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Chapter 4

  THE SINGULAR BEAUTY OF THE LOVE OF GOD

 The Remorseless Pursuit even of the  Renegade

Jeremiah 31:17-21

INTRODUCTION

                           A woman shall encompass a man.' "

In these verses you see what so many theologians seemed prepared to ignore, that the love of God is not mysterious but manifest, it is not short-circuited here or there, but an embassage that in various stages of resistance, rejection and disreputable treatments by man, is immovable in desire, and though it may in the end move to judgment as its surrogate (Isaiah 57:15), yet it has neither impatience nor restriction. God, quite simply is PLEASED, that having made "all fulness" to dwell in the incarnate Messiah, "by Him to reconcile all things to Himself by Him, whether things one earth or tings in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross." That II Peter 3:9, John 3 and I Timothy 2 all say the same thing in their thrust is not to the point. When God says it ONCE, it is enough, and when He illustrates it constantly in the Bible, it is simply verification in practice.

Nothing could be clearer than this divine expression in principle, and in Jeremiah, in practice. This theme has been pursued in scriptural breadth  in SMR Appendix B, and Ancient Words, Modern Deeds Ch. 8, as in Great Execrations ... Greater Grace Chs. 7 and 9^*1 and it must be acknowledged frankly that the obfuscatory obstructions that have for so long been a meddlesome deformation of the love of God in this aspect of its breadth - not to be confused with its intensity or judicious disposition before the pathological follies of man - that the continuance of the same is abhorrent. The mere fact that Arminianism, or its ilk,  in its rank superficiality has occasioned some of the in ordinate response is no excuse for excising the clear statements of scripture, from John to Colossians, from Timothy to Matthew, from Peter to texts such as this one, this massif.

God does not change with the Gentiles: it is the same God, the same olive tree into which any may come by faith, from which any are excised in the spread of nations, by its absence. He does not change, and His covenanting love is an expression of who He is, not an exclusion of His heart from history (cf. Predestination and Freewill). Nor does the use of apologetic construction to illustrate the principles, in any way remove or moderate them. What is written, with this one must be smitten, or abate.

Let us however proceed on with the MASSIF of Jeremiah.

LOOKING UP FROM THE PLAIN

In context, in the Range itself, Jeremiah 31 itself has a prominent place.

Firstly, it follows Jeremiah 30, a chapter dedicated to three apparent aims: it exposes the humanly irremediable condition of Israel (30:15), shows the need of purgative judgment (30:6, 11) and for all that, and indeed in one way because of it, exposes the peremptory, passionate and perfect solution: "They shall serve David their king, whom I shall raise up for them" (30:9). It is for this reason only, that  the declaration comes, " 'Therefore, do not fear, O My servant Jacob,' says the Lord,  'nor be dismayed, O Israel ...' "

The salvation which is to come, again, is vested in "their Governor" who shall "come from their midst". He it is whom "I will cause ... to draw near, and He shall approach Me; for who is this who pledged His heart o approach Me ?' says the LORD. 'You shall be My people and I will be your God.' " The question of course is answered readily from 30:15, and draw near indeed is the topic in their King, the descendant of David (Psalm 72) so largely exhibited and so often in the prophets.

In 30:24 we find that this is a plan, a program which is to be executed, and that this is the ground for abeyance of anger, for the Lord will proceed "until He has performed the intents of His heart" - 30:24. As in Jeremiah 23:20, where the false prophet phenomenon is to reach its completion of horror, this is for the latter days, the time of restitution.

Moving from this blending and amending, this program and this person in Jeremiah 30, we come to the next chapter. The Lord focusses once more His "everlasting love", His intention to rebuild Israel. There is to be a "remnant" (31:7) to be saved. Ransoming and redemption are ultimately to be involved (31:11). However the key changes to the minor. IN 31:15 we are introduced to an intervening episode of vast grief to Israel, one in which mothers will mourn for their children, suddenly killed. However, the Lord proceeds (31:15ff.), do not weep. "There is hope in your future ..." (31:17).

We then proceed to this massif of pity, this marvel of love, this phenomenon of faithfulness, in 31:18-21.

This however is concluded by a strict, sharp reference to their rebelliousness, obviously able for many to subvert for their own downfall, the deliverance for the remnant.

In view of this, the Lord declares, divulges and announces a fearful and wonderful fact, one in clear parallel and contrast alike, to the weeping for lost children. There is to be ONE child who will remain, and this amazing phenomenon will involved a woman who will 'encompass' a child. Clearly this is not mere parthenogenesis, since that is no marvel, merely unusual. This however is a "NEW THING", and it is one which the Lord will "CREATE". It is incarnation as in Isaiah 7,9,11,40, 49-55, Zechariah 12:10, Psalm 45, 72, 2.

