Jeremiah 31:10

The Future of Israel

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on November 12, 2023 at Beacon Church

In the words of the Vice Chancellor, we need clarity not blur. It has been said that the newspaper can tell you what is happening in the world but only the Bible can tell you why. Now when the Bible talks about Israel, it’s not talking about the modern State of Israel. It’s talking about the nation, the people, the Jews. When the State of Israel was born in 1948, the nation that had been homeless for 19 centuries had a home again. The Jewish survivors of Hitler’s Holocaust had a place of safety. Christians should be glad about that. The Bible teaches us to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep—to have compassion (Rom 12:15). But there are details about the prophecies in the Bible that I don’t yet understand. A lot of teaching about the future of Israel seems to be speculation. I don’t want to speculate from this pulpit about those things that aren’t clear in the Bible. But the Bible is very clear about some things.

We need clarity and not blur. Christians should be clear about what the Bible is clear about. And the Bible is clear that the greatest need for every human being is not something you can get with a gun, or from the United Nations, or by politics. The greatest need for every human soul is for God to save you from His own wrath. Why? Because your sins make you an enemy of God but only God can save you from your sins. Whether you are a Jew or a Gentile. We need to be clear about sin, about salvation, about God.

This is what we find in Jeremiah 31:10. Clarity. Light. Truth Christians need to understand. And with what is happening in the world today, it is urgent that we understand this. A pastor I know has been going to the same barbers for years, praying for the owners who are Muslim. When he went back recently, they were excited to see him. They said they had been waiting for him. One of them had a terrifying dream about Jesus raised from the dead and they needed my friend to tell them what it means. The Muslim man said, “It means that we must become Christians, right? That it is very dangerous to keep delaying?” I believe the Day of the Lord is coming fast. That we are in the end times. And Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Roman Catholic, or atheist, every human soul needs what only Christians have: salvation in Jesus Christ. In this verse Jeremiah communicates good news about Israel for all people to believe. To the Jew it gives hope; to the Gentile it gives a command. It gives the clarity you need today.

The command of God

So what is God doing in Israel? “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock,'” (Jer. 31:10 ESV). “Hear” is a command. “Declare” is a command. Both of these commands are about the Word of God. You must hear it, the “Word of the Lord / of Yahweh.” And then, when you’ve heard it, what does it say? You must declare it. This could not be more clear. It is a command from God, but for who? “O Nations.” Or “Gentiles.” All the people on earth who are not Jews, or descended from the 12 tribes of Israel. Everybody else: the nations. According to this verse, if you are not Jewish, God is talking to you. And what is He saying? You must hear His Word and then you must declare it.

We have a word today for those people in the world who hear the Word of God, and, believing it, preach it, teach it, and share it: we call them Christians. This command is for Gentile Christians to hear and declare the Word of Yahweh, the LORD. And this Hebrew word translated, “declare” is worth noticing. The authoritative standard HALOT, in the entry for this word says it means to present information to someone in a way that is prominent and meaningful; to place something, as it were, in someone’s face and confront them with it.[iv] So you can’t be neutral about what you are commanded to share here. You can’t be quiet about it. You aren’t allowed to refrain from speaking what God has said just because you don’t want to offend someone. First you must hear what God’s Word says, then, when you understand it, and believe it, you are commanded to make it known meaningfully, confronting people with this truth. Now I don’t think this calls for every single Christian to go out and become street preachers. But I do believe it makes Christians responsible to gather as churches all over the world and invite others to hear the preaching of God’s Word. It at least means that.

Now, I said “all over the world,” because God is commanding “you nations” to declare His Word, ““in the coastlands far away.” If you head west from Jerusalem, you will hit the Mediterranean coastline in Ashdod, about 20km or so north of Gaza. And if you stand there on the beach looking west into the Mediterranean, the coastline of that sea touches the shores of Africa, Turkey (today) and Europe. Then, beyond the Mediterranean, of course, is the rest of the world. Well that’s what Jeremiah is talking about. The farthest nations of the world. That’s who needs to hear this message from God, and believers from all nations are commanded to make sure they hear this Word from God. About what? The prophet here tells us exactly what God commands us to preach: Look in the middle of verse 10 and notice what we are commanded to say when we declare the Word of God. “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock,'” (Jer. 31:10 ESV). Christians around the world have a mandate from God. A command to pay close attention to what God is doing with Israel. To watch and see and draw attention to how God gathers the nation He scattered.

Well I said, “In this verse Jeremiah communicates good news about Israel for all people to believe.” And I’ve shown you clearly it is a command for all the nations—for everybody who’s not Jewish. But is this word about Israel really Good News for all people? And the answer is yes, because of what the Word of Yahweh here reveals about Yahweh. That’s the Good News.

