Mourning Turned To Joy
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The 14th canticle from the Lutheran Book of Worship poetically summarizes Jeremiah 31:6-14:
Listen! you nations of the world:
listen to the Word of the Lord.
Announce it from coast to coast;
declare it to distant islands.
The Lord who scattered Israel will
gather his people again;
and he will keep watch over them as a
shepherd watches his flock.
With shouts of joy they will come,
their faces radiantly happy,
for the Lord is so gen 'rous to them;
He showers his people with gifts.
Young women will dance for joy,
and men young and old will make merry.
Like a garden refreshed by the rain,
they will never be in want again.
Break into shouts of great joy:
Jacob is free again!
Teach nations to sing the song:
"The Lord has saved his people!"
The historical context of this Scriptural emphasis on "shouts of great joy" replacing mourning is the predicted return of the people of God from the Babylonian captivity. The Hebrews had been taken as slaves in 587 B.C. There in Babylon the people lived in bondage and hopelessness for many years. There they hung up their harps on willow trees for they could sing no more. There misery moved in like a fog. There weeping and wailing could be heard everywhere. In Jeremiah 31, a prediction was spoken that meant the darkness would be turned into light; mourning into joy.
Slavery to foreigners would cease; the yoke of bondage to the Babylonians would be broken; freedom would be experienced. "They (the people of God) will come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, says the Lord (Jeremiah 31:16-17)." A new covenant with the law written on stone tablets (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
This predicted time of hope, joy and fulfillment was experienced by the people of God in about 517 B.C. as they returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity and rebuilt the temple. In this historical movement back home we have a parable of the movement from sad to glad in our lives.
Why So Sad?
Why were the Israelites so sad? How are we like them in this sadness? Some of the mourning in Babylon came because of sin and the refusal to acknowledge that sin against God and other people. The major sin was idolatry.
They have burned incense to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hand (Jeremiah 1:16).
Your wickedness will chasten you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God..." (Jeremiah 2:19).
Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk (Jeremiah 10:5).
Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the harlot? And I thought, "After she has done all this she will return to me"; but she did not return ... (Jeremiah 3:6-7).
Idolatry is like adultery. It is faithlessness! Often we become dull to God in such circumstances. The lack of repentance characterized the people of God in Jeremiah's day.
"... Behold I will bring you to judgment for saying, 'I have not sinned' (Jeremiah 2:35)."
Part of Israel's sadness came from facing the consequences of giving one's highest loyalty to something or someone other than the one true God. The ultimate, often repeated, sin of Israel was idolatry, chasing after man-made gods. Sound familiar? The refusal to acknowledge sin compounded their problems. Sound familiar? Ethical relativism in our day results in rationalization instead of repentance. This Word of GOd in Jeremiah is the biblical corrective for people of every generation who excuse their behavior instead of repenting before God for what they have done.
From brassy materialism to the new fad called the New Age Movement, idolatry has crept in like a fog and captured people today as of old. Idolatry has brought with it a sadness which psychologists today call anomie - the inability to feel one's own feelings. "The Living Dead" is the name of a rock group. "The living dead" is also a description of the "Me Generation," rationalizing away its sins until the state of sadness and mourning take over and inhibit expression of feelings. Part of Israel's sadness was facing the consequences of idolatry.
Another part of the Israelites' mourning was the separation from their home land. Separation from one's home and family brings deep sadness. The people of God were lonely in Babylon. Loneliness was like a communicable disease in Babylon. In our time too, loneliness permeates people's lives. Mother Theresa of Calcutta, India, while visiting America said that the biggest problem in the world is not physical hunger but loneliness. She said, "I see it everywhere here in America."
Many people today are like detached leaves, falling from the source of life, into a pile of other detached leaves, beginning the process of shriveling up for death. What is needed is a transplantation back into the tree of life. We need to be saved.
Israel needed nothing less than salvation. We need that salvation, too. In the Bible, salvation does not just mean going to heaven when we die. Only one-fifth of the 150 references to "save" or "saved" in the New Testament refer to the consummation at the last day, according to Alan Richardson's Theological Word Study of the Bible. Nearly one-third of the New Testament references denote deliverance from specific ills such as captivity, disease and devil possession.