The Lord proceeds to look to a future time when He will in fact make no less than a "NEW COVENANT", something foreshadowed in Deuteronomy 18's prediction of the one to supervene Moses. It is to be different in that it is not a follow-on from the Egyptian Exodus, but more internal, involves this, that He "will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God,a nd they shall be My people." This has the same sense of ultimacy as in the survey of coming things in Hosea 1, one which likewise moves to consummation in the Lord Himself BECOMING IN HIMSELF the destruction of death and the ransom for His people (Hosea 13:14).

There is here as there, the same stress on alienation so that they are not His people, and reconciliation of the remnant, so that at last, despite the entire history intervening, they return and they are in the strangest contradiction of the past, HIS PEOPLE, once more, and this, says Jeremiah, says Hosea, is the outcome. The same phrasing is used for both prophets.

It is the same coverage in essence as in Deuteronomy 32, and in Romans 11, in the case of the olive tree imagery, where Israel resides there, so founded, and then is cut off in a generation for lack of faith, only to be replaced on the tree by Gentile believers, to which however at last, Israel's remnant will be added, so that all at last live on the one tree, basis, reality, life in the Lord, the exposure of Jesus Christ for one and for all, their King, their 'David', becomes the common destiny and meaning, merit-procurer and ruler. That it will all work out in the end, is the topic of Jeremiah 32, but NOT without the Messiah, NOT without the New Covenant and the Incarnation of the Lord.

Now we have the perspective, looking up from the plain to the towering massif we are about to inspect, Jeremiah 31:18-21, we may travel to its near vicinity, and in awe and wonder, inspect it.

THE MASSIF ITSELF

                           A woman shall encompass a man.' "

We have already considered the last two lines, so let us now ponder the preliminary part.

The Lord is meditating with Israel, as it were, with the remnant who will listen. There is hope in its future. The sanctions of Leviticus 26 are in train, horrors unthinkable are about to commence a whole series of readily resisted, but equally insistent divine notices and actions. Recalcitrance will all but receive a new dimension in Israel's refusal to heed. This is to be, as Levicitus 26 in its successive and sad stages had already traced, and as now has been fulfilled for Israel, alas, and come to be.

Yet the Lord is love, and does not lightly turn; indeed Calvary is the measure immeasurable of how utterly He will not turn, even to the point of incarnation in definitive mode and suffering crucifixion for the sins of those WHO DO COME HOME!

Then we find as our text unfolds, that the Lord has "surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself."

In other words, he is sensitive to the spiritual musings of man.

"You have chastised me, and I was chastised,

Like an untrained bull;

Restore me, and I will return,

For You are the Lord my God."

Here the remnant (as in Isaiah 11:10), is beginning to accept that the horrors had a horrendous basis. How did it come, but  in rejecting in trenchant and proud mode, the will and word of the God whom Israel had directly and often avowed to be its own! Israel is beginning, in this remnant, now to realise as does the Psalmist in a purely temporary mode in Psalm 73, that he is like a skill-less beast before the God whom he had resisted. His cry mounts at once to heaven -

                 "Restore me and I will return, for You are the Lord my God."

With his realisation of his own spiritual torpor and stupour, he recognises simultaneously, the Lord's reality not only as God, but as his OWN God. It is fitting to be restored, as far as his life and desire is concerned. On this basis, there is no possible impediment, granted the sincerity of the request; indeed, such a request CAN only be sincere when the eyes are opened so that the thing is seen, understood, apprehended and the soul thus desires, seeks and declares its will to be received.

Turning in one swarm of emotion, his hive of thoughts is at once embroiled in repentance, and he can scarcely now credit the boorish impenitent ingratitude which had so long seized him, the graceless and useless dynamic of unbelief which like a tornado had swept his unresisting soul. The sight of his sins back to his very early stages, hits him like an al Qaeda bomb in a shopping centre. This time however it is human, even humane; for it is he himself who does violence to his own pride, not some fiddler with explosives who, for lack of truth, tries force instead. How different, how diverse, and how divergent are the ways of the God of all truth, from those of the new gods, new arrivals, long after Christ, who seek to steal the glory, and must use force as its only recourse! No wonder God denounces all such in Deuteronomy 32, as in Psalm 96, as idols, works of man's own mind.

'Is Ephraim My dear son?

Is he a pleasant child?

For though I spoke against him,

I earnestly remember him still;

Therefore My heart yearns for him;

I will surely have mercy on him,' says the Lord.

