With chapter 30, the book of Jeremiah changes tone. Chapters 30 to 33 are often called the “Book of Consolation,” four chapters of hope set in the middle of a book of warnings. God tells Jeremiah to write these words down, because they are for the future. Chapter 30 opens with a terrifying picture of a day “so that none is like it,” which Jeremiah calls “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” But the same sentence ends with four words that decide what the whole passage means: “he shall be saved out of it.”
A study in Jeremiah 30 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 16 min read
Write Thee All The Words In A Book
“Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.”
Jeremiah 30:2, 3
Most of Jeremiah’s messages were spoken first. This one God told him to “write,” because the people who needed it most had not been born yet. Notice too that the promise is for “Israel and Judah,” both kingdoms. The northern kingdom of Israel had been carried off by Assyria more than a century earlier. God had not forgotten them either.
A Day Like No Other
“For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”
Jeremiah 30:5-7
Before the hope comes the fear. Jeremiah hears “a voice of trembling.” He sees grown men doubled over, clutching themselves like women in labour, their faces gone white. It is a picture of terror so complete that strong men cannot stand up under it.
The picture of labour pains is chosen with care. Labour is agony, but it does not last forever, and it ends in new life. The trouble Jeremiah describes is real and terrible, but it is the kind of pain that comes just before a birth.
In its first setting, this was the trouble of the Babylonian conquest and exile, followed by the return. But the words reach further than that. “That day is great, so that none is like it.” The prophet Daniel, who read Jeremiah carefully, used almost the same words about the very end of time: “there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1).
“Jacob’s experience during that night of wrestling and anguish represents the trial through which the people of God must pass just before Christ’s second coming. The prophet Jeremiah, in holy vision looking down to this time, said, ‘We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace…. All faces are turned into paleness. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.’”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 201
Jacob’s Night Of Wrestling
Why call it “the time of Jacob’s trouble”? Because the worst night of Jacob’s life is a pattern for it. Years after he had cheated his brother Esau out of their father’s blessing, Jacob was coming home. He heard that Esau was on his way to meet him with four hundred men. Jacob was terrified, and he knew it was his own sin that had brought him to this place.
That night, alone by the brook Jabbok, he prayed. Then a stranger seized him in the dark, and they wrestled until dawn. When Jacob understood who he was holding on to, he would not let go: “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me” (Genesis 32:26). And God gave him a new name: “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Genesis 32:28). Hosea tells us how he prevailed: “he wept, and made supplication unto him” (Hosea 12:4). Jacob won by clinging, not by strength.
“Such will be the experience of God’s people in their final struggle with the powers of evil. God will test their faith, their perseverance, their confidence in His power to deliver them. Satan will endeavor to terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless; that their sins have been too great to receive pardon. They will have a deep sense of their shortcomings, and as they review their lives their hopes will sink. But remembering the greatness of God’s mercy, and their own sincere repentance, they will plead His promises made through Christ to helpless, repenting sinners.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 202
This is why the story is one of hope and not of fear. Jacob had already confessed his sin before that night. When the accuser reminded him of it, he did not argue that he was a good man. He held on to the mercy of God. Ellen White adds on the same page: “Their sins will have been blotted out by the atoning blood of Christ, and they cannot bring them to remembrance.” The way to be ready for the time of trouble is to bring every sin to Christ now, while He is still interceding for us, for “he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
He Shall Be Saved Out Of It
Everything turns on the last four words of verse 7: “he shall be saved out of it.” Not “kept from it.” Not “taken away before it.” Out of it. God’s people go through the trouble, and God brings them out the other side.
That is the consistent pattern of the Bible. Israel was not spared Babylon; they were brought back from it. Jesus did not pray for His disciples to escape this world: “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:15). He warned them plainly, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And John saw the redeemed in heaven and was told, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). Through it, and then out of it.
“For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.”
Jeremiah 30:8, 9
In the last study, Jeremiah wore a wooden yoke and Hananiah broke it too soon. Here God promises to break the yoke Himself, in His own time. And then His people will serve “David their king, whom I will raise up.” King David had been dead for nearly four hundred years. This is the promised Son of David, the Messiah. Ezekiel and Hosea speak of Him the same way: “I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David” (Ezekiel 34:23), and “Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king” (Hosea 3:5).
“Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.”
Jeremiah 30:10, 11
“Fear thou not.” After a picture that made strong men turn pale, God speaks directly to the frightened: “For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee.” Babylon would vanish from the earth. God’s people would not. He would discipline them “in measure,” but He would never make “a full end” of them.
“Yet those who had been the object of His tender love were not forever set aside; before all the nations of earth He would demonstrate His plan to bring victory out of apparent defeat, to save rather than to destroy.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 475
Thy Bruise Is Incurable
“For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines. All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.”
Jeremiah 30:12-14
Now God describes the nation as a patient with a wound no doctor can heal. Her “lovers,” the foreign allies she had trusted instead of God, had all walked away. Nobody would “plead” her “cause.” And God is honest about why: “because thy sins were increased.” He does not pretend the wound is a misunderstanding.
“For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.”
Jeremiah 30:17
And then the turn. The wound that was “incurable” God Himself will heal. Look at His reason: “because they called thee an Outcast.” The nations sneered at Zion: nobody cares about her. That was exactly the moment God said, I do. When no one else will seek us, He does. The Physician who wounded in order to heal is the only one who can bind up what sin has broken.
Who Is This That Engaged His Heart?
“Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.”
Jeremiah 30:18, 19
In chapter 25, God said He would take away “the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness” (25:10). Here He gives it back: “thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry.” The city would rise again “upon her own heap,” on its own ruins.
“God will not fail His church in the hour of her greatest peril. He has promised deliverance. ‘I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents,’ He has declared, ‘and have mercy on His dwelling places.’”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 538
“And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the LORD. And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
Jeremiah 30:21, 22
This is one of the most beautiful verses in the chapter. The coming ruler would be one of their own, “from the midst of them.” And God says, “I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me.” In Israel, only the high priest could come near to God’s presence in the most holy place, and only by God’s appointment. This Ruler would be a King who also draws near to God as a Priest.
Then God asks a question full of wonder: “who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me?” The Hebrew word behind “engaged” means to pledge, to stake one’s life as security. Who would put up his own life to come near to God for the people? The New Testament answers. Jesus, a true man “from the midst of” us, gave His life and entered the presence of God on our behalf. Because He drew near, the covenant promise comes true: “ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
“Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.”
Jeremiah 30:23, 24
The chapter ends with a storm and a note for the future: “in the latter days ye shall consider it.” Jeremiah’s own generation could not fully understand these words. They were written down for people who would live later, including us. The storm is coming. But so is the morning, and for everyone who clings to God as Jacob did, the promise stands: “he shall be saved out of it.”
