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The Bible Breakdown
Jeremiah 31: Tears of Joy
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, jeremiah, chapter 31, and today's title is Tears of Joy. Tears of Joy. We're getting into all that in just a moment, but if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast, make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast and make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. I'm telling you something they're doing an amazing job and you're missing it if you're not going to that discussion every day and reading those posts that they're doing and commenting on those as well, especially if you have questions about what's going on. I'm going to tell you something the more we dig, the more we find. Well, once again, if you have your Bible, want to open up with me to Jeremiah, chapter 31,. I actually dropped my pen, so here we go. That's something I don't do every day, but we're doing this, we're doing it, we're doing it. We got this going on.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you about something that my dad used to do to me While you're getting your Bibles open to chapter 31,. That was the worst thing ever and, dad, I don't know if you listened to this, but it's time you came clean on this and just admitted what you used to do to me. Okay, here we go. So I was maybe slightly a challenge as a child. We're just going to admit what it is. I wasn't always the nicest kid, right. I was your typical high-strung boy, right. And so my dad? He would try to discipline me. And I say try, he did his best, but it is what it is. And here's what my dad would do is he would sit me down and he would want to tell me everything I had done wrong and try to reason with me as a child. And can I tell you, I don't remember a single one of those reasoning sessions. So we called them lectures, but to be kind, because I do the same thing to my kids now, reasoning sessions, okay.
Speaker 1:And then afterward I would be disciplined, and there would be various ways. My dad would discipline me always, always in a good way. But right, I'll be disciplined. And here's the thing. Here's the thing that I struggle with, and I would love to know, in the comments of the YouTube video, if you're doing the YouTube thing, I'd love to know if your parents did this to you. The worst thing my dad would do is, when he was finished disciplining me, he would look at me and he would say, son, I love you. If I didn't love you I wouldn't discipline you. I only do it because I care about you and I know you can do better. Will you give me a hug? And he would give me a hug and he would say something horrible, like I'm never going to give up on you and I love you very much.
Speaker 1:And I'm telling you, as I got to be an older boy, I didn't like to show emotion around my father. You know what I mean. And I would do fine during the lecture session. I would do fine as we would be reasoning together, as I would think. But when my dad had the audacity to tell me that he loved me and he would tell me that he was proud of the young man I was becoming and that this was just a bump in the road and I was going to be okay and all that, I couldn't handle it. I'd start crying like a baby and I'd have to hurry up and leave and he'd just hold on to me, just give me this big old hug. Now I get that some of your dads did things differently, but that's what my dad would do and it would make me angry to no end, because I knew he loved me and when he told me I couldn't handle it.
Speaker 1:That is what Jeremiah, chapter 31, is all about. God has been telling the nation of Israel, or Judah and we saw it yesterday is he was saying listen, I got to discipline you. You keep turning away from me. I keep telling you to turn back to me and you keep saying uh-uh and go and doing your own thing. What'd you expect? Of course, but just like after he has told them what the discipline is going to be, then he looks at them and he says but I love you, still got a plan for you, Still not going to give up on you, I'm still going to be your God. I mean just ruin, just ruin in the bad mood. You know what I mean. So let's read this and get that picture in your head with me, of a loving father who's having to discipline his children. Doesn't want to, he's doing it for their own good, truly saying it hurts me more than it hurts you. And then he's telling them but you know, I love you. So let's read this together. More than it hurts you. And then he's telling them but you know I love you. So let's read this together Jeremiah 31, verse one, says that this and that day, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel and they will be my people.
Speaker 1:This is what the Lord says. Those who survive the coming destruction will find blessing, even in the barren land, for I will give rest to the people of Israel. Long ago, the Lord said to Israel I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love, with unfailing love. I have drawn you to myself. I will rebuild you, my virgin Israel. You will again be happy and dance merrily with your tambourines. Again, you will plant your vineyards on the mountains of Samaria.
Speaker 1:Now, this is what the Lord says. Sing for joy for Israel, sing with joy for Israel. Shout with the greatest of nations, shout with the praise and joy. Save your people, o Lord, the remnant of Israel, for I will bring them from the north and from the distant corners of the earth. I will not forget the blind and the lame, the expecting mothers and women in labor. A great company will return. Tears of joy will stream down their faces and I will lead them home with great care. They will walk beside quiet streams and the smooth paths where they will stumble, will not stumble, for I am Israel's father. Ephraim is my oldest child.
Speaker 1:Listen to this message from the Lord. You nations of the world, Proclaim it in distant coastlands. The Lord, who scattered his people, will gather them and watch over them, as the shepherd does his flock, for the Lord has redeemed Israel from those too strong for them. They will come home and sing songs of joy on the heights of Jerusalem and they will be radiant because of the Lord's good gifts the abundant crops of grain, new wine and olive oil, and the healthy flocks and herds. Their life will be like a watered garden and all their sorrow will be gone. Young women will dance for joy, and men, then. This is something that, if you've ever read and my people will feast on my good gifts. I, the Lord, have spoken. Then this is something that, if you've ever read the book of Matthew, you've seen this text before. It says this this is what the Lord says.
Speaker 1:I heard in Ramah deep anguish and bitter weeping. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for her children are gone. Now pause. That is actually in the book of Matthew, when King Herod found out that the Messiah had been born, and he went throughout the area of Bethlehem and had all the newborn children from two years and younger slaughtered. And this was the fulfillment of the scripture. The original meaning of this scripture was when it says that I heard in Ramah the deep anguish and bitter weeping.
