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“The LORD Our Righteousness” Jeremiah 23:1-8

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“The LORD Our Righteousness” Jeremiah 23:1-8 Patrick Griffiths │ Joe Herriges │ Jacob Michalski ONE STORY - UNIT 4 | LESSON 5A The Major and Minor Prophets of Israel [and Post-Exilic History] [Fall 2019] God is a Promise Keeping God God 1) PROMISES a KING who 2) RESCUES His people, 3) DEFEATS His enemies, and 4) RESTORES them to the LAND 5) so that His people shall be with Him for their JOY. “The LORD our Righteousness” Jeremiah 23:1-8 Them / Then THE IMMEDIATE CONTEXT Literary Context (preceding and following paragraphs): All the prophets of that time had the same message; the kings and priests of Judah and Israel were corrupt and worthless and God was removing them from their positions of power and scattering his people, whom God would bring back together at a future time, under a new King who will be just and righteous . Jere. 22:20-30 - The Jeconiah Curse o 22:28 "Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar? Or is he an undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out and cast into a land that they had not known? 29 "O land, land, land, Hear the word of the LORD! 30 "Thus says the LORD, 'Write this man down childless, A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man of his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.'" Jer. 23:9ff Both the Kings and the Prophets are derelict in their LAW duties o 23:9 As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me, All my bones tremble; I have become like a drunken man, Even like a man overcome with wine, Because of the LORD And because of His holy words. The absolute collapse of the Kings and Prophets in the Nation. Despair reigns! As far as the literary design of Jeremiah is concerned, chapters 21-44 make up a large section of the book that is linked together through a chiastic structure. [The chiastic diagram is taken from Tim Mackie’s study notes on Jeremiah (p.12)—link in “Resources” section.] 1 A 21-23:4 Jeremiah vs. the royal house of Judah B 23:5-8 Restoration Hope C 23:9-40 Jeremiah vs. the prophets of Judah D 24 Good and bad figs = Exile to Babylon D’ 25 Exile to Babylon for 70 yrs C’ 26-29 Jeremiah vs. the prophets of Judah B’ 30-33 Restoration Hope A’ 34-44 Jeremiah vs. the royal house of Judah The passage of scripture we are focused on (23:1-8) comes on the heels of Jeremiah criticizing the kings of Judah and declaring that they will be overthrown by Babylon. Our passage contains a fragment of this judgment on Israel’ kings (23:1-4) and then goes into the future restorative hope of Israel (23:5-8). In the remainder of chapter 23, Jeremiah criticizes the prophets of Judah similar to the way he criticized the kings. Historical Context (what is happening to the nation and to the prophet): Jeremiah served during the three deportations of Judah in 606, 597, and 586BCE. THE STRUCTURE (What appears to be thought breaks in your paragraph?): I. What the Bad Shepherds | Kings have Done (vv. 1, 2a) 1“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD . 2 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. Based on the parallelism with verses 5 and 6 and other references, we can see the shepherds as the Kings of Judah. A. The Bad Shepherds | Kings have scattered God’s flock B. The Bad Shepherds | Kings have driven God’s flock away C. The Bad Shepherds | Kings have not attended to God’s flock Again, their horizontal sins are a consequence of their rejection of the vertical. If they loved the LORD, they would care for the horizontal. Their care is a fruit of the root. II. What the Good Shepherd | King will Do (vv. 2b-8) Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD [He will send them into exile – Babylon | 586BC]. Notice the repeating of, “I will.” Here is the word of future HOPE . Even though things look horrible and are catastrophic, we must not doubt God’s wisdom nor goodness. A. He will gather His people back and they will be fruitful and multiply (v. 3) 2 3 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. Notice the language that is being used. What does this remind you of? [Eden] “God’s solution to this instance of poor leadership is forthcoming. The oracle of judgment becomes an oracle of salvation in verse 3. God takes the initiative . God will gather the flock from their scattering, bringing them back to the fold of the land of Israel, and raise up new shepherds, new leaders, for them. Verses 5-6 then move beyond the shepherd metaphor to speak of a righteous branch. God will raise up a Branch who will reign wisely so that Judah and Israel will be saved. Jeremiah has in mind an earthly king or line of royal figures here, a future Davidic monarchy.” (https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2488 ) B. He will set His shepherds over them who will care for them (v. 4) 4 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 . Notice the language that is being used. What does this remind you of? [Eden] What God promises He will do through His ultimate Davidic Shepherd | King. Notice how we go from something that is very broad to something that is very specific. C. Behold the days are coming when from the line of David the Shepherd King will come (vv. 5, 6) 5 “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. 6 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.’ D. Behold the days are coming when the Shepherd King will restore His people into the PL (vv. 7, 8) 7 “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,’ 8 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 [a] had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.” “Verses 1-4 of ch. 23 are an extended metaphor in which the rulers are compared to shepherds and the people are compared to sheep. This metaphor has already been met with in 10:21 and is found elsewhere in the context of the Lord’s covenant with David (cf. 2 Sam 7:7-8; Ps 78:70-72). The sheep are God’s people and he is the ultimate shepherd who is personally concerned about their care (cf. Pss 23:1; 80:2). He has set rulers over them as his under-shepherds and they are responsible to him for the care of his sheep (see 22:3-4). They have been lax shepherds, allowing the sheep to be scattered and destroyed. So he will punish them. As the true shepherd of Israel he will regather his scattered flock and place new shepherds (rulers) over them. These verses lead to a promise of an ideal ruler set over an Israel which has experienced a new and better Exodus (vv. 6-8) . For a more complete development of 3 this metaphor with similar messianic and eschatological implications see Ezek 34. The metaphor has been interpreted in the translation but some of the flavor left in the simile.” https://bible.org/netbible/ THE EMPHASIS / Primary Idea taught by the Paragraph (In a couple of sentences. You can take your lead from the heading the Bible provides): Despite the absolute collapse of the Nation, God will raise up a Shepherd King from the line of David who will restore His people into the Promised Land. God will deal with all the unjust and unrighteousness of the current kings and peoples and bring forth a new King whose very name describes his kingdom, “THE LORD IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” Gospel [If applicable, how does this New Testament use this passa ge?] BIG PICTURE (Are any or all of the following concepts present? How so?) Land – Garden The Promised Land is a shadow of the Garden of Eden. It is the place where God encounters His people for their joy. God, through their rebellion, removed them from the place of joy, but will one day bring them back into the Promised Land. What God began in the Garden of Eden He will bring to fruition in the Book of Revelation (21, 22). Jesus is the means who leads His people back into the Garden where they will encounter God for their joy. Seed – JESUS In verses 7-8 God Himself tells of gathering His “scattered flock” being larger in scale than the exodus of His people out of Egypt.
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