Crystallization-Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations
Message Ten
The Promise, the Prophecy, the Remnant, and the Recovery
Scripture Reading: Jer. 25:11; 29:10-11, 14; 30:1-3, 10-11, 16-19; 31:1-9, 11-13; 33:6
I. God chose the children of Israel and made them His people as a type of the church—Rom. 9:11-13; Acts 7:38:
A. The children of Israel, as the chosen people of God, are the great-est, collective type of the church—1 Cor. 10:1-11.
B. In this type we can see that the church is chosen and redeemed by God, enjoys Christ and the Spirit as the life supply, builds God's habitation, inherits Christ as its portion, degrades and is captured, is recovered, and awaits Christ's coming.
II. Jehovah promised to turn the captivity of Israel and bring them back to their land—Jer. 16:15; 30:1-3, 10-11, 16-19; 31:1-9, 11-13:
A. "I know the thoughts that I think about you, declares Jehovah, thoughts of peace and not for evil, to give you a latter end and a hope"—29:11.
B. "I have loved you with an eternal love; I Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness"—31:3.
C. "I will turn your captivity and gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares Jeho-vah, and bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile"—29:14.
D. "I will build you again, and you will be built, I O virgin of Israel. I Again you will adorn yourself with your tambourines I And will go forth in the dance of those who make merry"—31:4.
E. "They will come and sing in the height of Zion, I And they will flow forth to the goodness of Jehovah… I And their soul will be like a watered garden, I And they will not languish anymore"— v. 12.
F. "I will turn their mourning to gladness I And comfort them and cause them to rejoice after their sorrow"—v. 13.
III. Jeremiah prophesied that the captivity of Israel in Babylon would be for seventy years—25:11:
A. The word about seventy years was a comfort to Jeremiah, assur-ing him that the miserable situation of his country and his people, of the temple and the city, would last only seventy years—29:10; Zech. 7:5.
B. Just as God gave the people up to captivity, He would bring them back, not as captives but as triumphant warriors—2 Chron. 36:21-23.
C. Because Daniel understood the prophecies in Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10-14 concerning the seventy years of Israel's captivity, he set his face "toward the Lord God to seek Him in prayer"— Dan. 9:2-3:
1. As God's co-worker on earth, Daniel understood God's will from the Scrip tures and prayed for God's will according to the Scriptures.
2. Daniel knew that God's intention was to bring the children of Israel back to the land of Israel for the rebuilding of Jeru-salem, and thus, he prayed for it; the return of the children of Israel to Jerusalem was God's fulfilling of Daniel's prayer.
IV. Jehovah said that He would gather the remnant of His flock out of the lands where He had driven them and that He would bring them back to their pasture, and they would be fruitful and multiply—Jer. 23:3:
A. After the seventy-year captivity, God came in to call the children of Israel to return from Babylon to the Holy Land—25:11:
1. When God called His people to come back to His chosen land, very few responded; the majority remained in their captivity.
2. Only a small number came back to the chosen land; those who returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple were the remnant of God's people—Ezra 1:3; 2:1-67.
3. God promised that His people would return to Jerusalem after seventy years of captivity in Babylon (Jer. 25:11; 29:10); in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah a remnant returned according to this promise.
B. In the Lord's recovery today we are a remnant of God's people who have come back to His original intention while so many genuine believers are scattered and remain in captivity—Psa. 126:1-4:
1. We are members of the Body of Christ who have come back to the original ground of oneness and are standing here as God's remnant—Deut. 12:5.
2. The majority of Christians remain in captivity; only a small remnant have returned to the proper ground for God's build-ing—v. 11; 16:2; Psa. 132:13-14.
C. The return of the children of Israel from Babylon to Jerusalem prepared the way for the coming of Christ—Micah 5:2; Matt. 2:4-6; Luke 2:4-7:
1. The Lord's first coming depended on the return of God's peo-ple from their captivity in Babylon to the Holy Land:
a. According to the prophecy in Micah 5:2, Christ was to be born in Bethlehem.
b. In order for this prophecy to be fulfilled, God's people had to be in the Holy Land—Matt. 2:4-6; Luke 2:4-7.
c. The remnant of returned captives was the instrument used by God to rebuild the temple and usher in the first coming of Christ—Micah 5:2.
d. Without the return of the remnant to the Holy Land, there would have been no way for Christ to come to the earth through incarnation—Luke 1:35; 2:4-7.
