Jeremiah 22-23

Righteous King

Let’s start with a reminder of where Jeremiah is at, emotionally and chronologically.

Emotionally he has finally come to grips with the reality that not only is the Lord not going to relent with regard to Judah, and that His judgment is most certainly coming, but also with regard to Jeremiah’s life personally- it is going to be just as the Lord said when he was a child, that Jeremiah will be at odds with the majority of the people of Israel who will not only not listen to him, but they will fight against him, and while the Lord promises to deliver Jeremiah in the end, it is clear that his life, largely, will be one of pain and estrangement from his people. Jeremiah was knit together in his mother’s womb and prepared in advance by the Lord to lead a life of hardship and loneliness.

And Jeremiah does not try to soft pedal this reality. Nor does he get philosophical about it. He hates it. He mourns it. In the previous chapter he said not only should he not have been born, but the poor guy who delivered the news about his birth to his dad should be killed too. This was after Pashur, a ranking priest in Jerusalem, had Jeremiah beaten for his prophecies and put in stocks at the gates of Jerusalem. Can you imagine? Knowing that you are calling out to your people in love, out of compassion, to heed the call to repentance and return to YHWH for their benefit, for their good, and the response is to be publicly beaten and mocked.

Matthew 5:11–12 ““Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

But Jeremiah will not stop preaching God’s Truths. Indeed, he says he cannot:

Jeremiah 20:8–9 “For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”

And so now he is truly in the thick of it and things are afoot in Judah already, as the wheels of God’s judgment are already turning, things are already happening that will result in the destruction of Judah and the Temple in Jerusalem.

In 609 BC, 23 years before the Babylonians arrive in Jerusalem, King Josiah is killed in battle fighting the Egyptian army that was, ironically, on its way to fight the Babylonians.

Why is Josiah’s death important? Well, for one, Josiah was a righteous King who attempted to turn Israel back to the worship of YHWH, and away from worshiping foreign gods. But the impression one gets from Scripture is that it was always going to be a failed mission. Josiah did not have the power to turn back the idolatry that had been going on now for centuries.

But, even more importantly than the death of a righteous king was the promise that the Lord had made to Josiah, that the Lord would make sure that Josiah would never have to look upon the destruction of his people. Why? Because when the Lord revealed to King Josiah that He was going to destroy Judah, Josiah tore his clothes and wept, and so the Lord had mercy upon Him, and said He would withhold His hand of judgment until Josiah had passed:

2 Kings 22:16–20 “Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place”

So now Josiah has passed away- and so this promise is fulfilled and the Lord’s judgment proceeds.

(SLIDE)

The next King to take the throne is Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, who was taken by the Egyptians into Exile where he died, also referred to as Shallum, which is a Hebrew word that means retribution. Then comes Jehoiakim, who died in Nebuchadnezzar’s first siege of Jerusalem in 609 BC after reigning 11 years, then Jehoiachin, who was taken into captivity into Babylon along with 3,000 other Jews in 597 BC and then Zedekiah, who is reigning as King now in our text, the final King of Judah and the one who had ordered Jeremiah to be beaten and put in the stocks.

The thing to know about these last 4 Kings of Jerusalem is that they are all brutal, greedy men who have no interest in following the God of Israel, YHWH. They have no concern for the poor, for the vulnerable, and they see no merit to justice or righteousness.

And so will the most blessed nation on Earth, Israel, called into being by the God of creation, be completely destroyed, the first time, by their own desires to be their own gods, and to not acknowledge or worship their Creator.

Chapter 22 is a message to the Kings and to the royalty in general of Judah. And chapter 23 is largely a message to the priests and prophets, the spiritual leaders of Judah.

And what is that message? The message is simple, really. Be Godly men. And what makes for a Godly King? How will you know a Godly King?

Well it’s right here..

Jeremiah 22:1–3 “Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.”

The message here is threefold- one, deliver justice to your people. In other words, when crime is being committed, if someone is being robbed, then do something about it. Make arrests, hold court, have fines or punishment meted out to those who would take advantage of others through violence or dishonesty.

Deuteronomy 16:20 “Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

And then, two, identify those who are most vulnerable among you- which is what all these people have in common, the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, and protect them actively...again, principles found all throughout God’s given Law to Moses.

Deuteronomy 24:17–21 ““You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.”

And finally, do not shed innocent blood. Don’t use your power to kill or persecute people who have done no wrong just to benefit yourself. We might call that the “don’t be David” rule...who killed Uriah in order that he might have his wife, Bathsheba.

Which brings me to my main point. Which is that our leaders cannot save us. Our leaders cannot lead us into the Promised Land. Our leaders cannot fill the need that each of us feels in our heart, to be perfectly led and perfectly cared for, perfectly judged, perfectly treated, they are not perfectly full of God’s wisdom and power in all things. Our leaders cannot be that. Not our governmental leaders and not our spiritual leaders. Not any leader in any capacity.

Now that does not mean that we cannot have leaders who do justice and love righteousness. We can. In fact, here in chapter 22 the Lord speaks of Josiah and says (speaking to Jehoahaz/Shallum)

Jeremiah 22:15–16 “Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? declares the Lord.”

Who deals in righteousness and in justice? Those who know the Lord. Josiah tried to be a righteous King, and the Lord gives him his due. He gave Josiah the highest praise that a human can receive this side of heaven- he said that Josiah knew Him, the Lord. When Jesus says to certain religious figures that they are hellbound what He says specifically is, get away from me, I never knew you. To know God, for God to ‘know’ you, that is salvation. Josiah knew the Lord, the Lord was his salvation.

