“Why Jesus Came (Jeremiah 23:1-6)", Will DuVal | 12/15/24
Jeremiah 23:1-6 | 12/15/24 | Will DuVal
This morning, we’re beginning our ABRIDGED Advent mini-series entitled “The One the Prophets Foretold”, which was how the disciple PHILLIP famously described JESUS after first MEETING him to his buddy NATHANIEL in John ch1: “Come and see! We have found [the One whom the prophets foretold], Jesus of Nazareth” (v45).
It’s hard to even COUNT how many OT prophecies Jesus fulfilled; estimates range between 300 on the conservative end, up to as many as SIX hundred prophecies.
Most of us are familiar with the BIGGIES:
He would be born of a virgin (Isa 7:14).
He would bring good news and healing to the downtrodden (Isa 61:1).
He would CRUSH the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15).
And most importantly, he would atone for his people’s SINS (Isa 53:5-12) and then be raised from the DEAD (Ps 16:10)!
So many AMAZING prophecies Jesus fulfilled all throughout his life, including just his BIRTH, which we celebrate at Christmas; it was hard to narrow the list down to just 2 or 3 for us to focus on this Advent (perhaps we’ll pick this series back up again in a FUTURE Advent season). But this morning, we’re going to turn our attention to what I believe is one of the most underrated, beautiful, POWER-ful prophecies about Jesus in all of the OT, in ch23 of the book of Jeremiah. And this prophecy, I hope to show you, offers us perhaps the most succinct yet compelling answer to the question: “Why did Jesus COME, to the earth?” If that’s what Christmas is all about: God coming DOWN… why did he DO it? There are LOTS of true, biblical ways to answer that question. But Jeremiah 23:1-6 summarizes God’s answer for us about as poignantly as possible.
Now it may be HELPFUL if I provide just a bit of CONTEXT for you before we actually read the passage. Actually, I will let John Piper (“I Will Raise Up…”, Desiring God, Dec 13, 1981); he writes:
“Around [the turn of the millennium, in the year 1010 BC, King] DAVID began to rule over Israel. David was "a man after God's own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14) and stands to this day as the embodiment of a great king, even though a sinner. To him, God made a promise in 2 Samuel 7 that one of his own offspring would sit upon the throne and that the throne of his kingdom would be established forever (v16). But it became very clear after David's death that this promise was in jeopardy.
The demise of the united kingdom with the death of Solomon, David's son, and the disobedience of the divided kingdom threatened to bring down God's wrath on Israel in the north and Judah in the south. [God] had said to the people very clearly at the inauguration of the first king, "If you do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king" (1 Samuel 12:25). So for centuries the people lived with this tension. On the one hand, they had a promise that David's kingdom would be made sure forever. And on the other hand, they had a threat that if they persisted in disobedience to God, they and their king would be swept away. The men who kept this tension before the eyes of the people for the next four centuries were the prophets.”
Piper goes on: “Jeremiah was born around 627 BC. He was called by God… to be a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah during its final years…under its last five kings: Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Josiah… was a good king who tried to reform the nation after finding the old book of the covenant in the temple (2 Kings 22, 23). But the rest of the kings were not good. Chs21 & 22 of Jeremiah is a collection of oracles which Jeremiah spoke from the Lord against these kings… "Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness [and] injustice” (22:13)... “you have not obeyed my voice” (22:21)... “None of [your] offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David, and ruling again in Judah.” (22:30)”
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And that’s the very LAST thing we hear from God in Jeremiah 22 before opening to ch23 this morning: that none of Jehoiachin’s offspring - he was the last king in David’s family line - but NONE of his offspring, God declared, would rule again in Judah. And YET, 400 years PRIOR, God had made this UNBREAKABLE promise of an ETERNAL kingdom to DAVID. You see the TENSION? How will God remain true to BOTH his sanction AND his promise?
We find God’s answer, without losing sight of the even BIGGER, more IMPORTANT question - “Why Jesus Came” - here in Jeremiah 23, vv1-6.
I invite you to STAND… Jeremiah 23:1-6. Hear the word…
““Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. 2 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. 3 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. 4 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.
5 “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. 6 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.’”
