The Pleasant Sleep of a Restored People Text: Jeremiah 31:23-26
Introduction: The Weeping Prophet's Golden Age
Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet, and for good reason. His ministry was one of tears, turmoil, and treason charges. He was called by God to preach judgment to a people whose necks were as stiff as iron and whose hearts were as hard as stone. He watched his beloved nation spiral into apostasy and then get dragged off into the chains of Babylonian exile. He saw the temple of God, the center of their world, reduced to a pile of rubble. If anyone had a reason to be a pessimist about the future, it was Jeremiah.
And yet, in the middle of this book, which is so full of lament and woe, we find this section, Jeremiah 30 through 33, often called the Book of Consolation. And right in the heart of that, we find chapter 31, which contains what I have called the largest gold nugget in the Old Testament, the promise of the New Covenant. But surrounding that glorious promise are other, related promises. They are not disconnected. They are descriptions of what the world looks like when God fulfills His covenant promises. They are pictures of the future that God is building.
Our modern evangelical sensibilities have been trained to be allergic to this kind of thing. We are taught to expect defeat. We are told that the world is going to get worse and worse, and our only job is to hunker down in the lifeboats and wait for the rapture helicopter to pull us out of the mess. But this is not the vision of the prophets. The prophets, and Jeremiah is a prime example, consistently preached a pattern of judgment followed by a glorious restoration. Not just a spiritual, ethereal, invisible restoration in the sweet by-and-by, but a tangible, historical, cultural restoration on the ground. A restoration that involves cities and farms, flocks and families, righteousness and rest. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Jeremiah wept through the night of judgment, but he saw the morning of the new covenant coming, and it was a bright morning indeed.
This passage is a dream God gave to the prophet. It is a vision of what happens when God turns the fortunes of His people. It is a picture of Christendom. It is a portrait of the world successfully evangelized. And it is a promise that should make our own sleep as pleasant as Jeremiah's was.
The Text
Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Once again they will speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities when I return their fortunes, 'Yahweh bless you, O abode of righteousness, O holy hill!' And Judah and all its cities will inhabit it together, the farmer and they who go about with flocks. For I satisfy the weary soul and fill up every soul who wastes away." At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.
(Jeremiah 31:23-26 LSB)
Restored Speech in a Restored Land (v. 23)
We begin with the result of God's restorative action.
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Once again they will speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities when I return their fortunes, "Yahweh bless you, O abode of righteousness, O holy hill!"'" (Jeremiah 31:23)
Notice the first thing that is restored. It is their speech. "Once again they will speak this word." Before, their mouths were full of idolatry, murmuring, and lies. In judgment, their mouths were full of groaning and lament. But in the restoration, their speech is transformed. It becomes speech of blessing. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and when God restores the fortunes of His people, He gives them new hearts, hearts that overflow with blessing.
And what is this blessing? "Yahweh bless you, O abode of righteousness, O holy hill!" This is a blessing spoken over Jerusalem, over Mount Zion. But it is not just a geographical location. It is a description of the character of the place. It is called an "abode of righteousness." The foundation of all true prosperity, all true restoration, is righteousness. When God's law is honored, when His justice is administered, when His truth is cherished, then the land becomes a habitation of righteousness. This is not some vague spiritual sentiment. It has to do with how business is conducted, how families are ordered, how rulers govern. Social order flows from theological order.
It is also called the "holy hill." Holiness means to be set apart, consecrated to God. This is a picture of a society dedicated to the true worship of the true God. When a people turn from their idols and consecrate their common life to Yahweh, He restores their fortunes. This is the cultural mandate in action. The New Covenant, which Jeremiah announces just a few verses later, is the engine of this transformation. When God writes His law on the hearts of His people, it doesn't just stay inside them. It works its way out into their families, their businesses, their cities, and their culture. The promise is for the land of Judah and its cities. This is not a promise of retreat into a monastery; it is a promise of sanctified civilization.
Restored Society and Vocation (v. 24)
The vision of restoration extends from the capital city to the entire social fabric.
"And Judah and all its cities will inhabit it together, the farmer and they who go about with flocks." (Jeremiah 31:24 LSB)
Here we see the fruit of righteousness: unity and productive peace. "Judah and all its cities will inhabit it together." The exile had scattered them. Sin had fractured their society. But grace brings them together. This is a picture of social cohesion. The gospel doesn't just save individuals in isolation; it creates a people, a community, a body.
And notice who is highlighted in this restored community: "the farmer and they who go about with flocks." This is not an accident. Jeremiah is showing us that God's restoration is not just for priests and prophets. It is for the common man. It is for those engaged in the fundamental, creational tasks of subduing the earth. Farming and shepherding are basic, foundational vocations. They represent a stable, productive, rooted society. When God blesses a land, the farmers are secure on their land, and the shepherds can move with their flocks without fear of marauders. This is a picture of economic stability and peace. It is the opposite of the chaos and disruption that their sin had brought upon them.