Speaker 1:Ramah was a staging ground that when the nation of Babylon would be deporting all the people, they would put them all in Ramah, and from Ramah he would disperse them everywhere. And so he was where they would then be separated from their families. It was a place of bitter weeping and mourning. Rachel, which is the mother of the Jewish nation, rachel and Leah, mother of Jewish nation, refuses to be comforted because their children are gone. In other words, they've been dispersed all over the known world. So it was this horrible moment of just scattering and ripping apart of families, the known world. So it was this horrible moment of just scattering and ripping apart of families. And this was also fulfilled in the slaughtering of the young babies during the time of the life of Jesus. And so, after all, this happens.
Speaker 1:But look at what the first word is but. But now this is for the yoke. Turn me again to you and restore me, for you alone are the Lord my God. I turned away from God, but then I was sorry. I kicked myself for my stupidity. I was thoroughly ashamed of all I did in my younger days. And is not Israel still my son, my darling child, says the Lord. I often have to punish him, but I still love him. That's why I long for him, and surely I will have mercy on him.
Speaker 1:Set up road signs, put up guideposts, mark well the path which you come. Come back again, my virgin Israel. Return to your towns here. How long will you wander, my wayward daughter? For the Lord will cause something new to happen. Israel will embrace her God. This is what the Lord of heaven's armies, the God of Israel, says. When I bring them back from captivity, the God of Israel says when I bring them back from captivity, the people of Judah and his own towns will say the Lord bless you. Oh righteous home, oh holy mountain towns. People and farmers and shepherds alike will live together in peace and happiness. For I have given rest to the weary and joy to the sorrowing At this.
Speaker 1:I woke up and looked around. My sleep had been very sweet. The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will greatly increase the human population and the number of animals here in Israel and Judah. In the past, I deliberately uprooted and tore down this nation. I overthrew it, destroyed it and brought disaster upon it. But in the future I will just as deliberately plant it and build it up. I, the Lord, have spoken. The Lord will no longer quote this proverb. The parents have eaten sour grapes, but the children's mouths pucker at the taste. All people will die for their own sins. Those who eat sour grapes will be the ones whose mouths will pucker.
Speaker 1:The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors, when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though. I loved them as a husband loves his wife, says the Lord. But this new covenant I will make with these people of Israel After those days, I will put my instructions deep within them and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. They will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives saying you should know the Lord, for everyone, from the least to greatest, will already know me, says the Lord. I will forgive their wickedness and I will never again remember their sins.
Speaker 1:It is the Lord who provides the light for the day, and the moon and the stars for the night, and who stirs the sea into roaring waves. His name is the Lord of heaven's armies, and this is what he says. His name is the Lord of heaven's armies, and this is what he says. I am as likely to reject my people, israel, as I am to abolish the laws of nature. This is what the Lord says. Just as the heavens cannot be measured and the fountains of the earth cannot be explored, so I will not consider casting them away for the evil they have done. I, the Lord, have spoken. The day is coming, says the Lord, when all Jerusalem will be rebuilt for me, and from the tower of Hanel to the corner gate, a measuring line will be stretched out over the hills of Gareb, across from Goa and the entire area, including the graveyard and the ash dump in the valley and all the fields to the Kidron Valley on the east, as far as the horse gate will be holy to the Lord, and the fields to the Kidron Valley on the east, as far as the horse gate will be holy to the Lord, and the city will never again be captured or destroyed.
Speaker 1:Wow, I love this idea of where God says in verse 20, he says I have often had to punish them, but I still love them. That's why I long for them, and surely I have mercy on them, man. Wow, I love this, this idea. And remember we were talking about you know when, when I was a kid, and my dad would, would, would kind of uh, get onto me, and then, after you get onto me, he would say but I love you, I'm not going to give up on you. You're still my boy, you know these things and and and I would, I'd try to, you know, be tough and whatever, but but it would still. It would still be, you know it would, it would still speak life to me, and and that's that's what I hope for all of us is tears of joy and realizing that in this life we will have trouble. Some trouble has nothing to do with us. It's just because we live in a fallen world. Some trouble we bring on ourselves. You know what God's going to say, though I still love you. That's why I long for you. That's why I'm not going to give up on you. That's why I'm going to continue to have mercy on you.
Speaker 1:Think about this God does not have to forgive us. Every single time he does is another example of how much he loves us. Every heartbeat that you have, every brainwave that you have, every time you breathe in and out, it is an example of mercy and justice. That's how loved you are. When's the last time you asked God? God, will you let my heartbeat one more time? Of course not. He does it without you having to ask. When's the last time you said God, will you let me wake up tomorrow? Most of the time, we just take it for granted. He does it without you having to ask. When's the last time you said God, will you let me wake up tomorrow? Most of the time, we just take it for granted. He does all of it because he loves us. You've never been more loved than you are right now. Even if you're experiencing difficulty and trouble, god still loves you.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together right now, god, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you love us, and even if some of us who are listening or watching this are going through a difficult season. We know and we believe that there's going to be tears of joy because you're never going to give up on us. We celebrate you right now In Jesus' name. We pray Amen. And what God's word says in Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 13, say it with me If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. My hope is that we find God fresh and new in our lives every day. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Jeremiah, chapter 32.
