Lamentations 3:22-25 says, "It is Jehovah's lovingkindness that we are not consumed, / For His compassions do not fail; / They are new every morning.... / Jehovah is my portion... / Therefore I hope in Him. / Jehovah is good to those who wait on Him." Here Jeremiah speaks not of God's love but of His lovingkindness and of His compassions. Compassion is different from mercy. Compassion is a tender, inward feeling, and mercy is the outward expression of this feeling. Jehovah's compassions, like the dew, are new every morning. Immediately after speaking of God's lovingkindness and compassions, Jeremiah utters a personal word: "Jehovah is my portion...I hope in Him." Here Jeremiah seemed to be saying, "Although the children of Israel have been exiled, I still have hope in Jehovah. I hope in the One whose lovingkindness and compassions toward us do not fail. He is my portion, and He is good, not only to me, but to all who wait on Him."

Jeremiah 23:5 and 6 say, "Behold, days are coming, / Declares Jehovah, / When I will raise up to David a righteous Shoot; / And He will reign as King and act prudently / And will execute judgment and righteousness in the land. / In His days Judah will be saved, / And Israel will dwell securely; / And this is His name by which He will be called, / Jehovah our righteousness." This "righteous Shoot" is Christ incarnated to be a descendant of David in the flesh. At the time this word was written, David's descendants had become evil, and it seemed that no more kings would come out of David's tribe. But Jeremiah prophesied that one day God would raise up a new sprout, a new branch, a righteous Shoot, to reign as King and act prudently. This word regarding Christ's reigning as a King will be fulfilled in the millennium. As Isaiah 53 indicates, the word regarding Christ's acting prudently refers to His acting wisely in His resurrection. Furthermore, the fact that His name will be called "Jehovah our righteousness" means that He has something to do with us. Here His name is not called the righteousness of Jehovah, but Jehovah our righteousness, indicating that He becomes one with us to be our righteousness. This also is a New Testament thought.

The fourth portion I would like to consider is Jeremiah 31:33 and 34. "This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law within them and write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And they will no longer teach, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for all of them will know Me, from the little one among them even to the great one among them, declares Jehovah, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." The law spoken of here is related to the divine life. God is saying that He will put His life into them and that with this life there is a law. Actually, this life is the law. We may use an apple tree as an illustration. An apple tree has its own law. The law of an apple tree is the life of the apple tree. Because of this law, an apple tree spontaneously produces apples. There is no need to say, "Apple tree, I command you not to produce bananas but to produce apples. Also, your apples should be round and not square." The life of the apple tree will regulate it in such a way that it will produce apples. The principle is the same with our human life. Our human life has a law which regulates our living as human beings. The divine life is the highest life, and this life within us is an inner law that regulates us.