This Work Of God Within Is Guaranteed For YHWH's True People, Being As Certain As His Giving Of Light Through Sun, Moon And Stars By Day And Night, And As His Continual Stirring Up Of The Seas (Jeremiah 31:35-36).
YHWH demonstrates the certainty of His actions in regard to His people by comparing His activity on their behalf in terms of the giving of the sun as light during the day, and the giving of the moon and the stars to give light by night, and with His continual stirring up of the sea so that its waves roar. These were phenomena known to all as a regular and common occurrence. They were His ordinances, what He decreed. And it is only if these permanent and sure things fail that ‘the seed of Israel' will cease to be a nation before Him. It will be certain because He has ordained it, and it will be certain because of His working.
But we should note here the phrase used, ‘the seed of Israel'. The point is not that the nation of Israel will survive in its present form, but that some of their seed will always be a nation before Him. And in the next passage we have a similar emphasis, when He guarantees that He will not cast off ‘all the seed of Israel' (Jeremiah 31:37). Some will not be cast off (and therefore others will). Jesus Christ made quite clear that this new ‘nation' would be composed of His Jewish followers and their converts (Matthew 21:43). While the true church, composed of all true believers, survives, then that seed of Israel and that new nation will continue (1 Peter 2:9), for they ARE the true Israel, the actual physical continuation of Israel as described in God's terms.
Strangely some take these words as applying to the whole nation of physical Israel, but if they had so applied it could only signify that YHWH had failed in His promises. Nothing is more certain than that the people of Israel as a whole have not through time experienced this activity of YHWH. Otherwise how different history would have been. Some have experienced it, by a true heart response to God, and then to His Messiah, but they have always been in the minority. Nor need we look for a revival in modern Israel which will bring this about. There is no suggestion that He will do so. For such a revival has already taken place in Israel, and it took place in 1st century AD. Those were the ‘coming days' in which this occurred. So to whom should we see it as applying? The answer can only be, ‘to the seed of Israel', ‘the remnant of Israel whom He will bring to Himself', the ‘holy seed' of Isaiah 6:13, the ‘seed of Abraham' (Galatians 3:29). And this remnant of Israel, who experienced precisely what is written here, were to be found in the Apostles who followed Jesus, and to those multitude of Jews who followed them to true faith in Christ. The 1st century AD was the time when it really came into fulfilment, and when Jews flocked to their Messiah as never before or since, forming a large Jewish church. They were the ones who responded to the new covenant offered by Jesus in Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25. And it was in their hearts that He wrought His new work (Acts 13:48; 2 Corinthians 5:17; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:3). They were His new ‘congregation' of Israel (Matthew 16:18), His new nation (Matthew 21:43), the true Vine (John 15:1-6), His olive tree (Romans 11:17-28, compare Jeremiah 11:16).
They were not initially expecting a huge influx of Gentile converts into their midst, for who could have foreseen it (except, of course, God)? But this was quite in accord with Jewish ideas, and in accordance with the prophets (e.g. Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6; etc.) Indeed it had always been the case that all who truly responded to God, whether homegrown or foreign, could become a part of the covenant. It happened to the foreign servants of Abraham, it happened to the mixed multitude of Exodus 12:38 at Sinai, it happened to all who sought to become a part of Israel through the years (Exodus 12:48). Thus they all ‘became Israel', and saw themselves as descendants of Abraham from then on. We too ‘become Israel' when we respond to Christ and are circumcised with His circumcision made without hands (Colossians 2:11), and become descendants of Abraham (Galatians 3:29). Thus the Israel which God here guaranteed would continue ‘for ever', is the true Israel of God (Galatians 6:16), the ‘Israel within Israel', the ‘congregation of true believers'.
‘Thus says YHWH,
Here we again have an introductory phrase indicating a new idea, and stressing its certainly because it is the word of YHWH.
“Who gives the sun for a light by day,
And the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night,
Who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar,
YHWH of hosts is his name,”
Three things are cited as being given by YHWH which are constant and unchanging to such an extent that they could ‘always' be relied upon; the giving of the sun for a light by day; the ordinances of the moon and stars by night; and the regular storminess of the seas. No one could ever have imagined their ceasing to occur. They were one of the few certainties of life. And they were all given by the One Whose Name was ‘YHWH of hosts' (of the hosts of heaven and of the hosts of waves).
It is doubtful if many (or indeed if any) Israelites thought in terms of ‘laws of nature'. Their certainty of their continuation would in their view lay in their confidence in God's reliability which had always proved unfailing (a view supported by Jesus in Matthew 5:45), and in the certain promise of God (Genesis 8:22). In fact by the time that these ordinances do fail (and fail they will) it will be unimportant as we will be in the new Heaven and the new earth.
“If these ordinances depart from before me,
The word of YHWH,
Then the seed of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me for ever.
And the ceasing of ‘the seed of Israel' from being a nation before Him was as impossible a thought as the cessation of the ordinances concerning sun, moon, stars and waves. And this was so on the certain and sure prophetic word of YHWH. The phrase ‘the seed of Israel' carefully avoids suggesting that all Israel as a nation is in mind. It is rather stressing that some of Jacob/Israel's seed will always be a nation acceptable in His sight (‘before Him). This is, of course, a necessary result of the promises made to the Patriarchs. And as we have seen it was fulfilled, and is still being fulfilled, in the fact that those who believe in Christ, forming His new, elect, holy nation (Matthew 21:43; 1 Peter 2:9), are either physically of the seed of Jacob/Israel, or spiritually so. This way of looking at things was no different from the inter-testamental Israel, (or indeed the Israel of Sinai) large numbers of whom were not physically related to Jacob. Their ‘descent' was due to their response to the covenant. And it is seen here to be a part of YHWH's ongoing purposes, as much so as was the continuation of sun, moon, stars and waves