Scripture Reading: Jer. 2:13; Lam. 3:22-25; Jer. 23:5-6; 31:33-34
In the foregoing message we pointed out that the entire Bible, including the book of Jeremiah, was written for God's economy. My burden in this life-study of Jeremiah is that you would see what the Lord has shown me from the Word concerning God's economy. If you see this vision, your life will be affected, and the Lord's recovery will be enriched. In this message I am burdened to give a word on three portions from Jeremiah (2:13; 23:5-6; 31:33-34) and one from Lamentations (3:22-25). The totality of the matters covered in these verses is God's economy.
In Jeremiah 2:13 we have God's word to Israel, the elect of Jehovah, concerning two evils which they have committed.
Jeremiah 2:13 says, "My people have committed two evils: / They have forsaken Me, / The fountain of living waters, / To hew out for themselves cisterns, / Broken cisterns, / Which hold no water." God's intention in His economy is to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to satisfy His chosen people for their enjoyment. The goal of this enjoyment is to produce the church as God's increase, God's enlargement, to be God's fullness for His expression. This is the heart's desire, the good pleasure (Eph. 1:5, 9), of God in His economy. The full development of this thought is in the New Testament, but it is sown as a seed in Jeremiah 2:13.
God's economy is to dispense Himself as the living water to produce His increase, His enlargement, to be His expression. This thought is developed in the writings of John. In John 1:1 and 14 we see that the Word, which was God, became flesh, full of grace and reality. Verse 16 goes on to say, "For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace." In chapter four of John the Lord Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman concerning living water (vv. 10, 14). In John 7:38 He said, "He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." In Revelation 21 and 22 we have a vision of the New Jerusalem, which is a great sign of God's increase for His expression. Revelation 22:1 and 2 show us that in the New Jerusalem the river of life flows and that in this river grows the tree of life as the life supply to support and sustain the entire city. What we have in the writings of John is surely the growth of the seed sown in Jeremiah 2:13.
This thought is strengthened by Paul's writings. For example, 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, "In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body..and were all given to drink one Spirit." To be baptized in the Spirit is to get into the Spirit and to be lost in Him; to drink the Spirit is to take the Spirit in and to have our being saturated with Him. In 1 Corinthians 10:3 and 4 Paul, using the Old Testament types, speaks not only of drinking but also of eating. "All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ." The spiritual food refers to manna (Exo. 16:14-18), typifying Christ as our daily life supply; the spiritual drink refers to the living water that flowed out of the cleft rock (Exo. 17:6), typifying the Spirit, who flowed out of the crucified and resurrected Christ as our all-inclusive drink. Our drinking of God as the living water is for the church as His increase; our drinking is for the producing of His enlargement, His fullness, for His expression.
In Jeremiah 2:13 we see not only something positive — the fountain of living waters — but also something negative — the children of Israel's forsaking this fountain to hew out for themselves broken cisterns, which hold no water. This negative thing indicates that Israel, like Adam in Genesis 3, had become fallen. Adam fell by forsaking the tree of life and turning to another tree — the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Israel fell by forsaking God as the fountain of living waters and turning to a source other than God. This source is signified by the cisterns, which Israel labored to hew out for themselves.
God was burdened that Israel would drink Him to become His increase as His fullness that they might express Him. Israel should have drunk of God as the fountain of living waters, but instead they committed two evils. The first evil was to forsake God; the second evil was to hew out cisterns as another source. Those cisterns, however, were broken and could hold no water. This indicates that apart from God as the fountain of living waters, nothing can quench our thirst, nothing can satisfy us. Nothing apart from God Himself dispensed into us as living water can make us His increase for His expression.
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. / Great is Your faithfulness. / Jehovah is my portion, says my soul; / Therefore I hope in Him. / Jehovah is good to those who wait on Him, / To the soul that seeks Him." Although Israel forsook God, He did not cast them away. God's elect may fail Him, but His compassions never fail; rather, they are new every morning. Because of His compassions, lovingkindness, and everlasting love, God would never give up His elect yet distracted people.
We should not think that we are better than Israel, and we should not read the Bible for others but for ourselves. Every book of the Bible has something to do with us. If we apply this principle, we will see that not only did Israel have idols, but we also have idols. Jeremiah said, "According to the number of your cities / Are your gods, O Judah" (2:28). Do we not also have idols in our daily life? Every day we offend God by worshipping idols. To treasure anything other than God is actually to worship an idol. Every day we treasure something other than God. We have idols, but God has compassions. We are evil, but God is compassionate. It is of His lovingkindness that we are not consumed. If it were not for God's compassions, He would have given up on us long ago. But He has not given us up, for His compassions continue anew every day. His compassions keep us in His hand for His economy.
