God’s message of restoration for His Old Testament people is vitally important to us. We shouldn’t read it with half-hearted attention, or we will miss precious truths that God has preserved for us.
The first precious truth in this passage is that God is a saving God. But before we can appreciate that, we must understand how desperately His people need a Savior. In verses 30:12-13 He tells His people, “Your wound is incurable, your injury beyond healing. There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sore, no healing for you.” That wound is sin; sin’s effects leave us damaged. Think of the worst wound you have seen; I think of my daughter’s knees the summer she scraped off several layers of skin and they oozed pus for weeks. While I treated those wounds my stomach did weird and uncomfortable things. About the time the pus dried up, she fell again and the pus oozed again. Those wounds seemed incurable. We are all in that position, wounded by sin, suffering incurable wounds that have marred the beautiful creatures God made us to be. Further, “There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sore, no healing for you.” We are hopeless in our wounded state. But in verse 17 God says, “I will restore you to health and heal your wounds.”
How will God do that, when every time God rescued them they proceeded to neglect Him, then forget Him, and they broke their covenant with Him? He planned a new covenant that He would make with them. (This is really important, because we are New Covenant people!) This time God would “put (His) law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” The terms of this covenant are that God would do a transforming work in their hearts and minds so that they would truly be His people and know Him in the way He wants to be known, the way He created them (and us!) to be known.
As you read through these chapters, make note of what God’s salvation looks like. Some quick snatches from these passages that might help you get started are:
- Freedom from bonds and enslavement.
- Peace and security,
- Freedom from fear
- Healing
- Rebuilding
What needs healed in you? What needs rebuilt in your life? Can you appreciate the blessings of peace and security and freedom from fear in this unstable world? This is a picture of the salvation God offers you, to be enjoyed now. If perhaps the healing isn’t the physical healing for which you hope, or the peace and security don’t equate to material abundance, don’t disdain God’s salvation as a lie; rather, use your questions to draw closer to God. Entrust Him with your honest confessions, ask Him to give you the salvation He longs to give you, and choose to trust that He will do it. Doubtless, the salvation He gives you will prove far superior to what we could even think to ask Him.