The True Shepherd-King

But we just had Justin read chapter 23, most of it, because it's a long passage.

But I'll be starting in Jeremiah 21.

But before I start, let me pray for us.

Heavenly Father, we read just now that your word is like a fire.

So we pray that your word would brand your truth onto our minds and our hearts today like a fire.

So that we might be conformed to your truth and live according to it.

Lord, we also read that your word is like a hammer that breaks the rock to pieces.

So we pray that you would break the hardened places of our hearts with your word this morning.

Make us supple.

Given, open, Lord, to your influence.

Convict us of our sins.

And comfort us with your grace.

We look forward to hearing from you, Lord.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So in Jeremiah 21.

And I have to give you guys a little bit of a background so you can understand what's going on here.

To varying degrees.

I'm sure all of you have experienced what it's like to have a bad leader.

Maybe it's a manager at your workplace.

Or a parent at home.

A teacher in a classroom.

A politician that represents your city or country.

Or a pastor of a church.

It can be frustrating and discouraging to have a leader who doesn't know what is best for you.

And someone who doesn't rule justly and treats people unfairly.

And one way or another, all of us, every human leader, failed.

Because they are sinful.

And the leaders of the kingdom of Judah in particular were failing miserably.

And Jeremiah wrote these chapters in response to them.

Because the kings who were supposed to be champions of justice were perpetuating injustice.

And the prophets who were supposed to be the voice of truth were spreading lies.

And so while the people of Judah had all sinned against God in part because of these leaders,

the kings and prophets of Judah who led them astray are come under even greater scrutiny

and even more severe judgment by God.

And that's what we see here in these chapters.

And frequently throughout the book of Jeremiah, the leaders are singled out because of that.

But in the midst of God's indictment of these leaders,

God also makes a promise to gather his people to himself from their exile

and to raise up a king from the line of David who will rule with righteousness.

A king that will never do us wrong.

A king that will always speak God's truth and lead us in God.

A king that we can trust completely and pledge our total allegiance to.

That kind of king.

And the main point then of this passage is that the Christ is the true king

who fulfills the righteousness of God and speaks the words of God.

Christ is the true king and prophet who fulfills the righteousness of God

and speaks the words of God.

And so turn with me to chapter 21.

And before I can start there, I'm going to first talk about the unrighteous kings

in chapter 21 to 23 verse 8.

And then I'll talk about the ungodly prophets from chapter 23 verse 9 to 40.

But just the outline that I'll follow.

And Jeremiah's ministry spanned the reign of King Josiah,

who as well as three of his sons and his grandson who reigned after him,

after Josiah's death.

So after Josiah died, I can show you here,

his fourth son actually, Jehoahaz, became king.

His other name is Shalom.

So the number next to the name show what order in which they became king.

So Jehoahaz was anointed king of Judah after Josiah's death.

But probably because he was continuing the religious reforms of his father Josiah,

the Egyptian overlords, the Egypt that ruled over them, didn't like him ruling.

So they came and Necho intervened and they deposed him

and replaced him with Josiah's second son, Jehoiakim.

And he was more pro-Egypt.

And Jehoiakim tried to appease all the other powers that were kind of over Judah at the time.

So Egypt and Babylon, he tried to appease them both.

But when he missed his tribute payment to Babylon one day,

Nebuchadnezzar came to invade and besiege Jerusalem.

And while Jerusalem was besieged, Jehoiakim died.

And his son, which is Josiah's grandson, Jehoiachin, also called Jeconiah, became king of Judah.

But his reign was short-lived because Judah was soon thereafter defeated by Babylon.

And the Babylonian ruler, Nebuchadnezzar, replaced Jehoiachin with Josiah's third son, Zedekiah,

who ruled under Babylon's supervision.

And so Zedekiah was ruling.

He ruled for about 10, 11 years.

But soon after, Babylon came again to invade Jerusalem.

He besieged Jerusalem.