The character of God

So what is God doing in Israel? This message for the nations to hear and declare is focused on God. Look at it. “…Say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock,'” (Jer. 31:10 ESV).  First, the message refers to a scattering before it predicts a gathering. When did God scatter Israel? Well, God scattered Israel 2743 years ago, when the Assyrians destroyed Samaria in 721 BC; then again when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC; and again when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. Why did God scatter Israel those three times? Because the people had forsaken God. A century before Jeremiah, the northern ten tribes of Israel had been conquered and scattered by the Assyrians for apostasy. “He who scattered Israel,” had done it before, was doing it again. Much of Jeremiah’s preaching was warning his countrymen that God was about to do to Judah and Jerusalem what He had done to Israel and Samaria 100 years earlier. But the people didn’t listen.

That refusal to repent is why God scattered the Jews the last time, in 70 AD, when the Roman Army destroyed Jerusalem. Unrepentance is why the Jews remained scattered among the nations of the Earth in 70 AD and the remnant of Israel we call the Jews was homeless for most of the last 2000 years. Living in exile. Just like the prophets warned, like the Bible predicted. For apostasy, falling away from faith in God; for unrepentance. You can read your Bible and ask, “Why did all these things happen to Israel?” But that’s not a Christian way to read the Bible. A Christian way to read is to ask, “What was God doing to Israel?” He who scattered Israel will gather Israel. 800 years before Jeremiah, just before Israel crossed the Jordan River to settle the land God gave them, listen to what Moses preached to them:

25 "When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger,  26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.  27 And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you.  28 And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.  29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.  30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice.  31 For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them. (Deut. 4:25-31 ESV)

God warned them He would scatter them when they refuse to repent; but gather them again when they seek for Him again. God promised that when the descendants of the nation of Israel are scattered among the nations of earth for the last time, “in the latter days,” they will seek Him again, and find Him; they will “return to Yawheh their God and obey His voice”—why? Because “Yahweh your God is a merciful God” and He will not forget the covenant He made with their fathers. God is just, and will punish sin; and He is merciful, to forgive those who repent believe in Him for grace. This is the character of God.

This is the God Jeremiah is preaching. In Jer 29, God promised to bring the Jews back from exile in Babylon, and He did. But it was temporary. Because their repentance was temporary. Jeremiah held out this promise from God, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart,” (Jer 29:13). Why? So the Jews would throw themselves on the mercy of the merciful God who saves sinners. Isn’t this the message churches need to preach today? A God every Jew and every Gentile can trust and believe in? Jews and Gentiles need to hear Christians calling all people to repent and believe not just that God saves sinners, but how God saves sinners. Because what God did to Israel in the Bible proves to all the nations that we can’t save ourselves. We keep sinning. We never stop needing mercy. We never grow out of needing God’s grace. So, God brought the Jews back from Babylon, but as you read the Gospels, about the hypocritical, self-righteous religion of the Pharisees and the shallow repentance of the people of Israel at that time, you see how they needed a Saviour. But when God sent them His Son, they rejected Him. And so, God scattered Israel one more time.

Just before Jesus predicted the final exile of Israel, he looked out over the city of Jerusalem and grieved for His people: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"  (Matt. 23:37-39 ESV)

So I said Jeremiah, here, communicates good news about Israel for all people to believe. God will bring Israel back home to their land. We are commanded to preach this. But if we only preached about how God planned to restore the nation of Israel to the land of Israel, we would be missing what makes this Good News for all people. The promises about the land are true, but it’s not about the land. It’s about…

The covenant of God

What is God doing in Israel? This is what it’s about. God’s covenant is very personal. He doesn’t covenant with strangers. The reason why God promised to restore the nation of Israel to their land in the last days, is so that they will belong to Him and HE will belong to them. They will be His people and He will be their God. “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock,'” (Jer. 31:10 ESV). Picture a shepherd taking care of his sheep, watching over them; keeping them safe; caring for them. That’s the relationship God will have with Israel. Jesus said the same thing in different words: He wanted to gather the people of Jerusalem “together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,” but, He said, “you were not willing.” The problem with the nation of Israel is that they still don’t want God. They want the land He gave them. They want the blessings He gave them. The good life. Children. Harvests. Peace. They want His blessings but not Himself. They wanted the gifts but not the giver. But God will not bless rebels. And if that’s how you treat God, He will not bless your rebellion either. The Good News is that God does not leave our salvation up to us. If He did, no one would be saved. He does not just gather the sheep together, He becomes their shepherd; He doesn’t just gather the Jews like a brood of chicks, He makes them His. Why? Because He gave His Word.

