©Michael Player
Chapter 16:14-21 (ESV) - “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.
“Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”
O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,
my refuge in the day of trouble,
to you shall the nations come
from the ends of the earth and say:
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
worthless things in which there is no profit.
Can man make for himself gods?
Such are not gods!”
“Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD.”
Question to consider: Which day came and brought the people of Israel out of all the countries from which they were driven?
Even though Israel was already scattered among the nations and Judah was about to follow their same fate, the LORD knew where each person was and would not let them be separated from Him forever. Those who polluted the LORD’s land with the carcasses of their detestable idols would themselves be carcasses scattered throughout the city of Jerusalem and the countryside of Judah which would receive no burial and become food for the animals as the land lay desolate for seventy years.
For the remnant scattered throughout the nations who still worshiped Him, the LORD declared that He would one day send out fishers of men to bring them back into the land. The language used here is reminiscent of that of Christ Jesus who called His disciples saying, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19) The hunters described by Jeremiah were not going out to slaughter animals from every mountain, hill or clefts of the rocks but to gather them. Jesus gave a parable in which a shepherd left a flock of ninety-nine sheep to go after a single lost sheep. The idea in today's passage was similar in that the LORD knew where His remnant was and intended to gather them.
There are those who believe this gathering began in 1948 when Israel was reestablished as a nation. They call on other Christians to donate to their cause to gather professing Jews from all over the world so that they can take a trip back to “the Holy Land” thinking they are the hunters fulfilling this prophecy. They believe that when every Jew has somehow made a trip to Israel, Jesus will return to set up His kingdom and judge the rest of the earth.
I would argue that every time in scripture people tried to fulfill a prophetic word of God, it never quite worked out like they anticipated. I think of Adam and Eve believing that Cain was the promised seed when instead he ended up murdering his brother and being exiled from the land, or Abraham and Sarah trying to make Abraham the father of many nations by having him father a child through Hagar.
In the LORD's word to Jeremiah, I believe that the gathering of the remnant from all over the world was partially fulfilled during the time of Nehemiah and ultimately fulfilled at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, and the first three thousand of the church were saved. It was the LORD who gathered them, and the LORD who saved them.
I think it is also interesting that Jeremiah sang about people from the nations coming forward and repenting from their idolatry. After the church was established among the Jews, the gospel message went out to the Gentiles, and the church became the new temple which filled the whole earth and from which Christ still serves us and intercedes for our sins.
Dear heavenly Father, thank You for bringing about the fulfillment of Your prophetic word. Please give us the faith and patience to wait upon You rather than trying to force Your hand. While we wait, help us be faithful to the vocation and calling Christ has given each of us in service to His kingdom. Amen.