The Bible Says
Jeremiah 31:35-37 Meaning

In Jeremiah 31:35-37, the prophet Jeremiah begins by naming the LORD as Creator and Commander of the cosmos: Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name: (v. 35). By weaving the lights of day and night and the restless sea into one sentence, the prophet cites realities Israel witnesses daily and cannot alter. The phrase "fixed order" evokes a governed, regularized universe; the title "the LORD of hosts" (the LORD of armies) declares that the God who marshals heavenly armies also marshals cosmic rhythms.

This doxology is not ornamental—it is forensic. The people, hearing promises of restoration after devastating judgment, might doubt. God therefore anchors assurance, not in Israel’s merit, but in His creational faithfulness. As surely as the sun rises over Judah’s hills and the Mediterranean’s swells pound the coast, so surely will the LORD keep His sworn commitments. In Jeremiah’s context––siege, exile, and shattered institutions––creation’s constancy becomes a comfort for those who hope in God.

On that foundation God issues a conditional impossibility: "If this fixed order departs from before Me," declares the LORD, "then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever" (v. 36). The logic is striking. Israel’s continuance before God––in covenant relation and calling––stands or falls with the stability of day and night. Since the "fixed order" stands continuously before God, sustained by His will, the condition cannot be met; therefore Israel’s nationhood cannot be nullified.

This does not minimize sin or its consequences. Jeremiah has narrated severe judgment––burned gates, toppled throne, deported leaders. But judgment is corrective, not canceling. Jeremiah 31:36 locates Israel’s future in God’s character. The same God who earlier commissioned Jeremiah "to pluck up and to break down" promises here to build and to plant because His purposes for Israel extend beyond chastening to renewal (Jeremiah 1:10; Jeremiah 31:28). In New Covenant light, Paul mirrors Jeremiah’s logic: despite present hardness, "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29).

The LORD then enlarges the rhetorical frame with another impossibility: "If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done," declares the LORD (v. 37). Ancient observers could chart stars and plumb depths, but to measure heaven and search out earth's foundations exhaustively exceeds human reach. The clause "for all that they have done" (v. 37) acknowledges the mountain of Israel's guilt––and still denies that guilt the power to erase God’s electing mercy.

This promise protects two truths at once. First, divine holiness: Israel’s sins are not minimized––"for all that they have done" (v. 37). Second, divine faithfulness: even multiplied sins cannot outstrip covenant grace. The New Covenant announced earlier in the chapter explains how both stand––God writes His law on the heart and remembers sins no more (Jeremiah 31:33-34). Christians see this secured in Jesus the Messiah, whose blood fulfills that covenant (Luke 22:20; Hebrews 8:6-12). Thus, as immeasurable as the heavens, so unbreakable is God’s resolve to preserve and redeem His people.