[This is the word of the Lord… Seated…]
THREE hints Jeremiah offers us here, as to why Jesus came to us.
#1 - The FIRST is that we so DESPERATELY needed him; We need good shepherds. (vv1-2a)
Because we are God’s SHEEP. DOZENS and dozens of times throughout the Bible, God’s people are described as his SHEEP:
“We are the sheep of his pasture” (Ps 100:3).
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” (Ps 23:1)
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory… he will separate people… as a shepherd separates [his] sheep from the goats.” (Mt 25:32)
And perhaps MOST pertinently: “All we like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way” (Isa 53:6a). We need a shepherd because we are so prone to WANDER, to “go astray”. We need to be LED, to be SHOWN the way.
And in the OT, that was the role of the KING.
If you’re wondering: “What does all this talk about SHEPHERDS have to do with your whole introduction about Israel’s KINGS?” - it was CUSTOMARY in the ancient Near East to refer to kings as “shepherds”, INCLUDING in the OT. So, for instance, in Isaiah 44 God says of king CYRUS of Persia, “He is my shepherd” (v28). Ezekiel 34, Zechariah 11… Most famous, of course, was King DAVID, the young shepherd who cut his teeth leading his father JESSE’S flock, until he was chosen to lead his father YAHWEH’S flock, as Israel’s literal “shepherd-King”.
So we see this principle at work all throughout the OT, and really in our lived experience still TODAY: that “as the KING goes, so goes the NATION”. As the LEADERS go, so goes the company, the organization. That’s why good, godly leadership is so important to God, such a point of emphasis in his word.
King after king, throughout Israel’s history - some GOOD, most of them BAD - but ALL of them LEADING God’s people to FOLLOW their OWN example. We hear this recurring phrase, on almost every PAGE of 1st and 2nd Kings: “...and he [the KING] SINNED, making Israel to sin….” (1 Kgs 16:13, 19, 26; et al). For example, God confronts King Baasha, in 1 Kings 16: “I exalted you out of the dust and made you leader over my people Israel, but you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have MADE my people Israel to SIN” (v2). As the king leads, so follows the nation.
Sometimes, for GOOD. We mentioned King Josiah already; in 2 Kings 23, we read that he “went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah… all the people, both small and great… And the king… made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments… with all his heart and all his soul… And all the people JOINED in the covenant” (vv2-4). As the king goes, so goes the nation.
And God of course KNOWS this about us; he MADE us this way, like SHEEP, to “follow the leader”. Because who was SUPPOSED to be our leader - our shepherd, our KING - from the very START?
GOD HIMSELF!! He created us to follow HIM, to NEED God, and draw CLOSE to Him as we rely upon him.
That’s why God got so UPSET - so OFFENDED and ANGRY - when Israel demanded a king “like all the other nations” in 1 Samuel 8; because God HIMSELF was ALREADY their king! He had adopted Israel at the foot of Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19 - “you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples… you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.’” (vv5-6). God HIMSELF, as good kings did, had led Israel in battle, and won them their Promised Land, in Joshua 10: “[Israel] captured all these kings and their land at one time, because Yahweh God of Israel fought for Israel” (v42).
So imagine how INSULTING and INFURIATING it must have been to God when “all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “...appoint for us a king to [lead] us like all the other nations.””
“the Lord said to Samuel, “...they have rejected ME from being king over them.”
“Nevertheless,” God said, Go ahead: give them their king. “Only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them”: your SINFUL, HUMAN kings will ENSLAVE you, for their own selfish purposes (“he will take your sons and appoint them… to plow his ground and to reap his harvest”). He’s gonna TAX the pants right off you (“He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards… the best of your servants… and donkeys and flocks… and put them to his work… and you shall be his SLAVES.”).
“And in that day,” God warned, “ you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you” (1 Sam 8:18).
And this is exactly where Israel FOUND themselves, in Jeremiah ch23. Their kings, their “shepherds” - Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoichin, Zedekiah - had led God’s people astray. Into such EGREGIOUS sin that God had no CHOICE but to intervene in his LOVE and DISCIPLINE Israel. He’s about to send BABYLON to DECIMATE and then EXILE them. But there can be no CONFUSION about who is at FAULT here, who is to BLAME for Israel’s punishment; God says, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! …You have scattered my flock and driven them away [into exile; it’s YOUR fault! Why? because], you have not attended to them.”
