The Pulpit Commentary on Jeremiah 31:6

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The unity of the Church.

Ephraim represented the ten tribes of Israel, and Jerusalem the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the sections of the divided kingdom. In days to come this division was to be healed, as the "watchmen" or prophets of Israel would lead their people to the temple at Jerusalem.

I. THE IMPORTANCE OF UNITY AMONGST GOD'S PEOPLE IS SHOWN BY THE PROMINENCE GIVEN TO IT IN THIS PROPHECY. Dissension and strife between the followers of truth is not only an unseemly spectacle, it is productive of misery and ruin. Judah and the ten tribes were too jealous of one another to unite in works of defence or internal administration. The rival temples of Gerizim and Jerusalem were mischievous in their influence, and, as time would accentuate differences, there would be danger of the common truth being forgotten. The unity of the Church must ever be important to those whose hearts are filled with the love of God. Christ's prayer (John 17:21) shows how dear the thought is to the purest and best. The children of God should be bound together in the closest bends of sympathy and love. Only thus will their efforts to evangelize the world be successful, and the glory of the kingdom of God be realized on earth.

II. BY WHAT INFLUENCES WAS IT TO BE BROUGHT ABOUT? That there were various causes tending to this result is evident to every student of sacred history. But chief amongst these were:

1. The events of providence, by which they discovered, amidst exile and misery, a common brotherhood and faith, and attained to:

2. A more intense spiritual aim and life. The desire to meet with God overcame all prejudice and difference, and revealed the true unity of Israel. The nearer they were to God the nearer they became to one another, and the more they delighted in assembling together (Ezra 3:1; Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2).

3. God was to manifest himself in the person of his Son at Jerusalem. To the temple, then, all eyes were increasingly turned as the appointed time drew on.

4. Through Christ's connection with the temple, local holy places were abolished, and men sought God through him. (John 4:21.)—M.

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