Bring Them Home
October 17 Jeremiah 30:1-31:26
Object Lessons That Demand Obedience
Bring Them Home
“God on high. Hear my prayer. In my need, You have always been there. He is young. He’s afraid. Let him rest. Heaven bless. Bring him home.” (Bring Him Home, Les Miserable)
I just finished listening to the song, “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables with Hugh Jackman. Oh my goodness! If you just want to push “Pause” right now on this devotional, I suggest you just sit in the middle of that song and take it in for just a moment… or hit rewind, like me, a few times! If you have read my writings before you probably have guessed that I love music and musicals and this musical is at the top of my list because of its powerful message.
Perhaps you may wonder about the meaning of the lyrics of this song. Hugh Jackman is playing the part of Jean Valjean, the man who needs redemption and he sings this song as a prayer for a young man named Marius. Cosette was an orphan who Jean Valjean had cared for and she fell in love with young Marius. He wants her happiness more than his own and would trade his life for Marius’ life. Young Marius had participated in anti-government riots and this had put his life and their relationship in an awkward position.
“You can take. You can give. Let him be. Let him live. If I die, let me die. Let him live. Bring him home.” (Bring Him Home, Les Miserable)
Do you understand why this song touches my heartstrings as I read this passage today?
Here is what the LORD says, “Your injury is incurable-- a terrible wound… No medicine can heal you.” (30:12-13)
They are in exile, like young Marius, away from their homeland and love, but God says of his people, “In the days to come you will understand all this.” (30:24)
How can they understand their judgment, captivity, and homecoming?
“Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself. I will rebuild you, MY VIRGIN ISRAEL. You will again be happy and dance merrily with your tambourines. Again you will plant your vineyard on the mountains of Samaria and eat from your own gardens there. The day will come when watchmen will shout from the hill country of Ephraim, ‘Come, let us go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord our God.” (31:3-6)
Did you catch what he called this rebel nation that had been unfaithful repeatedly? In previous verses, they were called “prostitutes and whores” because they continually gave themselves to IDOLS physically, sexually, mentally, and emotionally.
But now he calls them, “My Virgin Israel”.
Interesting that they are now made “clean and pure in His sight again”. How can this be when they have lived now for 70 years among unclean, unkosher, non-Jewish people?
Interesting that Jesus was born of a Virgin...
We are now in the second act in a message greater than any seen on Broadway, and the feeling of doom is beginning to lift and the music is changing to a major key. Something grander than the people can begin to imagine is coming to light…”In the days to come, you will understand.”
“The day is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will make A NEW COVENANT with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.
“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the LORD. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the LORD. ‘For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already.” says the Lord, “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” (Jeremiah 31: 31-34)
Tomorrow, we will ponder all of the rich prophecies that are jam-packed in this passage.
God is sharing a word with His broken, exiled people that is beyond their comprehension. He is talking about much more than just their return to their homeland as a Remnant.
“He is like the son I might have known. If God had granted me a son. The summers die. One by one. How soon they fly. On and On….Bring him peace. Bring him joy. He is young. He is only a boy. You can take. You can give. Let him be. Let him live. If I die, let me die. Let him live. Bring him home.” (Bring Him Home, Les Miserable)
The young man, Marius, was not the actual son of the main character, but Jean Valjean was willing to lay down his life to bring this son home for because of his deep love for the orphan under his care, Cosette. And, so he sang and prayed, “God on high. Hear my prayer. In my need. You have always been there.”
I love this picture of redemption in this musical because it is a small glimpse of what God really does for his people. He steps in to take their place and says, “Bring Them Home”.
