Jeremiah gets a bad rap as the angry prophet of doom.  But, he didn’t enjoy preaching fire and brimstone.  In his confessions sprinkled throughout the book, Jeremiah said he wanted to keep God’s words to himself like a poker player holding his hand close to the chest.  But he could not because the message was like fire in his bones.  

So, for 40 years, he faithfully declared a version of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” every time the Lord prompted.  He had one string on his guitar, and he kept plucking it.  But no one wanted to listen to his song calling for repentance.  The people said Jeremiah was a Bible-thumping, closed-minded nut job.  The hardships and rejection he experienced bubble to the surface throughout the book.

And then the day came, the day no one thought would ever arrive for the chosen people, redeemed from slavery, sitting at the top of a great hill they called Mount Zion, in the shadow of Solomon’s temple.  

The most powerful king in the world, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, rolled up with an army like no one had ever seen.  Soldiers decked out in the most advanced weaponry, glistening in the sun.  They quickly lay siege to the city, allowing nothing in or out.  After setting up camp in the valley, they began hacking down every available tree, leaving behind a landscape whiskered with broken trunks. 

The core of engineers went to work constructing siege works, large battering rams, and tall rolling towers high enough to scale the great walls.  With determination, they moved boulders along a lengthy human chain and slowly constructed gravel ramps that reached the foot of the city.  It was just a matter of time.  The heat was on, and the kettle was starting to boil.

Inside the walls, Jeremiah waited like everyone else, but his heart was a confused storm of emotions.  He felt great sadness for the pain and loss all around.  But he also was amazed and overwhelmed.  The misunderstood and maligned prophet wasn’t crazy.  There must have been a rush of awe and wonder.  The Lord’s word had not failed.

Instead of taking to the streets to wag his finger in pride, Jeremiah struck another cord, a message of hope.  Commentators call chapters 30 to 33 “The Book of Consolation.” God would not abandon the ones who had forsaken him.  His love is a never-ending love, even for hard-hearted sinners, whose only salvation lies in complete brokenness.  

Jeremiah 30:1 – This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you.

“This is so good, you’ll need to write this down.” I can see everyone running around, scrounging for food, bandages, and resources as the great city walls trembled with the blows of the battering rams.  Write it down so that after the war was over, and all was lost, it could be read again and again.  They would need these words when the temple lay in a heap of rubble at the bottom of the valley, and as they trailed behind the Babylonians to journey far into a strange land.

Jeremiah 30:3 – The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their ancestors to possess,’ says the Lord.”

Captivity, defeat, and loss.  This was not the end of the story.  Notice the Lord said, “I will bring my people Israel and Judah back.” Israel and Judah were like two estranged brothers.  They grew up together as children, playing, wrestling, and learning in the same house, eating the same food, and sharing the same room.  They were brothers and best friends.  But after King Solomon, they got so offended at one another they broke away and never spoke again.  Israel went to the north and Judah to the south, a divided family.

Four hundred years before Israel was wiped off the map by the Assyrians.  Judah saw it all, but didn’t learn the lesson.  The southern kingdom would now be flung like a stone into a deep creek.  But wait. Israel and Judah, the fractured brothers, would return from captivity and live again as family.  A day would come when all that was lost would be restored, and all that was shattered made new.  This is the theme of chapter 30.  Restoration.