Jeremiah 23:1-8

D. The Promise of an Ideal Ruler Jeremiah 23:1-8

TRANSLATION

(1) How sad it is that shepherds are destroying and scattering the flock of My pasture! (oracle of the LORD). (2) Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who are caring for My people; you have scattered My flock and driven them away, and you have not visited them; behold, I am about to visit upon you the evil of your deeds. (3) Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock from all the lands where I have driven them and I will cause them to return to their pasture; and they shall be fruitful and multiply. (4) And I will raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them; and they will not fear anymore nor shall they be terrified, nor shall they be lacking (oracle of the LORD). (5) Behold, days are coming (oracle of the LORD) when I will raise up for David a righteous Shoot and He shall reign as king and he shall act wisely and execute justice and righteousness in the land. (6) In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely; and this is His name which He will be called, The LORD our Righteousness. (7) Therefore behold, days are coming (oracle of the LORD) when they will no longer say, As the LORD lives who brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, (8) but, As the LORD lives who brought up and led the seed of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where I have driven them. Then they shall dwell in their land.

COMMENTS

It is a sad situation which the prophet is describing in Jeremiah 23:1. The shepherds, the national leaders (cf. Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 10:21), are responsible for the impending destruction of the flock which God has committed into their care. Under the leadership of these unscrupulous men the people of the land had strayed from the paths of fidelity to God. Not only did these leaders set the wrong example for the people, they also condoned and encouraged the violence and corruption which was rampant in the land. These leaders had not visited the flock of God. Therefore God is about to visit these corrupt leaders (Jeremiah 23:2). The Hebrew word translated visit has a wide variety of meanings. It may mean to attend to, to visit, muster, appoint, pay attention to, etc. The word can be used in a positive or a negative sense. One can visit for the purpose of aiding or helping, or one can visit for the purpose of judging or punishing. The verb is used in both senses in Jeremiah 23:2. The spiritual leaders of Judah did not visit the flock, i.e., they did not care for or aid them or pay attention to them. Therefore God will visit on them their evil deeds, i.e., God will punish them for their wickedness. This type of word play is common in the prophetic books. By pointing the finger of blame at the national leaders Jeremiah does not mean to excuse the populace from any responsibility for the condition of the nation. The people are guilty for having tolerated and followed their wicked leaders.

The corrupt shepherds who governed Judah were responsible for the impending national deportation and dispersement. But sometime in the future the Good Shepherd would again assemble His flock. Only a remnant, a small portion, of those who were carried away into captivity would ever return. Apparently the majority would be lost during the period of exile. God will gather His people from the various landsEgypt, Assyria, Babylonwhere He had scattered them. Upon returning to their homeland the remnant of Judah will be made fruitful and they will multiply (Jeremiah 23:3).[223] After their return God will raise up for His people a new kind of ruler. The wicked shepherds took care of themselves and not the flock; but the new shepherds will have the interest of the people at heart. The old shepherds had left the flock of God exposed to the ravishes of wild beasts (cf. Ezekiel 34:8); under the new shepherds the flock will contentedly graze without fear. Not one of them will be lacking or missing due to any neglect on the part of the new shepherds (Jeremiah 23:4). Who are the new shepherds of whom Jeremiah speaks? Some contend that he is referring to leaders like Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah whom God raised up to care for the remnant of Judah following the return from Babylon. Others think the prediction is Messianic and points to those leaders who serve under the glorious Ruler who appears in the following verse. As is frequently the case in prophecy prophecies of restoration blend in with prophecies of the Messiah and His kingdom.

[223] Compare Ezekiel 34:12-15.

The word behold indicates that a noteworthy announcement is about to be made. Jeremiah uses the formula behold days are coming sixteen times to introduce messages of reassurance. After the days of humiliation at the hands of Babylon, God will raise up an ideal King to rule over the land. This ruler is of course none other than the long-awaited Messiah. Jeremiah 23:5-6 are of such importance that nearly every phrase is deserving of comment. The following information can be gleaned from these verses concerning the coming Messiah.

