In Jeremiah 33 the prophet is proclaiming a message of eventually restoration for God’s people. In this proclamation many truths deserve our attention today, but I would like to focus on just one. Feel free to go beyond this in your own meditation!
We must remember that Jeremiah’s original audience was on the brink of total destruction. In just a few more chapters we will read the account of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and most of its residents. As Jeremiah writes this (and preaches it) the people’s exile is all but inevitable. And yet, Jeremiah preaches … Hope. Hope to a people who are about to face the most trying ordeal that they have ever heard about? That is correct. God wants Jeremiah and his people to look beyond the impending disaster to the promises that await them in the future. These promises are as sure to come to pass as the sun rising (v.19-21) and culminate in the ‘Branch’ of David (v.15). Judgment is certainly coming. But judgment is never God’s last word to His people; mercy always is. Contemplating this, especially in the face of tragedy, is a large component of what it means to walk by faith.
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