Jeremiah 30

At the beginning of this chapter, God relates a distressing scene to Jeremiah: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Cries of fear are heard—terror, not peace. Ask and see: Can a man bear children? Then why do I see every strong man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor, every face turned deathly pale? How awful that day will be! No other will be like it.’” (vs 5-7)

When I went through my first pregnancy, I heard all the jokes about men and pregnancy. You know, if men got pregnant, maternity leave would last for two years with full pay… there’s be a cure for stretch marks… morning sickness would be the nation’s number one health problem… etc. So, perhaps every woman who’s had to endure a less-than-empathetic spouse during labor appreciated the beginning of this chapter.

God sees a day coming for His people when things will be so bad that even the men will be groaning as if in childbirth. And somehow I get the feeling that there will be no epidurals for whatever is causing the discomfort. Things will be bad. Yet, that’s not the end of the story: “‘In that day,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘I will break the yoke off their necks and will tear off their bonds.’” ( vs 8 )

In that day… it’s in our hour of dire need that God comes to our rescue. It’s just when we think things can’t get any worse that God arrives and shows us just how easy it is for Him to turn things around. It’s just when we think the end has come that God offers us a new beginning.

I think of the Israelites standing at the edge of the Red Sea, with the water stretched out in front of them and Pharaoh and the Egyptian army fast approaching from behind. To every fear-filled heart, it must have seemed hopeless. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to turn. They were trapped. They had yet to learn that they served a God who could make oceans stand at attention.

Is that a lesson we have yet to learn? Do we really know that our God is a rescuer? Do we really believe that just when things look most hopeless, God is able to save us? Here is one of the paradoxes of life with God: it is in the day of our most dire pain that we find our chains removed. It is in the most awful of times that God reaches down and frees us.

If you’re in dire straits today, hang on. Help is on the way. God is a rescuer, and there is nothing He can’t rescue you from: ”‘I am with you and will save you,’ declares the Lord.” (vs 11)