This is a profoundly earthy vision. It's about agriculture and animal husbandry. It's about cities and countryside living in harmony. This is what postmillennialism is all about. It is the belief that the gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful enough to work its way down into the soil of a culture and produce this kind of fruit before the final consummation. The Great Commission is not a plan for a fighting retreat; it is a blueprint for the Christianization of the nations, resulting in societies where farmers and shepherds can do their work in peace and prosperity, to the glory of God.
The Source of Restoration: Divine Satisfaction (v. 25)
Jeremiah then gives the reason for this profound transformation. It is not the result of a better political program or a new economic theory. It is a direct, supernatural work of God.
"For I satisfy the weary soul and fill up every soul who wastes away." (Jeremiah 31:25 LSB)
Sin is exhausting. Rebellion against God wears you out. The pursuit of idols leaves you empty. The people in exile were weary and wasting away. They were spiritually, emotionally, and physically depleted. And God's promise is simple: "I satisfy... I fill up."
This is the heart of the gospel. Man is born with a God-shaped void in his heart, and he tries to stuff it with everything but God. The result is weariness and a wasting away. The soul that is not fed on the bread of life will starve. But God, in His grace, intervenes. He gives what we cannot earn or find on our own. He gives satisfaction. He gives fullness.
This is what Jesus was talking about when He said, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). This rest, this satisfaction, is the internal reality that produces the external results we saw in the previous verses. A society becomes an "abode of righteousness" when it is populated by souls who have found their satisfaction in God. Farmers and shepherds dwell together in peace when they are no longer striving and competing in the wearying rat race of idolatry, but are instead filled up with the goodness of God. The weary soul is the soul under the curse. The satisfied soul is the soul under grace. And grace has cultural consequences.
The Prophet's Sweet Sleep (v. 26)
The passage concludes with Jeremiah's personal response to this divine revelation.
"At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me." (Jeremiah 31:26 LSB)
This is a wonderful, human touch. The weeping prophet, who had so many sleepless nights grieving for his people, is given a vision of the future so glorious, so certain, so full of hope, that it gives him a good night's sleep. This is not a small thing. Anxiety, fear, and despair are thieves of sleep. But a sure and certain hope in the promises of God is a soothing balm to the soul.
This should be a diagnostic question for us. Does our eschatology, our doctrine of the future, make our sleep pleasant? If your vision of the future is one of doom, gloom, decline, and the inevitable triumph of evil until a last-minute rescue, then it is no wonder if you are filled with anxiety. That is not a pleasant dream; it is a nightmare. It is the eschatology of the evening news.
But if you believe what the prophet was shown, that God is in the business of returning the fortunes of His people, that the gospel is the power of God to transform not just individuals but cities and nations, that righteousness and peace will flourish where Christ is honored, then you can rest. You can work hard during the day, planting the seeds of the kingdom, and then you can lie down at night and have a pleasant sleep, knowing that God is the one who gives the increase. You can rest because you know that history is not a random series of unfortunate events, but a story written by a sovereign God, and it has a happy ending, not just after the last page, but leading up to it.
Conclusion: From Weariness to Pleasant Rest
This vision given to Jeremiah is not just for ancient Judah. Through Christ, we are the Israel of God. These promises of restoration are for us. We live in a weary world. Our culture is wasting away, chasing after every exhausting vanity imaginable. We see the fracturing, the chaos, the decay that sin always brings.
And the temptation is to despair. The temptation is to weep, as Jeremiah did, and to see no hope. But God shows us this future to fuel our work and to give us rest. The promise is that God will satisfy the weary soul. That work begins in us, when we come to Christ and find our rest in Him. But it does not end there. As God fills us up, we become agents of His restoration in the world. We speak words of blessing. We work to build abodes of righteousness. We carry out our vocations, whether as farmers or software engineers, in a way that contributes to a peaceful and productive society.
We are called to live in such a way that demonstrates the reality of this coming restoration. Our churches should be outposts of this "holy hill," communities so saturated with grace that they are an "abode of righteousness." Our families should be places where weary souls find satisfaction in Christ. And our vision for the world should not be one of cowering retreat, but of confident advance, knowing that Yahweh of hosts has promised to return the fortunes of His people.
When we grasp this, when we truly believe that our God is a God of glorious, comprehensive restoration, then we too can look at the turmoil of our times, and then look to the promises of God, and find that our sleep is pleasant to us. For we know that our labor in the Lord is not in vain, and that His kingdom will come, and His will shall be done, on earth as it is in heaven.