A fellow Bible reader posted this in our Facebook group today:
I am really struggling through Jeremiah! All I’m hearing is how much God despises His people and is utterly going to destroy everyone. Anyone that can shed light on where the gospel is in all of this? I’m just getting that I’m a despicable human who betrayed God and He’s through with me.
I get it. For me, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are the two toughest stretches of a chronological reading plan. It is hard to find the gospel in Jeremiah.
But maybe “Where is the gospel in Jeremiah” is the wrong question. Let’s turn it around:
Where is Jeremiah in the gospel?
Before the gospel is good news, it is honest about the bad news: our sins separate us from the holy and just God. Jeremiah lets that reality sink in with ruthless repetition. It forces the reader to sit with the painful truth that God hates sin, and we are filled with it. And until we understand just how bad the diagnosis is, we can’t really appreciate the cure.
The prophet Jeremiah is unrelenting. Yet woven into the tapestry of Jeremiah’s prophecies are golden threads of hope — reminders that even when God disciplines His people, He does not abandon them.
These passages remind us that God’s justice is never divorced from His mercy. His heart remains toward His people, even when He allows them to experience the consequences of their rebellion.
1. God’s Plans for Restoration
Jeremiah 29:11–14
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to 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, “and will bring you back from captivity…”
2. Everlasting Love
Jeremiah 31:3
“The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.’”
3. A New Covenant
Jeremiah 31:31–34
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah… I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people… For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
4. God Will Not Completely Destroy
Jeremiah 30:11
“I am with you and will save you,” declares the Lord. “Though I completely destroy all the nations among which I scatter you, I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you but only in due measure; I will not let you go entirely unpunished.”
5. The Shepherd Who Brings His Flock Home
Jeremiah 23:3–4
“I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.
6. God Watches Over to Build and Plant
Jeremiah 31:28
“Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord.
A God Who Disciplines to Restore
Jeremiah shows us a God who is both holy and merciful — a God who disciplines to correct, not to crush. His ultimate goal is always restoration. The same God who uproots also builds. The same voice that pronounces judgment also speaks tender words of love and covenant promise.
When you read Jeremiah, don’t stop at the warnings. Keep reading until you hear the hope — because it’s there, beating like a steady drum in the background, reminding you that God’s mercy always has the last word.
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