A poem I had to learn in school began like this: “Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year.” That, of course, is Longfellow’s poem titled, “Paul Revere’s ride.” Equally obvious is that I was able to quote that not because I remembered it from grade school but looked it up on Wikipedia this week!
As I did a bit of research this week on Paul Revere’s ride, I learned that Longfellow’s poem had probably not been the best means of teaching history. The lantern in the Old North Church had not been a message for Revere but one sent from him, and Revere was only one of three main riders that brought the message of the movement of the British troops that night. Apparently embellishing history is not the sole task of present-day Hollywood but was a part of nineteenth century poetry as well.
The temptation to embellish history, though, no doubt comes because there is something that happens of great significance. The message from Revere and the other riders actually did allow the militia to deter the British troops in Concord. I doubt that Longfellow (or anyone else) would have been tempted to write an embellished poem of heroism had Revere ridden through the streets yelling, “The enemy is coming. Get ready to surrender to them, and yield to a life of heavy taxes without representation.” That kind of thing isn’t what good poems – or movies – are made of. In fact, had Revere brought a message of surrender and longsuffering through the streets that April night, it probably would have gotten him arrested if not killed.
We might feel this a bit more if we imagine someone running through the streets of England during World War II, telling everyone to surrender to the Nazi regime because Adolf Hitler had been appointed as a servant of God for whom all the British should become servants. Again, such a messenger would be persecuted if not killed, and we would be able to comprehend why his message would arouse such violent emotions.
Therefore, though there have been many actions by the inhabitants of Judah that are hard to understand in the first twenty chapters of this book – such as sacrificing their children and worshiping handmade idols when they knew the God of all the earth had done things like parted the Red Sea – it’s not so hard to understand why we read of them wanting to harm or even kill Jeremiah in chapters 21-29. If you looked at these chapters prior to this morning, you know that Jeremiah’s message could have been heard as somewhat similar to telling the colonists to surrender to the British and get used to being taxed and not represented. His message to the inhabitants of Judah was to surrender to the coming Babylonians and yield to Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, recognizing him as God’s appointed servant to reign in the world at that time. I mean, this was not a God-fearing man, and Jeremiah calls him God’s servant. And to those who had already been exiled to Babylon, Jeremiah declared, “Settle down, build houses, have children, etc. because deliverance isn’t coming for another seventy years.”
We see this, for example in 21:8-10,
“Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war. For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.”
Then, again in chapter 27, Jeremiah takes a yoke, puts it around his neck, and declares the Word of the Lord, saying,
“It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave” (27:5-7).
Again, you can see, then, why Jeremiah was the subject of murderous plots and found himself at times complaining against God. It’s hard to imagine having a much less popular message – especially when false prophets were saying quite the opposite!
Jeremiah’s message in chapters 21-29 is much like that which came before. Again, we see proclamation of Judah’s sin and the judgment to come. But there are also notes that make this section of Jeremiah different than that which we saw in the first twenty chapters. As the first twelve chapters were marked by poetic speeches declaring Judah’s sin, and the last eight chapters marked by longer prose sections, Jeremiah’s confessions, and symbolic messages, these chapters too have a literary characteristic that marks them. This section seems to divide into seven sections, each marked by a heading that provides the historical setting for Jeremiah’s message.
We see this in 21:1 where we read: “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying …” and Jeremiah’s message follows. This first section, then, runs through chapter 23, so that chapter 24 begins: “After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord” (24:1). And, if you look, you’ll find the same kind of note beginning every chapter from 25 through 29.
Therefore, it seems that these chapters have been bracketed off intentionally from what comes before. So, what then is unique about this section so that it was bracketed off from what has come before? The answer to that question is not entirely clear. If it were, commentators would probably be able to provide us with a clearer picture of the structure of this book instead of just saying that Jeremiah is a collection of speeches from the prophet.
But there are a few details that we can note that are somewhat different in these chapters from those we’ve looked at over the last couple of weeks, and it is these unique points that I want to highlight for us this morning. But before we do, let me give you a quick overview of these nine chapters. In chapters 21-23, Zedekiah sends to get word from Jeremiah as they see the threat coming from Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. They want to know if perhaps the Lord might make him withdraw. But they wouldn’t like the answer. Jeremiah declares to them that the Lord is against them, will deliver them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, and it is because of the ungodliness that pervades the land. In chapter 24, Jeremiah sees a vision of good figs and bad figs and is told that those who are exiles from Judah will ultimately be blessed, while those who remain in Judah will be destroyed. In chapter 25, Jeremiah says that the exile will last seventy years and after that time all the nations will stand before the Lord and be judged. In chapter 26, Jeremiah’s life is threatened after he told the people that God would destroy the temple. And the entire episode is a bit humorous.
