Jeremiah 31 continues the LORD’s promise that Israel and Judah will once again inhabit the land. With many promises of blessing, the LORD tells Jeremiah how it will be when the land is restored. Ephraim will once again be populated. Samaria will be inhabited. The LORD will “plant” humans and animals throughout the land. The mourning will turn into dancing, and no longer will anyone be punished for the sins of their fathers, each will be accountable for his own sins. All this will be the result of a new covenant the LORD will establish with Israel and Judah. The new covenant will be written not on tablets of stone, but on the hearts of each person. The Law will not need to be taught, because it will be written on each one’s heart. These final promises are aspects of the new covenant we have through Jesus, and yet the words of the LORD look forward to the day, of Jesus’ second coming, when we shall all be fully what the LORD created us to be, and do what He created us to do.
Jeremiah 32 offers us concrete assurance of the LORD’s previous promises about the people returning to the land after their exile. He tells Jeremiah to go and buy a field from his uncle, and to have the deed recorded. The idea sounds absurd to Jeremiah. He knows the siege which is being carried out at that moment against Jerusalem is going to result in the people being carried off into exile. The LORD has declared it, and Jeremiah has prophesied it. So, why bother to purchase land in a place where the people are being carried off into exile, a place that will be dominated by a foreign power for more than a generation? Short answer: the LORD thinks more than a generation ahead! He sees the truly big picture. He wanted Jeremiah to hold on to the truth that what he was doing was important, and mattered. While Jeremiah would not live to see the restoration of Israel and Judah, his descendants would. Sometimes we get caught up in that which concerns our own lives in the immediate present and forget about the future, not just our future, but that of our children and our children’s children. How helpful to be reminded while we must live in the present, there will be a future, because the LORD is in charge of the big picture. Sometimes when He doesn’t seem to be in control of the small details, we forget He is in charge of the big picture!
As we return to Matthew 5, we return once again to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which is recorded in chapters 5-7. As we read the opening statements, we see Jesus took His disciples up on a mountain and sat down. Then He began to teach them. This teaching would have taken a couple hours. It sets forth what it means to live a “kingdom life.” Jesus came to bring the Kingdom of heaven to earth, and if we live according to Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 5-7, we will fulfill that purpose. The challenge is much of what Jesus said in these three chapters is beyond our ability to do–without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let’s consider one example from the end of Matthew 5. Jesus said, “Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Really? How are we going to do that? How can we, the ones for whom Jesus came to earth to die to pay the penalty for our sins, be perfect? The only way we live in the perfection of our Heavenly Father is to receive the Son as Savior and Lord, be born again, and then live in the power of the Holy Spirit. Will we ever do it perfectly? Jesus calls us to that. While I’m not there, and have never seen anyone else who has arrived, one thing we know about Jesus: His message in the Sermon on the Mount was serious. He didn’t tell us to do something that couldn’t be done. He challenged us to consider what it would take for us to live “perfect” lives, even as He offered the only perfect example to us: His Heavenly Father. That is our clue that He is calling us to something so much more, we can only move in that direction through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit!