Jeremiah 30:1-3

INTRODUCTORY THE THEME, 1-3.

The section of this book upon which we now enter stands in pleasing contrast with the body of the volume. For the most part Jeremiah is occupied with the sins and sorrows of the people, the calamities in the midst of which he lived, and by which God was chastening them into a deeper spirituality and a higher purity. But in these four chapters he goes below the present adverse fortunes of God’s people, and dwells joyfully on the nation’s relation to a covenant-keeping God, by whom they will be made to triumph. And it is a most interesting fact, and one which illustrates impressively the victorious faith of this”man of sorrows,” that a portion of this passage was written in the tenth year of Zedekiah, when the despair and misery of the people were approaching their culmination. Just as the old Romans actually mapped out and sold the very ground on which their confident enemies were encamped, so Jeremiah calmly reckons on the possession of this land by his people in spite of their long captivity; and, as symbolical of their possession, buys the field at Anathoth.

These four chapters have been divided by Hengstenburg into three portions. 1) Chaps. 30 and 31, “a triumphal hymn of Israel’s salvation.” 2) Chap. 32 gives an account of the symbolical act of the buying a piece of hereditary property in Anathoth, and the message of God’s explanation thereof. 3) Chap. 33 dwells in prophetic language on the re-establishment of the Levitical priesthood and the Davidic throne. The whole passage is thus devoted to God’s changeless, invincible covenant with his people, assuring them of mercy and salvation.