Devotional Commentary on Jeremiah 30

 

This chapter is an excellent chance to investigate the Jeremiah text from the Dead Sea Scrolls or Qumran Scrolls. The Dead Sea is much lower than the Mediteranean Sea in the West. On the western side of the Dead Sea on cliffs are caves in which scholars since 1947 excited the world with discoveries of manuscripts. For those who do not know, the caves were actually visited two times in history before 1947: in the time of Origen (217-254 CE); in the time of 8th or 9th century CE the cave was discovered and in a letter of Chasdai ibn Safrut he told how a Jew discovered a cave full of books. Then in 1947 and later more manuscripts were discovered. Jeremiah is from Cave Four. Are the texts of Jeremiah from this cave long or short? Is the text of Jeremiah in this cave similar to the short LXX or the long Masoretic Hebrew text? Answer: today’s Qumran text in this chapter covers verses 17-31:4. This text is called 4QJerc. It is almost 98% the same as the Masoretic Text of the Codex Alleppo dating to 1008 CE, nearly a millennium later. What accuracy for the Word of God!

 

But not all scholars share this high view of scripture. Shortly after 1947 when the scrolls were published two prominent scholars wrote about the fragments from Cave four on Samuel: F. M. Cross of Harvard University and I. H. Eybers of the University of Pretoria. Cross published 4QSama in 1953 and Eybers in 1960. Cross argued that it compares very well with the LXX and Eybers that it does not but rather to the Masoretic Text. My own investigation sided with Eybers. Who did scholars like Tov followed since 1953? Cross. The Cross paradigm became the glasses to which all Qumran scholars since aligned the texts: if they saw one or two correspondences with the LXX then it is a prove of a “different Hebrew text” than the Hebrew text of the Masoretic tradition. Final result in 1992 of EmanuelTov’s book? Fluidity of texts in the Ptolemaic times and Second Temple Period. God’s Word was coming to Jews in a “multiplicity of texts”, all just because of Cross 1953. God is speaking with a forked tongue saying one thing through the LXX like texts and another through our Bibles in our hands currently. Is the devil not sneaky? So what about Jeremiah in Cave four of Qumran? Well, Tov argued in 1992, there were two different Hebrew texts and a fluidity of text forms of Jeremiah at Qumran with this one 4QJerc nearly exactly the Masoretic text but another one we will look at in Jeremiah 43:2-10 as 4QJerd. Eybers was saying in 1960 that the Samuel copier was using the Masoretic text form but that he had other intentions. That is exactly what we are going to find later in Jeremiah 43 but I do not want to run ahead of that. So let us enjoy the Dead Sea scroll from this chapter.

 

If we have two different Bibles we have two different doctrines and if both of them are equal then ecumenism is the best option for the future and also a God that accommodates anyone and everyone. Bible does not dictate any longer to us so we can do what is right or wrong in our own eyes. Fundamentalists or Biblicists are wrong then if they cling only to one Bible (Masoretic like) and not also to the other Bible (LXX like) even though they differ. How wonderful is this deception of Satan.

 

You must excuse me if I do not work with the equality of text theory of Tov but with the primacy of the Hebrew of the Masoretic Tradition as we find it exactly preserved in the Codex Aleppo dating from 1008 CE. Hebrew is the best and any other version or translation is degenerative or secondary. That is my view. There is only one Word of God and ecumemism or Baalism is not acceptable and prooftexts do have a role in doctrines. Doctrines are the expression of one’s faith. One faith, says Paul. Not multiplicity of faiths.

 

In this chapter Jeremiah was to write on a scroll words the Lord spoke to him regarding the restoration to the land again (verse 1-3). There is an anticipation of 539 BCE.

This writing may have occurred during the days of Zedekiah which is between 597-586 BCE. The people have not yet gone into captivity. Previously God told them that they will go into captivity and that they are the bad figs. They were to return to the Lord and He would forgive. Human decision to serve God rather can turn the tides that God would bring later on them to be not coming.