And at that time, in 586 BC, the temple was completely destroyed and the city was burned.

And Judah became a province of Babylon, no longer an independent nation.

So that's kind of the background in which chapter 21 is now taking place.

And it's important for me to tell you that because we're kind of skipping ahead in the history.

Because in the last chapter, Jerusalem was still intact.

It hadn't been invaded.

It would be sieged by Babylon.

But here, Zedekiah is now inquiring about whether or not they're going to escape this siege that Babylon has placed on them.

And this is because Jeremiah, as a book, is not organized chronologically.

It's organized thematically.

And so here, we're kind of skipping ahead.

And then later, Jehoiakim, who should already be dead by this point, comes back in chapter 36.

Because again, this is organized thematically, not chronologically.

So in any case, what's going on here is King Zedekiah is facing the second Babylonian siege of Jerusalem.

And in verses 1 to 2, it tells us that he sent to Jeremiah,

So Zedekiah is sending for Jeremiah, hoping for a miracle.

Because he had in mind the time in 701 BC when Jerusalem was once again under siege by Sennacherib of the Assyrian armies.

Yet God intervened with his wonderful deed.

He struck down their armies and forced them to withdraw from them.

So that's kind of what he's hoping for as he sends a messenger, two messengers in fact, to Jeremiah.

But his response in verses 4 to 7 is totally demoralizing.

Read with me.

So far, so good, right?

But here's the kicker.

I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon

and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls.

And I will bring them together into the midst of this city.

I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath.

And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast.

They shall die of a great pestilence.

Afterward declares the Lord, I will give Zedekiah, king of Judah and his servants,

and the people in this city who survived the pestilence, sword and famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,

and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives.

He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword.

He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.

These are shocking words to hear if you're listening from the perspective of God's people.

Because instead of turning back the weapons of Babylon, God is saying,

I'm going to turn your weapons with which you are resisting Babylon.

God, who they were expecting to fight for Judah, is saying that he will fight against Judah himself

with his outstretched hand and strong arm,

which is a phrase that is used throughout the Old Testament, referred to God's power, his might, to save his people.

Yet those exact expressions are now being turned around to refer to God's judgment of his people.

And those who remembered God's acts of deliverance in the past must have trembled

to hear of God's outstretched hand and strong arm coming against them.

And during the American Civil War, someone purportedly asked President Abraham Lincoln

if he believed that God was on the side of the Union.

To which he replied, apparently,

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side.

My greatest concern is to be on God's side.

For God is always right.

God is not someone we can co-opt to our own agendas.

God has his sovereign purposes, and we can submit to them for our good,

or we can resist them to our peril.

And even though Israel was God's chosen people,

they found themselves on this occasion on the wrong side of God.

They sought the benefits of God while neglecting the worship of God,

and God would not be mocked.

And so often, it's true of us, isn't it?

We seek our own agendas, and then we ask God to bless them.

Instead of seeking God's agenda, which he has already blessed.

In every endeavor, we should ask ourselves, are we on God's side?

And we should search the scripture humbly in a posture of submission rather than self-justification.

And then in verses 12 to 14, God gives the reason why he is opposing Judah.

Thus says the Lord,

It was customary for kings of Judah to hold court at the city gates,

and in the mornings to administer justice to people who came with grievances

and wanted justice for themselves.

But they did not execute justice in the mornings.

And they did not deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor.

And because they did not deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor,

they themselves will be handed over to the hand of their enemies, what God is saying.

And then if you look at chapter 22, God repeats this charge that the kings of Judah have not taken care of the oppressed.

And he says in verse 3,

The word justice refers to God's impartial and perfect judgment.

And God condemns evildoers.

He always condemns evildoers and acquits the innocent.

He cannot be bribed and he cannot be fooled.

And the kings of Judah were supposed to render the judgment according to God's justice,

but instead they were perverting this justice.

And the word righteousness overlaps with this concept of justice.

