WWUTT 2539 The Lord Our Righteous Branch (Jeremiah 33:1-26)

The Lord said of Israel, I will make a new covenant with them, I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me, and I will lose none of them.

And that is good news for us when we understand the text. This is

When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature

New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Well, it's been a little while since we've been in the

Book of Jeremiah, but we come back to our Old Testament study there, and where last we left off, we were still in that portion of Jeremiah that's called the

Book of Consolation. It goes from chapters 30 to 33, where the Lord promises that he will restore

Israel. Within this promise is the promise of a new covenant, which we had in chapter 31.

And of course, we know, as said in the Book of Hebrews, this new covenant is inaugurated in Christ Jesus, and it's not like the old covenant, which was written on stone tablets, but God's Word would be written upon our hearts, and everyone who is in Christ therefore becomes part of this new covenant.

Now we last read in chapter 32, and it was there in verse 40 where the

Lord said this, I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me.

We read over and over again in the Old Testament, this comes up even in the Psalms. We have Psalms like Psalm 78 and Psalm 106, where Israel's history shows them constantly turning away from the

Lord. And so this promise comes with the assurance that my people will not turn away from me.

I will draw them to myself, and they will not turn back from the goodness of God.

So this surely was great news in the ears of Jeremiah, for he has seen over and over again

Israel turning away from God, God bringing judgment upon them. But despite the fact that they deserve it, and Jeremiah knows they deserve it, here he gives the promise of restoration to them, and not only that he would bring them back, but even that he would bring them into a covenant with himself.

That is such a covenant that even they can't break it. Even they won't turn away from God.

They will be kept in the comfort of his love. And that's what we all have in Christ Jesus.

This is the comfort that we have, the promise of our security in Christ.

And so we're going to read once again the promise of Christ, even that's given here in the book of Consolation, as we look at this last chapter, which is

Jeremiah 33. It's not the end of Jeremiah, but it is the last chapter of this book of Consolation.

So I'm going to begin reading here in verse 1, and go through verse 11 to start things off. Hear the word of the

Lord. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard.

Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it, the

Lord is his name. Call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah that were torn down to make a defense against the siege mounds and against the sword.

They are coming in to fight against the Chaldeans and to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom

I shall strike down in my anger and my wrath, for I have hid in my face from this city because of all their evil.

Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security.

I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and rebuild them as they were at first.

I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me.

And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them.

They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity that I provide for it.

Thus says the Lord, In this place of which you say, It is a waste without man or beast, in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man or inhabitant or beast, there shall be heard again the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing as they bring thank -offerings to the house of the

Lord, give thanks to the Lord of hosts. For the Lord is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the

Lord. Now to kind of recall something that I had talked about when we were in this particular section of Jeremiah earlier, so this several weeks back now, but this is a miraculous promise.

For the Lord is saying, even in this place where you say, It's a waste without man or beast, it is such a desolation, such punishment has come upon the land, animals don't even live there.

You can't plant crops there. So who would live there? Even in this place,

God is going to bring them back to it and it is going to be filled. There will be the mirth and there will be songs of mirth and the voice of gladness, meaning that it will produce a harvest again.

Why would the people sing and dance? Well, because God has been faithful to them and has provided them great abundance in crops.

As the Lord has promised to bless Israel, that blessing comes through the land that he gives to them.

So even this land that has been made a desolation because of their sin, because of the armies that have come in and a trampled upon it, and they've left everything a wasteland.

Even this land will be a place that is producing once again. So this is a miraculous promise as God is giving it to Israel.

You've been driven off the land, but you will come back to it and it will provide for you again. And even this place that has been occupied by an enemy, they will be gone and you will be able to come back to the land.

Even in the place where you dwell, where they are under captivity of the Babylonians, Jeremiah right here is receiving this while he's in jail, so to speak, even he's going to get out and be able to see

God's good promises be fulfilled to his people. But with this exile that they are in, under the captivity of the

Babylonians, and then later to the Medes and Persians, even in that, they're going to set you free and you're going to get to come back to this place.

So this is absolutely against all odds. This takes a great amount of faith for people to hear this word and believe what it is that God is saying.

And furthermore, that the Lord is saying to them that you will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart.

That was back in chapter 29. So the Lord has even promised that to his people. You will come to me and you won't be lost from me.

And that is the promise that we have in Christ. For as Jesus said in John 10, my sheep know my voice and they follow me and no one will ever snatch them from my hand.

We go on from this section right here, in fact, to that illustration of shepherds, because we have that in verse 12.

Thus says the Lord of hosts in this place that is waste without man or beast and in all of its cities, there shall again be habitations of shepherds resting their flocks in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the

Shefilah and in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin, the places about Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, flocks shall again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the

Lord. So again, that's that promise that this land will produce its abundance once again.

But this is also metaphorical in the sense that the children of Israel will return and they will be under the shepherd and the shepherd will guide them.

And just as Jesus says in John 10 that I am the good shepherd who gives my life for the sheep and no one will snatch them from my hand.

So that is a wonderful, comforting promise for all of us who are in Christ.

And even when we go astray, he does not let us go. That is part of that covenant that he has with us, with his sheep.

He has laid down his life for his sheep. He is not going to lose any one of his sheep. And so we see this fulfillment, this covenant find its fulfillment in Christ.

That's where we go next for the Lord is going to remind Israel and Judah of the eternal covenant that he made with David.

And here we have the promise of the righteous branch who will come. That is a reference to Christ who will be the fulfillment of this covenant that God had made with the one who was a man after his own heart.

So here we go. Jeremiah 33, 14, behold, the days are coming declares the

Lord when I will fulfill the promise that I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah in those days.

And at that time, I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In those days, Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely.

And this is the name by which it will be called. The Lord is our righteousness.

Oh, how beautiful that is. The Lord is our righteousness for all of us who are in Christ.

We understand that we know what that means. We had no righteousness of our own in which we could boast or even by which we could do any measure of good works that would gain

God's favor, that would overwrite our sins or justify ourselves.

We were incapable of doing that. None are righteous, as said in Romans 3.

Jew or Gentile, there is no one who does good, not even one person. And so how do we have a righteousness that makes us worthy to stand in the presence of God and thus have his favor and also have the adoption?

We've been adopted into the family of God. We've been made fellow heirs with Christ of his eternal kingdom.

What sort of righteousness must we have in order to gain that position? Well, it's a righteousness that comes not from ourselves.

It is the righteousness of God that is given in Christ Jesus. And so by faith in him, we're clothed in that righteousness.

We stand before him, not condemned, not the objects of his wrath, worthy of judgment, although we are certainly worthy of that.

But he looks at us and he sees us as righteous because we've been clothed in the righteousness of Christ, which we receive by faith.

It's not just by Jesus' death that this righteousness was purchased for us, but even by his life.

He lived perfectly sinlessly when we could not. And so even by his life, he attains this righteousness that he gives to us, which we receive by faith.

And now we declare whatever righteousness we have that we can declare. We say, the

Lord is our righteousness. I am righteous because of Christ who gives me his righteousness.

And so now I dwell securely and I see through this righteous branch how

God is fulfilling his promises for his people. So going on to verses 17 and 18, for thus says the

Lord, David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel and the

Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to make sacrifices forever.

Now consider this promise, consider this as God is saying this to Israel and to Judah, David will never lack a man to sit on the throne and the

Levitical priests will never lack a man to offer burnt offerings on behalf of the people. What was it that the people were lacking right then when this was said?

They didn't have a king and they didn't have a priest. There was not a king sitting on the throne of David and there was not a priest working in the temple because the temple's destroyed.

It's not there. The temple is going to be gone. They have to rebuild it when they come back into the land.

And even then it's not like it was before. It would eventually become even greater than what Solomon's temple was.

But at the time when they're rebuilding it and they're looking at it, we read about this in Ezra, when, when they rebuild the temple and they see it, they lay the foundation.

They rebuild the temple. The people who remembered what the temple was like, who were old enough to remember that, they wept because they knew this is, this isn't like what it was before.

It was grander before. And so they wept because they know that this isn't what we had.

But that is for the people to recognize that this, this is not the promise. There is something greater than the temple.

Even Jesus would say that something greater than the temple is here. And he's referring to himself.

So who is the man who sits on the throne of David so that Israel never lacks a king? Who is the man who offers sacrifices so that there will always be a priest?

It's Christ. He is the king priest. And so that even when they don't have a king, there is a man to come and sit on the throne of David.

And it is Jesus Christ. And where he sits enthroned in heaven right now, he is the fulfillment of that Davidic covenant.

And we read in the book of Hebrews that he is our high priest who sacrifices on our behalf.