The king’s job, above ALL else, was to lead God’s people in RIGHTEOUSNESS. In obedience to God’s LAW. We read about this, of all places, in God’s Law ITSELF, back in Deuteronomy 17. 4 centuries before Israel even HAD a king, back when GOD was still their king, and warning them against ASKING for another one, God in his perfect foreknowledge and in his MERCY, since he KNEW Israel would eventually REJECT him as king, but he still LOVED them and wanted the BEST for them, God ACCOMMODATED to their hardness of heart and said, “Okay, DON’T ask me for a human king… but when you DO, at least make sure to command him to rule over you in THIS way: “when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, [MY Law, my COMMANDS; God said…] And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law… that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment… so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, Israel.” (Dt. 17:18-20)
God said: “He may be king over YOU, but he’s STILL under MY authority, MY rule. And as long as your kings humbly, obediently submit to ME, fear ME, follow ME - all will go WELL.”
But ever SINCE David - no, INCLUDING David! - even Israel’s GREATEST king, the “one after God’s own HEART”, let it go to his head, and he STOLE another man’s wife, knocked her up, then MURDERED her husband. Then David’s son, King SOLOMON, was WORSE; he was the WISEST man on earth. But no wise enough to listen to God’s warning, back in Deuteronomy 17 again - “[your king] shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold” - anyone remember how many WIVES - FOREIGN, pagan wives - Solomon acquired? 700. Plus another 300 concubines, sex-slaves, for good measure.
Remember how much “SILVER AND GOLD” Solomon acquired? Conservative estimates put his net worth somewhere in the ballpark of $2.1 trillion dollars, in today’s currency. I’d call that “excessive”, wouldn’t you? Wealthiest man to ever LIVE. And yet David and Solomon were considered GOOD kings, notwithstanding; they were the GOLD standard. It only went downhill from there.
The northern kingdom of Israel had a total of 19 kings over the course of 200+ years, ALL of them “EVIL”, “WICKED”, the Bible says, so God raised up ASSYRIA to punish THEM in 722 BC.
The southern Kingdom of JUDAH wasn’t MUCH better; they survived another 140 or so years before God sent Babylon: TWENTY kings, TWELVE of them bad. Including those last FOUR in a row, who “scattered [God’s] flock” by failing to “attend to them.”
“SO”, God threatens them now in v2: “I will attend to you for your evil deeds.” If you’re too self-serving to care about MY law, and MY people, my SHEEP, who I’ve called you to LEAD… you may not have cared enough to pay attention to THEM, but you can be DARN sure, God says, “that I care enough to come deal with to YOU!”
“With shepherds like these,” Philip Ryken quips, “who needs wolves?” (“The Righteous Branch” sermon). “It’s hard for sheep to trust a shepherd who wears a wool sweater… who eats MUTTON for dinner.” That’s what Israel’s shepherds, her KINGS, were doing, they were “fleecing the flock”.
And if I can try and make this PRACTICAL and PERSONAL for just a minute before we move on, isn’t that what we see so MANY shepherds still doing TODAY? So many politicians, so many CEOs, let’s be HONEST: so many PASTORS! How many folks are “unchurched” today - they have walked away from the church, if not the FAITH entirely - because of the FAILURES of the church’s leaders. Maybe it was a major MORAL failure - sex scandals in the church are a dime a dozen these days - but maybe it was smaller, more subtle. I never cease to be shocked and saddened by how many people joining our church tell me that no one from their previous church even reached OUT to them on their way out; OFTEN, if you left the RIGHT way, YOU took the initiative and called your former pastor, you went in and tried talking to the elder council - but it is deeply TROUBLING how many pastors won’t ANSWER those calls, “Sounds like they’re on their way out ANYWAY; why waste the TIME…”
We had a couple leave just this past week; told me they just hadn’t really CONNECTED here. But I can’t help but look in the mirror: “Could I have done MORE, as their pastor?” When her father died, and then she had a pretty serious surgery, just a few months later - I CALLED, I PRAYED, we sent FLOWERS, texted to check in… But I wasn’t there in the HOSPITAL with her. I didn’t attend her father’s FUNERAL. Could I - SHOULD I - have done more?
