Jeremiah 33:14-26

3. Special promises (Jeremiah 33:14-26)

TRANSLATION

(14) Behold, days are coming (oracle of the LORD) when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. (15) In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous sprout to spring forth to David; and He will establish justice and righteousness in the land. (16) In those days Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited; and this is the name by which she shall be called: The LORD our Righteousness. (17) For thus says the LORD: David shall never lack a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; (18) and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn meal offerings, and to make sacrifice forever. (19) And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying, (20) Thus says the LORD: If My covenant of the day and night can be broken so that there will no longer be day and night in their proper times, (21) then My covenant with David MY servant shall be broken so that he will have no son to reign upon his throne; and for the Levitical priests, MY ministers. (22) As the hosts of the heaven cannot be numbered nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I increase the descendants of David My servant and the Levites, My ministers. (23) And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying, (24) Have you not considered what this people have said, saying, The two families which the LORD chose, He has rejected? Thus they despise My people that they no longer regard them as a nation. (25) Thus says the LORD: If My covenant with the day and night shall not stand, if I did not establish the statutes of the heaven and the earth, (26) then shall I reject the seed of Jacob and David My servant, and no longer take from his seed rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will reverse their fortunes and have mercy upon them.

COMMENTS

In the grandiose promises of this paragraph the Book of Consolation reaches its climax. Since these verses are absent in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, some liberal critics have questioned the genuineness of the passage. They are also quick to point out that Messianic concepts are introduced here which find no parallel in the rest of the Book of Jeremiah. But a prophet must be allowed freedom to express the Messianic hope in a variety of ways. The absence of the paragraph in the Septuagint version is difficult to explain no matter who is taken to be the author. Perhaps this paragraph was inserted into the book by Baruch after he emigrated to Babylon. If this was the case, then these verses would not be present in the Egyptian copy of the book from which the Septuagint translators made the Greek version. In any case this material certainly goes back to Jeremiah. Here the prophet focuses first on the grand Davidic Ruler of the future (Jeremiah 33:14-16) and then on the permanence of the royal and priestly offices in the new Israel (Jeremiah 33:17-26). In Jeremiah 33:14-16 the description of the happy future of Israel continues. The opening words Behold, the days come point to a certain but indefinite future. These words as used by Jeremiah become something of a Messianic pointer. God declares that He will certainly fulfill the good word that He has spoken to the covenant people. The good word probably refers back to the promise of a Righteous Sprout (Jeremiah 23:5-6). As if to remind Jeremiah of that promise, the Lord repeats it in Jeremiah 33:15. A Sprout of Righteousness shall spring from the stock of David who will restore justice and righteousness in the land. There can be scarcely any doubt that it is the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David and Messiah of Israel who is depicted here. In the days of Messiah the people of God, symbolized by Judah and Jerusalem,[295] will be delivered from their oppressors and enjoy peace and security. Literal Israel and Judah never regained political independence following the restoration to Palestine. They were dominated successively by the Persians, the Greeks, the Idumean Herodians and the Romans. Thus Judah and Jerusalem must be understood here spiritually of the church of Christ and the deliverance and safety promised should be regarded as spiritual blessings.

[295] In the parallel passage it is Judah and Israel which will experience salvation and safety in the Messianic age. The change from Israel to Jerusalem seems to be an intentional alteration in the promise in order to apply it more specifically to the dire straits in which Jerusalem found itself.

In those glorious days of which the prophet is speaking, spiritual Jerusalem, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, will actually wear the name of her Messiah and Master. She shall be called The Lord our Righteousness (cf. Jeremiah 23:6). It is altogether fitting and proper that the church being the bride of Christ should wear the same name of her divine husband. The holy city has taken on the character of her King.

In Jeremiah 33:17-18 the permanence of the kingly and priestly lines is affirmed. The expression shall never lack a man used twice in these verses is hardly meant to refer to a whole line of kings or priests. Rather this expression guarantees that the office of king and the office of priest is to be perpetual. The new Israel will have a throne and the one who will occupy that throne will be a descendant of David. The prophet reproduces almost verbatim the ancient promise made to David (1 Samuel 7:16) and repeated by David in his parting words to Solomon (1 Kings 2:4). When that promise was first given the line of David was in all the freshness of its strength. But in the present circumstances the line of David seemed to be one on the verge of total extinction. The prophet, however, sees beyond the present tragedy. He is certain that the royal line will survive the destruction of Jerusalem and that the true king of Israel will always come from the house of David.

During the intertestamental period some of the Hasmoneans called themselves king but they were not universally recognized as such. The Herodian dynasty, which still retained some measure of power in the days of Jesus, was never acknowledged as sitting on the throne of Israel. When the new Israel of God came into being on Pentecost the sovereign Ruler was a son of David, a legitimate King.[296]

[296] See Luke 1:32-33; John 18:36; Ephesians 1:20-23; Revelation 17:14.

