Jeremiah 30:5 - 31:6

God's Message:

"Cries of panic are being heard. The peace has been shattered. Ask around! Look around! Can men bear babies? So why do I see all these he-men holding their bellies like women in labor, faces contorted, pale as death? The blackest of days, no day like it ever! A time of deep trouble for Jacob - but he'll come out of it alive.

"'And then I'll enter the darkness. I'll break the yoke from their necks, cut them loose from the harness. No more slave labor to foreigners! They'll serve their God and the David-King I'll establish for them.

'So fear no more, Jacob, dear servant. Don't despair, Israel. Look up! I'll save you out of faraway places, I'll bring your children back from exile. Jacob will come back and find life good, safe and secure. I'll be with you. I'll save you. I'll finish off the godless nations among which I've scattered you, but I won't finish you off. I'll punish you, but fairly. I won't send you off with just a slap on the wrist.'

"This is God's Message:

"'You're a burned-out case, as good as dead. Everyone has given up on you. You're hopeless. All your fair-weather friends have skipped town without giving you a second thought. But I delivered the knockout blow, a punishment you will never forget, because of the enormity of your guilt, the endless list of your sins. So why all this self-pity, licking your wounds? You deserve all this and more. Because of the enormity of your guilt, the endless list of your sins, I've done all this to you.

"'Everyone who hurt you will be hurt; your enemies will end up as slaves. Your plunderers will be plundered; your looters will become loot. As for you I'll come with healing, curing the incurable, because they all gave up on you and dismissed you as hopeless - that good-for-nothing Zion.'

"Again God's Message:

""I'll turn things around for Jacob. I'll compassionately come in and rebuild homes. The town will be rebuilt on its old foundations; the mansions will be splendid again. Thanksgivings will pour out of the windows; laughter will spill through the doors. Things will get better and better. Depression days are over. They'll thrive, they'll flourish. The days of contempt will be over. They'll look forward to having children again, to being a community in which I take pride. I'll punish anyone who hurts them, and their prince will come from their own ranks. One of their own people shall be their leader. Their ruler will come from their own ranks. I'll grant him free and easy acess to me. Would anyone dare to do that on his own, to enter My presence uninvited?' God's Decree.

"'And that's it: You'll be My very own people, I'll be your very own God.'"

Look out! God's hurricane is let loose, His hurricane blast, spinning the heads of the wicked like dust devils! God's raging anger won't let up until He's made a clean sweep completing the job he began. When the job's been done you'll see it's been well done.

"And when that happens" - God's Decree - "it will be plain as the sun at high noon: I'll be the God of every man, woman, and child in Israel and they shall be my very own people."

This is the way God put it:

"They found grace out in the desert, these people who survived the killing. Israel, out looking for a place to rest, met God out looking for them!" God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love! And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again, dear virgin Israel. You'll resume your singing, grabbing tambourines and joining the dance. You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards on the Samaritan hillsides, and sit back and enjoy the fruit - oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests! The time's coming when watchmen will call out from the hilltops of Ephraim: 'On your feet! Let's go to Zion, go to meet our God!'"