1. The promised Messiah is to be the descendant of David.[224] Through the prophet Nathan, God had promised David that his progeny would sit forever on the throne of Israel (2 Samuel 7).

[224] Cf. Isaiah 9:7; Isaiah 11:1; Micah 5:2.

2. The Messiah is called in the standard English version a branch. However the Hebrew word is never used of a twig or individual branch of a tree. Rather the idea is a sprout or shoot which grows directly out of the ground. The title shoot is here applied unmistakably to the Messiah for the first time. In Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12 shoot becomes a proper name for the Messiah.

3. The Messianic Shoot is raised up by direct action of God. This was necessary because the old stock of David was worn out, incapable of reproducing from itself a mighty tree.

4. The Messiah will be a righteous Shoot. All other descendants of David had to confess their sins and ask divine forgiveness. The Messiah would be sinless (Isaiah 53:9). He did not become righteous; he was righteous (Isaiah 53:11).

5. The Messiah shall reign as king. Jeremiah looks forward here to the rule of a second David. That the reign of Christ has already begun is the clear testimony of the New Testament.[225]

[225] See Hebrews 1:3-13; Hebrews 10:12-13; Revelation 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:20-28; Acts 2:19-34.

6. He shall deal wisely. The same Hebrew verb could be translated he shall prosper. But in the light of Isaiah 11:2 probably the former translation is preferable. The Messiah will have the insight and the intelligence to bring God's plan of salvation to a successful completion. He will rule His kingdom in such a way as to bring joy, happiness and well-being to all His subjects.

7. The Messiah will execute justice and righteousness. This sums up the function of the ideal ruler (cf. 11 Samuel Jeremiah 8:15). He is able to create or establish a new norm, a new standard, a new righteousness.[226]

[226] Seven times Jeremiah uses the Hebrew verb meaning do or make with the word for justice. Thus the Messiah creates or makes justice and righteousness.

8. Israel and Judah will be reunited under the rule of the Messiah. Ezekiel held out a similar hope (Ezekiel 37:19). The salvation and deliverance spoken of in Jeremiah 23:6 are spiritual blessings. Reunited Judah and Israel never regained political independence except for one brief period under the Hasmonean rulers in the second century before Christ.

9. The Messiah shall bear the name The LORD our Righteousness. In Jeremiah 33:16 Jeremiah gives this same name to the city of Jerusalem. Laetsch has pointed out the unique manner in which this name is introduced here. The Lord does not merely say: His name is or shall be (as is said of AbrahamGenesis 17:5 b); nor does he say: Call His name (as in the case of IshmaelGenesis 16:11; Genesis 16:13); nor yet does he say: This shall he be called (as is used of JerusalemJeremiah 33:16). The phraseology used here is unique in the entire Old Testament: And this is His name which one shall call Him. According to Laetsch two facts are underscored by this construction:

(1) The name given the Messiah here is not a mere label or tag. Rather it designates the very nature or essence of the Messiah. He IS righteousness! (2) God desires that mankind should refer to the Messiah by the title here given, Yahweh, our Righteousness.

In Jeremiah 23:7-8 the prophet moves back from the distant Messianic future to the more immediate future. Using essentially the language of Jeremiah 16:14 f. Jeremiah speaks once again of the return from Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah never wavered on this proposition: God would bring a remnant of His people home from Babylon. This return from Babylon would overshadow the Exodus from Egypt. The promise is introduced by the word therefore. One noted expositor has suggested that whenever one sees in Scripture a therefore he ought to try to discover what it is there for. The suggestion here is that God lets His people return to their homeland as a preparation for the coming of the great Messianic savior of whom Jeremiah has been speaking in Jeremiah 23:5-6. Since the Exodus from Egypt was foundational to the establishment of the old covenant and to all the theology of the Old Testament, it is no small matter for Jeremiah to state that the New Exodus from Babylon will supersede that earlier event in importance. Only when the Exodus from Babylon is seen as foundational to the establishment of the New Covenant is such a comparison justified.