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an undefiled land

Jeremiah 16:14-18 (JDV)

Jeremiah 16:14 “However, notice, the days are coming” – this is what Yahveh declares – “when it will no longer be said, ‘As Yahveh lives who brought the Israelites from the land of Egypt,’

Jeremiah 16:15 but instead, ‘As Yahveh lives who brought the Israelites from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them’ because I will return them to their land that I gave to their fathers.

Jeremiah 16:16 “Notice, I am about to send for many fishermen” – this is what Yahveh declares – “and they will fish for them. Then I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and out of the clefts of the rocks,

Jeremiah 16:17 because my eye is on all their ways. They are not concealed from me, and their violation is not hidden from my sight.

Jeremiah 16:18 I will first repay them double for their violation and failure because they have polluted my land. They have filled my inheritance with the corpses of their repulsive and offensive idols.”

an undefiled land

The purpose of the exile was not for God to destroy his people utterly. He intended to bring a remainder of his people back to the land. So, why the exile? The land had become polluted by the idolatry which had been practiced by his people. It had to be cleansed, otherwise it would continue to be repulsive to the Lord.

Jesus wants to deliver us from our failures as well. He has procured an undefiled future for us (1 Peter 1:4). His death purchased our forgiveness, and his resurrection (which we will experience when he returns) will restore us to an undefiled land. That undefiled land is the new earth, and is just as certain as our salvation, because it too is God’s will for us.

Lord, thank you for the promise of a cleansed, undefiled inheritance.