In fact, the very book you’re quoting from (Jeremiah) is God’s promise not to completely destroy Israel as a people (nation) though He is sending them into exile and to re-gather them to the land in the future. Why is 1948 that future time of regathering and not the time of Nehemiah when Cyrus issues the edict for them to return? In fact, we have every reason to believe the Scripture is referring to that not to distant future regathering because the end of Chapter 31 culminates in the promise of the Spirit which was given by Christ at the birth of the church.
The New Covenant
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
35 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:
36 “If this fixed order departs
from before me, declares the Lord,
then shall the offspring of Israel cease
from being a nation before me forever.”
37 Thus says the Lord:
“If the heavens above can be measured,
and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
for all that they have done,
declares the Lord.”
38 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. 40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the Lord. It shall not be uprooted or overthrown anymore forever.”
Now unless you think that the modern state of Israel has partaken in the New Covenant, then there may be a problem with your current hermeneutic.
The Jews were scattered to every country in the world and, in our day, they are being regathered to the Promised Land. And thousands of years ago the Bible predicted these events.
God warned Israel when He imposed the Law: “Disobey and I will scatter you.”
“After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time – if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and provoking Him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.” (Deuteronomy 4:25-27)
... they did not believe His promise ... and did not obey the Lord. So He swore to them with uplifted hand that He would ... scatter them throughout the lands. (Psalms 106:24-27)
See also Leviticus 26:14-33; Deuteronomy 28:58-67.
Israel did disobey and God did scatter them. This is how it happened:
The warnings were followed by promises. God would scatter Israel, but God would regather the people in the future.
Over the following hundreds of years the nation failed to live up to the Law. God sent prophets to warn them, but they continued to fail.
The scattering of the Jewish people began.
The survivors of the ten tribes of Israel were exiled.
The Jews went into exile.
They allowed tens of thousands of Jews to return to Israel under Ezra. The Temple was rebuilt in Jerusalem. Most Jews remained in exile in Babylon.
The Second Temple was destroyed. Many Jews fled the land.
The Jews rebelled a second time. The Romans desolated Israel. The Jews were banished from Jerusalem. Hardly any remained in the land.
However, God had promised that He would bring the Israelites back to the Promised Land in the future.
“...if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers – their treachery against Me and their hostility toward Me, which made Me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies ” then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. For the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected My laws and abhorred My decrees. Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking My covenant with them. I am the Lord their God. But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 26:40-45)
“But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which He confirmed to them by oath.” (Deuteronomy 4:29-31)
“Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth ...” (Isaiah 43:5-6)
See also Hosea 3:4-5; Amos 9:14-15; Isaiah 54:7; Jeremiah 30:3; Ezekiel 37:21; Zechariah 8:7-8.
God is regathering Israel – as He promised.
Jewish communities in Russia were attacked. It prompted a trickle of migration of Jews from eastern Europe to the Promised Land.
Jews from eastern Europe began to move to the Promised Land in significant numbers. (Aliyah is a Hebrew word that means ‘going up’ and is used to describe Jews returning to the land of Israel.)
A scandal involving a Jewish officer in the French army brought out anti-Semitism in Europe. This stirred Theodor Herzl to promote the cause of a Jewish State
Influential Jews from around the world agreed on the imperative to create a homeland for their people.
A second wave of Jews, mainly from Russia and Poland, returned to the Promised Land. Persecutions drove them there.
A third wave of Jews, mainly from Russia, returned to the land. They came as impoverished refugees.
The fourth wave of Jews to return were mainly from Poland.
Six million Jews perished in the Nazi death camps. After the War tens of thousands of Jewish survivors headed for the Holy Land.
The State of Israel was proclaimed by David Ben Gurion on 14 May.
The next day Israel was invaded by five Arab armies. The first Arab-Israeli war began.
Arrival of 120,000 Jewish immigrants, in spite of the war.
With the formation of the State, large numbers of Jews migrated to Israel from Europe and Arab countries.
Tens of thousands of Jews took the opportunity to leave but Russia quickly closed the door.
The door opened a second time for Jews to leave for Israel. One million made aliyah in the next 10 years. They came as economic refugees.
Jewish migrants from around the world continued to arrive even as Iraq launched scud missiles at Israel.
In a 36-hour airlift called ‘Operation Solomon’ 14,300 black Jews from Ethiopia were brought to Israel.
While the USA, the EU and the UN press Israel to give up land for a Palestinian state, efforts to reach this peace accord are continuously derailed by hostilities, including waves of suicide bombings. Throughout this time the economy of Israel grows, as does its military, and there is a steady stream of migrants to the land from all the nations of the world.
Isaiah foretold the re-birth of Israel. Isaiah prophecied that Israel would become a nation again and that it would happen in one day.
In Isaiah 66:7-8, the prophet foreshadowed the re-birth of Israel, which happened "in one day." The woman giving birth before going into labor represent Israel. This accurately describes what happened on May 14, 1948 - when the Jews declared independence for Israel as a united and sovereign nation for the first time in 2,900 years.
During that same day, the United States issued a statement recognizing Israel's sovereignty. And, only hours beforehand, a United Nations mandate expired, ending British control of the land. During a 24-hour span of time, foreign control of the land of Israel had formally ceased, and Israel had declared its independence, and its independence was acknowledged by other nations. Modern Israel was literally was born in a single day.
Isaiah said the birth would take place before there would be labor pains. And that too is precisely what happened. A movement called Zionism began in the 1800s to encourage Jews worldwide to move to Israel, which at that time was called Palestine. Within hours of the declaration of independence in 1948, Israel was attacked by the surrounding countries of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
When reading Isaiah 66:7-8, keep in mind that Israel's status as a sovereign nation was established and reaffirmed during the course of a single day, and that it was born of a movement called Zionism, and that its declaration of independence was not the result of a war but rather the cause of one.
So, based on the history of the dispersing of Israel throughout the world, and the miracle of the one-day establishment of Israel as a nation, and the ongoing re-gathering of Jews throughout the world back to their own land, there is no doubt that our generation is the time that Israel would become a nation for the final time.
Now unless you think that the modern state of Israel has partaken in the New Covenant, then there may be a problem with your current hermeneutic.
No, there is no "problem with my current hermeneutic". I have shown beyond all doubt that historical and current events have played out to fulfill the prophecies and promises of God concerning the nation of Israel.
There is a time in the future, after the Tribulation period and also prophesied by God, when His people the Jews will recognize their Messiah as Jesus and will accept Him as their Messiah and will be saved. That prophecy will be fulfilled just as the prophecy in Isaiah about Israel becoming a nation again and becoming a nation in one day was fulfilled on May 14, 1948.
Everything is moving right along just as God said it would. And it all began with Israel becoming a nation once again.