The Holy City, Uncontainable Text: Jeremiah 31:38-40
Introduction: Whose City?
We live in an age of profound geographical confusion. I am not talking about an inability to read maps, though there is plenty of that. I am talking about a spiritual confusion, a theological misplacement of where the action is. For many, particularly our dispensationalist friends, the center of God's redemptive map is a small strip of land in the Middle East, and the climax of history is the rebuilding of a physical temple in a physical city. They read a passage like this one in Jeremiah and their minds immediately fly to news headlines about modern Israel, blueprints for a third temple, and a very complicated end-times flowchart.
But this is a fundamental misreading of the Bible's own storyline. It is to prefer the shadow to the substance, the blueprint to the building, the love letter to the Bride. The New Testament is abundantly clear that the Old Covenant signposts were all pointing to Jesus Christ and His body, the Church. The true temple is Christ's body, and by extension, the Church (John 2:21, 1 Cor. 3:16). The true Israel is the commonwealth of all who are in Christ by faith (Gal. 6:16). And the true Jerusalem is the heavenly one, the mother of us all, which is the Church of the living God (Gal. 4:26, Heb. 12:22).
Jeremiah, standing in the rubble and ruin of the old Jerusalem, prophesying its coming destruction, is given a vision that leaps over the centuries. He is not just predicting the post-exilic reconstruction under Nehemiah, though that was a down payment on the promise. He is not predicting a future millennial kingdom with a rebuilt city for ethnic Jews. He is prophesying the glorious, unstoppable, and ever-expanding city of God, the New Covenant community, the Church. This passage is about the spiritual geography of the gospel. It is a promise that the Kingdom of Christ would not be a restoration of the old, cramped, and ultimately defiled city, but an entirely new kind of city, one that expands to sanctify and claim even the most unclean places for God.
This is a postmillennial promise. It is a vision of the successful gospel. It is a declaration that the city of God will not be contained by old boundaries, but will push its walls outward, relentlessly, until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. And it will do so by making holy what was once profane.
The Text
"Behold, days are coming," declares Yahweh, "when the city will be rebuilt for Yahweh from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. The measuring line will go out farther, straight ahead to the hill Gareb; then it will turn to Goah. And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to Yahweh; it will not be uprooted or pulled down anymore forever."
(Jeremiah 31:38-40 LSB)
A City Rebuilt for Yahweh (v. 38)
The promise begins with a declaration of divine initiative and purpose.
"Behold, days are coming," declares Yahweh, "when the city will be rebuilt for Yahweh from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate." (Jeremiah 31:38)
Notice first who is doing the rebuilding. It is Yahweh. This is not a human project. The "days are coming" are the days of the New Covenant which Jeremiah has just so gloriously described (Jer. 31:31-34). This is the era of the Spirit, the age of the Messiah. The city is not rebuilt by political maneuvering or military might, but by the declaration of the Lord. This is the same power that said, "Let there be light." God speaks, and His city rises.
And for whom is it built? It is rebuilt "for Yahweh." This is not a monument to ethnic pride or nationalistic ambition. It is a city whose purpose is the glory of God. It is a holy habitation. This immediately lifts the prophecy out of the realm of mere geopolitics and into the realm of worship. The city is a sanctuary. It is the place where God dwells with His people.
The boundaries mentioned, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate, describe the northern and western limits of Jerusalem in Nehemiah's time. This gives the prophecy a historical anchor. Yes, there was a physical fulfillment after the exile. God keeps His promises on the installment plan. But this physical rebuilding was just a type, a shadow of the greater reality to come. It was a black-and-white photograph of the full-color reality that would be inaugurated at Pentecost. The city that began to be rebuilt "for Yahweh" on that day was not made of stone and mortar, but of living stones, with Christ as the chief cornerstone (1 Peter 2:5).
This city, the Church, is the true Jerusalem. Paul tells us that the "Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother" (Gal. 4:26). When we gather for worship, we "have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 12:22). This is not some far-off, ethereal reality. It is the spiritual reality we inhabit now by faith. Jeremiah is prophesying the establishment and growth of this very city, the Church.
The Expanding Borders (v. 39)
The next verse shows us that this new city will not be content with the old, familiar borders.
