Jeremiah 30:8

The Bible says in Jeremiah 30:8-9, “For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:[9] But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.” In these verses God is continuing to tell us about the last days. As we look into the future, what will be the final end? Once we get past the Great Tribulation, the Battle of Armageddon, and the winepress of the wrath of God that will take place at the Second Coming of Christ, all that we can see are wonderful changes brought about by the grace of God. Think of a world where there is no war, no disease, no hunger, and no death. The lion shall lie down with the lamb, and the nations shall beat their swords into plowshares. In Jeremiah 30:8 the Lord makes a great promise about what He will do to make things better. He said, “I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him.” These statements symbolize enslavement to sin and the sufferings that can come from living in this world in the age in which we now live. God said that He would break the yoke and burst the bonds. Jesus went to the cross of Calvary to accomplish this very deed. Jesus did what no one else could do: Jesus solved the sin problem.

It says about Jesus in Ephesians 4:8, “Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” Jesus led captivity captive. In other words Jesus led away into captivity whatever was enslaving and capturing human beings. This refers to everything that limits mankind: everything from sin to evil, from failure to bad habits, from lack of opportunity to bad decisions. Jesus takes all of it, binds it securely, and takes it all away. That is why it says about Jesus in Matthew 4:13-16, “And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:[14] That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,[15] The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;[16] The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.” No matter what has happened to you that is negative or bad or for what reason, Jesus will change all that. Being with Jesus in eternity will be the difference of day compared to night and darkness compared to light.

Notice also that concerning the bright future of believers, it says in Jeremiah 24:8, “strangers shall no more serve themselves of him.” The “strangers” represent unbelievers. This world has many more unbelievers than it does true believers in Jesus. The unbelievers go astray from their birth. The unbelievers often do not have sympathy or compassion. Many unbelievers will use you, abuse you, and take advantage of you if they can. The unbelievers can certainly make us miserable at times. But their time will end. Those who lust for power and control will lose everything. Jesus promised in Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” It also says in First Corinthians 6:1-3, “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?[2] Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?[3] Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?”

Concerning the future, God said in Jeremiah 30:9, “But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.” Not only do believers get something good that they want in the future, but so does God. It says in Jeremiah 30:9, “But they shall serve the LORD their God.” Jesus desires to be loved and worshipped. He loved us first, hoping that we would value His love and love Him in return. That is exactly what John, an apostle, said that believers should do. It says in First John 4:19, “We love him because he first loved us.” Human beings were created in the image of God. That is probably why we each have such a strong need to be loved. God wants to be loved and served and worshipped. God is hoping and planning to find all of that in the human beings that He created. One might ask, “Why was I created?” You were born to serve the Lord. You were born to love the Lord Jesus Christ. You were born to worship the One True God, whose name is Jesus Christ. He said in the first of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:3, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” This desire, this hope, this commandment will finally be fulfilled to God’s great enjoyment and satisfaction one day in the future. What a great future God has planned for Himself as He said to Jeremiah, “But they shall serve the LORD their God.”

It is interesting to notice that in the future that not only will believers serve the Lord their God, but they shall also serve “David their king.” This is a Messianic reference. The Messiah shall reign on the throne of David. The way that this sentence is constructed, it equates Messiah to God. They will serve God and they will serve Messiah. When you serve One, then you also serve the other. Jesus is God. Jesus is Jehovah. He said so. The Bible says in John 8:58, “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” This verse in Jeremiah 30:9 is a good verse to show that some prophetic verses are not to be taken literally. When God said that in the future that they will serve “David their king,” God was not talking about David literally, but about Jesus who came in the lineage of David.

The Bible says in Jeremiah 30:10-11, “Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.[11] For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.” This is a great promise to all of the children of God. The Lord tells His children, “Fear thou not.” We know that fear is one of the great scourges of the human race. Fear can cause paralysis and torment. Fear comes easily and naturally to the human heart. The only thing that can permanently displace fear is an abiding faith in Christ. And faith is centered around what the Lord has promised us. In these verses in Jeremiah chapter 30 the Lord promises salvation, rest, quiet, companionship, mercy, and judgment upon our enemies.

The promise of salvation is mentioned twice. The Lord said in Jeremiah 30:10, “I will save thee,” and He said in Jeremiah 30:11, “For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee.” Of course, the Lord was talking about saving the Israelites from being captives in Babylon, and there are two aspects of this promise from a spiritual point of view. When God promised to save the Israelites from such a circumstance, this salvation was symbolic of the saving of the soul. It is important to notice that the salvation is based upon a promise from God. The Israelites did not do anything. God did everything. The Israelites did not earn the salvation either. It was promised to them and given to them freely. The benefit of having the salvation was the absence of fear. That is definitely one of the benefits that God wanted them to have. He told them, “Therefore fear thou not,” and “neither be dismayed.” What is it that will get rid of the fears? Simply believe the promise. True faith casts out fear. The source of eternal security is to simply believe God about His promise concerning salvation. A lack of being secure concerning your eternal security is a type of fear, a fear for the destiny of your soul. Jesus promised in John 10:28-31, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.”

Thankfully, the promise of God’s salvation does not apply to eternal life only for believers. His salvation has the same application to life on this earth as it did for the Israelites. God promises to save us. In other words whatever difficulty comes our way, Jesus will be there with us to help us and to deliver us from any trial or calamity or opposition or persecution. And there is nothing for us to do except to not be afraid. He promises to protect us and deliver us with no conditions and no action on our part. No wonder He tells us to not be afraid. He is going to do everything with His mighty power.

It is also good to notice another wonderful implication of Jeremiah 30:10 where the Lord said, “Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel.” Jacob was the old name, and so it represented what Jacob was before he became spiritually minded and before he learned to walk by faith. “Israel” was the new name that God gave to Jacob to represent new spiritual condition of being close to God. This great promise that God made was given using both the name “Jacob” and the name “Israel.” In other words no matter how close you are to God, and no matter how spiritual you are, God’s promise still stands for you. God still promises to protect you and save you no matter if you are spiritual on any particular day or not. That is because this is an unconditional promise. It is not based upon who you are or what you may or may not do for God.

There is at least one more important truth to notice in Jeremiah 30:11 where God says, “For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.” There is one negative aspect to the fact that the Lord is always with us to protect us, and that is because He is always with us, the Lord not only knows what anyone might do against us, but He also knows anything that each of us might do that we ought not to do. God is holy, and He wants us to learn to be holy too. He cannot look the other way if we do something bad. He wants our lives to improve, so He must something to teach us to do better next time. I am glad that He says that He will correct us “in measure.” If we got what we deserve, the chastisements would be much more severe. But the Lord is not trying to punish us, He just wants us to learn. We are not under law, but under grace. This includes any chastisements that we must receive also. It says in Hebrews 12:6, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” This emphasis here is on “love” not on “chastening.”

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