The Tender Love of God Published

Previously, in this forum, we wrote about the first part of this chapter, Jeremiah 31. It speaks about Israel. The Lord had chastised them, but had also blessed them. When we are truly convicted of our actual and original sins, then we stand guilty before God. Oh, what a blessing when this by the grace and Spirit of Cod may take place in our lives, for otherwise there is no true need in our heart for deliverance in Christ! By nature we do not know Him or desire Him. The Lord has loved and chosen His people from the stillness of eternity, and at His own appointed time He will bring them to true conversion.

They experience deep misery in their soul when they behold by the light of the Holy Spirit their lost, sinful, undone, and perilous state and condition before God. Now in these verses we notice how the Lord further leads His people.

When we speak of the tender love of God, we can see an example in Lydia, “whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things that were spoken by Paul” (Acts 16:14). Then she understood the Word of God, not only in her mind, but also in her heart. There we can see that the Lord is free in His dispensation of grace. An outward knowledge of the truth is insufficient and leaves us the way we are: dead in sin and trespasses.

In these verses of Jeremiah God comforts Israel. The gospel call must be to all nations. “Hear the Word of the Lord, oh ye nations.” It was not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles. The servants of God must publish the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Jeremiah says: “Hear ye the Word of the Lord.” It is not the word of man. This blessed gospel must be declared in the isles afar off.

In verse 11 we read: “For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob.” Jacob was redeemed from sin, and the power of Satan, from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Satan was stronger than Jacob, but the Lord is all powerful. He does not do a half work. The Lord Jesus shall plead their cause. The redeeming blood of Christ is a full and a complete salvation. God’s people yearn for a divine application of it.

A child of God can be so plagued and attacked by Satan at times that he says: “I shall yet perish one day by the hand of Saul.” This was David’s experience. But later his faith was strengthened. Then he could testify: “With my God I leap over a wall, and with my God I run through a troop.”

We read in verse 12: “Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion.” It was the time “when Zion in her low estate was brought from bondage by the Lord”. It displayed the tender love of God once again. Their soul is satiated with love, yes, enraptured by it. It cannot be expressed. Oh, that goodness of God! “And shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord.” Oh, then their soul is refreshed, yes, “their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall sorrow no more at all.”

In verse 13c we read, “For I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrows.”

You may ask: “Why is it so necessary to always hear in sermons that God’s people mourn?” They mourn by reason of sin, and the hiding of God’s face. But the Lord says: “I will comfort them.” “Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4). When there is no true godly sorrow for sin, and when we can go on in our life with an outward show of religion, there is no true repentance.

Verse 14a reads, “And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with My goodness, saith the Lord.” There we have it again. Is it not the goodness of God that leads you to repentance? (Rom. 5:4) Oh, how shall it be in the swelling of Jordan? Shall we hear, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you” (Matt. 25:34)? Or shall we hear, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt 25:41)?

Oh, may these words from the Lord Jesus Himself bring us in the dust before an almighty God! May we be given to search and try our ways, and turn again unto the Lord. We may yet hear the blessed gospel of truth and grace, of death in Adam and life in Christ. When the Lord quickens us unto a new spiritual life, then we love the habitation of His house. May those who are missing this blessed experience receive a holy jealousy. It is still the day of grace. May we not become gospel-hardened, being given over to ourselves and the hardness of our heart. Young people, may you be given to seek the Lord in the days of your youth before the evil days come in which you shall say, “I have no pleasure in them.” “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them” (Eccl. 12:1). Time like an ever rolling stream bears all its sons and daughters away. May we be given to hasten and flee for our life’s sake.

Oh, people of God, your salvation is assured in Him, that great Redeemer, who with one look of love caused Peter to repent, and he went out and wept bitterly. Then he was reinstated in his office by Christ Himself. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

W. Van Voorst serves as elder in the Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Sioux Center, Iowa.

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