“‘I have forsaken My house, I have abandoned My inheritance; I have given the beloved of My soul Into the hand of her enemies.’ … Thus says the LORD concerning all My wicked neighbors who strike at the inheritance with which I have endowed My people Israel, ‘Behold I am about to uproot them from their land and will uproot the house of Judah from among them. And it will come about that after I have uprooted them, I will again have compassion on them; and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land'” (Jer 12:7, 14-15).
In a passage filled with severe words of judgment against Israel, Jeremiah suddenly pivots, promising an outpouring of God’s compassion and a regathering to the land. How is it possible to insert a promise of restoration in the midst of an oracle otherwise filled with well-deserved condemnation? What is going on here?
We can answer this only when we notice that this promise of restoration in Jeremiah reuses earlier Scripture—namely, Deuteronomy 30:3: “Then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.”
…Jeremiah’s promise of a new covenant and the coming of a Moses-like Messiah was not a novel idea, but one drawn directly from studying Moses.
The implications of Jeremiah’s appeal to Deuteronomy 30 are striking. This pre-exilic prophet, who foresaw Israel’s exile because of their failure to obey God and keep the Sinai covenant, found eschatological hope in Moses’ words. Just a few verses later, Moses promised—centuries before Jeremiah—that God would regather His people and circumcise their hearts (Deut 30:6). In light of this, we realize that Jeremiah’s promise of a new covenant and the coming of a Moses-like Messiah (Jer 30–33) was not a novel idea, but one drawn directly from studying Moses.
Since Deuteronomy 30 appears at the close of the Torah, Jeremiah’s understanding of its goal turns out to be remarkably Pauline:
“For Messiah is the goal of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes…. But what does it [Deuteronomy 30] say? ‘THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART’ — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching” (Rom 10:4, 8).
