“In those coming days,”
says the LORD,
“the people of Israel will return home
together with the people of Judah.
They will coming weeping
and seeking the LORD their God.
They will ask the way to Jerusalem
and will start back home again.
They will bind themselves to the LORD
with an eternal covenant that will never be forgotten.
For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day
when God will reveal who his children really are.
Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse.
But with eager hope, the creation looks forward
to the day when it will join God’s children
in glorious freedom from death and decay.
For we know that all creation has been groaning
as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
They will come home and sing songs of joy…
They will be radiant because of the LORD’s good gifts—
…and all their sorrows will be gone.
…I will turn their mourning into joy.
I will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing.
“…I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised,
and I will bring you home again.
For I know the plans I have for you,”
says the LORD.
“They are plans for good and not for disaster,
to give you a future and a hope.
In those days when you pray, I will listen.
If you look for me wholeheartedly,
you will find me.
I will be found by you”
says the LORD.
“…and will bring you home again…”
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.
For example,
we don’t know what God wants us to pray for.
But the Holy spirit prays for us with groanings
that cannot be expressed in words.
And the Father who knows all hearts
knows what the Spirit is saying,
for the Spirit pleads for us believers
in harmony with God’s own will.
I will watch over and care for them,
and I will bring them back here again.
I will build them up and not tear them down.
I will plant them and not uproot them.
I will give them hearts that recognize me as the LORD.
They will be my people,
and I will be their God,
for they will return to me wholeheartedly.
“Am I a God who is only close at hand?” says the LORD.
“No, I am far away at the same time.
Can anyone hide from me in a secret place?
Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?”
says the LORD.
“For the time is coming,”
says the LORD,
“when I will raise up a righteous descendant
from King David’s line.
He will be a King who rules with wisdom.
He will do what is just and right throughout the land.
And this will be his name:
‘The LORD is Our Righteousness.’
In that day Judah will be saved,
and Israel will live in safety.
God saved you by his grace when you believed.
And you can’t take credit for this;
it is a gift from God.
Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done,
so none of us can boast about it.
For we are God’s masterpiece.
He has created us anew in Christ Jesus,
so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
