After writing the contemplation Mercy upon All, I continued to read and meditate upon the book of Jeremiah. I quickly saw that that what I had written there was confirmed over and over again—that this book is not merely a historical record of how and why the children of Israel were driven by God from the “Promised Land” to go into Babylonian captivity at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. It is rather the story of the prodigal son all over again, the story of man departing from his origin in God (symbolized here by the “Promised Land”) and the repeated assurance that he will return. It is a parable of everyone’s journey out of darkness into light (which I believe God has revealed the entire Bible to be).
I realized that the verses I had quoted from Hebrews were taken from this book:
Jeremiah 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 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.
We know from the writer of Hebrews that these verses apply not only to the “house of Israel,” but to all mankind. They have nothing to do with a specific people in time and space, but rather with the efficacy of “the blood of Christ” to “purge” our “conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14). These verses point to the fulfillment of God’s promise in Jeremiah—God’s promise to every man, not just to the “house of Israel ” and the “house of Judah”:
Jeremiah 33:14 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. 15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.
They refer to the time when in everyone’s spiritual journey he ceases attempting to establish his own righteousness and accepts the “righteousness of God” freely given to us when Jesus was “made to be sin for us . . . that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2Corinthians 5:21).
As I continued meditating upon this book of Jeremiah, I was particularly drawn to what was being revealed about the heart of man. There are multiple references to the heart of man being “wicked, “revolting,” “rebellious,” “deceitful” and “uncircumcised” (3:17; 4:14; 5:23; 7:24; 18:9) and of man “walking in the imagination of his evil heart” (3:17; 7:24; 9:14; 11:8; 16:12; 20:12). I understood that this is universally true. Even Jeremiah, who thought his heart to be “good” or “pure,” prays for vengeance upon his enemies, demonstrating that he doesn’t have the heart of God that blesses and forgives his enemies (Matthew 5:44; Luke 23:34).
Jeremiah 12:3 But thou, O Lord, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
I understood that man is incapable of purifying his own heart. He can vow to keep God’s “covenant,” but he is “cursed” before his first attempt. If he is ever to have God’s heart, it must be a gift from God. And that is precisely what God has promised to every man:
Jeremiah 24:6 For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
Jeremiah 31:37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: 38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: 39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: 40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. 41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
Again, God has taken upon Himself complete responsibility for our complete salvation. (See Walking as Jesus Walked and What Qualifies Us for “Heaven”?)
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Even the faith that we have to receive God’s grace is also a gift from “Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). We have to come to the place of realizing our hopelessness and helplessness so that we can receive again what we’ve always had; but, as the prodigal son, we have lost the recognition of our inheritance. God Himself had to descend into our darkness in the form of Jesus to bring us back to Himself from whence we came.
But before He did this, He allowed us to experience the futility of all our attempts to earn what we already had. He let us experience a “covenant” that we could not keep and also the horrific consequences of not keeping it—which He calls the “fruit of our own doings” (Jeremiah 32:19). It APPEARS to be what God is doing to us as punishment, for we have perceived and therefore experienced God as a god of wrath and punishment (see How We Experience God):
42 For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.
But no matter how we perceive God, in the end we cannot escape His goodness toward us, for He has loved us with an “everlasting” love and continues to “draw” us with His “lovingkindness” (Jeremiah 31:3). That we cannot be “cast off” from God by anything that we “have done” is as certain as the sun and the moon (Jeremiah 31:35-37). He is “the Lord, the God of all flesh” and nothing is “too hard” for Him (Jeremiah 32:27), not even the “cleansing” and “pardoning” of all mankind “from all their iniquity” (33:8), thereby demonstrating to us His “goodness” that causes us to “fear and tremble” before Him (33:9). “For the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth forever” (33:11). We are the “lost sheep” (Jeremiah 50:6) who have been searched for and “found” (Luke 15:4-7) by the “good shepherd who has given His Life for us and to us (John 10:11) because we “forgot our “restingplace” (Jeremiah 50:6) in the bosom of our Father (John 1:18). The cleansing and pardoning is so complete that even if one searches for our “iniquity,” it will not be “found” because there is “none” (Jeremiah 50:20) because our “Redeemer is strong” and will “thoroughly plead our cause” (v 34). We “have not been forsaken” “though our ‘land’ [carnal mind of man] has been filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel” (Jeremiah 51:5). So we can shout with “the voice of joy and the voice of gladness”
Jeremiah 55:10 The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
We’ve already seen and experienced the “fruit of our own doings” (Jeremiah 32:19). Now we experience
Psalm 118:23 . . . the Lord’s doing; [and] it is marvellous in our eyes.
Though we have been taken “captive” by all our false beliefs about being separated from God and having to obey some “law” to make ourselves acceptable to Him, He has “led captivity captive” (Ephesians 4:8), “caused our captivity to return” (Jeremiah 33:7); and the book of Jeremiah is the story of this journey.