He's already sacrificed on our behalf. There's not continual sacrifices. Jesus sacrificed himself.

And now he is our access to God. Doesn't have to be done through a priest who offers sacrifices, you know, once a year on Yom Kippur or those daily sacrifices that go on.

Christ's blood was sufficient once for all. So he died. And now in him, we've been made righteous before God.

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. This is picking up in verse 19. Thus says the

Lord, if you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David, my servant may be broken so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne and my covenant with the

Levitical priests, my ministers. So in other words, God is saying here just as sure as there is day and there is night as God has established the sun, moon and stars, the earth to hang and continue in its orbit so that when this day is over, it will be night and tomorrow there will be another day just as all of this works is surely as clockwork.

So will be my covenant with David. It will not be broken. There will always be a son to reign on his throne.

There will always be Levitical priests as ministers. There will always be a priest as a minister.

And that's Christ. Christ is the fulfillment of both verse 22 as the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured.

So I will multiply the offspring of David, my servant and the Levitical priests who minister to me.

Is there a king on the throne of David in Jerusalem today? No, not on earth.

Is there a temple where there are Levitical priests who are ministering and going in and out and offering sacrifices on behalf of the people?

Nope. That's not happening in Jerusalem today either. Hadn't been going on for over 2000 years.

So how is it then that this covenant is being kept?

Because since there aren't Levitical priests who are offering sacrifices, then doesn't that mean for the last 2000 years this covenant therefore has been broken?

How is there then sun, moon, and stars that continue in their courses by day and night?

If God has said you'd have to undo those covenants in order to undo this covenant, well, it's because that covenant is fulfilled in Christ.

We have a great high priest in Christ who does far more and has accomplished a better sacrifice than the

Levitical priests do. Christ is the greater David. He is sitting on a throne that's even greater than David's, though it's referred to as David's throne because he is the offspring of David.

And what the throne that Christ is sitting on is the fulfillment of that Davidic covenant, of that Davidic promise.

And so, I will multiply the offspring of David, my servant? Yeah, we've seen that.

All the more, every Christian, everyone who believes in Christ, the offspring of David have been multiplied.

Billions of people now over the last 2000 years that have come to Christ. Let's finish this last word that comes to Jeremiah, verses 23 to 26, and this will close out the book of consolation.

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Have you not observed that these people are saying the

Lord has rejected the two clans that he chose? Thus they have despised my people so that they are no longer a nation in their sight.

Thus says the Lord, if I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then

I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David, my servant, and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for I will restore their fortunes and I will have mercy on them.

Now hear me plainly, my friends. We are the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So this very promise that is given here in Jeremiah chapter 33 is fulfilled in Christ and we are the evidence of it.

If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, the Lord says in verse 25, then

I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David, my servant, and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Who is the offspring that rules? Christ. And who is therefore then the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

That's us. It's everybody who is in Christ. Don't believe me? Galatians 3 .6,

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

It's not the ethnic descendants. It's not those who share Abraham's physical

DNA. It is those who are of faith in Jesus Christ. We are the sons and daughters of Abraham.

Later on in verse 29, Galatians 3 .29, if you are Christ's, then you are

Abraham's offspring heirs according to promise.

So do you see here how this promise in Jeremiah 33 is fulfilled in Christ and how that is to our benefit and to our joy?

And we will not be lost from his hand. No one can snatch us away from him.

As God has made this covenant, so there will be offspring. And as he said earlier,

I will not lose them, but we will all in Christ Jesus continue to the end and be delivered into glory to dwell with him forever in his eternal kingdom.

This is not just Old Testament study here that we're doing in Jeremiah 33 to see how it was way back then.

This is promise for us, assurance for us that our sins are forgiven and we are in covenant with God and he will not lose anyone that he has saved.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read. And I pray this would be a comfort to us and that as we have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ, as we are able to say, the

Lord is my righteousness, so may we walk in that righteousness. We demonstrate it with our lives.

We prove through this growth and holiness and pursuit of Christ likeness that we belong to you and you will not lose any of those that you have purchased by the blood of Christ.

But we will be kept in you. You will continue in our lives that you may abide and that our fruit would be abundant.

And then after this period of sanctification that we go through in this life, growing in holiness, a day will come when you will bring us into your eternal kingdom and we will enter in with joy.

Give thanks to the Lord of hosts for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever.

And we praise you, God, for that love that you have shown us in Christ Jesus. It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word, when we understand the text.