We need SHEPHERDS, don’t we? we need CARE. But even the best of our HUMAN shepherds will inevitably fall SHORT.
I’m not even in the RUNNING for “best”, but let me just warn you all NOW: I am gonna let you down (if I haven’t ALREADY!). You know why I love getting lunch with newcomers so much - cuz they’re still in the HONEYMOON phase: “We LOVE this church so much; you’re just the BEST pastor…”
“HA!” I laugh: “...just stick around…”
Church: you need a WAY better shepherd than me. And praise God: you’ve GOT one.
Because #2 - GOD is a good shepherd. (vv2b-4)
Look at how God responds here, to the SELF-centered shepherding of Israel’s wicked kings; God says, “Look, if Y’ALL aren’t gonna shepherd my people, then I’M gonna step back in and do it.” Here’s how God puts it in Ezekiel 34: “Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock… that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them… I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, I will bring back the strayed, I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.” (vv11-16)
God simply WILL not - he CANNOT - stay at a distance, and just look on dispassionately, while his people, his sheep, are being mistreated. God is too good; he ALWAYS draws NEAR to us, in our NEED. We NEED a shepherd; God obliges.
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.He leads me beside still waters.[a]3 He restores my soul.He leads me in paths of righteousness[b] for his name's sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,[c] I will fear no evil,for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Ps 23:1-4)
God is our good shepherd. And specifically, as we turn back to Jeremiah 23, vv2b-4 now, God promises to do SIX things for his people here:
First, he promises to PUNISH, to PAY BACK their ABUSERS. We read it already, God’s word of WARNING to Israel’s corrupt shepherds: “Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds.” No one wrongs my sheep and simply gets AWAY with it; I WILL avenge their wounds.
Second, God promises to PATCH UP his people, to HEAL and RESTORE them. V3: “Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries… and I will bring them back to their fold”. I’m not gonna LEAVE you in exile FOREVER; I covenanted this Promised Land to you, as your inheritance, so I WILL return it to you in time.
AFTER… THIRD… I have DISCIPLINED you. God promises here to punish not only the SHEPHERDS, but the SHEEP as well. Notice, he said in v3: “I will gather my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them”. God says, “Make no mistake: I am the one sending Israel into exile. I brought Babylon against you, as punishment. Not just for the sins of your KINGS; you ALL followed them. Your blood is on your OWN hands, as well.”
And a good shepherd DISCIPLINES his sheep, doesn’t he? “the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives…. he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.” (Heb 12:6, 10)
So God PAYS BACK the shepherds, and PUNISHES the sheep, before PATCHING up the flock, and then FOURTH, God promises to PROSPER them; v3: “they shall be fruitful and multiply.” That was God’s will - his GOOD will - for us from the very START, wasn’t it, in Genesis 1: that we would “Be fruitful and MULTIPLY”. Now God says, “I will ACCOMPLISH it, on your behalf.”
Because Fifth, God promises to PROVIDE for his people; v4: “I will set shepherds over them who will care for them”. And commentators will point out that God made GOOD on this promise when he RETURNED Israel from exile 70 years later, and raised up RIGHTEOUS leaders for them: Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah.
But the SECOND half of v4 is where we start to realize that this MUST be a prophecy with some FUTURE fulfillment in mind, much farther OUT than the 70 years it took Israel to return to Judea. Because the SIXTH thing God promises them is PROTECTION; we might even say PERFECT protection: “they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing”. And you don’t have to read the OT books of Ezra and Nehemiah for very long before you realize this CANNOT refer to Israel’s return to Jerusalem at the end of the 6th c. BC., a return that was FRAUGHT with fear and dismay, and there were LOTS of Jews at that time, God’s people, still “missing”, who DIDN’T return in the decades and even CENTURIES after leaving their homeland.
And then God makes it ABUNDANTLY clear, in vv5 & 6: “No, I’ve got a much GREATER fulfillment of this promise in mind for you; “Behold, the days are coming…””.