In the middle of Jeremiah's long and detailed account of Israel's wickedness (chs. 2—45), he tells us that Jehovah will raise up to David a new Shoot. "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" (23:5-6). This righteous Shoot is Christ incarnated to be the descendant of David. In Matthew 1:1 Christ is called "the son of David." He is the new branch, the new sprout, of David. As such a branch He is a righteous Shoot. From the time of His infancy, He has been altogether righteous.
Jeremiah 23:5 tells us that Christ, the righteous Shoot, "will reign as King and act prudently." This requires that He be in resurrection and ascension. If Christ were not in resurrection and ascension, He could not be the King. The word King in this verse therefore implies Christ's resurrection and ascension. When Christ was a child, He could not be the King. But having passed through resurrection and entering into ascension, He is now the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the Ruler of all the kings of the earth (Rev. 17:14; 19:16; 1:5). Furthermore, in His resurrection and ascension, He acts prudently.
Jeremiah 23:6 goes on to say that His name will be called "Jehovah our righteousness." This name is repeated in 33:16. "In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely; and this is the name by which she will be called: Jehovah our righteousness." As God's elect, we, like Israel, have no righteousness in ourselves. Our heart is deceitful above all things and is incurable (17:9), and we have a sinful nature that can never be changed (13:23). We are hopeless, but our hope is in Him. Our hopeless situation — our unchangeable condition of evilness, wickedness, and deceitfulness — prepares the way for Christ to come in to be our righteousness. God has not abandoned us or given us up; rather, He has made Christ our righteousness. Because Christ is our righteousness, we are still here enjoying Him.
The last portion we will consider is 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." In speaking of the new covenant that He would make with His elect, God said that He would put His law within them. This is not the law of letters — it is the law of life. If God's law were not the law of life, He could not put His law into our being. The law that God puts into us is the law of His own life. The law is actually the life. This means that God puts Himself into us as life, and this life is the law that He puts into us.
God's life, which is God Himself, is a law that regulates us. Just as a cat is regulated by the law of the cat life and a human being is regulated by the law of the human life, so are we regulated by the law of the divine life.
In verse 33 God, speaking of His law, says that He will "write it upon their hearts." God not only puts His law within us, but He also writes it upon our hearts. To write here means to inscribe. God writes His law upon our hearts by moving from our spirit into our heart to inscribe what He is into our being. This indicates that in the new covenant God does not ask us to do anything, for in the new covenant He does everything.
Under God's new covenant, Israel will be His people, and He will be their God. Today we, the believers in Christ, are God's people, and He is our God.
In verse 34 God says, "All of them will know Me, from the little one among them even to the great one among them." To know God does not simply mean that we know that God is triune and that He is holy and righteous. To know God is to live God, and to live God is to know God. For example, we may hate, but God loves. Thus, if we know God, we will live Him by loving others. Also, God is compassionate. To know Him is to live Him as the compassionate One. This is something that the elders in particular need to do. A compassionate elder is an elder who knows God. Furthermore, God is considerate. To know Him is to live Him as the One who is considerate.
We can know God in such a way only because He has put His life into us, and this life is just God Himself. This life is our inner life law with its capacity. As believers in Christ, we all, from the little one to the great one, have this capacity to know God by living Him.
In the last part of verse 34 God says, "I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." As we pointed out in the previous message, this involves redemption (Eph. 1:7). Since God forgives, to know God is to forgive others and to not remember their sin. This is to live out Christ's redemption.
All the matters in Jeremiah 31:33 and 34 are developed in the New Testament. In Hebrews 8 Paul quotes these verses in order to show us that today we have the inner law, the law of life. In the new covenant, which is the better covenant (Heb. 7:22), God has put Himself into us as life, and this life is our inner law. This inner law is our capacity to live God in order to be God's people. Thus, we can live and have our being in the same way God does. He is forgiving and does not remember the sins of His people, and we can be the same.
What is described in Jeremiah 31:33 and 34 is actually the new creation. The ultimate issue of Jeremiah's revelation is the new creation, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. Therefore, intrinsically speaking, Jeremiah is the same as the New Testament. The intrinsic content of the book of Jeremiah is the base of the New Testament. The New Testament is thus the development of Jeremiah.
The book of Jeremiah, which is full of speaking concerning Israel's sin and God's wrath, chastisement, and punishment, reveals that God wants to be the fountain of living waters for our satisfaction in order to produce His increase for His expression. Even though we have failed, He does not fail. It is of His lovingkindness that we are not consumed, and His compassions do not fail but are new every morning. God's compassions upon us in our failure prepare the way for Christ to come in first to be our righteousness and then our redemption and our life. Righteousness, redemption, and life with its law and capacity — all these are Christ. It is by such a righteousness, redemption, and life that God makes Christ everything to His elect. Christ is the center and the circumference of God's people, and He is also the centrality and universality of God's dealing with all the peoples on earth. This is the intrinsic content of the book of Jeremiah.
