The End of Captivity
Jeremiah 30:1-17 reminds us that we are slaves to sin but there's hope in Jesus.
Perhaps you’ve gotten the impression that Jeremiah was a depressed pessimist, always gloomy and downcast. But that is not the case.
As he writes the words of chapter 30:1-17, most likely from prison in Jerusalem, we see another side of him because these words are words of comfort and encouragement.
These words of comfort and encouragement are so important he’s told to do more than speak them. In verse 2, Jeremiah is told to write them down because God intended for these encouraging words to be passed on, and so they have been.
Jeremiah 30:3 says,
Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel and Judah,” says the Lord. “I will restore them to the land I gave to their ancestors and they will possess it.”
This encouraging message is precisely what God’s people needed to hear, but it came only after chapters and chapters of warning and calls to repentance. Then came the promises of suffering and trial, but God’s ultimate end game wasn’t for Israel to stay in captivity forever.
What’s it like to be in captivity?
To be held in captivity means to be held in misery. The people were in so much distress they cried out in fear and terror (vs 5), and then Jeremiah said in verse 6 that he saw “every person (even the men) with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor.” Captivity is miserable.
To be held captive also meant to be in slavery. The Israelites had a physiological, if not a literal yoke of slavery around their necks put on by the Babylonians (vs 8). And as slaves (vs 16), the people were “plundered and devoured” — all of their possessions were taken away, including their rights and dignity. Captivity is slavery.
To be in captivity also meant they were in a continual state of fear. God told them not to be afraid or discouraged in verse 10 because they were, of course, terrified. They were fearful because they never knew what their captor would do. Each day they woke up with the uncertainty of what would happen if they displeased the wrong person. Captivity and fear go hand in hand.
Maybe most significantly, being in captivity meant a loss of identity for the Israelites. The Israelites were outcasts (vs 17). They were refugees in a foreign land. Verse 14 tells us that even their “lovers” — their political allies — had rejected them. They had no home, no friends, and no one particularly cared about what would happen to them as a people. While in captivity, who were they? Were they still Israelites? Were they Babylonians now? Their identity was a jumbled mess.
I’m sure all of us feel like we are in captivity at times, especially with our emotions. Of course, we suffer physically, but sometimes the most arduous struggle is staying positive. As we suffer, we feel depressed and anxious. We worry about our children or loved ones. Our family lives become tense, and sometimes it feels like we don’t have any friends who really “get” us.
While I’m very sympathetic to all of these emotions — because I feel them myself — we need to be reminded that the common denominator for what feeds all this negativity is sin.
Held Captive By Sin
When we are held captive by our sin, God understands and has compassion, but our sinfulness is still inexcusable.
Jeremiah 30:14–15 says,
I have struck you as an enemy would, with the discipline of someone cruel, because of your enormous guilt and your innumerable sins. Why do you cry out about your injury? … I have done these things to you because of your enormous guilt and your innumerable sins.
See, the Israelites were being held captive because they were sinners. They didn’t just have guilt; they had enormous guilt. They didn’t just have sins; they had innumerable sins.
The reason for their captivity, including their feelings of misery, fear, and loss of identity, were all related to sin — and sin is also the reason for our spiritual captivity too.
Like the Israelites, we also have innumerable sins but do we see them that way? I want to impress upon us all that we will never take the next steps as growing Christians until we do.
Listen to this list. I borrowed it from Philip Ryken because he helps us get to the truth about our innumerable sinfulness.
Have I been fervent in prayer? Was there passion and warmth the last time I prayed?
Have I practiced God’s presence, at least every hour? Practicing God’s presence means being very deliberate about “developing habits for discerning, an awareness of God’s presence” as opposed to just thinking about him at mealtimes or bedtimes.
Have I, before every deliberate action or conversation, considered how it might be tuned to God’s glory?
Have I sought to focus conversations on the other person’s interest and needs and ultimately toward God, or did I turn it toward my own interests?
Have I given thanks to God after every pleasant occurrence or time?
Have I thought or spoken unkindly of anyone?
Have I been careful to avoid proud thoughts or comparing myself to others? Have I done things just for appearances?
Have I been sensitive, warm, and cheerful toward everyone?
This list is helpful because it exposes the sinful truth about ourselves. The person who can listen to this list and still not be convicted of their sinfulness or shrug it off as irrelevant either isn’t paying attention or isn’t submitting to God’s work through the Holy Spirit.
So, my prayer is that you receive these words with the spirit they are intended. My aim isn’t to crush you but to lead you to Christ, who says in Luke 5:31–32,
It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
So, seeing ourselves as captives to sin isn’t just about being honest. It’s about recognizing and receiving the only hope we have for healing.
The End of Captivity
The end of captivity is described like this in Jeremiah 30:7, “How awful that day will be! There will be no other like it! It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it.”
In other words, salvation will come right after things are at their worst. But the word “awful” in verse 7 doesn’t just mean “terrible.” It also means “great or awesome.” So the day of salvation is going to be awesome!