And thanks for hanging with me, Church, cuz HERE’S where it gets good. “What does ANY of this have to do with CHRISTMAS, and JESUS… why Jesus CAME?!”
What Jeremiah announces here is not just our NEED for a better shepherd, and not even just God’s RETURN, graciously stepping back IN to lovingly shepherd his people once again from heaven, from a distance. No, this prophecy - this PROMISE - is even BETTER than that.
Because in vv5 & 6, God promises to PROVIDE not “A”, but “THE” (capital “G”) GOOD (capital “S”) SHEPHERD - the long-awaited “righteous BRANCH of DAVID”. And EVERYONE agrees - even Jews TODAY acknowledge - that this is a MESSIANIC prophecy; Jeremiah is talking about the MESSIAH here. The One the Prophets FORETOLD, who would finally come and FULFILL God’s promise to David of an ETERNAL Kingdom: “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son” (2 Sam 7:13-14).
“In his days”, God declares here in v6, “Judah will be SAVED.”
Do you remember what the angel announced to JOSEPH in his dream in Matthew 1? “Mary will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”” Jesus means: “he SAVES”.
You remember what Zechariah, John the Baptist’s dad, prophesied of Jesus in Luke ch1? ““Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved” (1:68-71).
Just as God had PROMISED, 1,000 years prior, to his servant DAVID. And 400 years LATER, through the prophets Jeremiah, and EZEKIEL: “I will rescue my flock… And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them… and be their shepherd.” (Ezek 34:22-23)
God had promised his people a new and BETTER David, Israel’s “one TRUE shepherd”, to feed them and LEAD them in RIGHTEOUSNESS. “A righteous BRANCH”.
Remember: the “branch of David” through Jehoiachin’s line had been “cut off”. Warren Wiersbe notes (1237): “David’s ‘family tree’ might have been cut down, but a ‘branch’ (a shoot) would grow from the stump (Isa 11:1; 53:2).”
“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit”, Isaiah 11:1 foretold.
And when you compare the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew ch1 and Luke ch3, you discover that it wasn’t THROUGH the distinguished, kingly line of SOLOMON that God would “raise up” the Messiah; but through David’s often forgotten son NATHAN, fulfilling the promise to David, while simultaneously making good on God’s promise to Jeconiah that “none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne.” (Jer 22:30)
This is how our God WORKS, friends; his plans CANNOT be thwarted. You can cut down the tree, and he’ll STILL raise up a shoot from the stump; a BRANCH, a RIGHTEOUS branch.
Jesus is RIGHTEOUS.
1 Pet 2:22 “He committed no sin”.
1 Jn 3:5 “in him there is no sin.”
Heb 4:15 - Jesus was “without sin.”
1 Jn 2:1 calls him “Jesus Christ the RIGHTEOUS”.
Acts 7:52 - “the Righteous One”.
Jesus referred to HIMSELF as the “good shepherd”. And yet elsewhere, when the rich young ruler called him “good teacher”, Jesus replied, ““Why do you call me good? NO ONE is good except God alone” (Lk 18:19). In other words: “You don’t even REALIZE how right you ARE, how “GOOD” I am! Y’all throw around words like “GOOD” casually… “Oh, I’m sure I’ll go to heaven; I’m a GOOD person.”
God says, (*buzzer*) “EHHHH!!!” Not even CLOSE! “NONE is righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10). Jesus said, “unless your righteousness EXCEEDS that of the scribes and Pharisees, [Israel’s PROFESSIONALLY “righteous” people] you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” HOW righteous? Jesus said, “You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt 5:20, 48) Be as righteous as GOD, and THEN you’ll qualify for entrance into heaven.
Friends, there is only ONE who is THAT righteous: Jesus CHRIST, the Righteous Branch.
But Jeremiah promised: not only would he BE righteous, but he would BRING righteousness, and “EXECUTE justice” as well.
