We are trying to understand time in prophecy. Many passages of prophecy could be used, but here we are going to use Jeremiah chapter 31 as sort of a prophecy laboratory. Jeremiah says that one day ALL the families of Israel will belong to the Lord. It is at a certain “time.”

“At that time, says Yahweh, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.” Jer 31:1 WEB

Jeremiah is speaking during the period of time when Israel and Judah were going into captivity into foreign countries and he says,

“Thus says Yahweh, The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.” Jer 31:2 WEB

Now because of the usages of Jeremiah 31 in Scripture, it should be nailed down that this is talking about the Jews, not just about the new and broader Israel of the New Covenant. So Paul quotes Jer 31:31 of the Jews in the book of Romans.

27 This is my covenant to them,
When I will take away their sins.”
28 Concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.
Rom 11:27-28 WEB.

So indeed we shall have to return to Jer 31:1 again, before this study is over. God says in Jer 31:3 that “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love …” WEB. God says in verse 7 that they should sing aloud with joy, and publish this good news. God says that He is indeed going to bring them back from the foreign counties, and goes into talking in several verses following about their singing for joy. There was a return in time of Ezra, around 536 BC. Is that what was talked about? We will have to see.

Then God talks about crying and weeping in Ramah

“Thus says Yahweh: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” Jer 31:15 WEB

At this point we have a certain time marker. The Apostle Matthew says that was when Herod the Great killed all of the infants in a certain place called Ramah near Gibeon, and not far from Jerusalem. When exactly did this happen? It was when Jesus was a baby. Our modern calendar is off a little bit in calculating the birth of Christ. We know from secular history that Herod the Great died in 4 BC. So the date of the slaughter of the infants is say, somewhere between 4 BC and say 6 BC. Without know the time exactly, we still have a pretty good time marker in Jeremiah 31 here.

Jeremiah goes to say that Rachel should stop crying. The children shall return.

“Thus says Yahweh: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says Yahweh; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.” Jer 31:61

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901