Like Israel, we need to be saved from a wide variety of ills, including many which we have brought upon ourselves. We are not far from the truth when we characterize our time in terms of spiritual captivity, the disease of loneliness and demonic separation from self, other people and God. We are languishing. Thus the promise of Jeremiah 31 is a welcome word of salvation:".. . They shall languish no more (Jeremiah 31:12)." "... The Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel (Jeremiah 31:7)." "... I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow (Jeremiah 31:13)."
Gladness Instead Of Sadness
Listen, you nations of the world. Israel's return to Jerusalem was marked by the redeeming work of God: "For the Lord has ransomed Jacob (another name for Israel) and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him (Jeremiah 31:11)." The return to Jerusalem is a product of God's forgiving redemption and restoration of his people based on the recognition that the enemies we fight are too strong for us.
Listen, you nations of the world. How do we appropriate this redemption? How are we ransomed from our languishing? How do we defeat enemies "whose hands are too strong for us"? Just like Israel - through repentance and faith. Turning away from false gods which save no one; turning back to the God of our salvation is the biblical corrective for lostness and languishing in every age.
Jeremiah describes the turn back to God like this:
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth;for in these things I delight, says the Lord. - Jeremiah 9:23-24
Listen, you nations of the world. Gladness comes from restoration. Israel returned home. The invitation to come home to God is offered to all people everywhere.
Listen, you nations of the world. Isaiah, the prophet, describes this homecoming to God in terms of depending on God rather than self. He calls this depending on God "waiting for the Lord." This turning back to God means that we can "fly" to heavenly perspectives.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, the young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."
- Isaiah 40:28-31
Listen, you nations of the world. According to Isaiah, the trip back home shall include flying and running and walking. This trip shall also include singing (Jeremiah 31:12) and dancing (Jeremiah 31:13) and feasting (Jeremiah 31:14).
Listen! you nations of the world:
listen to the Word of the Lord.
Announce it from coast to coast;
declare it to distant islands.
The Lord who scattered Israel will gather his people again;
And he will keep watch over them as a
shepherd watches his flock.
With shouts of joy they will come,
their faces radiantly happy,
for the Lord is so gen 'rous to them;
He showers his people with gifts.
Young women will dance for joy,
and men young and old will make merry.
Like a garden refreshed by the rain,
they will never be in want again.
Break into shouts of great joy:
Jacob is free again!
Teach nations to sing the song:
"The Lord has saved his people!"
Listen, you nations of the world. Listen to the Word of the Lord.
Listen! you nations of the world:
listen to the Word of the Lord.
Announce it from coast to coast;
declare it to distant islands.
The Lord who scattered Israel will
gather his people again;
and he will keep watch over them as a
shepherd watches his flock.
With shouts of joy they will come,
their faces radiantly happy,
for the Lord is so gen 'rous to them;
He showers his people with gifts.
Young women will dance for joy,
and men young and old will make merry.
Like a garden refreshed by the rain,
they will never be in want again.
Break into shouts of great joy:
Jacob is free again!
Teach nations to sing the song:
"The Lord has saved his people!"
The historical context of this Scriptural emphasis on "shouts of great joy" replacing mourning is the predicted return of the people of God from the Babylonian captivity. The Hebrews had been taken as slaves in 587 B.C. There in Babylon the people lived in bondage and hopelessness for many years. There they hung up their harps on willow trees for they could sing no more. There misery moved in like a fog. There weeping and wailing could be heard everywhere. In Jeremiah 31, a prediction was spoken that meant the darkness would be turned into light; mourning into joy.
Slavery to foreigners would cease; the yoke of bondage to the Babylonians would be broken; freedom would be experienced. "They (the people of God) will come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, says the Lord (Jeremiah 31:16-17)." A new covenant with the law written on stone tablets (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
This predicted time of hope, joy and fulfillment was experienced by the people of God in about 517 B.C. as they returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity and rebuilt the temple. In this historical movement back home we have a parable of the movement from sad to glad in our lives.
Why So Sad?
Why were the Israelites so sad? How are we like them in this sadness? Some of the mourning in Babylon came because of sin and the refusal to acknowledge that sin against God and other people. The major sin was idolatry.
They have burned incense to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hand (Jeremiah 1:16).
Your wickedness will chasten you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God..." (Jeremiah 2:19).
Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk (Jeremiah 10:5).
Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the harlot? And I thought, "After she has done all this she will return to me"; but she did not return ... (Jeremiah 3:6-7).
Idolatry is like adultery. It is faithlessness! Often we become dull to God in such circumstances. The lack of repentance characterized the people of God in Jeremiah's day.
