From prison Jeremiah wrote of a day of new beginnings!
Would we have offered hope to our persecutors as Jeremiah did? I hope so.
“Moreover the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying, thus says the Lord who made it, the Lord who formed it to establish it (the Lord is His Name): call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:1-2
Though bound, Jeremiah continued to speak of God who made and formed it [all things]. He urged his listeners to call on the Name of the Lord. The Lord reveals to us what we do not know.
Jeremiah did not withhold God’s Word from those who imprisoned him. His example prefigures the example of Paul who preached the Word of God to the Philippian jailer. Paul mentioned being in prison or “in bonds” when he wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.
One difference between a self-made man and a God-made man is prayer. God revealed to Jeremiah great and mighty things that he previously did not know. He did not need a library full of books while in prison. The Lord revealed to him ample words to write books as he prayed.
The Lord revealed to Jeremiah things that would shortly come to pass.
“For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah, which have been pulled down to fortify against the siege mounds and the sword: they come to fight with the Chaldeans, but only to fill their places with the dead bodies of men whom I will slay in My anger and My fury, all for whose wickedness I have hidden My face from this city.” Jeremiah 33:4-5
In Jeremiah 1:10, God spoke of tearing down and building. The people of Jerusalem were literally tearing down their houses and using the materials to fortify (build up) the city’s walls. God told Jeremiah that the Chaldeans would repurpose the city’s houses as places for the dead.
But when it was all said and done, the Lord would forgives their sins and heal their land.
“Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return and will rebuild those places as at the first. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me.” Jeremiah 33:6-8
From his prison Jeremiah prophesied of God providing health, healing, peace, and truth. He would set the captives free from Babylon. They would repent! God would forgive and heal!
Have you heard of urban renewal? Jerusalem was on fire. The dead were everywhere! Yet God was going to make this city live again. Their outward slavery to foreign powers would end. Their inward brokenness would be healed.
“Then it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to them; they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it.” Jeremiah 33:9
Joy, praise, and honor before all nations! Praise the Lord! The joy of the Lord will be their strength. Praise and prosperity from the Lord will make His glory to shine to all nations. The nations will be deeply impacted when they see the goodness of the Lord upon them.
These precious promises apply to the people of Israel, but they also apply on a much wider scale to all who believe in Jesus Christ. Revelation 21:2 speaks of the Lord creating a new and eternal Jerusalem, “I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Revelation 21:24, 26-27: “The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Praise the Lord!
“Thus says the Lord: again there shall be heard in this place—of which you say, ‘It is desolate, without man and without beast’—in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: ‘Praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for His mercy endures forever’—and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first, says the Lord.” Jeremiah 33:10-11
The Lord promised a revival of marriage ceremonies. It seems that people were no longer getting married before their nation fell. Can you imagine a city without weddings? No wedding gowns for brides! No tuxedos for grooms! No flowers! No pastor to bless! No congregation to pray! No fellowship meal afterwards! No music! No dancing!
The prophesy of marriage restored alludes to the marriage of the Lamb (Jesus) and His bride (the Church) when this age ends. Revelation 19:7-8 says, “Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: in this place, which is desolate, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, there shall again be a dwelling place of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the South, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks shall again pass under the hands of him who counts them, says the Lord.” Jeremiah 33:12-13
Shepherds and sheep were as critical to Israel’s existence as ranchers, cattle, hogs and chickens are critical to western nations! In John 10:11, Jesus called Himself the Good Shepherd. In Psalm 100:3, He refers to His people as the sheep of His pasture. Jeremiah’s prophecy of shepherd and sheep prefigures Messiah’s promise in Revelation 7:16-17, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah: in those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David a Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the Name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Jeremiah 33:14-16
The above prophecy parallels what Isaiah wrote about Messiah...
Isaiah 11:1-5 says, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from His roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and He will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes or decide by what He hears with His ears; but with righteousness He will judge the needy, with justice He will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth; with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be His belt and faithfulness the sash around His waist.”
Jeremiah’s prophecy parallels what Matthew wrote about Messiah...
“He [Jesus] went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.” In Matthew 2:23, the word Nazarene sounds like Hebrew words for “My Branch.” “Branch” is a term for the Messiah.
Jeremiah’s prophecy parallels what Paul wrote about Messiah...
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake He [God] made Him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him [Christ] we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus Christ is the righteous King. He is the Lord our Righteousness. God imputes righteousness to us when we believe in His Son Jesus Christ. God imparts righteousness to us via His indwelling Holy Spirit. The Book of Acts testifies of the Word of the Lord flowing from Jerusalem to the ends of the world.
“For thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; nor shall the priests, the Levites, lack a man to offer burnt offerings before Me, to kindle grain offerings, and to sacrifice continually.” Jeremiah 33:17-18
Our Messiah’s eternal kingship is matched by His permanent priesthood. “The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. and has not been rebuilt. No priests offer burnt offerings for Jews. No Levites stand before God to make atonement for them. Unless Jesus is the Messiah, therefore, the promise of a permanent priesthood has failed.” [1]
“It is striking that both of Jeremiah’s promises were to be fulfilled in a man. In both promises, the eternal King, the permanent Priest, is called a ‘man.’ Incidentally, contrary to what some have said, the fact that Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek rather than Levi is not a problem for Jeremiah’s prophecy. Jeremiah did not promise a priest from the Levites but a priest for the Levites.” [2]
“And the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: if you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season. Then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.” Jeremiah 33:19-22
God’s covenant with day and night speaks of His faithfulness. Israel could break covenants with God but they could not break God’s covenant to preserve day and night.
This passage also speaks of the Church. The Church consists of the priesthood of all believers in Christ. 1 Peter 2:5 says, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy PRIESTHHOOD, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Revelation 5:10 says, “You have made them to be a KINGDOM and PRIESTS to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
“Moreover the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, ‘Have you not considered what these people have spoken, saying, the two families which the Lord has chosen, He has also cast them off? Thus, they have despised My people, as if they should no more be a nation before them.” Jeremiah 33:23-24
At this point in time, only a few cities were still standing against the Babylonians – Jerusalem, Lachish, and Azekah.” Israel needed to be reassured that they would survive this holocaust.
“Thus says the Lord: if My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captives to return and will have mercy on them.” Jeremiah 33:25-26
The meaning here is that God will not forsake the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are in a covenant relationship forever. God’s covenant with day and night speaks of His great faithfulness.
God promised to break their chains. God is able to break your chains too. Jesus came to set captives free. Just hold out your cuffs to Jesus. He will remove them. He will give you a new beginning.
The full restoration of Israel will come when they embrace Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah. Zechariah 12:10 says, “I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.” Jesus quotes this passage in Revelation 1:7. While Revelation 7:9 speaks of a great multitude which no one could number from all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, the whole book focuses on God making Jerusalem a joy and a crown for His glory. Romans 11:26 says that all Israel will be saved meaning that there will be a nationwide embrace of Christ. Romans 11:30-32 speaks of both the Gentiles and the Jews being disobedient to God, but God having mercy on them all.
God’s mercy is the key that unlocks the moment of new beginning. In Luke 18:13-14, a tax collector humbled himself before the Lord and cried out, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” Jesus said that humble man went down to his house justified. Jesus said, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Entrance into eternal heaven is just that easy! It’s that easy because Jesus paid the price for it with His own blood.
[1] Dr. Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations from Sorrow to Hope, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, © 2001, p. 519
[2] Dr. Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations from Sorrow to Hope, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, © 2001, p. 519
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