Jeremiah 31:27-28
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and of animals. Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord.
Jeremiah in chapters 27-31 is outlining much of what will happen in the captivity of the nation of Israel. Even though God had told them, through Jeremiah, that He would banish them to Babylon to serve that king (God calls King Nebuchadnezzar, "My servant"), they would not believe God and would rebel against that prophesy. False prophets would contradict Jeremiah. Never-the-less, despite their continued rebellion, God, in His amazing grace, states the above passage through those same lips of Jeremiah. God had told them through Jeremiah they would be laden with the yoke of captivity; and, yet, He would bring them back in His great love. God is the God of Justice, but also of Grace. God is the God of discipline, but also the God of restoration. We might fail to obey Him and, in His love, He will discipline us. Yet, in that same love, as we see in the above passage, God will take what He removed and "build and plant." This is a great truth of the restoration of God. God only disciplines His children for the sake of restoring them. God sent His Son to restore us and give us new life in Christ. The purpose of God in our lives is to create us and recreate us into the image of Christ. Note what God tells the Corinthian believers through the lips of Paul:
2 Corinthians 3:18
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
We are being transformed into the image of Christ and anything that happens to us is for that glorious purpose. Only God can do that work and He uses many chisels to make that transformation happen. God is the God of transformation and we are simply clay in the Potter's hands. We, unlike the Israelites of old, need to rejoice in the captivity, because it will soon result in conformity to Christ.
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