Therefore in this chapter God is looking after 538 BCE when He is going to bring them back and restore them. Those who did bad to them in 605 and 597 and 586 [still to come] would be dealt with by God (verse 5). But when? Most of these people are already dead in 538 BCE! So here God is not talking about their enemies at that time when they return or new enemies since their fathers also died in the exile, here it is eschatological. God has a Last Generation Theological Schedule in place and He is painting Jeremiah’s message from those colors.

“A sound of quaking we have heard, fear, and there is no peace” (verse 5). Men looks like pregnant woman (verse 6). This is a description of the Eschaton in the end-time: “Ho! For that day is great, with none like it, and it is a Time of Distress for Jacob, through which he shall be saved” (verse 7). It is the same time Daniel 12:1-2 is talking about and that touches on the Second Coming. Salvation is also present at that time for the Remnant Resurrected. Jacob will also be resurrected at that time and be saved by going up to meet Christ in the air with all His angels.

The Second Coming at the end of the Time of Trouble is when “The Lord of Hosts” will break the yoke of stress or persecution off the necks of the remnant (verse 8). Look at the eternity phraseology: “strangers shall no longer enslave them”. This is eternity jargon. No longer [welo `od]. Paradigm shift. Time becomes eternity. Be becomes no longer. We cannot miss it. “Well,” some Reformed scholars would say: “it is just hyperbole of an excited Jeremiah.” Jeremiah has reason to be excited and so am I. And that without the hyperbole but with a literal acceptance of what he describes.

 

“They shall serve the Lord their God” and David their king, whom I will set up for them (verse 9). Christ is the King of Kings from the house of David that will be set up by the Father for the remnant and saved.

 

The remnant as Jacob and Israel will be saved from all over the world and they shall be at ease again, why? (verse 10). In the Time of Trouble there is no ease. Again one of those Eschaton or eternity jargon phraseology: “and no-one shall frighten them”. No-one (we-‘en). Again a paradigm shift from this-worldly to heaven-worldly.

 

“For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you [at the Second Coming] for I will make an end of all the nations where I dispersed you” (verse 11). Massive migrations of the remnant during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. The Glory of Christ at His coming will bring to an end the nations who will ask the rocks to fall on them. During the Time of Trouble “I will chasten you in measure”. God weighed the trouble, or persecution, or whatever trauma we may be facing and gives it according to our ability not endangering the perfection of character already attained at that time since no Mediator is available any longer. This is the logic of LGT or Last Generation Theology which suffocated weary saints in their secular mood do not want to be awoken by. “Slaap maar my kindjie slaap sag” [Sleep however my little child, sleep softly].

 

The Time of Trouble is a wounding time and pain time (verse 12). It is not physical bodily pain but the stress of salvation due to the absence of a Mediator in the Heavenly Sanctuary, the doctrine of contribution of Seventh-day Adventists to Christianity. Ellen White said the last scenes will be rapid. So if you haven’t seen enough progress in the last 120 years or more, when it comes it will be like gastritis. Fast. The condition cannot be healed by medicines (verse 13). Loma Linda or Sahmyook Hospital in Seoul South Korea will not be able to help. It is a spiritual wrestling that is taking place like Jacob did with his wrestling with Christ in Genesis.

 

At this point the Lord turns back to 592/591 BCE audience of the remnant of Zedekiah day. The reason is that He is talking about the weight of these bad figs sins. The lovers stood afar and do not seek them, for their sins are many (verse 14-15). The 605 and 597 BCE events were done because of their iniquities and sins. “Your sins are many, I have done these to you” (verse 15).

 

It appears that this remnant was bad because of their sins but repented during the process of punishment and now God is so happy that He is going to punish their yoke suppliers in the Eschaton (verse 16). Do not worry about those placing a yoke of trouble on you, their G-Day is coming. This is God’s message here.

