IN A DIFFERENT CONTEXT

“Do not be afraid, O Jacob my servant; do not be dismayed, O Israel. I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their exile. Jacob will again have peace and security, and no one will make him afraid. Do not fear, O Jacob my servant, for I am with you,” declares the LORD. —Jeremiah 46:27, 28

These verses echoed the message delivered earlier in Jeremiah 30:10, 11. The difference was the context in which the message was delivered.

This time, God was speaking to the people of Israel who had escaped to Egypt against Jeremiah’s direct warnings. Amid the looming Babylonian attack against Egypt, God still had His eyes on His people. While they had disobeyed Him and chose supposed Egyptian security over God’s care, God was yet compassionate. With the departure of this additional group of refugees and the subsequent defeat of their supposed place of safety, it would have seemed that Israel’s desolation was complete and final. But, because of God’s compassion and promises, the defeated, demoralized people of Israel had greater hope for a brighter future than the empires of either Babylon or Egypt that were then competing for domination.

“Though I completely destroy all the nations among which I scatter you, I will not completely destroy you” (Jeremiah 46:28). These powerful nations would become artifacts of history, but the people of God were yet to see their greatest prosperity.

As had been promised, God would bring their descendants back from exile, and they would enjoy peace in the land God had given them. God would return to them—and return them to their land again. Those promises were the basis of God’s “Do not be afraid” delivered to the people of Israel who had returned to Egypt despite the warnings and commands they had been given. Although it was a present reassurance and encouragement, this was another promise that pointed to the coming of the Messiah and a time when no one would make them afraid.