At the same time, says the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
The above is the first verse of Jeremiah 31, and “at the same time” is referring to what is pronounced in Chapter 30. There, the LORD commands Jeremiah to write in a book all the words He has spoken, for the days come when He will return the captivity of all His people and will cause them to return to the land He gave our forefathers. As we know, this speaks of the pattern of now, when the LORD’s presence has captivated our minds and freed us from captivity we were in. It comes by Him giving us the understanding that allows Him to, through us, lead all His people in the same way into possessing the land He has given us – This Nation under God.
Chapter 30 goes on tell us this is a time such as never before, the time of war, when God’s people are weak and tremble in fear, and in this state, a man brings forth a child. This historically unique event is after spoken of in Jeremiah 31:9 as when God’s people come with weeping, when He leads us with supplication, when He will cause us “to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”
Nowhere else does the LORD call Ephraim His firstborn, and instead of it referring to the ten tribes of Israel, as it is supposed, it is referring us to Exodus 4:22. There is found the one other time the LORD speaks of His firstborn, here as all Israel who is in the captivity of Egypt. There we find the context of the “captivity” we have returned
These ideas, when understood in consort, tell of what the LORD pronounced in Deuteronomy 18:15 thru 18, where we are told of the one the LORD will send in the pattern of Moses, who the people will hear. This pattern is further illuminated as we are first told, in Jeremiah 30:1, of the LORD
Jeremiah 31:31 thru 34, tells of this as the time when the LORD make the New Covenant with His people, not as the Covenant He made with us when He brought us out of Egypt. He tells us this is when, as now, He will put His law in our minds, and write them into our reasoning (heart). He says this is the time when men will not say “know the LORD,” because the LORD himself will be known by all, through His teaching and leading.
Just before we are told this, the LORD, in Jeremiah 31:29 tells of a saying heard among His people: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” This is speaking of the old Covenant souring by the hand of those before us, and it distorting the words of the following generations as they pay the price for the sins of the fathers. It is spoken in the context of the LORD saying, that in the New Covenant every man will hear His teaching, and will, therefore, be responsible for their own response.
These ideas are spoken of in Hebrew 8, when they are, in verse 1, said to be reiterated, which itself is referring us to both Hebrews 1:2 & 12:25 thru 29; each telling of the LORD speaking through the firstborn. In Hebrews 8:5 we are told these are the pattern we hear and by which we build, as the LORD appears in the mediator He sends, teaching by the better Covenant, which leads us into the presence of God, by the revelation of Himself.
Hebrews 1
1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:
4 Being made so much better than the angels [messengers], as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Hebrews 12
22 But you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels [messengers],
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:2
9 For our God is a consuming fire.
Again, read the chapters as prescribed. In them is the power that effectually works in us, God working to reveal Himself, His presence, and to Himself lead us into light and life.
Jeramiah 30 & 31, Ezekiel 18, and Hebrews 8 thru 10.
Psalm 78
1 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he has done.
5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
11 And forgot his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
12 Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.
18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
19 Yea, they spoke against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
21 Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:
23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
25 Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.
26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;
30 They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
31 The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.
35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.
38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passes away, and comes not again.
40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan [the place where they departed from God].
44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labor unto the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.
48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 And he led them on
54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56 Yet they tempted and provoked the
57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand.
62 He gave his people over also unto the sword
63 The fire consumed their young men
64 Their priests fell by the sword
65 Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine.
66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.
67
68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he has established for ever.
70 He chose David also his
71 From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