In 26:11, we read, “Ten the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, ‘This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.” So, Jeremiah responds,
“The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, and the LORD will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you. But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the LORD sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears” (26:12-15).
Then, we read in verse 16, “Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, ‘This man does not deserve the sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.’”
In chapter 27, Jeremiah puts a yoke on his neck and tells the people to surrender to Nebchadnezzar and serve him, while in chapter 28, a false prophet, Hananiah, falsely prophesies that the yoke will be broken after two years, and the Lord kills him. And, finally, in chapter 29 Jeremiah writes a letter to the exiles in Babylon saying,
“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (29:5-7).
And he promises them that the Lord will ultimately bring them out of the land. So reads Jeremiah 21-29.
But, as I mentioned, I want to highlight especially for us some of the emphases of these chapters that will appear somewhat conflicting, and then I want to show you how these seemingly conflicting emphases are worked out in the rest of the Bible. So, with that, let me first note that one emphasis in this text is that the leaders of God’s people are evil.
One interesting note that every one of the seven messages Jeremiah proclaims in chapters 21-29 speaks about Judah’s leadership. Whether it’s the kings (and their officials) – called “shepherds” in chapter 23, the prophets, or the priests, everyone is evil and misleading the Lord’s people. The kings and their officials are ungodly, refusing to execute justice and righteousness in the land. They are wicked and corrupt.
Therefore, Jeremiah proclaims the Word of the Lord, saying,
“O house of David! Thus says the LORD: ‘Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, lest my wrath go forth life fire, and burn with none to quence it, because of your evil deeds.’ Behold, I am against you’” (21:12-13).
Again in 22:13,
“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages.”
Then, the kings and their officials, called ‘shepherds’ in chapter 23 are strongly rebuked in 23:1-2,
“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.”
Now, we might respond to this and say, “Okay, fine, the kings were evil.” But if we’re to feel the weight of this, we need to understand who the king was to be. The king was to sum up and represent what Israel was to be. We see texts where Israel is called God’s “son” in places like Hosea 11:1, meaning that there were resemble and represent their God on the earth. But the king was specifically called God’s “son” (as we see in 2 Samuel 7, for example: ‘He will be a son to me’) because he was to represent before the people their God. They were to take their cues as to how to resemble and represent God from their king. This is why it is such a tragedy that Judah’s kings – David’s own sons – had become so corrupt and evil in their ways! The kings themselves were leading God’s people into idolatry.
And it wasn’t just the kings. The priests and the prophets were ungodly as well. The prophets were to speak God’s words to the people – again, representing God before them. The priests, on the other hand, were to represent the people before God. And they were both evil. We read in 23:11,
“Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house I have found their evil.”
Then, after declaring the idol worship in the northern kingdom of Israel, the Lord proclaims in 23:14,
“But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; and all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
The prophets have not only strengthen the hands of the evildoers as they walked in evil themselves, but they prophesied that all was well, saying they had been given dreams from the Lord. Therefore, the Lord proclaims in 23:25-32,
“I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, 'I have dreamed, I have dreamed!' How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? 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? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another. Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who use their tongues and declare, 'declares the LORD.' Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the LORD.”
Therefore, the ones over whom the Lord had placed his people had misled them. They had misrepresented God and his Word before the people, and they had represented the people before God with dirty hands. So, what then is the people’s hope? We see here that if the king is evil, the people are judged with him. And the ones who were to proclaim God’s Word or offer sacrifices for sin were evil as well. Is there then any hope?
Yes, and this is what we celebrate at Christmas. God sent one to be the perfect prophet, priest, and king for his people. But we do not have to wait till the New Testament to get news of this. Here in Jeremiah 23, God declares what he will do. We read in Jeremiah 23, as God pictures his people like sheep scattered all over the earth, that he will gather them. Listen to Jeremiah 23:2-8:
\"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. Then 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. \"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.' \"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 the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' Then they shall dwell in their own land.\"
And do you see the oddity of this prophecy? On the one hand, God says that he himself will come and gather them. Then, he says that he will raise up one from David’s line. So, which is it? Is God himself coming to gather a people for himself from all over the face of the earth or is he raising up a man from the line of David who will gather them and reign over them? The answer is both. The glory of the incarnation is that God the Son took on flesh and was born in the line of David. He is both God, the Son, and he is man. He is the perfect prophet for he not only speaks God’s Word but is God incarnate. He is the perfect king for he is not just one who attempts to resemble and reflect God before man but is himself the exact imprint of God’s nature, being God the Son. He is the perfect priest, for we have one representing us before God who not only brings his perfect righteousness but has offered himself as the sacrifice for our sins.
