9 and said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him: 10 If you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him, says the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand. 12 And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land. (Jeremiah 42:9-12)
It is a marvel and a real tribute to both the patience and the great mercy of God that, even at this late stage in Jeremiah's ministry to Judah, God is more than willing to extend mercy to his people, for his glory's sake.
This is one of those interesting and challenging situations that call for us to think based on what the Bible actually says, and not read any more into what is said than what is there, no matter what our theological predispositions. Those of us that are more of the Calvinistic disposition need to take care that our understanding of Theology does not color what we think of this one. At the same time, we do need to be sure that what the Bible, as a unit, does indeed influence what we think of this passage. It is critically important that we compare Scripture with Scripture and allow the whole Bible to speak to subject and not take a single passage and make it the source for a doctrine or a point of view.
Likewise, those of "other" theological perspectives (Arminians, Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians, etc.); we're talking about many Baptists, Main Line Presby's, Episcopalians, RC's, etc. There are many, many groups who embrace the ideas that are a part of the "Free Will" camp and bear on the theological point of view and lend weight to the way that all matters touching these thing will be understood if one is not careful (this, of course, goes for the Sovereignty folks also btw).
This is precisely what cannot happen. If we are to be honest, on either side of the equation (and that, after all ought to be the goal of any serious and genuine believer and student of the Word), our desire MUST be to discern what the Spirit of God intended when He spoke to the original author of the passage at hand. It cannot be to use the passage to support decisions or points of view already held.
Now, this is a delicate matter. We, of course, want our interpretation of any passage to be consistent with our understanding of both our theology as a whole and with our understanding of other passages as well. The Word of God does not contradict itself either singularly or as a unit. It is important that we do not "make" it do so.
Now, as we were saying, this is one of those interesting passages. It portrays the offer of grace and mercy on God's part to His people. The terms are plain and clear and unmistakable. If, and that is a major IF, this was a passage that stood by itself in the Bible, we might say it was a clear conditional statement - if...then. We would interpret it as such and be content that God was saying that IF Israel would DO what the condition said, THEN God would DO the promise portion of the statement said.
On the surface, of course, that is so. But other Scripture tells us that this was, not only not a possibility (Judah would not repent) but it was not even God's intention (Remember that God had, long ago, prophesied that Judah, in the hardness of her heart, would go to Babylon). The offer is surely genuine and very real; we must be careful to recognize that. But we must also be careful to take ALL that God says into account (as God Himself did when He spoke it).
In this, sadly, many fall short. Many approach a verse, not on its' own merits, but on the merits of what they already think and seek to fit into an already existing theological system. Many do this "innocently", being of the mindset that they already understand the truth, and this verse "must" fit in with with what they already know.
Certainly, this is often so, perhaps even often so. But it is not ALWAYS so. As those charged with seeing to it that we properly understand the passage that we are reading; it lies to us to be sure that we are careful to see that we do, indeed arrive at the proper conclusions concerning that meaning.
The only way to securely do so is to give ourselves over to the “normal” interpretation of the Scripture. What we mean by this, is to allow the Scripture to simply mean what it says. It is not our purpose here to go into a discussion of how to deal with figures of speech, etc., but rather, it is our desire to underscore the truth that this is the only way that we can be sure that we are secure in holding on to what the Scripture actually says and not coming up with a figment of our own imaginations.
In that way, when we come to passages such as this one, that seem to contradict other passages, we can rest in the assurance that it is God Who has placed them before us and not man. We can be certain, then, that the “conflicting” ideas are there for a reason. Our responsibility with regard to the particular passage in view then becomes the searching out of that reason. Why is it that God would say one thing in one place and seemingly another thing altogether in another place? Of course, there is at least one reason - that is, the demonstration of His larger purpose for the entire nation of Israel.
Whereas God certainly had a desire, a fervent desire, to be involved with many individuals within the nation of Israel as time passed by in Israel's history; He also had a larger purpose that he was pursuing with regard to his dealing with the nation as a unit. These two purposes were neither mutually exclusive, nor contradictory. This is the only fashion in which we can make any sense of these kinds of passages. Otherwise, we end up being forced, like many "expositors" into the declaration that the Bible contradicts itself, or other such foolish conclusions.
We must take great care to allow the Bible to simply say what it says, and be sure that, neither our presuppositions, nor the overwhelming "background noise" of our fallen nature to crowd out the truth that it declares to us. To fail to do so means that we fail to hear the Scriptures message. And to fail to hear the Scriptures message, means that we fail to hear the message of God! We don’t get to make it up as we go along…
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