FUTURE AND PRESENT

“So do not be afraid, O Jacob my servant; do not be dismayed, O Israel,” declares the LORD. “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.” —Jeremiah 30:10

What we believe about the future is not only about the future; it must also shape and transform the present. This promise from God that Jeremiah delivered to the people pointed to a time when the people of Israel would again enjoy the land God had given them and would have peace and security. For Jacob and his descendants, it would be a time when “no one will make him afraid.” This is the future without fear promised throughout the Bible.

There is also an element in these promises that addresses God’s proximity. In many religions and mythologies of the time, gods were linked to a particular location, and their power was often understood as being limited to that place. However, God reassured His people that wherever they might be exiled, He would still remember them.

He could still reach them, and they need not fear that He might not be able to bring them home, even from the most distant lands. Across however many generations and across whatever distances, the power of the God of Israel would be undiminished. But while the promises were written in the future tense, the commands were written in the present: “So do not be afraid . . . do not be dismayed.” Like the instructions given to John at the beginning of Revelation, God instructed Jeremiah to write down His promises so they could be heard again by future generations (see Jeremiah 30:1–3). And because God had given His promise to act in the future and even put it in writing, the responses of the people in the present would be different, more assured, and less fearful.