Have you ever felt weighed down by your sins and shortcomings? Have you ever despaired over your ability to live up to expectations — God’s expectations, society’s expectations, your own self-expectations? Do you wish that you could have a fresh start? The Prophet Jeremiah was proclaiming a Word to sinful, insecure people like us, to people whose confidence in the future had been badly shaken.

Have you ever made a big mistake in your life, a mistake for which you paid for many years? Maybe you are still paying for those mistakes. That was the situation of the ancient Hebrews in Jeremiah’s day. They were a conquered people, both the Northern Kingdom of Israel (by Assyria) and the Southern Kingdom of Judah (by the Babylonians). They had come to understand their present political plight as a…