Jeremiah 31:34

The Bible says in Jeremiah 31:34, “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” The Lord looks into the future and tells us about a time when thing will be so much better. What is this great circumstance that will make things so much better? Is it a booming economy where everyone has all the money they need? Is it the end of supposed global-warming? Is it the end of all diseases? No, none of those: this is what the world needs: “for they shall all know me.” The problem with the world is that not enough people know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. Of course, that is what every person needs and what the world needs. Every person has a sinful nature that motivates them to be selfish. These sinful acts cause people to limit themselves and in some way harm others. When a person turns to Christ, in addition to having a home reserved for them in heaven, they become a new person. Now they can realize their potential as a human being because they will be complete in body and spirit as humans were designed to be. That is why Jesus said in John 10:10 of those who believe in Him, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

The greatest benefit of coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ is what the Lord says in the last part of Jeremiah 31:34, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Everyone is a sinner, and everyone needs forgiveness from God. Oh, the joy, when first you know your guilt is gone. Oh, the peace, when you have the assurance that God accepts you. Oh, the security, when you can look forward to a home in heaven as your final destination. All of this and much more is ours along with the forgiveness of sins. One of the blessings of Jeremiah 31:34 is how it explains the forgiveness of sins. God said, “I will remember their sin no more.” That is an amazing statement from the all-knowing God. If He puts away our sins to the point of not remembering them, then there cannot be any price for us to pay: not any punishment and not any bad consequence. This is also one more verse that supports the concept of eternal security. Believers are eternally secure in Christ because His forgiveness is so complete that He totally forgets that we have even sinned.

The Bible says in Jeremiah 31:35-37, “Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:[36] If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.[37] Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.” The great truth given to us by these verses has to do with the enduring quality of God’s Word and thus God’s promises. Almost everything in the natural world, if not everything, symbolizes some spiritual truth. When we look at the large, enduring objects in the universe around us, God says that their existence and their attributes symbolize similar attributes for the Word of God itself. Consider the sun, the moon, the stars, and the ocean. They are so vast and so enduring. So are the Word of God and all of the promises that God has made in His Word. Jesus also compared the enduring nature of the Word of God to the universe. Jesus said in Mark 13:31, “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” Jesus also said in Matthew 5:18, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 31:38-40, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner.[39] And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath.[40] And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.” In these verses God states one more time that in spite of the destruction that came to Jerusalem, God still has plans for it. The lesson is this: the sins and failures of human beings, and the judgments that come because of those sins and failures, will never keep God from accomplishing His will concerning His believers; and God’s will concerning every believer is to make sure that every one of us is eventually conformed to the image of Christ. If you believe in Jesus, and thus belong to Him, God will never give up on you. Even if you fail at following Christ in this world, God will complete the work that He started in your life. It says in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” The most important change that will happen in your life will be when you are transformed as you are taken into heaven. This transformation will happen for every single believer in Jesus, no matter how well they served Christ. It says in First Corinthians 15:51-53, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,[52] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.[53] For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 32:1-5, “The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.[2] For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house.[3] For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;[4] And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes;[5] And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the LORD: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper?” Zedekiah’s sins were that he did not want to hear the Word of God, he refused to obey the Word of God, and he punished God’s servant (Jeremiah) for telling him the truth from God. The result of Zedekiah’s poor spiritual decisions if spoken very clearly by God in the last part of Jeremiah 32:5, “ye shall not prosper.” Everyone would like to prosper, that is, have a positive outcome to our efforts and our pursuits. Sometimes we call this success. The key to this “success” is to avoid the kind of pitfalls that Zedekiah had. In order to be different than Zedekiah, we need to desire to hear God’s Word, desire to put it into practice, and treat with the greatest respect and honor those who preach God’s Word. Another way of saying this is: find out which way God is going by reading and listening to His Word, and go with Him. If you try to live your life without this kind of relationship with Christ where He is both your Savior and your Guide, then you will be like a blind person walking over a cliff. Jesus said in John 10:10 concerning those who believe in Him and follow Him, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 32:6-15, “And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying,[7] Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.[8] So Hanameel mine uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.[9] And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.[10] And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.[11] So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open:[12] And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.[13] And I charged Baruch before them, saying,[14] Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.[15] For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.” God had Jeremiah buy a parcel of land in Israel in order to be symbolic of the fact that God’s plan for the people of Israel was that they would return from captivity in Babylon. God wanted the people to be able to look into the future and see good things coming. The Israelites had failed miserably and had received up to that point the worst punishment of their history as a nation having been conquered and destroyed by the Babylonians. The Lord Jesus treats all of His children this way. He never puts any of His children aside, and never takes away their future. No matter what you have done or how much you may have failed Christ, up until the moment that He takes you off this earth, He has a future for you. And then in the moment He takes you off the earth, He has a future for you in heaven. That is why Jesus quoted Isaiah 42:3 and said in Matthew 12:20, “A bruised red shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.”

Another interesting point to notice about this passage in Jeremiah chapter 32 is that God told Jeremiah to take the real estate documents and “put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.” As archaeologists know from finding the Dead Sea scrolls and other scrolls over the centuries, using such a method to preserve written documents worked extremely well. This fact goes along very well with the doctrines of the inspiration and preservation of the scriptures. God gave us the scriptures by the process of inspiration. God used human beings to do that. As it says in Second Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…” God also used human beings to preserve the scriptures undoubtedly doing things similar to what He did with Jeremiah. Jesus said in Mark 13:31, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” What good would it have done for God to have given His Word miraculously if He had not also preserved it miraculously? This doctrine of preservation is why we have confidence that the Bible is without error.

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