It refers to the fact that God's the one who knows what is right.

He defines what is right and just.

And so justice then is an execution and enforcement of God's righteousness.

And it's those two things, the neglect of those two things, abuse of those two things,

is the primary charge that God's bringing against the leaders of Judah.

And it's amazing that God cares for the ones who are marginalized in this context

because the prosperity of Judah as a nation is tied up with how they treat their poor.

The power of Judah is tied up with how they treat the powerless among them.

And Judah's relationship with God is tied up with how they treat those who have lost all their relations,

the resident aliens, the fatherless, and the widow.

And whether Judah will shed its blood in war or not is tied up with whether they have shed innocent blood in their own land.

It's easy for people to ignore those without power and means to make their voices heard

and make their causes known.

But those who seek to be on God's side must be advocates and champions of justice and righteousness in the land.

And if the kings of Judah obey this word, God says in verse 4,

then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David.

But if not, Judah's dynasty will become a desolation.

And then God continues in 22, 6 to 7,

So this is metaphorical.

God's comparing Jerusalem to the lush forests of Gilead and Lebanon.

And earlier in chapter 21, verse 14, God also said,

I will kindle a fire in her forest and it shall devour all that is around her.

And so this is a continuation of that metaphor.

How do we know that this is a metaphor?

It's because there was no literal forest in Jerusalem.

But in 1 Kings chapter 7, verse 2,

1 Kings 7:2

the royal palace is called the house of the forest of Lebanon

because it was built largely with the famous cedars from Lebanon and Gilead.

And so later in chapter 22, 23,

God calls Jerusalem an inhabitant of Lebanon, nested among the cedars.

So in this metaphorical sense, the royal house and Jerusalem, the city,

they soared like these magnificent forests of Lebanon and Gilead

with their giant beams and pillars all around them.

Yet God says, I will kindle a fire in her mist

and the Babylonians will come and cut the temple down like woodcutters

and cast them into the fire.

So instead of a forest, Jerusalem will be reduced to a desert.

Then starting in verse 10, God gives his commentary and assessment

of all the kings of Judah during whose reigns Jeremiah ministered.

It's really a compilation of all Jeremiah's prophecies regarding the kings of Judah.

So follow with me in verse 10.

First he says,

Weep not for him who is dead, nor grieve for him,

but weep bitterly for him who goes away,

for he shall return no more to see his native land.

This is a little bit cryptic, right?

I mean, who is the one who is dead and who is the one who goes away?

And whenever you're reading scripture and you find something that's a little bit puzzling,

it's helpful to read what comes before and after it

because it's explained in the following verses in verses 11 to 12.

For thus says the Lord concerning Shalom, the son of Josiah, king of Judah,

who reigned instead of Josiah his father and who went away from this place.

He shall return here no more, but in the place where they have carried him captive,

there shall he die and he shall never see this land again.

So the one who goes away is Shalom,

which is the personal name of King Jehoahaz,

the first king that took over after Josiah.

And he was exiled to Egypt by Pharaoh Necho,

and so he's the one who goes away.

So what Jeremiah is saying is that, yes,

there was a time to mourn for Josiah who died in battle against Egypt,

but that time of mourning is over.

What we should really mourn is the exiled one Jehoahaz

who was supposed to rule and continue the religious reforms of Josiah,

but instead he's now in exile in Egypt.

That's the sad reality that you should really mourn,

is what Jeremiah is telling his people.

And then in verses 13 to 23,

God condemns Jehoiakim, the next king that takes over,

who was appointed by Necho to rule after Jehoahaz was exiled.

He says in verses 13 to 14,

Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness

and his upper rooms by injustice,

who makes his neighbors serve him for nothing

and does not give him his wages,

who says, I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,

who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion.

Again, the two words, justice and righteousness, recurring words here,

because they did not execute justice for the powerless and the vulnerable in society.

And that's God's sheath and diamond against Jehoiakim.

