The Righteous Branch of David

INTRO

Our phrase for the book of Jeremiah is New Covenant. Jeremiah sounds similar to Isaiah. This week, however, Jeremiah will actually experience his own prophetic words.

Jeremiah prophesied years after Isaiah and was therefore much closer to the oncoming Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah had the opportunity to speak into four of Judah’s kings—all of whom were evil. Jehoahaz was king for three to five months, Jehoiakim was king for 11 years, Jehoiachin was king for three months, and Zedekiah was king for 11 years.

In Jeremiah 22, Jeremiah told Zedekiah to turn back to the Lord or he would experience immediate judgment. Remember in Isaiah, King Hezekiah invited the Assyrian envoys into his kingdom and showed them all his riches and treasures. Zedekiah fulfilled Hezekiah’s stupidity. Jeremiah 22:25–30 is “the harshest judgment ever pronounced in the Word of God. It is harsher than the judgment pronounced by God upon Cain or by the Lord Jesus upon Judas. It is frightful, and at the same time one of the most remarkable prophecies in the Word of God.”¹

The people were still waiting for the Messiah to come, and God’s judgment proclaimed that it would not come through the lineage of these kings. After all these words of judgment, in Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah will bring a message of hope.

TEACHING

Jeremiah 23:1-8: In these first verses Jeremiah gave a prophecy of gathering the remnant. The false teachers (shepherds) would receive God’s judgment and be banished from the land (vv. 1–2). MacArthur explains that these false teachers “stood in contrast to the shepherds whom God would later give the nation.”² God would then gather the remnant and return them to His land where they would be fruitful and multiply (v. 3). God’s people had been led by evil kings, bad leaders, and false prophets, so God would bring back the faithful remnant to thrive while punishing those who had not been faithful. Wiersbe explains, “God . . . promised to regather His people and transform the remnant into a nation. A remnant did return to Judah after the captivity, rebuild the temple, and restore national life.”³ In verse 4, Jeremiah proclaimed that God would raise up a shepherd to rule over the returning remnant.

As we saw in Israel, Jeremiah’s prophecy was about the Babylonian captivity in 586 B.C., but it also was about the coming of Jesus as the Messiah and the return of Christ in the end times. A partial fulfillment of this prophecy took place in 1948 when Israel became a nation. Some would say verses 3–8 refer to the restoration of Israel during the millennium.

In verses 5–6 Jeremiah gave the second prophecy—God will raise up a “Righteous Branch of David.” MacArthur explains that this means the Messiah will come “out of David’s family tree, who will rule over God’s people in the future”⁴ (Jeremiah 33:15). Verses 7–8 seem to support the first prophecy given in verses 1–4.

Jeremiah 23:9–40: The sins of the false prophets were outlined in these verses. Jeremiah 14:14 provides a summary of these verses:

“But the Lord said to me, ‘These prophets are prophesying a lie in My name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, worthless divination, the deceit of their own minds.’”

Constable explains that in verse 11, “The Lord announced that both prophets and priests were polluted with unfaithfulness. They even practiced their wickedness in the temple, where of all places they should have been faithful to the Lord.”⁵

In verses 13–20, Jeremiah gave a third prophecy. The prophets of the Northern Kingdom had prophesied by the god Baal and led the people astray (v. 13). But in Jerusalem, God saw “a horrible thing”—His prophets committed adultery, told lies, and none turned their backs on evil (v. 14). God described them as worse than the evil people in Gomorrah. Therefore, Jeremiah prophesied that God was going to give the prophets of the Southern Kingdom wormwood and poisoned water to drink (v. 15).

Jeremiah stated these prophets were giving false prophecies and visions that did not come from the Lord (v. 16). They even promised that the Lord would give them all peace—they lied to give the people false hope for the future (v. 17). MacArthur explains the false shepherds “became like chaff rather than grain, while promising peace to those whose sins provoke God to bring calamity, not comfort.”⁶ Wiersbe points out that the false prophets gave “false hope” (vv. 16–20), “false authority” (vv. 21–24), “under a false inspiration” (vv. 25–32).⁷ Wiersbe summarizes this section of Scripture (vv. 9–40) as: “Their disgraceful conduct” (vv. 9–15); “their dishonest message” (vv. 16–32); and “their disrespectful attitude” (vv. 33–40).⁸

CLOSING

Jeremiah continued prophesying to the people that judgment was coming. We will actually see the judgment take place before we finish our study of the book of Jeremiah.