All in all, Jeremiah is filled with springs of living water and sparks of living fire. And knowing this, let us seek to drink in the promises of God, so that we can be cleansed by God’s consuming fire.

In Jeremiah 30-33, we find four chapters that are often referred to as “The Book of Consolation.” The reason for this title is the way they promise hope for a battered and bruised people who are, or will soon be, held in bondage by Babylon. In context, these chapters come after the Prophet declares that God is sending Israel to Babylon for seventy years because of their sins. Following this judgment (see Jeremiah 25-29), Jeremiah 30-33 looks to a day in the future when God will restore his people (30:1-3), return a priestly king to the throne (30:21), and establish a new covenant (31:31-34).

These chapters are some of the brightest and best in all the Old Testament, but they are found in a book that is densely populated with oracles of destruction, jeremiads against Jerusalem (yes, jeremiads comes from Jeremiah), judgments against the nations, and other events that lead Jeremiah to be called the weeping prophet. All in all, the Book of Consolation stands in stark contrast to the rest of Jeremiah, and accordingly, I can imagine many who attempt to read Jeremiah will do so, skipping ahead to these chapters, or just cherry-picking a few verses along the way (e.g., Jer. 2:13; 9:23-24; 17:9-10; 23:1-6; 29:11-13; etc.).

Such approaches are understandable, given the length and complexity of the book, but if we really want to understand Jeremiah we need to find a better reading strategy. That’s what this blog post is for—to help give you a map which identifies key passages which as springs of living water for your soul.

In other words, because Jeremiah is meant to pluck up, tear down, destroy, and overthrow the city of Jerusalem and all its inhabitants (Jer. 1:10ab), his book will primarily consist of words of judgment. At the same time, because God calls Jeremiah to build up and plant (see also 1:10c), we should expect to find life-giving words of hope. The question is knowing where they are and how to find such refreshment in a book that is primarily deconstructive—in the prophetic, not the postmodern, sense of the word.

Reading through the book, it will help to know where the words of life are. And that’s what I offer below. In another blog post, I laid out a four-fold outline of the book that can be summarized like this.

• Jeremiah 1-24: God’s War of Words…Against Israel
• Jeremiah 25-34: God’s War of Words…Against the False Prophets
• Jeremiah 35-44: God’s War of Words…Against the King and His Kingdom
• Jeremiah 45-52: God’s War of Words…Against the Nations

This outline follows the illuminating work of Andrew Shead, and I would urge you to read that post and his book. In what follows, I will share the springs of living water that crop up in places like Jeremiah 3:15-18 and Jeremiah 51:48, and everywhere in between. As I have read through Jeremiah, these are the passages and the promises I am looking for as I read.

As the apostles teach us, all the promises of God are “Yes” and “Amen” in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20). The gospel itself stands on the promises of God (Acts 13:32-33), and begins with Abraham (Gal. 3:8) not Matthew. For this reason, we should read the Bible as promise-seekers, so that we can become promise-believers. This is what the Bible is for, and in Jeremiah, there are plenty of hope-giving, Christ-centered promises for us to find. The trick is knowing where they are and how they fit into the book.

Without any further preliminaries, let me offer a roadmap to the springs of living water in Jeremiah. I will give a few notes as we go, but primarily what follows is the text of Scripture.[1]

Jeremiah 1-24: God’s War of Words…Against Israel

After Jeremiah is introduced in chapter 1, the first section of the book addresses Israel’s spiritual adultery (chs. 2-6), temple idolatry (chs. 7-10), covenant-breaking (chs. 11-17), loss of elect status (chs. 18-20), and royal unrighteousness (chs. 21-24). In these five sections, we find at least one word of hope in each measure of judgment. And in every case, the promise of hope will come after the judgment. Consider.

Jeremiah 3:15-18—The Promise of Faithful Shepherds

¹⁵ “ ‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶ And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. ¹⁷ At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. ¹⁸ In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

Jeremiah 9:25-26—The Promise of Punishment upon Wicked Nations

²⁵ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh— ²⁶ Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”

Jeremiah 10:6-10—A Description of God’s Glorious Character

⁶ There is none like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is great in might. ⁷ Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your due; for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like you. ⁸ They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood! ⁹ Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men. ¹⁰ But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

Jeremiah 16:14-21—The Promise of a Restored Kingdom

¹⁴ “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵ but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers. ¹⁶ “Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷ For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸ But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.” ¹⁹ O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. ²⁰ Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods!” ²¹ “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.”

Jeremiah 20:13—The Promise of Deliverance from Evildoers

¹³ Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

Jeremiah 23:1-8—The Promise of a Faithful King Whose Name is “The LORD is Our Righteousness”

¹ “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. ² Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. ³ Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. ⁴ I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. ⁵ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ ⁷ “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ⁸ but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”

Jeremiah 24:4-7—The Promise of a People with Good Hearts

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁵ “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ⁶ I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. ⁷ I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

If it is not evident, all of these promises are predicated on the arrival of new covenant. And that new covenant is predicated on the arrival of a new and righteous king who is able to draw near to God (see Jer. 30:21). As we see throughout Jeremiah, the springs of living water in the deserts of his book find their source in the Book of Consolation, which promises explicitly a new king and a new covenant—a covenant which promises forgiveness of sins and a new heart that loves God.

Jeremiah 25-34: God’s War of Words…Against the False Prophets

In the second section of Jeremiah, the Prophet confronts the false prophets and tells the nation that they can expect to spend seventy years in Babylon because of their sin. At the same time, Jeremiah offers them hope that God will restore them to the land after their time in exile is complete. This promise of a physical return to the land initiates the later, greater promises of Jeremiah 30-33, which offers hope of a spiritual resurrection and a restoration that can never be undone.

Again, the Book of Consolation is the place in Jeremiah where the message of hope is most pronounced. While there is some good news in Jeremiah 25-29 (e.g., Jeremiah 29:11-13), the enduring message of hope is found in the promises of the new covenant. When we read Jeremiah 30-33, we can readily find the good news associated with this new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34).

Still, I will list the passages below which reiterate the way in which God, in the latter days, will restore his people, so that they can be in covenant again. These are good markers to keep in mind as you read through Jeremiah 30-33.

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