Day 236

Better Times Ahead

Read: Jeremiah 29-32

Jeremiah writes a letter containing God’s message to the exiles in Babylon. It instructs them to settle down to normal life with the promise that in 70 years the exiles will have opportunity to return. It assures them that God has a good plan for their future.

Jeremiah is also instructed to write in a book the prediction that God will restore his people. There are to be better days ahead. They are not to be afraid, for “I will save . . . your offspring from the land of their captivity” (30:10). They will pay a price for the centuries of sinning, but “I will restore health to you . . . the city shall be rebuilt” (30:17-18). Because of these promises they should rejoice.

Part of the wonders of the future will be that God will make a new covenant with his exiled people. Jesus deliberately focused our attention on this promise when he gave us the Lord’s Supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Cor. 11:25). The writer to the Hebrews quotes the entire passage, Jeremiah 31:31-34, when he writes of the new covenant which Christ has made for us (Heb. 8:8-12).

To assure the people that real estate will once again have value in Judah, Jeremiah is instructed to buy a field. The Bible is a book full of hope, giving us the assurance that the best is yet to come for those who are God’s people.

PRAYER
Father, cause those who feel hopeless to fix their hearts on your promises of the good which lies ahead in Christ. Amen.