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Jeremiah's New Covenant, part 5

Jeremiah 31:15 says,

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord, “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”

This prophecy is well known in Christian circles because Matthew 2:18 quoted it in relation to the flight to Egypt when Herod was about to kill the children in Bethlehem. In Jeremiah 31, however, the context was quite different, though there was a prophetic similarity.

Jeremiah was prophesying during the time that the Babylonians were coming to conquer Judah and take the city of Jerusalem. In the midst of this, Jeremiah gave hope through the New Covenant, which is the only covenant that can bring salvation and deliverance. Yet the people and the king had already refused to submit to the king of Babylon according to the word of the Lord (Jeremiah 27:8, 12). Their decision to fight the Babylonian army made them evil figs that God could not eat (Jeremiah 24:8). Hence, their fate was sealed.

Jeremiah himself was soon to be arrested for treason and thrown in jail (Jeremiah 37:15). Because he refused to be silenced about the doom of the city, he was cast into a dry (but muddy) well, or cistern (Jeremiah 38:6). “But Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, while he was in the king’s palace” Jeremiah 38:7) interceded for the prophet, and the king gave the order to imprison him “in the court of the guardhouse” (Jeremiah 38:13). Later, the Babylonians set him free from his prison in Ramah (Jeremiah 40:1).

First, it is interesting that it would take an Ethiopian eunuch to intercede for the prophet. He was obviously a believer, one who believed the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah. Eben-melech himself received the reward of deliverance (Jeremiah 39:16, 17), but his act of faith did not lose its power. His faith was rewarded 600 years later when another Ethiopian eunuch sought the word of the Lord and was met by Philip (Acts 8:27), who gave him understanding of the word.

This shows that our own acts of faith can benefit people in later generations. Though we may not see more than personal rewards, the power of faith does not end with ourselves. No act of faith-obedience loses its power. The prime example of this is seen in the faith of Abraham. His single act of faith only gained power over the centuries until it brought forth the New Covenant in Christ.

Secondly, we note the irony that the prophet was imprisoned by the king of Judah. It was the Babylonians who set him free. Jeremiah 39:11, 12 says,

¹¹ Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzardan the captain of the bodyguard, saying, ¹² Take him and look after him, and do nothing harmful to him, but rather deal with him just as he tells you.

The fact that the prophet was delivered from a prison in Ramah ties it to the prophecy in Jeremiah 31:15 and ultimately to Jesus’ deliverance when He was taken to Egypt for his protection. This prophecy is all about divine protection in the time of invasion, war, and destruction. It is interesting also that an Ethiopian eunuch was singled out, along with the prophet himself, as a prime example of this deliverance.

This is how the prophecy fits with the rest of Jeremiah 31, for it illustrates the practical provision of the New Covenant in times of trouble. God has ways of turning the heart of the king of Babylon himself and causing the overcomers to find favor. Even today, as we monitor the coming destruction of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 19:10, 11), can we not expect the same favor from the modern rulers of Mystery Babylon?

Joseph Taken to Egypt

Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin, her second son. Genesis 35:19 says,

¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

Not long after this, Joseph’s brothers sold him to traders, and he was taken to Egypt as a slave. The book of Jasher tells us that when Joseph passed by his mother’s grave, he ran to the grave and cast himself on the ground with much weeping. This is not recorded in the Genesis account, but Jasher tells us in chapter 42,

30 And Joseph reached his mother's grave, and Joseph hastened and ran to his mother's grave, and fell upon the grave and wept….

37 And Joseph heard a voice speaking to him from beneath the ground, which answered him with bitterness of heart, and with a voice of weeping and praying in these words:

38 My son, my son Joseph, I have heard the voice of thy weeping and the voice of thy lamentation; I have seen thy tears; I know thy troubles, my son, and it grieves me for thy sake, and abundant grief is added to my grief.

39 Now therefore my son, Joseph my son, hope to the Lord, and wait for him and do not fear, for the Lord is with thee, he will deliver thee from all trouble.

40 Rise my son, go down unto Egypt with thy masters, and do not fear, for the Lord is with thee, my son. And she continued to speak like unto these words unto Joseph, and she was still.

https://sacred-texts.com/chr/apo/jasher/42.htm

This is the incident referred to in Jeremiah 31:15 and again in Matthew 2:18. Apart from the text of the ancient book of Jasher, we would not know what the prophet was talking about. Rachel comforted Joseph by telling him to go to Egypt and know that God would deliver him. Jeremiah’s message was similar, for he told the people to submit to Nebuchadnezzar and go into captivity (as “good figs” in Jeremiah 24). By obeying God, He would deliver them in the same way.

