Please explain Jeremiah 31:8.
Jeremiah 31:8 says, “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of earth, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and the one who labors with child, together; A great throng shall return there” (NKJV).
This precious verse presents to us the truth that the “house of Israel” will indeed be restored to her land after having been dispersed throughout all the nations of the earth. We know that this had a partial fulfillment in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah when the Lord allowed the “house of Judah” to return from the Babylonian captivity, but because of their unbelief they were scattered around the world again in 70 A.D. Our verse speaks of a future gathering to their homeland which will result in the whole nation’s SPIRITUAL REBIRTH and the promise that God will never again cast off His earthly people.
We must remember that the 12 tribes of Israel were divided into the “house of Israel” (the northern kingdom) and the “house of Judah” (the southern kingdom). This happened shortly after Solomon’s death. The reunion of these two kingdoms is graphically described in this wonderful chapter. Here is a brief outline for your consideration:
- God’s promise to unite them in verse 1. Let’s read that precious verse, “’At the same time,’ says that LORD, ‘I will be the God of all the families of Israel’.”
- A restored Israel in verses 2-20. The constant use of the name “Ephraim” (see verses 6, 9, 18 and 20) indicates this is the “house of Israel.”
- A restored Judah in verses 21-26. The name “Judah” is before us in verses 23 and 24.
- God makes a New Covenant with the “house of Israel” and the “house of Judah” in verses 27-34. Let’s read verses 31-34, “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Eqypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall they teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” The whole nation will be BORN AGAIN!
- God establishes them as an “Everlasting Nation” in verses 35-37. Listen to those words of assurance: “Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (the LORD of hosts is His name): ‘If those ordinances depart from before Me, says the LORD, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.’ Thus says the LORD: ‘If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the LORD’. There are those who believe that God rejected Israel permanently when they rejected His Son, but these words are proof that God will have mercy on Israel and they will be His people FOREVER. (252.1) (DO)