WEEKLY SUNDAY
SCHOOL LESSON
An international
Sunday school lesson commentary
For
Sunday September 7, 2014
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readers worldwide
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A
PROMISE ASSURED
(Trust
in the LORD’s purpose)
(Jeremiah
30)
Jeremiah chapters 30-33 focus on a
period about eighteen months prior to the end of the Babylonian siege on
Jerusalem in early 586 B.C. These chapters contain some of the most critical
prophesies in all of Old Testament scripture. In this section (chapter 30) Jeremiah
reveals a stunning vision (encouraging, especially for that seemingly hopeless time
period) of God’s plans for Israel’s future. Here he reveals that GOD will bring,
both, northern Israel and Judah, back from their captivities, and restore them
to prominence in their GOD-given homeland (Vs.1-3).
In verse 2 GOD instructs
Jeremiah to write down, for the record, everything HE had said to him, in a
book, so that the exiles would have access to HIS promises after the fall of
Jerusalem. These writings would stand as a “ray of hope” until the day when GOD
would restore HIS people back in the former land of Canaan.
In verses 4-7 the LORD
tells Jeremiah, concerning Israel and Judah distress, that:
“I hear cries of fear;
there is terror and no peace.
Now let me ask you a question:
Do men give birth to babies?
Then why do they stand there, ashen-faced,
hands pressed against their sides
like a woman in labor?
In all history there has never been such a time of terror.
It will be a time of trouble for my people Israel.
Yet in the end they will be saved!
there is terror and no peace.
Now let me ask you a question:
Do men give birth to babies?
Then why do they stand there, ashen-faced,
hands pressed against their sides
like a woman in labor?
In all history there has never been such a time of terror.
It will be a time of trouble for my people Israel.
Yet in the end they will be saved!
Here
the LORD wants Jeremiah to inform Israel that there will be a time of national
distress before HE returns her to their homeland. There will be cries of fear
and distress heard among all the exiles in Babylon. Their pain and anguish
would be comparable to that of a woman during childbirth, and would be like
none anytime before that time. GOD says it will be “a time of trouble and
tribulation” for Israel.
In this
passage, GOD is not only speaking just of their time in Babylon, because
northern Israel, who had already been in captivity in Assyria for over a
hundred years, would not be suffering through it. Here GOD is speaking of a
future “tribulation period” when the remnants of Israel and Judah will both experience
a time of unparalleled persecution (Daniel 9:27 & 12:1, Matthew 24:15-22). That
period will end when CHRIST returns to “make the world a better place”, forming
HIS “Millennial Kingdom” here on earth. Those who are able to survive those
times, CHRIST said then, and GOD says here, “will be saved”. This shoots a hole
in the theory of those who say that “the Church” (GOD’s people) will not have
to go through the “Great Tribulation” period.
In verses 8-9 GOD says:
For in that day,”
says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
“I will break the yoke from their necks
and snap their chains.
Foreigners will no longer be their masters.
says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
“I will break the yoke from their necks
and snap their chains.
Foreigners will no longer be their masters.
For my people will serve the Lord
their God
and their king descended from David—
the king I will raise up for them.
and their king descended from David—
the king I will raise up for them.
GOD
broke the yoke of slavery that was controlled by their enemies, the Babylonians
(foreigners), but in the eschatological sense, for those living in this day and
age, GOD broke the yoke of slavery (satan) called “sin and death”, through the
vicarious sacrifice of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, and so now we must
serve only GOD and CHRIST JESUS.
GOD said that HE would
destroy all the nations to which HIS people had been scattered, and that HE
would return them to a situation of total peace and security (Vs.10-11). But first
HE had to remedy our humanly incurable wound called “sin”, and there was no one
on earth who could help us, not our friends, and not any medicine. And so GOD
healed and remedied our problem by sending HIS only begotten SON, CHRIST JESUS,
the great HEALER (Vs.12-17).
GOD’s restoration for
Israel in biblical times, involved a physical rebuilding. In this day and age
it involves a spiritual rebuilding. In verses 18-22 GOD says the city of
Jerusalem would be rebuilt on its ruins, and this included the King’s palace,
and that there would be joy and songs of thanksgiving to GOD. There would, once
again, be great prosperity in the land, and whoever harmed, or try to harm HIS
people would be punished.
Verse 21, however, speaks
of an eschatological time when our only ruler will be CHRIST JESUS, and HE, as
we know, can approach GOD whenever HE wants, because HE is GOD. And if we are to
be GOD’s people, in this day and age, we must first become one with CHRIST.
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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