2. Likewise, Christ's second coming depends on the return of a remnant of His New Testament believers from their captivity in Babylon, degraded Christianity, to the unique ground of one ness for the building of the church, God's spiritual house— Eph. 2:21-22; Rev. 2:1; 1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 2:5:
a. The Lord is calling a remnant of His people to meet His need by coming out of Babylonian captivity and returning to the proper ground of the church—Rev. 18:4; Isa. 52:11; Jer. 50:8; 51:6, 9, 45.
b. The Lord's intention is not to revive Christianity as a whole but to call a remnant of His people who are willing to pay the price to follow Him for the fulfillment of His purpose and to be built up as a part of the Body—Matt. 16:18; 18:17; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:21-22; 4:16; Rev. 1:11; 22:16.
V. Jehovah said that He would bring recovery to the children of Israel—Jer. 30:17; 33:6:
A. Jehovah promised to bring the city of Jerusalem recovery and healing—v. 6.
B. He said that He would reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth and that He would cleanse them from all their iniquity and forgive all their iniquities, by which they had sinned against Him and transgressed against Him—vv. 6-8.
C. Jehovah made the further promise that Jerusalem would be a name of glad ness and a praise and a glory to Him before all the nations—v. 9.
VI. The return of the children of Israel from their captivity typ-ifies the recovery of the church—Ezra 1:3-11; Neh. 2:11, 17:
A. When we speak of the recovery of the church, we mean that some-thing was there originally, that it became lost or damaged, and that now there is the need to bring that thing back to its original state—Matt. 16:18; 18:17.
B. Because the church has become degraded through the many cen-turies of its history, it needs to be restored according to God's ori-ginal intention—1 Cor. 1:2; 12:27; Rom. 12:4-5; 16:1, 4-5; Rev. 1:11; 22:16.
C. For the children of Israel to be recovered meant for them to be brought back to Jerusalem from Babylon; the recovery of the church involves a return from the capturing and divisive ground signified by Babylon—Psa. 126:1-4; 133:1.
D. The children of Israel went back to Jerusalem, the God-ordained unique ground, with all the vessels of the temple of God, which had been brought to Babylon—2 Chron. 36:18; Ezra 5:14; 6:5:
1. Jerusalem was the center for God's people to worship Him, and this unique center preserved the oneness of the people of God; for this reason it was necessary for God's people in the Old Testament to be brought back to Jeru salem, the unique ground ordained by God—Deut. 12:11; 16:2; 26:2.
2. These vessels, which were of silver and gold, signify the riches of Christ and the various aspects of the experience of Christ— Eph. 3:8.
3. Today's Babylon has not only captured God's people but also robbed all the riches from God's temple; now the Lord wants not only to call His faithful people out of Babylon and bring them back to the proper church life but also to recover all the different aspects of Christ, which have been lost—vv. 17-19; Col. 1:15-20; 2:16-17; 3:4.
E. The recovery of the church is also typified by the rebuilding of the temple of God, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the rebuild-ing of the city of Jeru salem—Ezra 1:3; Neh. 2:11, 17; Psa. 26:8; 36:8-9; 46:1, 5; 47:2, 6-8:
1. The temple, the place of God's presence, needed protection; the wall of the city was the defense of the temple.
2. In order to understand the relationship between the house and the city in the New Testament, we need to realize that the church is the enlargement of Christ and the increase of Christ—John 3:29-30; Eph. 4:13; Col. 2:19:
a. The first step of the enlargement of Christ is the church as the house, composed of all the believers put together to be the increase of Christ—Eph. 2:21-22.
b. The second step of the enlargement of Christ is the church as the city; the church as the house must be enlarged to be the church as the city—Matt. 5:14; Rev. 3:7, 12; 21:9-10.
c. The building of the church as the house and the city is the center of God's eternal purpose—Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15; Rev. 21:2-3.
3. If there is no recovery of God's people from Babylon the Great to the church life, there will be no way for Christ to carry out His second coming—1:7:
a. This is the reason that the Lord, at the end time, is work-ing to have a recovery of the church—v. 11; 3:7-10; 22:16; 1 Cor. 12:27; 1:2.
b. This recovery will be a preparation and a base for Christ's coming again—Rev. 1:7; 3:11; 19:7-9; 22:7, 12, 20.