"... Behold I will bring you to judgment for saying, 'I have not sinned' (Jeremiah 2:35)."
Part of Israel's sadness came from facing the consequences of giving one's highest loyalty to something or someone other than the one true God. The ultimate, often repeated, sin of Israel was idolatry, chasing after man-made gods. Sound familiar? The refusal to acknowledge sin compounded their problems. Sound familiar? Ethical relativism in our day results in rationalization instead of repentance. This Word of GOd in Jeremiah is the biblical corrective for people of every generation who excuse their behavior instead of repenting before God for what they have done.
From brassy materialism to the new fad called the New Age Movement, idolatry has crept in like a fog and captured people today as of old. Idolatry has brought with it a sadness which psychologists today call anomie - the inability to feel one's own feelings. "The Living Dead" is the name of a rock group. "The living dead" is also a description of the "Me Generation," rationalizing away its sins until the state of sadness and mourning take over and inhibit expression of feelings. Part of Israel's sadness was facing the consequences of idolatry.
Another part of the Israelites' mourning was the separation from their home land. Separation from one's home and family brings deep sadness. The people of God were lonely in Babylon. Loneliness was like a communicable disease in Babylon. In our time too, loneliness permeates people's lives. Mother Theresa of Calcutta, India, while visiting America said that the biggest problem in the world is not physical hunger but loneliness. She said, "I see it everywhere here in America."
Many people today are like detached leaves, falling from the source of life, into a pile of other detached leaves, beginning the process of shriveling up for death. What is needed is a transplantation back into the tree of life. We need to be saved.
Israel needed nothing less than salvation. We need that salvation, too. In the Bible, salvation does not just mean going to heaven when we die. Only one-fifth of the 150 references to "save" or "saved" in the New Testament refer to the consummation at the last day, according to Alan Richardson's Theological Word Study of the Bible. Nearly one-third of the New Testament references denote deliverance from specific ills such as captivity, disease and devil possession.
Like Israel, we need to be saved from a wide variety of ills, including many which we have brought upon ourselves. We are not far from the truth when we characterize our time in terms of spiritual captivity, the disease of loneliness and demonic separation from self, other people and God. We are languishing. Thus the promise of Jeremiah 31 is a welcome word of salvation:".. . They shall languish no more (Jeremiah 31:12)." "... The Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel (Jeremiah 31:7)." "... I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow (Jeremiah 31:13)."
Gladness Instead Of Sadness
Listen, you nations of the world. Israel's return to Jerusalem was marked by the redeeming work of God: "For the Lord has ransomed Jacob (another name for Israel) and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him (Jeremiah 31:11)." The return to Jerusalem is a product of God's forgiving redemption and restoration of his people based on the recognition that the enemies we fight are too strong for us.
Listen, you nations of the world. How do we appropriate this redemption? How are we ransomed from our languishing? How do we defeat enemies "whose hands are too strong for us"? Just like Israel - through repentance and faith. Turning away from false gods which save no one; turning back to the God of our salvation is the biblical corrective for lostness and languishing in every age.
Jeremiah describes the turn back to God like this:
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth;for in these things I delight, says the Lord. - Jeremiah 9:23-24
Listen, you nations of the world. Gladness comes from restoration. Israel returned home. The invitation to come home to God is offered to all people everywhere.
Listen, you nations of the world. Isaiah, the prophet, describes this homecoming to God in terms of depending on God rather than self. He calls this depending on God "waiting for the Lord." This turning back to God means that we can "fly" to heavenly perspectives.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, the young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."
- Isaiah 40:28-31
Listen, you nations of the world. According to Isaiah, the trip back home shall include flying and running and walking. This trip shall also include singing (Jeremiah 31:12) and dancing (Jeremiah 31:13) and feasting (Jeremiah 31:14).
Listen! you nations of the world:
listen to the Word of the Lord.
Announce it from coast to coast;
declare it to distant islands.
The Lord who scattered Israel will gather his people again;
And he will keep watch over them as a
shepherd watches his flock.
With shouts of joy they will come,
their faces radiantly happy,
for the Lord is so gen 'rous to them;
He showers his people with gifts.
Young women will dance for joy,
and men young and old will make merry.
Like a garden refreshed by the rain,
they will never be in want again.
Break into shouts of great joy:
Jacob is free again!
Teach nations to sing the song:
"The Lord has saved his people!"
Listen, you nations of the world. Listen to the Word of the Lord.
