Jeremiah 31:10 - Meaning and Application

This paragraph says much the same thing as the last one. It makes known, not only to the church but also to the nations, the purposes of God’s love toward his people. This is the Lord’s word, and the nations must hear it, because it speaks of a work of the Lord they cannot help noticing. Let them hear the promise so they can better understand and value its fulfillment, and let those who hear it tell it to others, even to the distant coastlands. It will be news that spreads everywhere.

It is foretold, first, that those who have been scattered will be gathered back from their scattering: “He who scattered Israel will gather him” (Jeremiah 31:10). God knows where he scattered them, and so he knows where to find them. The same hand that wounded them will heal them. And when he has gathered them into one body, one flock, he will keep them from being scattered again, as a shepherd keeps his sheep.

Second, those who were sold and separated from their land will be redeemed and brought back (Jeremiah 31:11). Though the enemy who had taken them was stronger than they were, the Lord, who is stronger than all, has redeemed and ransomed them, not by paying a price, but by using his power, as he once freed Israel from Egypt.

Third, with their freedom they will also have plenty and joy, and God will be honored and served because of it (Jeremiah 31:12-13). When they return to their own land, they will come and sing on the heights of Zion, on that holy mountain, praising the glory of God. We read that they did this when the temple foundation was laid, singing together and giving thanks to the Lord (Ezra 3:11). They will flow to the Lord’s goodness, meaning they will come in great numbers and with gladness, like streams of water, to the temple where God shows his goodness to his people.

They will gather in solemn meetings to praise him for his kindness and to ask for its continued blessing. They will bless him for his goodness in giving them wheat, wine, oil, and the young of the flock and herd. Now that they have freedom, these gifts are securely theirs, and they can enjoy them in peace. So they honor God with the first of them and bring offerings to his altar. It is a comfort to notice God’s goodness in the gifts of everyday life, and even there to taste covenant love, that is, the loving bond God has made with his people.

Having plenty after want and hardship, they will greatly rejoice. Their soul will be like a watered garden, flourishing, fruitful, pleasant, fragrant, and full of good things (Isaiah 58:11). Our souls are only truly valuable as gardens when they are watered by the dew of God’s Spirit and grace. The promise that follows is precious, though it will not be fully fulfilled anywhere on this side of the heavenly Zion: “They shall not sorrow any more at all” (Jeremiah 31:12). Only in the new Jerusalem will all tears be wiped away (Revelation 21:4). Still, the returned captives did experience this in part, because they no longer had the same causes for sorrow that they had before.

For that reason, young men and old men would rejoice together (Jeremiah 31:13). The young would be so serious in their joy that they would keep company with the old, and the old would be so moved by joy that they would join the young. The state prospers, and even the aged dance. God will turn their mourning into joy and their fasts into feast days (Zechariah 8:19). In the return from Babylon, those who sowed in tears reaped in joy (Psalm 126:5-6). Those are truly comforted whom God comforts, and they can put their troubles behind them when he makes them rejoice instead of sorrowing. Their joy is brighter because of what they suffered, and the more they remember their trouble, the more they rejoice in their rescue.

Fourth, both the ministers and the people they serve will have full satisfaction in what God gives them (Jeremiah 31:14). “I will satisfy the souls of the priests with abundance.” There will be so many sacrifices brought to the altar that those who live from the altar will live well, along with their families. They will have enough, and of the best. “My people shall be satisfied with my goodness,” and they will find that his goodness is enough to make them happy. It is enough, and more than enough.

God’s people find rich satisfaction in God’s goodness, even when they have little of this world. Let them be content with his lovingkindness, and they will be content with him and ask for nothing more to make them blessed. All of this also points to the spiritual blessings the redeemed enjoy through Jesus Christ, which are far more precious than grain, wine, and oil, and to the peace of soul they have in enjoying them.

Fifth, those who had grieved over children carried away into captivity would have their sorrow turned into joy when the children returned (Jeremiah 31:15-17). We first hear the sad cry of the mothers who lost their children (Jeremiah 31:15). A voice was heard in Ramah, and at the time of the great captivity there was nothing there but lamenting and bitter weeping, more than in other places. That was because Nebuzaradan, the Babylonian captain, gathered his captives there before sending them away, as seen in Jeremiah 40:1. There the prophet Jeremiah was sent back from Ramah.

Rachel is said to weep for her children. Her grave was between Ramah and Bethlehem. Benjamin, one of the two tribes, and Ephraim, the leading tribe of the ten northern tribes, both came from Rachel. She had only two sons. One was Joseph, whom his father mourned for and refused to be comforted over (Genesis 37:35). The other she named Benoni, meaning “son of my sorrow.” In the same way, the people of Ramah grieved for their sons and daughters who were carried away, and the sound of their mourning was so great that, in poetic speech, it was as if Rachel herself had risen from her grave to mourn with them.

The grieving parents refused comfort for their children because they were gone, no longer with them, and seemed never likely to return. The Gospel writers apply this to the great sorrow at Bethlehem when Herod killed the infants there (Matthew 2:17-18), saying that this Scripture was fulfilled then. They wept for them and would not be comforted, thinking there could be no comfort because their children were gone. Sorrow for the loss of children must be very deep, especially when we wrongly think they are beyond hope.

Seasonable comfort is given here for this sorrow, in Jeremiah 31:16-17. The people are told to restrain their grief and set limits to it: “Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears.” Scripture does not forbid mourning in such a case. Natural affection is allowed its place. But sorrow must not grow so strong that it blocks our joy in God or keeps us from serving him.

We may mourn, but we must not complain against God. We must not decide, like Jacob did, that we will go down to the grave in sorrow. To hold back excessive grief, we should remember that there is hope in the end. The trouble will not last forever, and the outcome will be good and peaceful. It should strengthen us in our troubles to know that we have good reason to hope they will end well. The righteous person has hope even in death, because death ends grief and brings him into blessing.

Some read this as, “There is hope for your descendants.” Even if you do not live to see these glorious days, there is hope that your children will. Though one generation falls in the wilderness, the next will enter Canaan. In this hope, two comforts are set before us.

First, there is the reward for your labor. Your suffering work will be repaid. The joy of deliverance will more than make up for the pain of captivity. God gives his people gladness for as many days as he has afflicted them, so the joy matches the sorrow, just as the reward matches the work. The glory to be revealed, which believers hope for at the end, will far outweigh the sufferings of this present time (Romans 8:18).

Second, there is the return of your children. “They shall come back from the land of the enemy” (Jeremiah 31:16), and “they shall come back to their own border” (Jeremiah 31:17). There is hope that children who are far away may be brought home. Jacob had a joyful meeting with Joseph after he had almost given up hope of ever seeing him again. There is also hope for children taken by death. They will return to their own border, to the place God has set apart for them in the resurrection, the lot in the heavenly Canaan, the border of his sanctuary. We can better restrain our grief for children who die in covenant with God when we remember the hope of their rising to eternal life. They are not lost, only gone before us.