“And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord” Jeremiah 31:28
Called by God from his youth, Jeremiah was given the heartbreaking task of prophesying to the nation of Judah God’s looming judgment upon them for their stiff-necked rebellion and sin. His pleadings with the people to repent and return from their backslidings went unheeded for over forty years! Finally, the Babylonians, God’s instrument of judgment, would utterly destroy the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
For Jeremiah, the destruction of Jerusalem and the terrible suffering of the people of Judah would be a source of tremendous grief because Jeremiah had great compassion for his countrymen in spite of not only their rejection of his warnings, but their despising and persecution of him. As such, Jeremiah is often called the “weeping prophet” and in the book of Lamentations he gave full expression to his profound grief.
But in our verse, we see that God does not “pluck up… break down… throw down… destroy, and... afflict” and leave it at that as regards his people. Indeed, God severely disciplined His people for their gross disobedience, idolatry, wickedness and corruption. They had become like a garden which had become overgrown with briars and thorns. And one who properly tends a garden must first proceed to pluck up and remove the weeds before he plants and builds up again. So too often this is the way God deals with His church before He again builds and plants.
In the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah gave expression to this very same hope; “Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall. My soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in him!’” (3:19-24).
Nothing immediately changed in Jeremiah’s outward circumstances, but he was comforted inwardly in knowing that God would never abandon him or His true people. Even in his sermons of judgment there were interwoven into them promises of future hope and blessing. Jeremiah would proclaim, “Thus says the Lord… I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt” (Jeremiah 31:3,4). The plucking up, breaking down, etc. that God brought about resulted in what He ultimately intended for them, their repentance and a returning from their backsliding. Jeremiah prophesied regarding the believing remnant, “I have heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be restored for You are the Lord my God’” (31:18). Only then would God “watch over them to build and to plant.”
God’s purpose and design for His people individually and as a church is that they be conformed to Jesus Christ. That means that we are to progressively come more and more into the very image of Christ in our thoughts, our will, our attitude, our affections and our deeds. God will settle for nothing less. This earns no merit, but is a necessary outworking of our new life in Christ. The Apostle Peter wrote, “As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am Holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). And God will break down, pluck up, throw down, destroy, afflict, purge, cleanse and discipline His people individually and as a church in order to bring this to pass.
But be encouraged believer. This breaking down and plucking up is often the prerequisite to great blessing. A believing remnant of Judah would one day return to their land, and the ultimate fulfillment of these promises of hope and blessing in Jeremiah’s prophecies would be in the building of the church by Jesus Christ “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
But before we ever came to Christ in faith and repentance, isn’t it true that God first used His law to convict us and to essentially “pluck up… break down… throw down… destroy” any hope that we had in ourselves for relief from our condemnation, and then to “afflict” our consciences so that we knew and felt the weight of our guilt as lawbreakers. Only then did God build and plant in us the truth that, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
God still promises, “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 29:11-14). And that applies to you as an individual believer and it applies to Christ’s church.
Called by God from his youth, Jeremiah was given the heartbreaking task of prophesying to the nation of Judah God’s looming judgment upon them for their stiff-necked rebellion and sin. His pleadings with the people to repent and return from their backslidings went unheeded for over forty years! Finally, the Babylonians, God’s instrument of judgment, would utterly destroy the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
For Jeremiah, the destruction of Jerusalem and the terrible suffering of the people of Judah would be a source of tremendous grief because Jeremiah had great compassion for his countrymen in spite of not only their rejection of his warnings, but their despising and persecution of him. As such, Jeremiah is often called the “weeping prophet” and in the book of Lamentations he gave full expression to his profound grief.
But in our verse, we see that God does not “pluck up… break down… throw down… destroy, and... afflict” and leave it at that as regards his people. Indeed, God severely disciplined His people for their gross disobedience, idolatry, wickedness and corruption. They had become like a garden which had become overgrown with briars and thorns. And one who properly tends a garden must first proceed to pluck up and remove the weeds before he plants and builds up again. So too often this is the way God deals with His church before He again builds and plants.
In the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah gave expression to this very same hope; “Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall. My soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in him!’” (3:19-24).
Nothing immediately changed in Jeremiah’s outward circumstances, but he was comforted inwardly in knowing that God would never abandon him or His true people. Even in his sermons of judgment there were interwoven into them promises of future hope and blessing. Jeremiah would proclaim, “Thus says the Lord… I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt” (Jeremiah 31:3,4). The plucking up, breaking down, etc. that God brought about resulted in what He ultimately intended for them, their repentance and a returning from their backsliding. Jeremiah prophesied regarding the believing remnant, “I have heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be restored for You are the Lord my God’” (31:18). Only then would God “watch over them to build and to plant.”
God’s purpose and design for His people individually and as a church is that they be conformed to Jesus Christ. That means that we are to progressively come more and more into the very image of Christ in our thoughts, our will, our attitude, our affections and our deeds. God will settle for nothing less. This earns no merit, but is a necessary outworking of our new life in Christ. The Apostle Peter wrote, “As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am Holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). And God will break down, pluck up, throw down, destroy, afflict, purge, cleanse and discipline His people individually and as a church in order to bring this to pass.
But be encouraged believer. This breaking down and plucking up is often the prerequisite to great blessing. A believing remnant of Judah would one day return to their land, and the ultimate fulfillment of these promises of hope and blessing in Jeremiah’s prophecies would be in the building of the church by Jesus Christ “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
But before we ever came to Christ in faith and repentance, isn’t it true that God first used His law to convict us and to essentially “pluck up… break down… throw down… destroy” any hope that we had in ourselves for relief from our condemnation, and then to “afflict” our consciences so that we knew and felt the weight of our guilt as lawbreakers. Only then did God build and plant in us the truth that, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
God still promises, “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 29:11-14). And that applies to you as an individual believer and it applies to Christ’s church.