The Book of Jeremiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter opens with woe on the "pastors", the shepherd-rulers, who "destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture." Instead of feeding the flock they drove it away, and God will "visit upon you the evil of your doings." But judgment on false shepherds is not God's last word. He promises to "gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries," bring them home to be "fruitful and increase," and "set up shepherds over them which shall feed them," under whom the flock "shall fear no more." Then comes the great promise. "Behold, the days come... that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth." Where the sons of David failed to do justice (chapter 22), this King will do it perfectly. "In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely." And His name is the summit of the whole passage: "this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." The promised King bears the covenant name of God Himself. God then promises a deliverance so great it will eclipse the Exodus in Israel's memory, a new gathering "out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them."

Gospel Focus

"This is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Here is one of the clearest promises of the coming Messiah in the Old Testament, and it shines with the truth of who He is. The King raised to David is given the name YHWH, the LORD, the one true God. There are not two persons here, a "God" and a separate "LORD our righteousness"; the promised Branch is the LORD, come in the flesh to save His people. This is exactly what the New Testament declares of Jesus: "they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matthew 1:23); "the Word was God... and the Word was made flesh" (John 1:1, 14); "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). The one God, the LORD of Israel, is Himself the righteous Branch, the Son of David, the Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep (John 10:11). And the name tells us what He came to do: He is "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." We had no righteousness of our own, "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6), so the LORD Himself became our righteousness. "Christ Jesus... is made unto us... righteousness" (1 Corinthians 1:30); God made Him "to be sin for us... that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). The true King and Shepherd is the one God manifest in Jesus Christ, who gathers His scattered flock and clothes them in His own righteousness. Do you wear it? His name is your only righteousness.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Jeremiah is shattered by the corruption of his fellow prophets: "Mine heart within me is broken... all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man." The land is full of adultery, false swearing, and profanity, and even "in my house", the temple, God found their wickedness. Both "prophet and priest are profane." Their end will be dark and slippery. God contrasts them with the earlier prophets of Samaria who "prophesied in Baal," but says Jerusalem's prophets are even worse, "an horrible thing", committing adultery, walking in lies, and strengthening "the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness." They are "as Sodom" to God. The core indictment is their message: "they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD." They tell "them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace," and assure the self-willed, "No evil shall come upon you." It is religion that comforts people in their sin. But none of them "stood in the counsel of the LORD." The test is simple and devastating: "if they had stood in my counsel... then they should have turned them from their evil way." A word that leaves people content in sin did not come from God. A true whirlwind of God's anger was already going forth, and "in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly."

Gospel Focus

The false prophets' favourite message was, "Ye shall have peace... No evil shall come upon you," spoken to people who despised God and followed their own hearts. This is the perennial temptation of false teaching: to soothe sinners rather than save them, to promise peace without repentance. Paul warned that "the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears" (2 Timothy 4:3). The mark of a true word from God is given right here: it turns people "from their evil way." The gospel is good news precisely because it does not leave us in our sin; it calls us out of it. John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles all preached first, "Repent" (Matthew 3:2; 4:17; Acts 2:38). Any message that promises heaven while people walk after "the imagination of his own heart" is a vision of the preacher's own heart, not the word of God. Test every message by this: does it draw you nearer to holiness, or merely make you comfortable in sin? The true prophet, and supremely the Lord Jesus, stood in the counsel of God and spoke words that convict, cleanse, and change. Real peace, "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1), comes only on the far side of repentance, never as a substitute for it.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God confronts the lying prophets with His own greatness. "Am I a God at hand... and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?... Do not I fill heaven and earth?" The prophets who invent messages forget that the God whose name they misuse sees straight into their hearts. He has "heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed." Their dreams are "the deceit of their own heart," designed to "cause my people to forget my name," repeating the ancient apostasy that forgot God "for Baal." Then God draws the sharp line: "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?" The two are not to be confused; human invention is chaff, God's word is wheat. And God's true word has power: "Is not my word like as a fire?... and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Three times He thunders, "I am against the prophets", against those who steal words, who glibly say "He saith," and who tell "false dreams." Finally God addresses the mockery in which people called His message "the burden of the LORD" as if it were a tiresome weight. Because they "perverted the words of the living God," He declares, "I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you... and cast you out of my presence." To despise God's word is to be cast from God's presence.

Gospel Focus

"Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Against the light chaff of human invention, God sets the weight and power of His true word. It is fire, it purifies and consumes; it is a hammer, it shatters the hardest heart. The New Testament says the same: "the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword... and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). Where feel-good dreams leave people comfortable, the real word of God does something, it convicts, breaks, and remakes. This is why faithful preaching must be God's word "faithfully" spoken, not the preacher's own clever thoughts: "What is the chaff to the wheat?" There is also here a glorious statement of the greatness of the one God: "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" The God we serve is not far off and limited but present everywhere, and this same all-filling God is the one who came near in Jesus Christ, "God with us." He fills heaven and earth, yet He humbled Himself to dwell among us and in us by His Spirit. So bring your heart to His word and let it do its work. Do not treat it as a "burden" to be shrugged off, lest the word you despise become your burden; rather let the fire purify you and the hammer break you, so that the God who fills all things may fill you.