The New Exodus and the Global Name Text: Jeremiah 16:14-21
Introduction: The Bankruptcy of Inherited Lies
Every man, every culture, and every nation is defined by a story. The story we tell ourselves about where we came from determines where we believe we are going. Our modern secular age tells a particularly thin and miserable story. It is a story of accidental origins, of cosmic chance, of life clawing its way out of the primordial muck for no reason at all. And because the beginning of the story is meaningless, the end of the story must also be meaningless. The best we can do is invent our own meaning, make up our own gods, and construct our own flimsy identities. We are told to "be true to ourselves," which is simply another way of saying, "worship the god you just invented."
But this is nothing new. This is the ancient lie of idolatry dressed up in the lab coat of scientism. It is the lie that our fathers inherited, and it is a lie that has left us spiritually bankrupt. The prophet Jeremiah speaks into a similar situation. The people of Judah had forgotten their story. They had forgotten the name of their God. They had traded the glorious story of the Exodus for the cheap, detestable stories of their pagan neighbors. They filled God's inheritance with the carcasses of their abominations.
And into this darkness, God makes a staggering promise. He promises a work of redemption so vast, so glorious, that it will completely redefine their story. He promises a new Exodus that will eclipse the old one. And the purpose of this great work, which involves both judgment and salvation, is singular: that the whole world, from the ends of the earth, might know His name. This passage is not a sentimental platitude; it is a declaration of God's global intentions. He is in the business of making His name known, and He will succeed.
The Text
"Therefore behold, days are coming," declares Yahweh, "when it will no longer be said, 'As Yahweh lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' but, 'As Yahweh lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had banished them.' For I will return them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.
"Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen," declares Yahweh, "and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the crevices of the rocks. For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes. I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin because they have profaned My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations."
O Yahweh, my strength and my strong defense, And my refuge in the day of distress, To You the nations will come From the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, Futility and things of no profit." Can man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods!
"Therefore behold, I am going to make them know, This time I will make them know My power and My might; And they shall know that My name is Yahweh."
(Jeremiah 16:14-21 LSB)
An Eclipse of Glory (vv. 14-15)
We begin with a promise that should take our breath away.
"Therefore behold, days are coming," declares Yahweh, "when it will no longer be said, 'As Yahweh lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' but, 'As Yahweh lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had banished them.' For I will return them to their own land which I gave to their fathers." (Jeremiah 16:14-15)
For Israel, the Exodus from Egypt was everything. It was the central, defining act of redemption in their history. It was the event that constituted them as a nation. Their calendar, their feasts, their laws, their identity, it was all rooted in the fact that Yahweh had brought them out of the house of bondage. The oath, "As Yahweh lives," was tied directly to this mighty act. To swear by the God who brought them out of Egypt was to swear by the God of covenant power and faithfulness.
And here, God says that He is going to do something so magnificent that it will overshadow even that. The new act of redemption will be so comprehensive, so global, that the deliverance from Egypt will become the lesser miracle. The return from Babylon was a down payment on this promise, a foretaste. But the ultimate fulfillment is not the return of a remnant to a geographical location; it is the New Covenant established by Jesus Christ. The true "land of the north" and "all the lands" is the kingdom of darkness, ruled by Satan. The true New Exodus is the deliverance of God's people, Jew and Gentile alike, from the bondage of sin and death through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This is a profoundly optimistic, postmillennial promise. The work of Christ in gathering His people from every tribe, tongue, and nation is the great story of history. It is a work that is far grander than the deliverance of one ethnic group from one tyrant. This is the story that redefines all other stories.
The Inescapable Dragnet (vv. 16-18)
But before this glorious restoration, there must be a reckoning. God's methods are thorough.
"Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen," declares Yahweh, "and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the crevices of the rocks." (Jeremiah 16:16 LSB)
This is a dual metaphor of inescapable sovereignty. God will send agents to accomplish His purposes, and no one will escape His notice. On the one hand, this speaks of a gracious gathering. Jesus Himself picks up this imagery when He calls His disciples, saying, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). The gospel goes out like a great dragnet, gathering people into the kingdom. This is the work of evangelism.
