Jer. 51
When God’s people were taken captive and exiled to Babylon, God told them to settle there and to go on living their lives. He told them to seek the welfare of their captors. But when the time came for God’s judgment on Babylon, God told His people to flee from her so they would not get caught up in her punishment. “We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed. Forsake her, and let us go each to his own country” (Jer 51:9).
“There is a time for everything”, it says in Ecclesiastes, and we see that here. There was a time for God’s people to seek the welfare of the wicked nation of Babylon, and there was a time for them to forsake her. I believe the same is true for us, and I pray God gives me the wisdom to know when to do what.
Jer. 30
God promised to restore His people. He did, and He will, because this promise didn’t simply apply to the end of the Babylonian captivity. It is a promise that applies to the end of time, for all of God’s people. And Jeremiah 30:22 is just one of many times that we see God’s desire from the very beginning. “And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” That is really what God has wanted all along. It is unfathomable to me the lengths that God went to in order to overcome our – not His – massive shortcomings simply to make this happen.
Heb. 7
I believe God gave us (His people) the law both to show us our need for righteousness and our inability to achieve it ourselves. As it states in Hebrews 7:19a, “for the law made nothing perfect”. That is because the system of the law was reliant on our own efforts. But in Jesus, “a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God” (Heb 7:19b).
The old system was flawed because of our role in it. God knew that. He made that covenant with us anyway because we needed to know it too. Yet He set it up in a way that foreshadowed His ultimate plan. Jesus is not just a replacement for the old covenant under the law, He is the fulfillment of it. Just as with the old system, we still have a High Priest who makes atonement for us so that we remain in God’s favor. But we now have a perfect High Priest who, rather than having to first offer a sacrifice for Himself, WAS the sacrifice for all of us – once for all. So, once again, this is where our assurance of salvation lies. Jesus guarantees that we will be found righteous before God. All we have to do is accept Him as our High Priest.