This is what Jesus is saying when he declares, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). And he has come to gather his people from every corner of the earth. In fact, he makes clear that he is gathering Jew and Gentile and everyone who will profess faith in the crucified and risen Lord. As you read Jeremiah 23, it might seem like God is simply coming to gather Jews to himself, but Jesus makes clear to his disciples in John 10 that he has “other sheep that are not of this fold,” saying, “I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:16).
By that, Jesus means that he’s gathering more than Jews. Rather, he is coming to bring Jews and Gentiles to God, as many as will believe. And perhaps the most amazing thing for us this morning is that his sheep hear his voice as we proclaim the gospel to him. Christ calls his sheep to himself through our gospel proclamation. Even as we will hear that we have fed and clothed Christ himself as we do so to the least of our brothers and sisters, so Christ will declare to those who believe that he himself called them, and he did so through us. We are ambassadors for Christ. God the Son came to us and then commissioned us to go to all the nations on his behalf. This is the glorious truth we are reminded of in these chapters. Christ has come, and he is our perfect prophet, priest, and king. This is good news.
Yet, there is one other emphasis in this chapter I want to highlight. Not only do these chapters more than those prior focus on the evil nature of the people’s leaders, these chapters also reflect something that seems to be a conflicting message. It is seen in these twin truths: All nations will stand in judgment before God, and God will redeem his people
Chapters 24-29 proclaim again and again that Nebuchadnezzar is going to be used as God’s servant to judge. Again, we see this clearly in 25:8-9,
\"Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.”
And this really continues until the end, as Jeremiah tells the people they will be under the yoke of Babylon and that the exiles should settle down. But that’s not all that is in these chapters. The Lord also notes that he will judge all nations for their evil actions, including Babylon itself.
The Lord declares to Jeremiah in 25:15, “Take from my and this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.” And then, we read in 25:17-26 that Jeremiah is to take this cup to all the nations, for “those pierced by the Lord on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other.” So, ultimately the Lord will judge Judah, Babylon, and every other nation for their sin.
All nations will give account, and no one who is guilty will go unpunished. In fact, the Lord will make sure of this. We read in 25:28-29,
\"And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: You must drink! For behold, I begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of hosts.”
No one will escape judgment, and all who are guilty will be punished. That is one clear theme from chapters 24-29.
Yet there is another theme equally as strong. God will redeem a people and bring them to himself. We see this most clearly in two texts. First, in 24:4-7.
Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
So, what is special about those in exile? Are they holy? No. They, like those who hold them captive are evil. Yet, here is a promise of God redeeming them and bringing them to himself. And, we read it again in 29:10-14,
“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”
How can God make such promises to a guilty people? Aren’t they sinners? Yes. Don’t they deserve punishment? Yes. Are they somewhere more righteous than the Babylonians, and that’s why they are redeemed? Of course not. Then, how can these guilty people go unpunished and be redeemed by a holy God who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Ex. 34:7)?
Perhaps this is best answered by looking backward and looking forward. First, looking backward, there are a couple of times when the Lord says that he will redeem in such a way that no longer will he be known as the God who redeemed his people out of Egypt but as the one who delivered them from Babylon. But consider the redemption from Egypt for a second. That night when the Lord passed through Egypt, killing the firstborn of everyone in the land. Why was the firstborn of the Israelite families spared? Was it because they were better than the Egyptians? No. The only reason they were spared is because God provided them a sacrifice. He told them to slaughter a lamb and put the blood over their doorposts. And the lamb’s blood signified that something else had died in the place of the firstborn of the Israelite home.
And as we ask, then, how the Israelites might be redeemed and forgiven when they’re as guilty of sin as those who will drink down the cup of God’s wrath, it’s an important question for us, isn’t it? After all, we will not be justified in judgment before God because we are better people than those who are drinking down every drop of the wine of God’s wrath in the eternal lake of fire. So, how can we, a filthy people, have hope of being reconciled and redeemed by a holy God?
The answer is similar to that of the Exodus. It is because one died in our place. Specifically, when Jesus prayed in the garden, “Let this cup pass from me,” that cup had a meaning. It meant the same thing in Jesus’ mouth as it means in Jeremiah 25:15. It was the cup of God’s wrath. You see, on the cross, Jesus drank down the wrath of God for all of us who would believe so that God’s wrath has been exhausted toward us. No wrath remains for those who believe in the crucified and risen Savior.
This is why we can be forgiven. God the Son took on flesh and came as the perfect prophet and king, but he also came as a priest, sacrificing himself for us. He drank down God’s wrath so that God might accept his payment as ours and might justly forgive us our sins and credit to us the perfect righteousness of Christ, who represents us before God. He raised Jesus from the dead and proclaimed him as the true Son of God, our King, so that he might deal with us on the basis of our king – and our king is perfectly righteous!
Therefore, this Christmas, we celebrate the coming of our king, and we remember his sacrifice even as we come to the table. Indeed, joy to the world, our king has come! Amen.