Jeremiah 31 reminds me of a TV show called Happy Days. Notice it is “DAYS”, plural. It is not about a specific event, but a nostalgic look back at an era. For many of us, our childhood was a carefree time with few deadlines, pressures, or responsibilities. Many picture retirement as a return to that season of the endless summer. In today’s chapter God gave Jeremiah a description of life in the future, after Israel has been restored. “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be My people… I will come to give rest to Israel”. Israel has no creaky knees or bad ticker, “I will build you up again… Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt”. There is no shuffleboard or rocking chairs, God says, “Again you will… dance with the joyful… plant vineyards… Sing with joy”. This is a grand invitation, “A great throng will return. They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back”. These are the tears of joy and recognition of times almost forgotten. “He who scattered Israel will gather them… and redeem them… they will rejoice… they will sorrow no more… I will turn their mourning into gladness”. Maybe you are looking up from a desk, or datebook or diaper and thinking, “Someday”? Are you in the midst of the struggle?
Consider the struggle for a moment. God created the world without sin. Adam had unrestricted access to God. After Adam was created, “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good”. After sin, death and separation from God became normal. The chapter describes that “separation experience”, “mourning and great weeping… weeping for her children… refusing to be comforted, because they are no more”. That experience created a yearning, “Restore me, and I will return, because you are the Lord my God. After I strayed, I repented; after I came to understand”. You see, first there was a realization that normal was no longer good. “I was ashamed and humiliated…I bore the disgrace of my youth”. God sees the heart of the one who desires to be restored, “I still remember him. Therefore My heart yearns for him”. Have you been yearning for something new?
The rest of the chapter describes the process of returning to something totally new. Maybe you have been thinking there might be a better way. It says, God has “put up guideposts”. “How long will you wander?” And He adds another promise, “When I bring them back… I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint”. I believe the good old days are ahead, not behind. “The days are coming… I will watch over them to build and to plant… The days are coming… when I will make a new covenant… It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors”. What is this new covenant? “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more”. God made His plan of redemption for you and me before Adam was kicked out of the Garden. Romans chapter 5 explains, “Just as sin entered the world through one man (Adam)… death came to all people, because all sinned… how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!”The New Covenant says that God alone could pay the debt of sin through His sinless sacrifice. The blood of Christ covers the sin of Man and restores our access to God. Jesus said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20). Are you ready for some new Happy Days?