Rejected Promises

Bear in mind that this promised by Jeremiah was in the very last days of the kingdom of Judah, for Jeremiah did not begin to prophesy till “the days of Josiah the son of Amon,” ^{3Jeremiah 1:2.} in the thirteenth year of his reign, only twenty-one years before the beginning of the Babylonian captivity. Before Jeremiah began to prophesy, nearly all the prophets had finished their labours, and passed away. The prophecies of Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, Micah, and others—all the principal prophets—were in the hands of the people before Jeremiah was born. This is a fact that should by no means be overlooked, for it is most important. In those prophecies are many promises of the restoration of Jerusalem, all of which might have been fulfilled if the people had given heed. But like all God’s promises, they were in Christ; they pertained, like the one before us, to eternity, and not simply to time. But since the people of those days did not accept them they remain equally fresh for us. They could be fulfilled only by the coming of the Lord, for whom we are now looking. Those prophecies contain the Gospel for this time, just as surely as do the books of Matthew and John and the Epistles.EVCO 460.2