Jeremiah 30:5-7 – Great Day!

5 “For thus says the Lord:

‘We have heard a voice of trembling,
Of fear, and not of peace.
6
Ask now, and see,
Whether a man is ever in labor with child?
So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins
Like a woman in labor,
And all faces turned pale?
7
Alas! For that day is great,
So that none is like it;
And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble,
But he shall be saved out of it.

 Spurgeon surveys in his masterful sermon, "The Parable of the Ark," the levels of faith within the redeemed community, comparing them to levels on the great boat. He introduces us, "There is my poor mourning brother who lives in the bottom story. He is always singing— 'Lord, what a wretched land is this!'  He lives just near the keel, on the bare ribs of the ark. He is never very happy. At times a little light reaches him from the window, but generally he is so far from the light that he walks in darkness and sees very little, indeed. His state is that of constant groaning—he loves to go and hear 'the corruption preachers.'

He  revels  with  delight  in  the  deep  experience  of  the  tried  family  of  God.  He  likes  to  hear  it  said,  “We must, through much tribulation, enter into the Kingdom of God.” If you paint the Christian life as a very gloomy one, he will like your picture, for his is gloomy, indeed. He is always poring over texts such as this, “O, wretched man that I am!” He is down in the lower story of the ark. But never mind—he is in the ark, so we will not scold him, though he has little faith and very much doubt."

This man, of course, though he dread the future, propagates many heirs into it. We see his like in Jeremiah 30:5-7. As with the ark, God is bringing about what is new, this time through the upheaval of the exile. As with Spurgeon's reluctant passenger, the conventional wisdom upon which the Godhead picks up is not of faith-filled anticipation but of gripping anxiety, so gripping that the Spirit's inspired words like in the experience of it to a man in labor. The travail of transition dominates this man's expression. It even takes hold of his hands, used for futile self-soothing rather than gripped to focus attention and effort on what he gets to take part in.

From such a vantage point, the man practiced in lamenting his little faith, whether he be at the bottom of the ark or consumed in unprecedented labor, isn't able to reserve part of his heart and a portion of his words for what God might do. Alongside an acknowledgment of Jacob's trouble, though, the Spirit gives depth with a view from both eyes in Jeremiah 30:7. We see the verdict of the flesh: I am not enough. The Lord may get me close, but I am not equipped to bring redemption to pass. But we also see the verdict of faith. The Spirit says this is a great, unprecedented day.

He challenges us, then, whatever our viewpoint, whatever our experience, to count them but little when compared to the newness God can bring. Impressionable, softhearted, candid Jeremiah uses that word translated great 47 times in his prophetic work. Yes, some of them refer to the day of his country's downfall and conquering. Dread there is understandable. Others refer to great men, those with more power and standing than their contemporaries.

Our habit-acclimated nervous systems and outpouring vocabulary don't often distinguish between the two. When we experience something momentous, something out of the run of our common experience, something we can't score, lay odds on, and predict the next move of, we can quickly retreat to dread and anguish. 

These moments, brothers and sisters, simply reveal what was already true. We aren't in control. God is. Was His grace that gave any patterns of predictability to our experience beforehand, His nuanced love that grew us this far in the capacity to have SOME idea how life would unfold before us. Was our presumption that assumed it would ever be thus, and that great calamity outside of His care was upon us if our expectations were ever overrun.

Jeremiah 30:7 gives the final verdict to such provisional musings. What Jacob reckons as unduly trouble, and we with him, God can save us out of it. The salvation comes with the trouble, though we in our panicked, reptilian triage toward the preservation of our skin often see it not. It's grace alone that can give the verdict to our souls, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Even you in the bottom of the boat, even you as the dregs of the exile will see the extent of His lovingly provenient mercy.