The end of captivity will be the end of fear.
Jeremiah 30:10 says,
As for you, my servant Jacob, do not be afraid—this is the Lord’s declaration— and do not be discouraged, Israel, for without fail I will save you out of a distant place, your descendants, from the land of their captivity! Jacob will return and have calm and quiet with no one to frighten him.
When captivity ends, God will replace our fear entirely with calm and quiet. No one will be around to frighten us anymore.
Why? Listen to what Jeremiah 30:11 says,
For I will be with you—this is the Lord’s declaration— to save you! I will bring destruction on all the nations where I have scattered you; however, I will not bring destruction on you...
God didn’t destroy Israel. On the contrary, after 70 years of captivity, he saved them! In fact, since then, many nations have come and gone, but the Jews have not been destroyed, and they still live in Israel to this day.
But not everything prophesied by Jeremiah has been fulfilled. One of the reasons we know this is because Jeremiah speaks of an unprecedented time yet in the future. In verse 7, he said, “There will be no other day like it!”
So, let’s take Jeremiah’s words seriously. First, we must accept that this is pointing to a future time of salvation, a time of redemption even greater than the release of Isreal from captivity.
Jeremiah refers to this as when even Israel’s descendants will be saved in Jeremiah 30:10. He says, “[God] will save you out of a distant place, your descendants, from the land of their captivity!” Further, in verse 9, Jeremiah says someone from the line of David would be king after their captivity was over.
Jeremiah 30:9 says,
They will serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
Now, that didn’t happen in 538 B.C. after Cyrus issued his decree allowing the Jews to return. The people returned from captivity and the temple was rebuilt but a king wasn’t put back on the throne. Zedekiah was the last king of Israel and he wasn’t replaced.
So Jeremiah’s prophecy points to a time in the future when people would serve God and a king from the line of David. But, of course, and evident to us, this is talking about Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, the Messiah.
What kind of Messiah?
As we’ve already seen in verse 10, the Messiah will be a peacemaker. The Messiah, a descendant of Jacob, “will return and have calm and quiet with no one to frighten him.”
Isaiah 9:6 goes into more detail and says, “For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”
When the angels arrived at Jesus’ birth, they said, “fear not!” because Jesus’ kingship was meant to be a reign not of fear but peace (Luke 2:10).
The Messiah is also a king that is with us. Jeremiah 30:11 says, “For I will be with you—this is the Lord’s declaration— to save you!” This is a reference to Immanuel, God with us (Isa 7:14), but it also sounds a lot like Matthew 28:20 when Jesus said, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The Messiah Jeremiah talks about is also a Messiah that protects us with discipline. So the rest of Jeremiah 30:11 reads,
...I will bring destruction on all the nations where I have scattered you; however, I will not bring destruction on you. I will discipline you justly, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.
As Proverbs 1:7 says, we would be fools to despise his wisdom and discipline. God’s punishment is for a short time and always for our good so that we can share in his holiness (Hebrews 12:10).
So Jesus is a Messiah who takes away our need to fear because he is with us and protects us with his discipline. But he also gives justice to all his people’s enemies.
Jeremiah 30:16 says,
Nevertheless, all who devoured you will be devoured, and all your adversaries—all of them— will go off into exile. Those who plunder you will be plundered, and all who raid you will be raided.
In other words, in the end, everyone who isn’t trusting in Christ will get what they deserve because God is just.
Before we close, one more point needs to be emphasized. Just in case we’re tempted to rely upon our goodness or relative lack of sinfulness, we need to remember that we have…
An Incurable Disease
We have a sickness that we can’t cure through any man-made method. No matter how many vitamins we take or how careful we are about our health, we’re all going to die, eventually. And worse, every sinner without Christ will be eternally hopeless.
In verses 12-13, God says,
Your injury is incurable; your wound most severe. You have no defender for your case. There is no remedy for your sores, and no healing for you.
Again, in Jeremiah 30:15, God reminds us that we shouldn’t be surprised by this. He says, “Why do you cry out about your injury? Your pain has no cure! I have done these things to you because of your enormous guilt and your innumerable sins.”
Now that’s not a very nice thing to tell a patient, but God tells us like it is. He says, “It’s hopeless; there’s no cure for you. You’ve got a terminal illness called sin.”
Like the Israelites, all of us suffer from this same incurable disease, and there is no hope that any of us will ever be able to cure ourselves. We aren’t just a little sick; we are entirely done for because sinning is a fundamental part of who we are. There’s no vaccine. There’s no antibiotic, treatment, or therapy that can cure us. It’s in our human nature to sin.
See, we are all held captive by sin, and it’s only by God’s grace that anyone can be set free. Matthew 19:26 says, “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”
So the good news is God can do what is impossible for man to do. God can cure the incurable disease of sin and end our captivity to it once and for all. With God, the end of captivity is possible. Amen.