"The measuring line will go out farther, straight ahead to the hill Gareb; then it will turn to Goah." (Jeremiah 31:39)
The measuring line in Scripture is an instrument of divine purpose and ownership. When God measures something, He is claiming it for Himself (Ezek. 40, Rev. 11:1). Here, the line doesn't just restore the old boundaries; it goes "out farther." This is the language of expansion, of growth, of kingdom advance. This is the Great Commission in architectural terms. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations." The measuring line of the gospel is to go out from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
The specific locations, Gareb and Goah, are uncertain to us today, but the theological point is crystal clear. They were outside the traditional walls of the city. What was formerly outside the camp, outside the realm of holiness, is now being measured and brought inside. The gospel pushes the boundaries. It doesn't just rebuild; it enlarges. It doesn't just restore; it conquers.
This is a direct refutation of any pessimistic, defeatist eschatology that sees the church as a tiny, shrinking remnant huddled in a corner, waiting for a secret rapture. That is not the vision of the prophets. The vision is of a measuring line going out, farther and farther, claiming new territory for Christ. The history of the Church, for all its warts and failures, is the story of this measuring line going out from a handful of disciples in an upper room to every continent on earth. And the work is not yet done.
Sanctifying the Unclean (v. 40)
This final verse is the most stunning part of the prophecy. It shows us the nature of the city's expansion. It expands by radical, holy transformation.
"And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to Yahweh..." (Jeremiah 31:40)
Let the weight of this sink in. "The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes" is almost certainly a reference to the Valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna. This was the city dump. It was a place of perpetual fire, where rubbish was burned. But it was more than that. It was a place of profound defilement, the site of the horrific Molech worship where apostate Israelites had sacrificed their own children in the fire (Jer. 7:31). It was the most cursed, unclean, and horrific place imaginable. It was the Old Testament symbol for hell itself.
And what does God say He will do with this place? He will make it "holy to Yahweh." This is the gospel. This is the power of the resurrection. The gospel does not simply avoid the unclean places; it invades them, conquers them, and consecrates them to God. The city of God expands by taking the Valley of Hinnom, the very emblem of death and judgment, and making it part of the holy city.
Think of what this means. It means the gospel is for the worst of sinners. It means no person, no family, no culture is beyond the sanctifying reach of the grace of God. The Church grows by taking those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, those who are spiritual Gehennas, and making them holy unto the Lord. The fields of idolatry, the valleys of our deepest shame, the places of death, are precisely the territories that the measuring line of the gospel is meant to claim and sanctify.
An Indestructible Kingdom
The prophecy concludes with a promise of ultimate and final victory.
"...it will not be uprooted or pulled down anymore forever." (Jeremiah 31:40)
The old city, the physical Jerusalem, was uprooted and pulled down repeatedly. It was sacked by Babylon, desecrated by Antiochus, and ultimately flattened by the Romans in A.D. 70. Its history is one of failure and judgment because it was part of the old covenant that was destined to fade away.
But this new city, this spiritual Jerusalem, the Church of Jesus Christ, comes with an eternal guarantee. It will not be uprooted. It will not be pulled down. Jesus Himself promised it: "I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). The gates of Gehenna, the very valley of death and ashes, cannot withstand the advance of Christ's kingdom.
This is a promise of the church's ultimate and glorious triumph in history, before the final return of Christ. It will not be pulled down. Empires will rise and fall. Ideologies will come and go. Tyrants will rage and then be buried. But the city of God, the Church, will continue its relentless, Spirit-empowered expansion. Its walls will encompass the valleys of death, its fields will stretch to the ends of the earth, and it will stand forever, holy to the Lord.
Conclusion: Citizens of an Expanding City
So what does this mean for us? It means we must get our spiritual geography straight. Our hope is not in the restoration of a physical city in the Middle East. Our hope is in the King of the true Jerusalem, Jesus Christ, and the expansion of His indestructible kingdom, the Church.
We are citizens of this city. And as citizens, we are also its builders, its soldiers, and its surveyors. We are the ones who carry the measuring line of the gospel. Every time we share the good news with a neighbor, we are extending the boundaries of the holy city. Every time we raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, we are building up the walls. Every time we apply the lordship of Christ to a new area of life, to business, to art, to education, we are taking the cursed ground of the Valley of Hinnom and making it holy to the Lord.
This is our task. This is our destiny. We are part of a project that cannot fail. The city is being rebuilt for Yahweh. The measuring line is going out farther. The unclean places are being made holy. And this city will never, ever be pulled down. Let us therefore live as confident citizens of this unconquerable city, and give our lives to extending its borders for the glory of our King.