Day 225. Jeremiah 22-23

It is well to remember that the oracles of Jeremiah are not arranged in strict chronological order. This exhortation (22:1-10) should be addressed to King Zedekiah, successor to Jehoichin and the last of the house of David to rule in Jerusalem before the Babylonian Exile—or it may well have been addressed to an earlier king of Judah. It is probably located here to explain exactly why God allowed to city of Jerusalem to be destroyed and the house of David to be deposed. In any case it is addressed to a "King of Judah sitting on the throne of David" (22:2) and it lays out the conditions of the covenant the LORD had made with David and renewed with each successive king of his house afterward. God promised to "establish" the house of David so long as the successors of David obeyed his commands and acted as his anointed representatives. As well as establishing and providing for the sole worship of the LORD and at the same time repressing the worship
of idols, the king is made directly responsible for the establishment of justice in his kingdom to "deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed" (20:3). He is to "do no wrong of violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood" in Jerusalem." The LORD has revealed himself as a God who loves justice, and doing justice and repressing violence is a necessary part of establishing right worship of the sole and only God.
If the kings did this, ruled justly, they were assured that the succession would continue presumably forever (22:4). But if they failed to heed the stipulations of the covenant and worshiped other gods, abandoning the command to do justice, the covenant would be voided and the most terrible results would follow. Their "house shall become a desolation" (22:5), Jeremiah says, and their holy city of Jerusalem desolate and uninhabited (22:6). In the future when passers-by ask why God has allowed this to happen, the answer will be—"because [the kings] abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshiped other gods and served them" (22:9). The responsibility ultimately fell upon the king as the head of state. An unfaithful king endangered the life of the whole nation.
The next passage in our reading refers to one of those unfaithful kings--the unfortunate son of King Josiah, Shallum—his throne name was Jehoahaz. We read his story in 2 Kings 23. After reigning only three short months he was carried off as a hostage to Egypt by the Pharaoh Neco, and he died an exile there and never saw his homeland again (22:12). Jeremiah tells us why he met this sad fate as an object lesson; it was because he cared more for ostentatious building projects (22:14) than for his true calling as an anointed king, to establish justice and provide for the most vulnerable (22:17). He was proud and indifferent to the welfare of his people. His father Josiah had been a good king, seeking to do justice, but in this his son was a failure. He broke the covenant, and was carried off into captivity, never to return.
In the place of Jehoahaz, the Pharaoh set his eighteen-year old son Coniah—his royal name was Jehoiachin—on the throne in Jerusalem. He also met an unhappy end. He also fell short of the ideal, and again after three months on the throne, he and the queen mother were carried off by King Nebuchadrezzar to Babylon, from whither "they shall not return to the land to which they long to return" (22:27). Jeremiah prophesies the two shall die in exile, "and none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David, and ruling again in Judah" (22:30).
Jeremiah pronounced the LORD's judgment on these last feeble and venal kings of Judah. "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them" (23:1-2). Kings of the ancient Near East--not just the kings of Israel, but the kings of other nations as well—were often called and styled themselves as "shepherds" because they led their people and protected them against their enemies. The LORD blames the bad shepherds of the House of David for the destruction of the nation and the exile in Babylon—he says ominously that he "will attend to [them] for [their] evil doings" (23:2).
But since the kings of David's house have failed to keep his covenant, God will now take matters directly in hand, replacing the Davidic king as the shepherd of Israel—he himself "will gather the remnant of [his] flock out of all the lands where [he] has driven them, and [he] will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. [He] will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, no shall any be missing, says the LORD" (23:4). God intends to serve as a sort of interim king until he can gather the scattered remnant of his people and place them under the reformed monarchy, headed by a new kind of king, "a righteous branch" from the house of David. This Messiah—this "anointed one"—will be a great military leader who will save and unite both kingdoms Israel and Judah (23:5) and establish them again "in their own land" (23:8).
We Christians are bound to associate this messianic prophecy with Jesus of Nazareth, born of the house of David, to whom we look for life and salvation. But viewed objectively, our LORD's mission was nothing like that Davidic king that Jeremiah describes. Jeremiah's Messiah was expected to liberate militarily and rule politically; Jesus explicitly rejected the role of a military leader. But through his death and resurrection, Jesus does establish the "kingdom of God," liberating the hearts and minds of his followers and uniting them into a new Israel, the Church. Therefore, though in quite a different way from that which the Old Testament prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah expected, God does indeed anoint Jesus as Messiah (Christ) and Lord.
In the final section of our reading, the prophet describes in very human terms the anger and dismay he feels at the false prophets who pretend to bring the word of God to the people, but instead only tell them what they want to hear. They are strong and popular, but "their might is not right" (23:10). God finds even in his own house the wickedness of prophets and priests, which he will root out and destroy. The prophets of Samaria prophesied the name of the false god Baal—that was bad enough. The prophets of Jerusalem do what is even worse—they pretend to prophesy in the name of the true God, falsely. At the same time they set bad examples by leading wicked lives and tell lies that "strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from wickedness" (23:14)
So Jeremiah warns the people--Do not believe these deluded prophets who "speak visions of their minds, not from the mouth of LORD" (23:16). They prophesy that all is well, but all is not well. Judgment is coming—a true prophet will know and proclaim it without fear. Human dreams are not the word of God. "Let the prophet who has a dream, tell the dream," says the LORD, "but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully" (23:28). And how do you discern the word of God from human dream. The word of God is not easy to speak or hear; it is hot like fire—it is 'like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces" (23:29). It speaks judgment to sin. It calls from painful repentance. False prophets speak their own wishes and "lying dreams" and call them "the burden of the LORD"—and the LORD forbids that these words—"the burden of the LORD"—be used again. There shall be no more volunteer prophets—only authentic ones who
carry God's word, not a basket of their own eggs.