And so he was, truly a righteous King. But he could not save anyone. In fact, he was almost completely ineffectual. And he died ignoring what the Lord told him to do, as in pride he went out to fight against an army, and Egyptian army that was, ironically, doing the Lord’s work as it were. In other words, he sinned. Josiah quite literally died in his sin, his death was caused by his sinful behavior, ignoring God’s command to not fight the Egyptians. And we can be absolutely certain that Josiah, as a human like any of us, sinned in many ways, small and large, throughout his reign, but since he knew the LORD, he was still, largely, a righteous and just King, again much like David or Solomon before him who also knew the Lord, and were righteous and just, and were sinners as well.

Interestingly, one of the last things that Josiah did right before he died was to hold a large and extravagant Passover feast in Jerusalem

2 Chronicles 35:18 “No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

It was incredible. But we know from Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the prophets that it had very little impact on people’s hearts. Josiah poured all his strength and resources into trying to get the people to worship the Lord with all their heart, soul and mind, but he did not have the power to change people’s hearts. And he must have known that. He must have seen and been aware that no matter what he did, his people were hopelessly in love with idols that allowed them to pursue their own agendas without worrying about a God who is perfectly holy and perfectly loving.

No King can save. No priest can absolve. No prophet can force God’s Hand. No soul or system on Earth can take the human soul and turn it from stone into flesh. Only the Holy Spirit can do that to those who give their lives to God.

Which brings us to the 23rd Chapter of Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s role as prophet was to tear down, and build up.

Jeremiah 1:10 “See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.””

Josiah was the best leader a nation could have- a man who knows the Lord. And he could not save Israel from their sin. The next 4 leaders are much more typical of leaders in general...men marked by greed, selfishness, and violence. So there certainly is no hope there. Jeremiah delivers words of destruction and overthrowing with regard to our human leaders.

Hopelessness would be an apt word with regard to human leaders in Chapter 22.

And hopelessness is the bulk of Jeremiah. I am so glad that I decided to alternate Jeremiah with the book of Acts. Someone told me recently that he feels like going back and forth between these 2 books sometimes feels like 2 different religions being preached, and I get that. Because it is the same coin to be sure, but one is tails and one is heads, and it takes both to make a coin. Jeremiah, for sure, is largely full of judgment and hopelessness.

And I hope all of us take that message to heart. In order for the Lord to work in your heart a work of salvation you must find this world to be hopeless first, hopeless to save. You cannot serve 2 masters, you can’t have some hope in this world and some hope in God. This is the point behind those hard edged verses that you cannot love the world more than God, you cannot love your parents or your family more than God, you cannot put anything, as the first commandment makes explicit, more than God. You must put no hope in this world, for this world and its desires are passing away as John says in his first letter (1 John 2:16-18).

So I do hope and pray that the Holy Spirit uses Jeremiah to effect a cleansing spirit in us that does away with hope in this world that only results in disappointment and sorrow in the end, but He does not leave that space unfilled, he does not leave our hearts empty and yearning, no He fills it with the love of Jesus Christ, and a certain knowledge of the free gift of salvation that He has given us on the Cross.

But, and this is important, Jeremiah knew something of that hope himself. Jeremiah was NOT just called to tear down- He may be the weeping prophet- but he did not weep without hope.

The Lord revealed to him, and what great comfort it must have been to Jeremiah, alone and abused by the world, the Lord revealed to him, the Messiah who was to come and the work He would perform.

Jeremiah 23:1–4 ““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. 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.”

Judgment will come, but then, somehow, new shepherds will arise. These shepherds will be good shepherds, caring for the flock, and they shall not fear any more. Now, pay attention, church, what are they fearing now? They are fearing the judgment of the Lord. This new community will not fear the Lord’s judgment. How can that be. Is it because they do not sin? Are they perfect people?

Jeremiah 23:5–8 ““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.””

This is one of the key passages not only of Jeremiah but of the entire Old Testament. Here is a clear reference to the Messiah who will come, the branch of David. The one and only truly Righteous King- John refers to Him in his first letter as “Jesus Christ The Righteous”. But this is the answer as to how the people of God will no longer need to fear the Judgment of God...not because WE suddenly are righteous, but because HE is righteous, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and HIS righteousness becomes OUR righteousness.

2 Corinthians 5:14–21 “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Jeremiah was among the first to hear and convey something of how the Messiah was going to save His people. “The Lord Is Our Righteousness”. It will not depend on us. It does not depend on you. Let all who are thirsty come and drink from the water of life and be saved.

Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

There should be no boasting among the people of God. We have no righteousness to call our own in any kind of proprietary way. Were it not for His dying for us while we were yet sinners we would have no way home out of Exile and judgment. As it is we, stand confidently in holy places and worship God with light hearts full of laughter and love and joy because our sin is not our final story. Our failures are not our destiny. Our story is the story of Jesus Christ and so we take up our Cross just as He took up His, and we trust in Him and we look to be resurrected on that day, just as He was on Easter morning.

And there is a shift here from the Exodus being the primary story of salvation to this Messiah who brings people back from the North Country, which symbolizes exile and judgment, Assyria and Babylon being North of Israel, and they being the instruments of God’s judgment, and all God’s people being returned to their land where they shall live in peace and no longer fear God’s judgments.