But there is another side to it. After the fishermen come the hunters. This is the language of judgment. For those who reject the gracious call, there is no hiding place. God's judgment is as meticulous as His grace. You cannot hide from God in the mountains or in the crevices of the rocks. His eyes see everything. As verse 17 says, "My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes." This is either a great terror or a great comfort. For the man trying to hide his sin, the omniscience of God is a horror. For the believer whose sins have been covered by the blood of Christ, it is a comfort to know that our God sees all and will bring all things to a just conclusion.
And the judgment is just. "I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin" (v. 18). This is not God being vindictive; it is the principle of righteous restitution. The land, which is God's inheritance, has been profaned by idolatry. They have treated God's holy things as common and have filled His land with spiritual filth. A full payment is required. This should drive us to the cross, for it was there that the Lord Jesus Christ received the "double repayment" for our iniquity and sin. The full measure of God's righteous wrath against our idolatry was poured out upon Him, so that we could be forgiven.
The Global Confession (vv. 19-20)
Jeremiah, having heard this promise of judgment and restoration, responds with a burst of prophetic worship that extends to the ends of the earth.
"O Yahweh, my strength and my strong defense, And my refuge in the day of distress, To You the nations will come From the ends of the earth and say, 'Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, Futility and things of no profit.'" (Jeremiah 16:19 LSB)
This is the intended result of the New Exodus. It is not just for the benefit of Israel, but for the salvation of the world. The prophet sees a day when the Gentiles, the nations, will stream to Yahweh. And what is the content of their confession? It is a total repudiation of their ancestral heritage. They will look back at their entire cultural and religious history and declare it to be a fraud. "Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies."
This is what true conversion looks like on a cultural scale. It is not simply adding Jesus to the pantheon of existing gods. It is the public confession that all other gods are futility and vanity. This is the goal of the Great Commission. We are to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that Christ commanded, which necessarily includes teaching them to abandon the lies they have inherited. Whether the idol is Baal, or materialism, or the autonomous self, it is a lie of no profit.
Jeremiah then asks a rhetorical question dripping with divine sarcasm: "Can man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods!" (v. 20). The folly of idolatry is that man, a creature, attempts to create his own creator. He fashions a god out of wood or stone or a philosophical system, and then bows down to the work of his own hands and mind. It is absurd. And the gospel exposes this absurdity for all to see.
The Ultimate Revelation (v. 21)
The entire historical process of judgment, restoration, and global mission has one ultimate purpose, which God states plainly in the final verse.
"Therefore behold, I am going to make them know, This time I will make them know My power and My might; And they shall know that My name is Yahweh." (Jeremiah 16:21 LSB)
The goal of all things is the knowledge of God. Not a dry, academic knowledge, but a deep, personal, experiential knowledge of who He is. God is going to "make them know." This is a sovereign act. He will reveal His "power and His might" through His acts in history, culminating in the death and resurrection of His Son. And through this, they will know His name.
His name is Yahweh. This is the covenant name of God. It is the name He revealed to Moses at the burning bush. It means "I AM WHO I AM." He is the self-existent, eternal, promise-keeping God. He is the God who is, who was, and who is to come. To know His name is to know His character. The entire drama of redemption is designed by God to put His own character, His own glory, His own name, on display for all the world to see.
And how do we know this name today? We know it in the face of Jesus Christ. The name Jesus, or Yeshua, means "Yahweh saves." In Jesus, the power, the might, and the covenant faithfulness of Yahweh are made flesh. To know Jesus is to know the name of Yahweh. The purpose of history is that the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh, as revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
Conclusion
We are living in the days of this New Exodus. The fishermen have been sent out, and the gospel dragnet is gathering men and women from every nation. The nations are, in fact, coming to Christ and confessing that their fathers inherited lies. The power and might of God have been definitively displayed at the empty tomb.
Therefore, our task is to participate in this great work. We are to be the agents of this revelation. We must proclaim the name of Yahweh as He is revealed in His Son, Jesus. We must call all men everywhere to repent of their inherited lies and to turn to the only one who is our strength, our strong defense, and our refuge in the day of trouble. We do not do this with uncertainty. We do this with the sure and certain confidence that God is accomplishing His purpose. He is making His name known, and one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And all His people shall know, with an unshakeable certainty, that His name is Yahweh.