The ten northern tribes of Israel had already been conquered by the Assyrians, and taken into captivity, before Jeremiah began to prophesy. It was God’s judgement on Israel because of their sin. And the messages that the Lord gave Jeremiah for the people of Judah warned strongly of the serious consequences of their sin; they also had sinned very seriously against their God. Any apparent repentance, as there was during the reign of godly Josiah, was insincere; God accused them: “Judah hath not turned unto Me with her whole heart, but feignedly” (Jer 3:10) – it involved a lie; it was deceitful. King Josiah was sincere, but the vast majority of his people were not; their hearts were set on idolatry; they, like Israel, followed a false religion. So Judah too would be conquered and taken into captivity, for God’s judgement was to come on them also.
Yet Jeremiah was commissioned to foretell the return of both Judah and Israel from captivity. But there was a question, a very significant question. God was asking them: “How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations?” (Jer 3:19). And God answered His own question; He told the people, “Thou shalt call me, My Father”. John Calvin, commenting on this verse, emphasises that “to call Him Father” must be “not with the mouth, but really with the heart”. There must be a fundamental change among the people, a change of heart. So the people would come before God as His children, and they would be sincere in doing so. They would have the heart of children.
We should then be clear that this change of heart would be the result of the work of God’s Spirit, who works effectually in the hearts of sinners in the New Testament age, as He did in Old Testament times. So Peter writes of those who are “born again . . . by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Pet 1:23). Matthew Poole says that the word here “is the instrument in regeneration”, and it “is said to be a living word, because it enliveneth the hearts” of those who receive it. Spiritually-dead souls are brought to life by God’s Spirit, as He applies to them the word of the truth of the gospel; they thus believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; they are justified freely by God’s grace; they are adopted into His family and receive the care and protection that He gives to all His children. These blessings are a wonderful collection of glorious gifts, granted to unworthy sinners.
Another great blessing is that God’s children have a new way of thinking. Consider how Jesus illustrated this in the parable of the prodigal son. This son was determined to make his own way in life; he wanted his share of the inheritance at once and he felt free to spend it – to squander it – in any way he pleased. And squander it he did; he “wasted his substance with riotous living” (Lk 15:13). And we can think of sinners squandering the religious inheritance they have been given in God’s providence; they make no use, for instance, of the knowledge of the Bible and its teachings that they acquired when they were young; they waste their opportunities to find salvation and be received into God’s family.
When the prodigal son came to an end of all his resources, he said to himself: “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son”. This illustrates the change in the sinner’s thinking when he finds that he has no spiritual resources of his own. He realises that he cannot earn forgiveness; he cannot make himself holy. But the Holy Spirit, applying the Word of God, teaches him that salvation is to be found in Christ – and in Him alone – and makes him able and willing to flee to this glorious Saviour for safety.
In the Garden of Eden, Satan, by his temptation, turned Adam’s and Eve’s thinking against God and against their own best interests. Not only was their thinking perverted; it was the beginning of the perversion of human thinking in every generation. This has continued universally, except when the Spirit operates graciously and powerfully on individual souls. The moment a sinner turns toward Christ is the beginning of right thinking for him, and it is something he will never lose. In this life, the thinking of God’s children will always be imperfect, but the moment they enter eternal glory, their thinking will be purified from every stain of imperfection. What a difference that perfection in their thinking will make to their capacity to learn about the ways of God, and to worship Him, throughout eternity!
The returning prodigal thought it would be good to be a servant in the Father’s home, but he was very warmly received as a son. God’s thoughts are always greater than ours; so the returning sinner, drawn by almighty grace, is received into God’s family, not as a servant but as a son. He has been justified, having believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; all his sins have been forgiven, and he is accepted as if he had kept the whole law of God – because of what his Substitute has done, both by way of keeping the law perfectly and of suffering its penalty. And now that the believing sinner is brought into God’s family, he is granted all the privileges of the children of God. The Most High will provide for him, both for body and soul, and the blessings of the covenant of grace are his, including the promises revealed in Scripture, which are now made to him personally as a child of God.
When a sinner is received into God’s family, he is blessed with new attitudes. These may be summed up in the biblical expression, “the fear of the Lord”, which is “to hate evil” (Prov 8:13). It is Wisdom, God the Son, who speaks here, and further says, “pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate”. And if He says so, the child of God, who has now begun to fear God, will begin to hate pride, arrogance, the evil way and the froward – or perverse – mouth. Charles Bridges closes his remarks on this verse by exclaiming, “A proud disciple of the lowly Saviour! How offensive is this contradiction to our Master! What cause of stumbling to the world!” The child of God, in hating sin, will seek after holiness; he will have a real regard for God’s commands as holy and just and good. It is evidence of the new way of thinking in the child of God that he recognises that God’s law is not only holy, but also that it is good for him to obey that law.
The answer to the Lord’s question about putting Israel and Judah again “among the children” also included giving them “a pleasant land”, a land to be desired. This had its initial fulfilment when God brought Israel and Judah back to the promised land. But when the Lord puts a sinner among His children, He also gives them a right to a place in heaven, where all will be perfectly pleasant; heaven is indeed a land to be desired. There will be no sin there, and so there will be no curse, which is the result of sin. Everything will be pure and holy and, when God’s children are brought there, all their needs will be supplied perfectly, for the sake of Christ. He died for them, so that He might have gifts to distribute to these children, not only in this life, but for ever and ever.
In the wilderness, many among the Israelites “despised the pleasant land” of Canaan, which had been promised to them. They did so because “they believed not His word” (Ps 106:24). And we ought to ask ourselves if we are despising the pleasant land of heaven through not believing what the Lord says; or do we so value heaven that we seek to walk in the narrow way of holiness, which leads there? Are we seeking salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Father sent “to be the Saviour of the world”? Has our thinking so been changed that we value, more than anything else, both God’s favour and the One who, at immense cost, purchased that favour for sinners like ourselves? If there is any doubt about our answers to these questions, let us plead with the Lord, Put me among Thy children, for Jesus’ sake.