And he built a luxurious palace for himself in Jerusalem with the cedars of Lebanon.

He painted it lavishly with vermilion.

For those of you who can only name like seven colors like me,

I did your homework for you,

and vermilion is a brilliant scarlet red.

It's one of the most expensive colors you can use in the ancient world.

And so he colored all these expensive cedars with these expensive paint.

And that in and of itself is not what's wrong, what God condemns.

The problem is that Jehoiakim built this palace for himself with unrighteousness and injustice.

He says he made his neighbor serve him for nothing and did not give him his wages.

This is at the heart of the king's injustice.

This is at the heart of all injustice toward one another.

Notice what God calls the laborers.

He doesn't call them the king's subjects.

He doesn't call them the citizens of Judah.

He calls them the king's neighbor.

To highlight the fact that Leviticus 19.18,

one of God's great commandments in the Old Testament

that sums up God's people's obligation to one another was this,

love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord.

That's what he had commanded them.

Even though Jehoiakim was a king,

even though he was raised above others by virtue of his office and position,

in his person, he was equal to all his subjects

because they, like he, were created in the image of God with dignity and value.

So whenever we're tempted to treat someone unfairly,

whether it's someone of another class or race or sex,

we have to remember that he is our neighbor,

that she is our neighbor,

that they are our equal,

that they are our fellow man.

And God's putting the kings of Judah on notice here.

He's saying,

Yes, you occupy the throne,

but don't you forget that you reign at my behest

and for my glory over my people.

So God continues his scathing rebuke in verses 15 to 16 to Jehoiakim.

Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar?

Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness?

Then it was well with him.

He judged the cause of the poor and needy.

Then it was well.

Is not this to know me, declares the Lord.

Living in a luxurious palace made of cedar is not what makes a king.

And it's not like God was trying to deprive Jehoiakim

of all these comforts and luxuries of royalty.

He says,

Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness?

His father Josiah did enjoy the perks of royalty.

His father ate and drank well like royalty,

but he didn't stop with eating and drinking well.

He also executed justice and righteousness like royalty should.

And that's why it went well with him.

But in order to be a true king,

he's saying Jehoiakim is failing in this regard.

The king must represent God and rule over his people

and give righteousness and justice to them.

That's what it means to know God

and to be in covenant relationship with him.

But in contrast to Josiah,

Jehoiakim had eyes and heart

only for his dishonest gain,

for shedding innocent blood,

and for practicing oppression and violence.

Therefore, the Lord declares concerning him

in verses 18 to 19,

they shall not lament for him,

saying,

Ah, my brother,

or ah, sister.

They shall not lament for him,

saying,

Ah, Lord,

or ah, his majesty.

With the burial of a donkey,

he shall be buried,

dragged,

and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

Since he did not treat his subjects

as his neighbor,

they will not lament his death,

saying,

My brother.

Nor will they honor him as their king.

They will not mourn,

saying,

Ah, Lord,

ah, his majesty.

Instead,

he will be buried like a donkey,

dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

Having denounced Jehoiakim,

God turns to denouncing

the entire city of Jerusalem

in verses 20 to 23.

We know that the subject here

changes to Jerusalem

because it's using

the second person feminine pronoun,

which is what's usually used

in prophetic literature

for Jerusalem,

the city of Jerusalem.

And so in verse 20,

that switches.

In 22,

God ironically says,

The wind shall shepherd

all your shepherds,

and your lovers

shall go into captivity.

Then you will be ashamed

and confounded

because of all your evil.

The shepherds are referring,

they refer to the leaders

and rulers,

the nobles of Jerusalem,

and they have failed

to shepherd God's people,

and so now they themselves

will be shepherded

by the wind,

meaning they will be scattered

and exiled in captivity.

And then having prophesied

about Jehoiahaz

and Jehoiakim,

Jeremiah's prophecy

turns into the next king

in the line of succession,

Coniah,

or Jeconiah,

or Jehoiachin.

Sorry,

they have so many names

as he is elsewhere

called in scripture.

He says in verses 24 to 25,

As I live,

declares the Lord,

though Coniah,

the son of Jehoiakim,

king of Judah,

wore the signet ring

on my right hand,

yet I would tear you off

and give you in

to the hand of those

who seek your life,

into the hand of those

whom you are afraid,

even into the hand

of Nebuchadnezzar,

king of Babylon,

and into the hand

of the Chaldeans.

So the repetition

of the word hand,

if you notice,

emphasizes the contrast

between what Jeconiah

is fancying for himself

and the divine reality.

Because Jeconiah

was styling himself

as the signet ring

on God's right hand.

He's saying,

I am the signet ring of God.

I represent his rule.

I represent his authority.

I stand for him,

so you better bow before me.

And that's how he ruled

and styled himself.

Yet God says,

even if you were

my signet ring,

it's a conditional statement.

He's saying he's not.

Even if you were

my signet ring,

I would tear you off

from my hand

and I would give you

to the hand

of those who seek your life,

to the hand

of those whom

you are afraid,

even into the hand

of Nebuchadnezzar,

king of Babylon,

and the hand

of the Chaldeans.

Jeconiah will be along

with his queen mother

will be exiled

and they will never return

to their homeland

from Babylon.

And then God further says

in chapter 23,

verses 1 to 2,

woe to the shepherds

who destroy

and scatter the sheep

of my pasture,

declares the Lord.

Therefore,

thus says the Lord,

the God of Israel,

concerning the shepherds

who care for my people,

you have scattered

my flock

and have driven them away

and you have not

attended to them.

Behold,

I will attend

to you

for your evil deeds,

declares the Lord.

Because the shepherds,

the kings and rulers

of Judah,

scattered God's flock.

They did not attend

to them.

And so God now

turns that around

and says,

I will attend to you

for your evil deeds.

The shepherds

who are inattentive

to the care

of God's sheep

will be attended

to by God's judgment.

So that's the profile,

really,

of the unrighteous

kings of Judah.

And then the rest

of the chapter,

we see the ungodly prophets.

And I'll return

to verses 3 to 8

of chapter 23,

but let's turn,

skip forward for now

to verse 9.

Having addressed

the kings of Judah,

Jeremiah turns his attention

to the prophets of Judah

in verses 9 to 10.

He says,

concerning the prophets,

my heart is broken

within me.

All my bones shake.

I am like a drunken man,

like a man overcome

by wine

because of the Lord

and because of his

holy words.

For the land

is full of adulterers.

Because of the curse,

the land mourns

and the pastures

of the wilderness

are dried up.

Their course is evil

and their might

is not right.

Jeremiah is so grieved

by the spiritual state

of Judah

and the Lord's judgment

that he's beside himself

and he's trembling.

The people of Judah

were figuratively adulterous

and literally adulterous

because they committed

idolatry against God

and they did commit

sexual acts

in their worship of Baal

and because of that,

the curse on the land

is now making

the pastures dry up

and even the land

is suffering

because of the sins

of the people of Judah.

And in verses 11 to 12,

God confirms

Jeremiah's lament

and assessment.

He says,

both prophet and priest

are ungodly.

Even in my house,

I have found their evil,

declares the Lord.

Therefore,

their way

shall be to them

like slippery paths

in the darkness

into which they shall

be driven and fall.

For I will bring disaster

upon them

in the year

of their punishment,

declares the Lord.

It's a shocking revelation

that both prophet

and priest

are ungodly, right?

Ungodly

does not mean

immoral here.

It doesn't mean

unholy.

It means godless.

Both the prophets

who are supposed

to speak for God

to his people

and the priests

who are supposed

to speak for his people

to God

are godless.

They are alienated

from God.

They don't know God.

And God says

about these prophets

in verse 18,

who among them

has stood

in the counsel

of the Lord

to see and to hear

his word?

Or who has paid attention

to his word

and listened?

The implied answer

to this rhetorical question

is no.

None of these prophets

of Judah

had stood

in the counsel

of the Lord

to see and to hear

his word,

which is why

they were prophesying

nonsense

and speaking

their own minds

instead of speaking

the mind of the Lord.

So God says to them

in chapter 23

verses 21 to 22,

I did not send

the prophets,

yet they ran.

I did not speak

to them,

yet they prophesied.

But if they had stood

in my counsel,

then they would have

proclaimed my words

to my people

and they would have

turned them

from their evil way

and from the evil

of their deeds.

Even though God

never sent these prophets,

they ran like they

were commissioned by God

with some urgent,

important message.

Even though God

never spoke to them,

they spoke for God

as if they had heard

from him.

A true prophet

must be one sent

of God

and they had to be

spoken to by God,

yet these prophets

of Judah were neither.

And for that reason,

God condemns them

for not warning the people

of their evil deeds

as he wanted to do.

And these prophets

thought that they could

get away with

what they were doing,

but God says

in verses 23 to 24,

Am I a God at hand,

declares the Lord,

and not a God far away?

Can a man hide himself

in secret places

so that I cannot see him,

declares the Lord?

Do I not fill heaven

and earth,

declares the Lord?

God is both

a God who is far away

and God who is near.

God fills the entire

heavens and the earth,

yet he is with you

in the privacy

of your own room.

He saw all the wicked deeds

of these false prophets.

They were claiming,

as verse 25 says,

I have dreamed,

I have dreamed,

but these dreams

were figments

of their own imagination

and they were lies

and deceits

of their own hearts.

And so God says

in 28 and 29,

let the prophet

who has a dream

tell the dream,

but let him

who has my word

speak my word faithfully.

What has straw

in common with wheat,

declares the Lord,

is not my word

like fire,

declares the Lord,

and like a hammer

that breaks the rock

in pieces.

Even though

these false prophets

were saying,

declares the Lord,

in truth,

they were declaring

their own words.

The dreams of prophets,

no matter how grand

or plausible,

are like straw

or chaff

that is blown away

by the wind

and sifted

and separated

from the grain,

the wheat.

Words of men

are just chaff,

but the word

of the Lord

is like fire

and like a hammer

that breaks the rock

in pieces.

Do you believe this,

church?

Do you believe,

really,

that God's word

is like a fire

that can brand

your soul

with the truth

of God

and leave

an indelible mark,

an imprint

of himself

on your mind?

Do you really believe

that God's word

is like a hammer

that can shatter

the illusions

and lies

of this world

and break even

the most hardened hearts?

Do you really believe

that if we did,

would we not

listen to his word

and read his word

and search his word

hungrily and desperately?

In verses 33 to 40,

God brings his denouncement

of Judah's prophet

to a close.

He says,

When one of this people

or a prophet

or a priest

asks you,

What is the burden

of the Lord?

You shall say to them,

You are the burden

and I will cast you off,

declares the Lord.

This whole last passage

hinges on a wordplay

of the Hebrew word

for a burden

because the burden

is kind of a technical way

of referring to

the word of the Lord,

the prophecy

and utterance

of a prophet.

And so people

would often ask prophets,

What is the burden

of the Lord?

What does the Lord

require of us?

What is the word

of the Lord for us?

But God turns

that expression around

on its head

and says,

and commands Jeremiah

to say,

You want to know

what the burden

of the Lord is?

You are the burden

and I will cast you off.

What good is it

for these people

to ask God

for the word,

to know

what the Lord requires

if they do not obey

and follow him?

So God says,

Stop asking

about the burden

of the Lord.

You yourselves

are a burden to me

and I will cast you off.

These are severe judgments

that reflect

the severity

of the people's sins.

And these judgments

reflect the severity

of our sins as well

because in these sins

of Judah,

we see ourselves.

We see our,

it's a mirror

to our own soul.

But I don't want this

to be a discouragement

to you.

And I don't think

that's what God wants

this word to accomplish

either.

And as Augustine,

who is a North African

Christian theologian

and pastor

from the 4th century,

he wrote this

in his autobiography.

He says,

The recalling

of the wicked ways

is bitter

in my memory,

but I do it

so that you

may be sweeter

to me.

seeing the severity

of our sins

helps us to see

the breadth

and length

and height

and depth

of the love of Christ.

Seeing the severity

of our sins

helps us

to appreciate

the depth,

the magnitude

of God's grace.

Seeing how much

we deserve God's wrath

helps us to see

how undeserved

and wonderful

God's mercy

toward us is.

That's what God

wants us to see.

And moreover,

as it has been

the pattern

throughout Jeremiah,

after pronouncing

the severest judgments,

God always

pronounces

his most gracious

promises.

If we read

these chapters quickly,

we might even miss this,

but sandwiched

between God's

denouncement

of the kings

and his denouncement

of the prophets

is a message of hope.

Return with me

to chapter 23,

verses 3 to 4.

God says,

I will gather

the remnant

of my flock

out of all the countries

where I have driven them,

and I will bring them

back to their fold,

and they shall be fruitful

and multiply.

I will set shepherds

over them

who will care for them,

and they shall fear

no more

nor be dismayed.

Neither shall any

be missing,

declares the Lord.

This statement,

God promised

to bring back

the remnant

of his flock,

those who still remain

among his people.

He will gather

to his fold

so that they shall

be fruitful

and multiply once again,

and he will put

shepherds over them.

Many times throughout

the Old Testament,

God himself is described

as the shepherd king

of Israel,

and that's why

he calls his people

the people of my pasture,

the sheep of his pasture.

And God himself

is a shepherd

who cares for his sheep

and in the future

he will appoint shepherds

who will rule

in his stead

and actually care for them.

And verses 5 to 6

hone in on an even more

specific aspect

of this promise.

Read with me.

It says,

Behold, the days are coming,

declares the Lord,

when I will raise up

for David

a righteous branch,

and he shall reign

as king

and deal wisely

and shall execute

justice

and righteousness

in the land.

In his days,

Judah will be saved

and Israel

will dwell securely

and this is the name

by which he will be called.

The Lord is our righteousness.

There will be one

particular king

that will rise up

from the Davidic line

and he's described

as a righteous branch.

And from the root of David

will spring a king

who will execute

justice and righteousness

that all the kings

of Judah had failed

in totality

to do.

And he is called

by the name

the Lord is our righteousness.

This is a wordplay

on the name Zedekiah.

Remember the last king

that was mentioned.

Zedekiah was the king

appointed by Judah,

by Nebuchadnezzar,

and his name means

the Lord is my righteousness.

So Jeremiah is making

a very pointed statement

and prophecy.

King Zedekiah

is not the one

who will bring

God's righteousness

to bear on Judah.

No, there will be

another king.

Another king in the future,

the righteous branch

who will truly bring forth

the righteousness

of God.

The people of Judah

could put their hope

in Zedekiah,

but he failed

to deliver

on the promise

of his name.

Who do you

look to

in this world

for righteousness?

righteousness.

Who do you

turn to

for justice

for yourself

and for this world?

Is your hope

in the politicians?

Is your hope

in your lawyers

or judges?

Is your hope

in the law enforcement

officials?

Is your hope

in the social justice

warriors

of our culture?

However well-meaning

they might be,

none of them

can in any

ultimate sense

execute the justice

and righteousness

of God

in the land

as God intends

because they are all

sinners and they will

fall short.

They are all

Zedekiahs of our age

who promise righteousness

but cannot

deliver.

But who

then

can deliver us?

Isaiah 53

6

said,

All we

like sheep

have gone astray.

We have turned

everyone

to his own way

and the Lord

has laid

on him

the iniquity

of us.

Oh,

this is a prophecy

about the Messiah,

the coming king.

All of us

are sheep

that have gone

astray.

Each of us

have turned

to his own way

and a sheep

that has gone

astray

does not know

how to find

its way back

on its own.

The shepherd

must go

and retrieve

the lost sheep.

Have you ever

been lost

before?

I don't mean

like driving

a tickle wrong turn

but hey,

I have my GPS

on my phone

so I can find

my way back.

Not that kind

of lost.

Like I'm in the

middle of nowhere

and there's no

self-reception

lost.

I'm hiking

and the sun

has set

and I don't

know the way

out of the

forest lost.

It's terrifying

to be lost

like that.

To feel

viscerally

that you

might not

make it home.

That's

how

spiritually

lost

we all

were.

We were

hopelessly

lost

and helpless

to save

ourselves.

We were

lost sheep

in a land

far from

the flock

and the

shepherd

bleeding

helplessly

as the

night fell

and the

predators

drew in

but thanks

be to

God,

God did

gather us

to himself

and he

sent the

good shepherd

who laid

down his

life for

his sheep.

It says

in John

10,

14 to

16,

Jesus

says,

I am

the good

shepherd.

I know

my own

and my

own

know me

just as

the father

knows me

and I

know the

father

and I

lay down

my life

for the

sheep

and I

have other

sheep

that are

not of

this fold

and I

must

bring them

also

and they

will listen

to my

voice.

So there

will be

one flock,

one

shepherd.

Jesus

is the

prophesied

shepherd

and king

who

gathers

God's

people

to himself

from all

the places

where they

were lost

and he

is the

one that

executes

the righteousness

and justice

of God

and let's

not be

deluded

in thinking

that he's

giving us

justice

that we

deserve.

God

sent Jesus

to execute

the justice

and the

righteousness

of God

to vindicate

God

and to show

his righteousness

and justice

because if

God were

to give

us

the justice

and righteousness

that we

deserved

we are all

morally speaking

the all of

humanity

vermin

deserving to

be burned

by the wrath

of God

yet God

cherished us

he cared

for us

and so that

he can save

us he sent

Jesus

to die

in our

place

so that

his righteousness

can be counted

as ours

so that we

can in

God's eyes

be declared

not guilty

do you

know this

Jesus

I once

was lost

but now

I'm found

I was blind

but now

I see

do you

know

the meaning

of that

statement

in your

heart

if you

don't

you can

because

Jesus

the good

shepherd

is still

calling out

to his

sheep

and his

sheep

know his

voice

and if

you are

hearing his

voice

today

you must

repent

of your

sins

and respond

to him

with faith

and this

salvation

is the

greatest

salvation

that people

of God

have ever

seen

let me

read in

closing

verses

7 to

8

therefore

chapter 23

therefore

behold the

days are

coming

declares

the Lord

when they

shall no

longer

say

as the

Lord

lives

who brought

up the

people of

Israel

out of

the land

of Egypt

but as

the Lord

lives

who brought

up and

led the

offspring

of the

house of

Israel

out of

north

country

and out

of all

the countries

where he

had driven

them

then they

shall dwell

in their

own land

God's

deliverance

of Israel

from Egypt

was spectacular

and amazing

and he was

gracious

and kind

but even

that is

eclipsed

overshadowed

by the

salvation

that God

works in

bringing his

people back

from exile

and restoring

them to

their

homeland

and this

theme of

exile and

restoration in

the Old

Testament

points to

our spiritual

exile from

which Jesus

rescues us

and is now

leading us

to that

homeland of

our heavenly

father

that's what he's

doing

will you follow

him

all the kings

and leaders of

this world

will disappoint

but unlike the

unrighteous kings

and the ungodly

prophets of

this world

Christ

is the true

king

and true

prophet

who fulfills

the righteousness

of God

and speaks

the word of

God

let's pray

fullness

wells

and

ฉ

words

arn

祥

Rich

ym