Jeremiah 31:23-26 – Faith makes congruent our reality and hope

Jeremiah 31:15 said that Rachael’s refused to be comforted. It must have been hard for the people of Judah who had gone through so intensive a suffering at the hands of their enemies to be able to rejoice again. Yet here in Jeremiah 31:23-26, God’s promise to the people of Judah was that their exile and suffering would not last forever. He assured them that a great future was coming for them after His dealings. Regardless of how they felt, God’s assurance was that what they were going through would end.

And in the place of their suffering, God assured them that days of pleasantry were installed for them. In those days, with their restored fortune, once again, they would be able to boldly declare, ‘The Lord bless you, O abode of righteousness, O holy hill!’ In the place of pain and sorrow, they would have joy and dancing.  The assuring words of God in verses 24-25 state, “Judah and all its cities will dwell together in it, the farmer and they who go about with flocks. ‘For I  satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes.’” 

Verse 26 suggests to us that the messages of hope and all its pleasantries were what Jeremiah received in his dream while asleep.  That accounted for why he said, when he awoke and saw the real situation, his conclusion was that his sleep was more pleasant. The reality when he saw when awake was that Judah and Jerusalem were still in shambles and he was still very likely in chains and shackles. Bear in mind that when these series of hope messages were given, they were only words of promises and not yet realities. The people were still very much experiencing the pain and suffering of the exile. Hence what Jeremiah had spoken, he had spoken in faith. And to appropriate them, they the recipients must also have faith. 

This is an important lesson for us. It is only with a posture of faith that the promises of God will become substance and realities. It is only through the eye of faith that God’s future for our lives is realized. Whatever pain and hardship we now endure, God’s light awaits us on the other side. By faith, we learn to lift up our eyes to God and look beyond our pain to the brighter side of things. Hebrews 11:1 says. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” And it was through this kind of faith that the saints of old gained God’s approval and so must we.