The priestly office as well as the royal office will survive the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple. The terminology the priests the Levites (KJV) or the Levitical priests (NASV) points to the fact that under the old covenant the priestly functions were the exclusive right of the descendants of Levi (Numbers 3:10; Numbers 16:40; Numbers 18:7). The New Testament categorically affirms that the Levitical priesthood has passed away (Hebrews 7:11). That priesthood was replaced by a new and better one inaugurated by Christ who was made a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Furthermore, the New Testament affirms that those who have been baptized into Christ have become part of a holy priesthood (Hebrews 10:19-22). Christians do not offer before God burnt-offerings and meal-offerings for the perfect sacrifice for sins was made upon the cross of Calvary. Rather the Christian priesthood offers the sacrifices of praise (1 Peter 2:5) and the sacrifice of the body (Romans 12:1). Jeremiah himself hints at this dramatic change in the nature of the priesthood when he declares that the ark of the covenant will no longer be remembered in the Messianic age (Jeremiah 3:16). The removal of the ark of the covenant, which was so crucial in the rituals of Old Testament worship, points to a complete change in the nature of the priesthood.

In Jeremiah 33:19-22 the promise concerning David and the Levites is reproduced with even greater solemnity. These promises are placed on the same level of permanence as the God-ordained succession of day and night. As long as day follows night, God will be faithful to His commitment to guarantee the survival of the royal and priestly lines (Jeremiah 33:19-21).

The covenant with the line of David is given in 2 Samuel 7:12-16. The covenant with the Levi, referred to again in Malachi 2:4-5; Malachi 2:8, is not so explicitly stated. Probably the reference is to the promise made to Phinehas in Numbers 25:13. The argument of Jeremiah 33:19-22 is the same as in Jeremiah 31:35-37 except that here the argument is applied specifically to the monarchy and priesthood while in the earlier passage it is applied to Israel as a nation.

Jeremiah 33:22 affirms that the descendants of David and Levi will be innumerable. According to the prophecy of Isaiah all members of the Messianic Israel would be priests and ministers of the Lord. No longer would the priesthood be restricted to descendants of Levi, but any and every member of the nationeven Gentile convertswould be able to serve in the priestly capacities (Isaiah 66:20-21). Just as Messiah is both priest and king, so also are his subjects. These Old Testament prophecies find their fulfillment in the New Testament concept of the royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6; Revelation 5:9-10). Christians offer the sacrifice of praise before the throne of grace continually (Romans 12:1; Hebrews 13:15-16; 1 Peter 2:5). Furthermore, Christians are said to reign with Christ (Revelations Jeremiah 5:10; Jeremiah 20:4; Jeremiah 20:6). Just as Christians are spiritually the seed of Abraham (Romans 9:7-8; Galatians 3:29) so also are they envisioned in this prophecy as descendants of David and of Levi. Whatever may have been the thoughts of the prophet, one is justified in looking for the seed of David and the Levites in those who, by virtue of their union with Christ, are made both kings and priests (Revelation 1:6).

Apparently some found it hard to accept at face value these glorious promises regarding the future of the royal and priestly orders. God calls the attention of the prophet to the anguished cries of despair. God, it seemed, had altogether cast off his people. Gentiles looking upon the pitiful condition of Israel could only despise the people of God (Jeremiah 33:24). In response to the despondency of Israel and the disdain of Gentiles the prophet renews his assurance of the permanence of the kingly and priestly lines and in fact strengthens that assurance in three ways.

First, he mentions the names of the three great patriarchs of the race with whom God had already demonstrated His faithfulness in covenant keeping. Secondly, He connects his promises concerning David with a promise of a return from captivity (Jeremiah 33:26). When that return came, it would be the pledge of the yet greater blessings which were involved in the new and everlasting covenant. Finally, he repeats the analogy between His covenant with nature and His covenant with Jacob and David. As surely as God is responsible for the orderly processes of nature so surely has He ordained a glorious future for Jacob in general and David in particular.

Many prophecies of the Old Testament were never fulfilled. in a narrow, literalistic sense. The principle of interpreting every prophecy literally unless forced to do otherwise is not really valid in the light of the inspired interpretation of prophecy found in the New Testament. The prophets often used Mosaic terminology to describe the spiritual realities of the new covenant. So long as interpreters miss this point the prophetic books will remain an enigma and Messianic prophecies but utopian dreams. In painting his picture of the future the prophet of God utilized the forms, the terminology and concepts of his own day. That prophetic pictures of the Christian dispensation should be clothed in Jewish dress is not strange since this is the only form in which they could present any meaning to those to whom they were delivered. Those in the New Testament who were privileged to catch a glimpse of the heavenly Jerusalem exhausted the vocabulary of human language in describing the wonders they beheld. So the Old Testament prophets found it necessary to utilize the language of the old covenant worship to describe that of the new covenant. It is no doubt to such passages as Jeremiah 33 that Peter refers when he speaks of the prophets as inquiring and searching diligently. what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow (1 Peter 1:10-11).