The Pattern of Moses

Even Jesus had to go to Egypt, “the house of bondage” (Jeremiah 34:13). However, He was following the pattern of Moses, rather than Joseph, because this occurred during His first coming. He will come as Joseph in His second coming, for we read in Revelation 19:13 that “He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood.” It is the same multi-colored robe that Joseph wore as a testimony that he was the birthright holder. Genesis 37:31 says of this,

³¹ So they took Joseph’s tunic, and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood.

Yet in Christ’s first coming, he followed the pattern of Moses. At the age of three months, Moses was taken into the house of Pharaoh for his protection (Exodus 2:2). So also, Jesus was born on the night of September 28/29 of 2 B.C., which was the feast of Trumpets. Three months later, the magi arrived, and from Jerusalem they saw Jupiter hovering over Bethlehem. It was December 25, and their gifts became the basis for this practice at Christmas. This was not Jesus’ birthday, however, because He was born three months earlier and was visited by the shepherds.

The magi came to Bethlehem, gave their gifts, and returned home by another way. God then directed Joseph and Mary to leave immediately and go to Egypt for the child’s protection. Herod then killed the children of Bethlehem, which fulfilled the prophecy of Rachel weeping for her children, “because they were no more” (Matthew 2:18).

In Jeremiah’s prophecy, this applied to those “good figs” going to Babylon for their protection and ultimate restoration. Jeremiah 24:5-7 says,

⁵ Thus says the Lord God of Israel, “Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans. ⁶ For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land, and I will build them up and not overthrow them, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. ⁷ I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.”

The promise, seen on an Old Covenant level, was to return to the old land. This was fulfilled in the days of Ezra and Zerubbabel, but the prophet saw beyond this to a time when they would “return to Me,” rather than to the old land. Further, the prophecy was that they would be planted and not plucked up. We know, however, that they were indeed plucked up when the Romans destroyed the city in 70 A.D. The reason was that they had refused to submit to Rome and were thus judged by God as “evil figs.”

Hence, the promise did not apply on an Old Covenant level. Instead, it applied to those of the New Covenant and to the “better country” that Abraham sought (Hebrews 11:16). This had been prophesied earlier to David himself in 2 Samuel 7:10.

Ephraim Will be Fruitful

Jeremiah 31:16-19 says,

¹⁶ Thus says the Lord, “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears; for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord. ¹⁷ “There is hope for your future,” declares the Lord, “and your children will return to their own territory. ¹⁸ I have surely heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the Lord my God, ¹⁹ for after I turned back, I repented; and after I was instructed, I smote my thigh; I was ashamed and also humiliated because I bore the reproach of my youth’.”

Joseph was instructed prophetically to refrain from weeping because his work would be rewarded. What work? His work in Egypt. He was later to become the Prime Minister over all Egypt and to store food for the seven-year famine that was to come. So also would it be with the “good figs” (overcomers) of the Babylonian captivity and of the good figs in the captivity to Mystery Babylon.

We have all been chastised as sons, as we read in Hebrews 12:6,

⁶ For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom he receives.

Such discipline is necessary to do the work of building God’s Kingdom, for it is discipline that brings us to maturity. Verse 18 above tells us that this is the voice of Ephraim, the heir to Joseph’s birthright and to the promise of Sonship. Why is this not the voice of Judah—or even Benjamin? Jeremiah lived in Judah just north of Jerusalem, and he prophesied to those people. Yet he was actually prophesying about the northern house of Israel which had been exiled to Assyria more than a century earlier.

The second coming of Christ—where He comes as Joseph as the Fruitful One (“Ephraim”)—is the event that manifests (or reveals) the sons of God (Romans 8:19).

Jeremiah 31:20 concludes,

²⁰ “Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a delightful child? Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him, I certainly still remember him; therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him,” declares the Lord.

The New Covenant is a covenant of mercy. It is founded in the sovereignty of God. The New Covenant is about the promises of God, not the promises of men. God’s mercy is seen in the fact that He has the power to turn the hearts of men—usually through discipline—so that they can be delivered. In other words, God’s will overturns man’s will, so that man comes into agreement with God. Those whose hearts are turned by God are blessed by the New Covenant and are overcoming sons of God. They are good figs who are fruitful Ephraimites, and these will reign with Christ a thousand years (Revelation 20:6).