So far from being reluctant, the Lord now unveils His heart. He yearns for His people, sees what sin had long hidden, that he may be viewed in that invariant holy delightsome kindness of love as "a pleasant child." Now discipline disappears and love has free flow. Though God has spoken against this total divorce, this uncoupling of the link that missing, makes of man a madman or murderer, or millstone producer, or neurotic, or despotic malingerer, or devil, "yet I earnestly remember him still."

Where is the limit when the soul by faith apprehends the Saviour and receives His love, life and redemption sealed in the resurrection which is His visiting card!

The Lord's heart indeed  YEARNS for him, and with all the certainty in the universe, and then much more, with divine certainty, HE WILL HAVE MERCY on him. This is the very word of the Lord. So goes our text, and so speaks the Lord of heaven and earth who, being no respecter of persons, equally finds those who equally come by faith to Him from any nation (cf. Isaiah 49:6, 42:6).

WHOEVER calls on His name will be saved! (Acts 2:21).

Now, as we have already seen in the preliminary section of this Chapter, the Lord proceeds to indicate His method of salvation, or as it is often called, His PLAN OF SALVATION. It involves as from Genesis 3, in what is called the protevangelion, the prior statement of the Gospel from the very Garden of Eden, that it involves one of the seed of the woman, Eve, who fell.

It is neat. The very place of the fall becomes the womb of the incarnation.

It is pitiful. The very personal nature of the race who in their first parents fell, is taken by the Lord on Himself, not only to show how it should be done, but to show how He can and does take what man, being already a sinner, cannot take; and to demonstrate what the Lord, being eternal and immutable and immortal, cannot lose, His life so that the format is buried, but the power remains with that settled composure which sees a resurrection not only SOON, but on the third day after the slaying, as Christ foretold so often (Matthew 16-17 for example).

It involves of course God USING the format of man, so that the DIVINE FATHER displaces the normal fatherhood procedure by DIRECT implantation in the womb, by the Creator's own authority and hand. Thus the incarnation comes, as a "woman shall encompass a man." This is the child who is given, of Isaiah 9:6^*2 , the child of the astounding SIGN given to Israel^*3, one which reaches to the heights of heaven and to the depths of the earth, and so it is, for what else is incarnation, if it is not that! Here then comes the Messiah who is to rule in such divine dynamic (Psalm 72, Isaiah 11), and compassion, when the time of suffering past (Isaiah 50-53), the time of regality at length arrives.

Here is the basis of that New and Everlasting Covenant which God is producing as at last He unweaves the curse on Israel, the special one - the sinful earth has its own also as in Romans 8:18ff., 5:12ff., Galatians 3 - and gives them the new life which they so desperately need. It is this covenant to which Jeremiah in this same Chapter 31, then refers, in the famous 31:31ff.. Here is that new Covenant, never to be surpassed or displaced, no longer a prelude but a finality, which will write the law on the regenerated hearts of the believers.

No more, says the prophet from the lips of the Lord, will there be such a need of specialised teachers, so that one may know the Lord, for they will ALL KNOW the Lord!

I John 2:27 has this same emphasis. Of course there are teachers, but they are not the CRITERION. Indeed, Matthew 23:8-10, from the Lord shows that no man is to be called teacher or master, for ONE is teacher and master, even the Lord, which makes nonsense of papacy and pretension in Romanist or Protestant media alike. People can FUNCTION in this role, but it is the LORD as I John 2 shows, who provides the inward reality of what is to be understood. Far is this from removing the teaching function, only the teaching fiction, which would make lords of teachers, rather than "helpers of your joy" as Paul so beautifully puts it (II Corinthians 1:4).

Indeed so needed is this that one places it in full:

^"Not for that we have dominion over your faith,
but are helpers of your joy:
for by faith ye stand."

This moreover does not remove the task of the watchman to warn as you see in the latter part of II Corinthians 12, for the Lord gives strength to warn and help, to deliver and protect His flock.

Thus does that lavish love of the Lord show itself in tenderer modes, in detailed exposure, and His delight in showing is shown in this series of spiritual tableaux, so far from those who would make sovereignty some kind of cruel mystery, or unloving problematic area. GOD IS LOVE! (I John 4:7ff.), and this MASSIF can never be truncated. It should be admired with passion.

NOTES

 *1

With SMR Appendix B, and Ancient Words, Modern Deeds Ch. 8, as in Great Execrations ... Greater Grace Chs. 7 and 9,

see also on this topic:

Beauty of Holiness Ch. 2,

The Glow of Predestinative Power Chs. 1, 4, 8,

SMR Appendix B,

Ancient Words, Modern Deeds Ch. 8,

The Christian Pilgrimage Ch. 3,

How Great is the God We Adore Ch. 3, 3 Epilogue.

*2

See on Isaiah 9: Bible Translations 15, Isaiah 9:6-7.

*3

See on Isaiah 7, SMR pp. 770ff..