The exile was an awful moment in the history of God's people, it is a display of the holiness of God the failure of the people but also the love of God as he disciplines them as a father disciplines his son. Throughout the warnings of impending exile are promises of a life after exile. In Jeremiah 30 the Lord has promised that Judah and Israel will be restored, their captivity ended, that their mourning will turn to joy. Chapter 31 continues that restoration and return theme and as you read it you can't help but wonder at the scale of the return.
Then in v31 onwards we see the promise of a new covenant where God would put his law within his people, write it on their hearts and be their God, here all shall know God. Where sin is forgiven.
What a promise for a people facing exile and what an expectation as they returned to the land. But the realisation of this is not immediate, it is only in Christ that this new covenant is sealed. We have much to praise God for.
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