 

At the Second Coming, when God will deal with everyone’s enemies, that is, with the saint’s enemies, at that time “I will heal you” (verse 17). We are now wholeheartedly in a fragment from Cave Four that also contains these verses. But they are the same. A problem here and there of misreading of a letter, and those slips happened easily. At Honda Engineering in Utsunomiya Tochigi Prefecture they want to avoid you hearing a /b/ for a /d or vice versa since Formula One engine R&D cannot afford mistakes, so they say /b/ as be and /d/ as d3. That is what happened at Qumran in this Jeremiah fragment. The kind of errors we find is just slips and there are five kinds: slips of the eye, of the ear, of the tongue, of the memory and of the hand. No human is a robot or computer and even robots and computers can create errors.

 

The remnant will be considered an outcast. Of course, if they control who can sell and who not as the Book of Revelation is saying going to happen in the LGT Last Generation Theology schedule, then the remnant is going to be an outcast. “Come out of her my people so that you do not get her plagues”. Result: outcast. “Zion whom no one seeks out”. The only lonely. The “separatists”. The non-ecumenical non-conformists. The odd ones out.

 

Then the Lord explained again an Eschaton scenario and I have to seek for such a scenario since later in the verses the eternity jargon pops-up. Time has stopped and eternity is at play. In this scenario the Lord has plans to create a new earth, we know from Revelation. Returning from captivity the city shall be built (verse 18). Many will say it is the rebuilding of ancient Jerusalem in the Persian periods. But wait. The jargon is coming. Hold the horses.

 

There will be thankgiving, festivals, multiplication of people (not by human instrumentality for ‘I [God] will multiply them’). Now an eternity jargon statement: “and they shall not be diminished” (verse 19). Are we diminishing today? Of course. Most Asian countries are bemoaning shrinking societies. Children there will be and the congregations of the Lord shall be there “before Me” (verse 20).

 

“And their Prince [Immanuel] shall be from them [‘in all aspects just as we are yet without sin’] and their Ruler [Christ our Righteousness and King] shall emerge from their midst, and I [Father-God] will bring Him [Christ Divine] near, and He shall approach Me, for Who is it Who pledged His heart to approach Me? Says the Lord” (verse 21). Powerful Eternal Covenant language between the Trinity before the Creation of the World woven into a continuing scheduled program for the near future.

 

“And you shall be My people and I will be your God” (verse 22). Eternity started and heaven came down and glory filled our souls.

 

But watch, after the millennium [according to Revelation by John] some event needs to take care that we call in the Bible “Hell” or the Day of the Lord according to Amos, or Armeggedon according to the Book of Joel. “Behold a storm from the Lord has gone forth fury, yea a settling storm, on the head of the wicked (plural) it shall rest” (verse 23). It is the final eradication scene. Saints are already in heaven but New Jerusalem descended on the earth with the mountains splitting in two in Zechariah 14 and then the counter city war starts but Christ the Warrior settles the last battle once and for all.

 

“The kindling of the Lord’s anger shall not return until He has executed it, and until He has fulfilled the plans of His heart” (verse 24). God will not change his LGT Last Generation Theology schedule. It is embedded in His Revelation to us although some readers wish to read around it, over it, under it, but never it.

 

“At the end of days you shall consider it”. Like it was said: Eschaton talking.

“At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of [spiritual] Israel, and they [from all global nations] shall be My people” (verse 25).

Finally, something about the Qumran fragment. It has some stiches from line 3 to 5 which resulted in some misreadings of letters. The scribe was adding extra vowel consonants to use it to explain his pronunciation. But in one instance he didn’t do it, in line 13. In line 1 and line 7 he misread some Hebrew consonants. He omitted in line 3 a letter. When a text is copied with such accuracy to correspond to the Masoretic text consonantal text, then one can assume that the Masoretic text is the original Word of God as it is in the Codex Aleppo of 1008 CE.


Dear God

We belong to You because we have no other desire. Keep us close to You until those times. In Jesus Name. Amen.