I read you the warning and promise Moses gave Israel in Deut 4. Listen to what he says in Deut 30:

"And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you,  2 and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul,  3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.  4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.  5 And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.  6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deut. 30:1-6 ESV)

This is a covenant promise. Like a wedding vow. “For better or worse.” God not only promises to love Israel; He vows to transform Israel’s hearts so that they love Him. “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live,” (Deut. 30:6 ESV). Why? Because if He left it up to Israel, they would never love Him. Because He gave His Word to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Moses said God will never forget the covenant He swore to them (Deut 4:31). And before the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit prophesied through the father of John the Baptist,

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. (Lk. 1:68-75)

You see, God keeps His promises. He remembers His covenant and shows the mercy He promised, and saves Israel from those who hate Israel, and gives salvation, and even makes Israel holy and righteous, and He does it all through Jesus Christ. Do you realize this is why you can trust God? Because He is faithful? Because He does not change? The very God who keeps His promises to Israel will keep His promises to you. You are a witness to God’s faithfulness. Consider the facts, what God has done to Israel: God brought Jewish people back to the land and delivered the land from the rule of the Ottoman Empire in 1917. He gave the Jews a country again in 1948. He gave them victory when their Arab neighbours attacked them in 1967, and 1973, and when time after time ever since, enemies on all sides rise up who want to destroy them. And yet they still have no peace. Why? Because they still don’t want Jesus. Jesus prophesied, “For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,’” (Mat 23:39).

Do you doubt what God has done to Israel? In a court of Law you have witnesses to establish evidence. JC Ryle counted ten that testified God would do this: [v] 1) Isaiah 11:11 promises God will regather Israel “a second time” from all the nations to gather the scattered exiles of Israel and of Judah. 2) Ezekiel 37:21 promises God will “gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land.” 3) In Hosea 3:4, God promises the Israelites will return and seek Him. 4) In Joel 3:20, God promises Judah and Jerusalem will become inhabited forever. 5) In Amos 9:14, God promises to bring back “my exiled people IsraeIsrael,” and He will plant them in the land and never uproot them ever again. 6) In Obadiah 1:17, God promises Israel will possess the land of their inheritance and be delivered. 7) In Micah 4:6, God promises to gather and assemble the exiles He drove away, and keep them forever. 8) in Zephaniah 3:19, God promises to gather Israel and bring them home and restore their fortunes forever. 9) In Zechariah 10:6, God promises to restore Israel, whom He scattered, and bring them back to the land. 10) In Jeremiah 30:3 God says “For behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it,”" (Jer. 30:3 ESV). And in Jeremiah in 30:11, “For I am with you to save you, declares the LORD; I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished,” (Jer. 30:11 ESV).

Now there is much I don’t understand about what God’s Word says and about what God is doing in Israel. But I believe Jeremiah 30:18-21 gives us a prediction of God restoring Israel first to the land, then building them up, growing their number, and eventually giving them salvation. Or, in the words of our text, 31:10, He who scattered Israel has gathered Israel, but they don’t yet know their Shepherd. It’s like the great vision of the prophet Ezekiel (37), who saw a valley filled with dry, dead bones. As God’s Word was preached, the bones came together; then flesh and skin covered them; then lastly, God breathed life into the dead and they stood up. Ezekiel 37:11 says those bones are Israel.

There’s a lot in the Bible I don’t yet understand about the future. But this is clear to me: God brought Israel back to their land. God is growing the nation and saving them from their enemies. But He is not finished. He has not yet breathed life into their spirits. They don’t yet know their Shepherd. They don’t yet recognize their Saviour. But later in this chapter, God promises they will:

Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land.  22 And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.  23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.  24 "My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. (Ezek. 37:21-24 ESV)

Hebrews 10:14-18 says this forgiveness of sins is only possible because Jesus Christ gave Himself in our place, as the sacrifice for our sins. Therefore, if you believe Jesus Christ died for your sins, then you can know your sins are forgiven. And therefore, “since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (Heb. 10:21-23) What a Priest we have in Jesus! What a Good Shepherd is He! He gave His life for His Sheep and He keeps us. But therefore, don’t you see? We have Good News to preach for all people to hear—Good News that our Saviour is Israel’s Saviour. Good News that He is the only Saviour for all people. Like that Muslim barber who was warned in a dream, it is time to believe in Christ and it is dangerous to delay.

What the world needs today is Christians who are clear about what the Bible is clear about. “Hear the Word of the Lord and declare it.” God scattered Israel. God is gathering Israel. And God will save Israel—that will be my theme Sunday after next, Lord willing. This command is clear that Gentile Christians need to pay attention to what God is doing in Israel and declare it—put it in front of people’s faces; confront the world around us with who God is and what He is doing. Because the greatest need of every human being alive is to know God as Lord and Saviour through Jesus Christ His Son. But, “how… will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Rom. 10:14 ESV)

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