Jeremiah 30:6. Ask ye now whether a man doth travail with child. The anguish of a people once lords in Judea, now servants in Babylon, was great. But they were happier weeping there than worshipping Ashtaroth in Jerusalem. The captives hope, while those they had left had nothing but grief and fear.
Jeremiah 30:8. It shall come to pass in that day that I will break his yoke from off thy neck. They shall not return to the Messiah in a state of servitude. Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. He shall preach deliverance to the captives. Isaiah 61:1. His throne shall be glorious in Jerusalem, the mother of us all; and the mountain of his house shall be high above all mountains.
Jeremiah 30:9. They shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king. The Chaldaic reads, Christ the Son of David. The elder rabbins were all christians, ignorant of the malice of the Mazorites. See on Hosea 3; Ezekiel 34:23, repeats this sweet promise, that they should at last come under the easy yoke of Christ, the good shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep. Grotius, the notorious Arian, understands here Zerubbabel, who was a servant only, and not a king, and who never at any time liberated the Hebrews! The sole aim of the unitarians is to degrade the Messiah, and make void the scriptures. See below, on Jeremiah 30:21.
Jeremiah 30:12. Thy bruise is incurable. Though thou shalt be restored, yet not so as to have a king of David's line on the throne: thy hope is in Christ alone.
Jeremiah 30:18. I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces. Jerusalem and her temple shall be rebuilt, to prepare the way for the true and living temple. Here is double comfort, felicity in Jerusalem, and the plenitude of hope in Messiah their king. The glory of Zion was to be lost in the glory of the church.
Jeremiah 30:21. Their governor shall proceed from the midst of them. In these sceptical times, when we are told with a bold front, that the Hebrew copy is altogether corrupt, and that every tenth word is mis-written, or some letter lost, and that no text in the old testament has any regard to the Deity of Christ, we are obliged to take down our musty folios, and go to the fountain head. אדירו Adiroo, his Duke, or his Mighty, as it is rendered in Isaiah 10:34. Others read, his Excellent One. This title designates Christ, it being the way of the Holy Spirit to make temporal mercies an introduction to those which are spiritual. Then the great Adiroo of the text, is the identical David, named above, who shall himself feed his sheep in the latter day.
The elder rabbins have thus invariably understood this promise. From Adiroo they deduce the Messiah's name. Vide Talmud in Chelek. The Chaldaic reads, “And the King shall feed them himself, and their Messiah shall be revealed in the midst of them.” The sense is plain, that Christ should be born of the stock of Israel, and be a branch of David's house.
I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me. The style here is sacerdotal, equivalent to the declaration in the hundred and tenth Psalm: “Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.” Moses also said, “Let the priests who come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves.” Exodus 19:22. And of Aaron he says, “The Lord will cause him to come near unto him.” Numbers 16:5. The socinians who contend here for Zerubbabel, who was no priest, cut a figure in open court like a batch of perjured witnesses. All God's three classes of witnesses, the Jews, the Greeks, and the Latin fathers, put them out of countenance.
Jeremiah 30:24. In the latter days. In the prophetic writings, this phrase, almost without exception, signifies the time of the Messiah.
REFLECTIONS.
Jeremiah's letter to the Jews in Babylon is full of consolation, and equally demonstrates the care of providence, and the truth of prophecy. The parchment, the handwriting, the ink, the peculiarity of certain phrases to certain times, with the change which age will induce on a manuscript, render forgeries sure of detection. And who could imitate the hand and style of Jeremiah? The evidence, of prophecy was designed of God to confound infidelity, and to comfort the church.
The sword of the Chaldees fell with a heavy hand on Judah; they had no pity on the young man, on the maiden, on the sucking child, or on him that stooped for age; and the Lord was deaf to all their cries, because the temple was profaned with idols, the priests committed adultery with the women, and hypocrisy was the character of their fasts. Sins like these must be purged with a besom of destruction. But now, when he saw the people scattered in the cities of the Babylonian empire, calling the things that are not as though they were, when he saw the men crying as a woman in travail, all his bowels were moved, and mercy declared her purposes of grace.
When the Lord mixes a cup of comfort for his afflicted people, it is so precious as to cheer the most disspirited, and even to revive the dead. I will bring again the captivity of my people. I will give them the immortal David for their king. Therefore fear not, oh my servant Jacob. Now, in this promise, Israel had not only a hope in Cyrus and Zerubbabel, who were figures of Christ; but we have hope of deliverance from sin, from Satan, from death, and from all the usurpation of antichrist in the church. Thus the streams of comfort throughout all ages flowed from Christ the rock, and in torrents of life and salvation.
The Lord comforted the Jews by the promise of national existence. Here providence is an ample comment on prophecy. When Babylon was taken, the city and empire ceased to exist. The Romans also had their glory and their fall. God made a full end of the oppressors, but not of Israel. Thus he can heal the wound deemed incurable, and thus the spoilers were spoiled. He has preserved a remnant for the purposes of his glory in the latter day.
Consequently in the dark and cloudy day of national visitation we must hold our peace, and wait the end. Why criest thou in thine affliction? Have patience till the wheels of providence have fully completed their course. It has always been well with the righteous in the issue. I will bring again thy tents, oh Jacob. I will multiply thy children, and give them glory surpassing all that their fathers ever knew. Yea, and the dregs of my vengeance, the whirlwind of my fierce anger, shall fall on the antichristian foe. Ezekiel 38, 39. Revelation 19.