Jeremiah 31:1-40

31:3 | Restoration would follow the judgment of exile because the Lord loved Israel with an everlasting love and He would never withdraw His lovingkindness from them. The word lovingkindness literally means “loyal love” – the kind of love that never ends (Mal. 1:2). Paul also affirms that nothing can “separate us from the love of God” (Rom. 8:39).

31:15 | The comparison of the grief of Israel in exile to that of Rachel weeping for her children points forward to Herod’s massacre of the Israelite babies in the days of Jesus (Matt. 2:18). The conditions of exile would carry over into the time of Jesus, even though Israel was back in the land. Jesus came to deliver the people of Israel from their exile, first by redeeming them from their sins and then ultimately at His second coming by delivering them from all their enemies (Rom. 11:26-27).

31:18-19 | The Lord’s judgment would finally cause the people to confess their wrongdoing and turn from their sinful behavior. The purpose of the Lord’s judgment was discipline and correction, not destruction (Acts 3:26; Heb. 12:5-11).

31:33 | The Lord would solve the problem of a corrupt heart by writing His laws on the hearts of His people. In other words, by the indwelling Spirit of God, the laws of God would move from being an external to an internal reality (Ezek. 11:19). The provision of the New Covenant was instituted through the blood of Christ (Luke 22:30). The unconditional covenants God made with Israel secure her future blessings, and the blood of the New Covenant secures all those who are in Christ (Heb. 8:7-13; 10:14-18).

31:34 | In the New Covenant, every individual would truly know the Lord through a direct personal relationship rather than one that was mediated primarily through priests and prophets (Hab. 2:14).

31:35-37 | All of the earth and all the ordinances that hold them together would have to cease before God ceases to acknowledge Israel as a nation.