Those not acquainted with Israel’s ancient history, especially their being carried into captivity by both the Assyrian armies and later Babylon’s forces, and unfamiliar with the writings of Jeremiah as a whole, cannot comprehend some of the plain statements made by this prophet. Here are two of the most intriguing, yet superbly informative verses, in all of Jeremiah’s lengthy prophecies:
“Behold, I (God is speaking) will bring them (ancient Israel’s teeming masses) from the north country (Babylon, the place to which they had been forcibly taken into captivity and slavery), and gather them from the ends of the earth (Germany’s concentration camps, etc.), among them THE BLIND, and THE LAME, THE WOMAN WITH CHILD AND THE ONE WHO LABORS WITH CHILD, together (all resurrected simultaneously), a great throng shall return there (to their ancient homeland of Israel). They shall come (back from the dead) with weeping, and with supplications I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way in which they shall not stumble (the truth and the way to a right relationship with God made plain), for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.” (Jeremiah 31:8-9).
Both the Assyrians and the Babylonians were noted for their cruelty to those they conquered. In modern Germany Jewish captives were delivered to the various concentration camps primarily by railroad. Ancient Assyria and Babylon had no such methods of transporting captured peoples. They were marched on foot from Israel to Assyria and Babylon – a distance of many hundreds of miles over rough terrain and through inhospitable territory. In order not to impede their progress, the Assyrians and Babylonians put to death THE BLIND, and THE LAME, THE WOMAN WITH CHILD AND THE ONE WHO LABORS WITH CHILD (the pregnant). God promised not only to bring back to Israel not only those taken captive to foreign lands but also to resurrect those put to death prior to their being marched out of Israel to Babylon and Assyria.
Jeremiah goes on to write: “Thus says the Lord, ‘A voice was heard in Ramah (a city in ancient Israel belonging to the tribe of Benjamin), lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel (a collective term meaning Israel’s mothers) weeping for her (slain) children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more” (Jeremiah 31:15). Now hear God’s comforting words to these distraught mothers: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for your work shall be rewarded,’ says the Lord, ‘and they (these slaughtered infants and children, as well as the unborn slain in their mother’s womb) SHALL COME BACK from the land of the enemy (the enemy here is death). There is hope in your future,’ says the Lord, that your children shall come back to their own border.” (verses 16 and 17, Jeremiah 31). The “work” of these mothers refers to their carrying these now slaughtered infants in their wombs for nine months and then feeding, clothing and caring for them in their infancy.
This is a prophecy yet to be fulfilled. God is yet going to resurrect all the Jewish people of all generations – even those who died as idolators and Christ-rejecters. Then, and only then, will God set His hand to enlighten them and reveal to them the truth of His great plan of the ages. The apostle Paul saw this truth clearly, writing of it in Romans, chapters 9, 10 and 11. He refers to it as God’s great mystery! “And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in (absorbed and integrated into the ever growing company of the redeemed), for God is able to graft them in again” (Romans 11:23). DON’T LIMIT GOD! God says “I kill, and I make alive” (See Deuteronomy 32:39). God can bring back to mortal existence the first humans who walked this earth as easily as He can bring back to life one who died only moments ago! God help you to understand. To be continued….
Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley