(11)
(1)
Scripture Reading: Jer. 21; Jer. 22; Jer. 23
In this message we will begin to consider chapters twenty-one through twenty-three. These chapters are concerned with Jehovah's condemnation of and punishment upon the kings and prophets of Judah.
In 21:1—23:8 we have a word regarding Jehovah's punishment upon the kings of Judah with their people.
Jeremiah 22:21 says, "I spoke to you in your prosperity; / But you said, I will not listen. / This has been your way from your youth, / That you have not listened to My voice." Here we see that the kings with their people did not listen to Jehovah's voice. In particular, they did not listen to the warning to execute judgment and righteousness, to deliver him who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor, and not to mistreat, not to do violence to, the sojourner, the orphan, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in their land (21:12; 22:3, 5).
According to 22:9, the kings of Judah with their people forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God and worshipped other gods and served them.
They built their large house by unrighteousness and their spacious upper chambers by injustice, using their neighbor's service without wages and not giving him recompense for his work (22:13). They had eyes and a heart only for their unjust gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression and doing violence (vv. 14-17).
"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture, declares Jehovah. Therefore thus says Jehovah, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who feed My people: You have scattered My flock and driven them away and have not visited them; behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your deeds, declares Jehovah" (23:1-2). The kings and the nobles were the shepherds of God's people, but they failed to do the proper shepherding.
In these three chapters we also see Jehovah's punishment upon the kings of Judah with their people.
Jehovah would give the kings of Judah with their people to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to exile them to a strange country that they might no longer return and see the land of their birth (21:1-10; 22:10-12, 25-28). In their exile, they would be in a foreign country and under the power of others.
Jehovah declared that He would punish the kings of Judah with their people by burning the city of Jerusalem and all that is around her, making it a ruin, a wilderness, that is not inhabited (21:11-14; 22:1-7).
In 22:18 and 19 we have a word concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and in verses 29 and 30, a word concerning Coniah (Jeconiah) the son of Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim was to be buried with the burial of a donkey and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem. Coniah was to have no seed to sit on the throne of David to rule in Judah.
Jehovah pronounced woe to the kings of Judah as shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of Jehovah's pasture. He intended to visit upon them the evil of their deeds (23:1-2).
In the midst of His word of condemnation and punishment, Jehovah gave a promise of restoration to Israel (23:3-8).
Jehovah said that He would gather the remnant of His flock out of all the lands where He has driven them and that He will bring them back to their pasture. Also, He said that they would be fruitful and would multiply (v. 3). Concerning this promise of restoration, verses 7 and 8 go on to say, "Therefore behold, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when they will no longer say, As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, As Jehovah lives, who brought up and led back the seed of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where I had driven them, that they might dwell in their own land."
In verse 4 Jehovah said that He would raise up shepherds over them who will feed them, and they will no longer fear or be dismayed, nor will any be missing.
According to verse 5, Jehovah will raise up to David a righteous Shoot, that is, Christ, who will reign as King and act prudently and will execute judgment and righteousness in the holy land. This is a very crucial matter.
In the coming restoration Christ will come as the Shoot of David. This means that He will come as the descendant of David. However, in this verse Jeremiah does not use the word descendant. If he had used this word, verse 5 would have been indicating merely that Christ is a human being born as a descendant of David. There would not be any thought or notion concerning the divine life. However, the word Shoot indicates Christ's humanity, and it also implies life.
A shoot is a new, fresh sprout of a tree, especially a sprout of a tree that has been cut down. Suppose a tree has been cut down to the ground and only a stump remains. After a while a new sprout springs out of this stump. This sprout is a shoot. As the Shoot of David, Christ is a new sprout from the stump of David. The royal family of David was like a large tree, but because of the apostasy of Solomon and his descendants, that tree was cut down, mainly by Nebuchadnezzar, leaving only a stump in the earth. When Christ was born, a new, fresh sprout came out of this stump.
The birth of Christ as such a Shoot was wholly a matter of life, and His birth was rich in its implications regarding life. This life has grown and spread to such an extent that Christ is now the King to rule and to act prudently.
At the time of Christ's coming nearly two thousand years ago, the tree of the royal house of David was merely a stump in the ground. In bringing forth Christ as the Shoot of David, God brought together two descendants of David — Joseph, a descendant of Solomon, and Mary, a descendant of Nathan, another one of David's sons. Christ was conceived in Mary, not through Joseph as the father but through the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18, 20), to be something divine and holy (Luke 1:35).
In the days prior to the birth of Christ, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for a census to be taken of all the inhabited earth, and all went to be registered, each to his own city (Luke 2:1, 3). Since Joseph was of the house and family of David, he went with Mary to Bethlehem, David's city. While they were there, Mary gave birth to Jesus and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Christ's birth at Bethlehem was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Micah 5:2. Because of Herod's persecution, Joseph took the child and His mother to Egypt (Matt. 2:14). Eventually, after the death of Herod, Joseph returned to Nazareth with the child and His mother (vv. 19-23). This was the beginning of the fulfillment of Jehovah's promise concerning the raising up of Christ as the Shoot, as the new sprout, of David.
"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" (Jer. 23:6). This verse reveals that the name of this Shoot is called "Jehovah our righteousness," indicating that Christ, as a descendant of David, is not merely a man but is the very Jehovah who created the heavens and the earth, selected Abraham, set up the race of Israel, and was the Lord of David, the One whom he called Lord (Matt. 22:43).
At Jeremiah's time there was no righteousness among God's people. But Jeremiah prophesied that Christ would come as a Shoot who is Jehovah Himself to be the righteousness of God's chosen people (1 Cor. 1:30). Thus, while God was condemning, punishing, and chastising His people, He intended to be incarnated as a Shoot unto David so that He could be His people's righteousness. Based on Christ's coming as Jehovah to be their righteousness, the evil race of Israel can be restored.
In order to be His people's righteousness, Christ first had to die for them. He had to shed His blood to wash away their sins and accomplish redemption, for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb. 9:22). Based on the redemption accomplished through the death of Christ on the cross, God can justify His people. God's people are justified by standing on the redemption of Christ and receiving Christ as God to be their righteousness. We have no righteousness in ourselves. "All our righteousnesses are like a soiled garment" (Isa. 64:6). Although in ourselves we do not have any righteousness, we have One who is God Himself as a man and who died on the cross to shed His blood to accomplish redemption for us. With this redemption as the basis, we can believe in Him to receive God's forgiveness, and God can justify us, make Christ our righteousness, and clothe us with the robe of righteousness (Isa. 61:10).
As the Shoot of David to be Jehovah our righteousness, Christ is the all-inclusive One. With Him we have divinity mingled with humanity. With Him we have the righteousness which is God Himself to be our righteousness, and we have redemption. With Him we have the life-giving Spirit and the riches of life, including the element of life, the law of life, and the sense of life. Actually, the life we have in Christ as the Shoot of David and as Jehovah our righteousness is the processed and consummated Triune God to be everything to us. The revelation concerning such a Christ is surely a wonderful "fruit" found among the "dry leaves" and "dead branches" in the "orchard" of the book of Jeremiah!
