EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)
Jeremiah 30:1.
The word that came to Jeremiah,&c. — “There is no particular date annexed to this prophecy, whereby to ascertain the precise time of its delivery, but it may not unreasonably be presumed to have followed immediately after the preceding one, in which the restoration of the people from their Babylonish captivity is in direct terms foretold. From hence the transition was natural and easy to the more glorious and general restoration that was to take place in a more distant period, and was designed for the ultimate object of the national hopes and expectations. Both events are frequently thus connected together in the prophetic writings, and perhaps with this design, that when that which was nearest at hand should be accomplished, it might afford the strongest and most satisfactory evidence that the latter, how remote soever its period, would in like manner, be brought about by the interposition of Providence, in its due season.” — Blaney.
30:1-11 Jeremiah is to write what God had spoken to him. The very words are such as the Holy Ghost teaches. These are the words God ordered to be written; and promises written by his order, are truly his word. He must write a description of the trouble the people were now in, and were likely to be in. A happy end should be put to these calamities. Though the afflictions of the church may last long, they shall not last always. The Jews shall be restored again. They shall obey, or hearken to the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of David, their King. The deliverance of the Jews from Babylon, is pointed out in the prophecy, but the restoration and happy state of Israel and Judah, when converted to Christ their King, are foretold; also the miseries of the nations before the coming of Christ. All men must honour the Son as they honour the Father, and come into the service and worship of God by him. Our gracious Lord pardons the sins of the believer, and breaks off the yoke of sin and Satan, that he may serve God without fear, in righteousness and true holiness before him all the remainder of his days, as the redeemed subject of Christ our King.
In
Jeremiah 30-39, not all written at the same time, are gathered together whatsoever God had revealed to Jeremiah of happier import for the Jewish people. This subject is "the New covenant." In contrast then with the rolls of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, we here have one containing the nation's hope. A considerable portion was written in the 10th year of Zedekiah, when famine and pestilence were busy in the city, its capture daily more imminent, and the prophet himself in prison. Yet in this sad pressure of earthly troubles Jeremiah could bid his countrymen look courageously onward to the fulfillment of those hopes, which had so constantly in his darkest hours comforted the heart and nerved the arm of the Jew. The scroll consists of three portions:
(1) "a triumphal hymn of Israel's salvation,"Jeremiah 30-31;
(2)Jeremiah 32; and
(3)Jeremiah 33.
CHAPTER 30
Jer 30:1-24. Restoration of the Jews from Babylon after Its Capture, and Raising Up of Messiah.God showeth Jeremiah the deliverance and return of the Jews,Jeremiah 30:1-9. He comforteth Jacob,Jeremiah 30:10-17. Their return shall be gracious. Wrath on the wicked,Jeremiah 30:18-24.
This title is thought to extend to all we have both in this and the next chapter, both which mostly consist of comfortable promises of the restoration of this people, and teacheth us what ought to be the matter of our sermons; we ought to speak nothing for substance but what we can justify to come from the Lord, which all doctrine doth that is bottomed on Scripture, though opened and made more plain and intelligible by words formed in our own minds.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord,.... The word of prophecy, us the Targum. Some make this to be the "thirteenth" sermon of the prophet's; it is a consolatory one, as Kimchi observes:
saying; as follows:
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
