather around the camp of the saints (Rev 20:9), here the camp of the saints will surround their enemies.

Many good interpreters take this “new thing” to mean the incarnation of Christ, the taking on of human nature by the Son of God. God had his eye on that great event as he was bringing his people back to that land, and he had sometimes given it as a sign before (Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6). A woman, the virgin Mary, enclosed the Mighty One in her womb, for that is the sense of the word used here. God is called the Mighty God (Jer 32:18), and so is Christ in Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa 9:6), where his incarnation is also in view. He is El-Gibbor, the Mighty God. This would assure them that God would not cast off this people, since that blessing was to be found among them (Isa 65:8).

The prophet then gives a comforting picture of their settled life back in their own land. They will have the respect and goodwill of their neighbors, who will speak well of them and pray blessings on them (Jer 31:23). “Once again,” though Judah and Jerusalem had long been a shock and a mockery, people will say, “The Lord bless you, O dwelling of justice and mountain of holiness!” This shows that they will return much improved and changed for the better. Their reform will be so plain that everyone around them will notice it. The cities that once were like dens of robbers will become places of justice, and the mountain of Israel, especially Zion, will be a mountain of holiness. Justice toward people and holiness toward God must go together. God has joined godliness and honesty, and no one should try to separate them or make one cover for the lack of the other. It is a good sign when a people come out of trouble purified like this, and it points toward even greater happiness ahead. We can also pray with confidence for God’s blessing on homes that are places of justice and on cities and lands that are mountains of holiness. There the Lord will surely command his blessing.

There will also be great abundance of good things among them (Jer 31:24, Jer 31:25). In Judah itself, even after long ruin, there will again be farmers and shepherds, the two old and honorable callings of Cain and Abel (Gen 4:2). It is a happy thing to live in a place of justice and holiness. The farmers and shepherds will enjoy the fruit of their work, because God says, “I have satisfied the weary and the sorrowful soul.” Those who come home worn out from the journey and long sad in captivity will now enjoy plenty. This also points to the spiritual gifts God keeps for all true repentant people, all who are just and holy. They will be fully satisfied with divine grace and comfort. In God’s love and favor, the weary soul will find rest, and the sorrowful soul will find joy.

The prophet then tells us what joy this vision gave him (Jer 31:26). The earlier visions God had shown him about Judah and Jerusalem’s suffering were deeply painful, as in Jer 4:19. But these hopeful scenes, though still far off, were pleasant to him. “At this I awoke,” he says, overcome with joy that broke the sleep’s hold, “and I looked back on my dream, and it had made my sleep sweet.” He was refreshed, as people are after a peaceful night’s rest. Those who lie down and rise up in God’s favor and in fellowship with him can sleep sweetly indeed.

No sight in this world is more pleasing to good people, and especially to faithful ministers, than seeing the church of God flourish. What can give us greater joy than to see the good of Jerusalem all our days, and peace on Israel?