Just as Isaiah prophesied: “the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him… with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth…
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist” (11:2,4-5)
And AGAIN: “Behold my chosen servant… in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations…
He will not grow faint or be discouraged[a]
till he has established justice in all the earth…
“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness” (42:1-4)
But Jesus didn’t BRING righteousness and EXECUTE justice in the way they THOUGHT he would; that’s why so MANY of his own PEOPLE rejected him as their Messiah. THEY were expecting justice against ROME, their political oppressors; but Jesus said, “I’m more concerned with your SPIRITUAL oppression, with your SIN.” And there’s the rub: for Jesus to TRULY “establish justice,” he would have had to wipe his own PEOPLE out - EVERYONE - because “ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23); “NONE is righteous”.
Romans 10 says “being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. But Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (vv3 & 4).
How did Jesus bring righteousness? By BEING righteous, fulfilling God’s perfect Law on our BEHALF, that he might BECOME righteousness FOR us, “to everyone who believes”.
Romans 3 declares, “now the righteousness of God has been manifested [been BROUGHT to us] apart from the law - the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
And friends - this is the most AMAZING truth about what Jesus accomplished, why he CAME, that is attested to even here in Jeremiah 23: not only would Jesus BE righteous, not only would he BRING righteousness, but Jesus would be OUR righteousness. It’s right there in his NAME; v6: “this is the name by which he [the MESSIAH] will be called: Jehovah Tsidkenu - ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”
Commentators point out that this is a clever wordplay on the name of Judah FINAL king, Zedekiah - Tsidkiyyahu - which means “Righteous is YAHWEH”. Zedekiah sold God’s people OUT to the Babylonians, and consequently, got to experience just how RIGHTEOUS Yahweh truly IS, and drink the cup of God’s righteous WRATH - Nebuchadnezzar made Zedekiah watch as he slaughtered his sons, the LAST thing he would ever see, cuz then he gouged out Zedekiah’s EYES, and drug him in CHAINS into SLAVERY in Babylon.
Yahweh is Righteous INDEED! To our own PERIL!
If NOT, for a MESSIAH…. a SAVIOR.
Philip Ryken notes: “The people of God in those days and in this day are no more righteous than (evil) Zedekiah. For 22 chapters, Jeremiah has documented their sins in great detail… Back in ch5 God promised that he would forgive his people if Jeremiah could find just one good man, just one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth. So Jeremiah… sought high and low, he walked up the streets and down the alleys but he could not find even one righteous man, who could be righteous on behalf of the people. But NOW,” Ryken says, “he has found his man.”
And his name shall be called: “The Lord is OUR righteousness”.
1 Cor 1:30 declares “Christ Jesus became to us… righteousness”.
2 Cor 5:21 “For our sake [God] made him [JESUS] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
The RIGHTEOUS One - the ONLY righteous one, who “knew NO sin” - the righteous branch of David, had to be CUT OFF from the land of the living, and BECOME UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, for OUR sake, absorbing all OUR sin in his body on the tree, the cross; so that in HIM - in CHRIST - WE might absorb all the RIGHTEOUSNESS of GOD himself, as our OWN.
This is the glorious divine exchange, friends; the GOSPEL of our salvation: Jesus Christ, who alone was RIGHTEOUS, deserving of eternal life, willingly took OUR place on the cross instead. So that we SINNERS, who rightfully deserve DEATH, might inherit eternal LIFE in HIM, instead. And all we have to do, all we CAN do, to claim this righteousness - the righteousness of GOD; “The LORD, YAHWEH, is our righteousness”; Jesus Christ was God in the FLESH, because we require no LESS a righteousness to make it into heaven - and all we have to do to GET it, is BELIEVE!
It is “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Rom 3:22). God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever BELIEVES in him, TRUSTS in him, surrender your heart and LIFE to him, and you will NOT perish but have everlasting LIFE.
Friends: THIS is what Christmas is all ABOUT. THIS is why Jesus came DOWN - he CAME to be our Good Shepherd. [**SERMON TITLE SLIDE]
He CAME because he saw how desperately we NEEDED a shepherd - “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
He came because God NEVER stands idly by while his people perish.
But even MORE than that, Jesus came HIMSELF to perish, to DIE for us. “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus said. And “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (Jn 10:11)
“I know my own and my own know me… The sheep hear [my] voice, [I] call [them] by name… and the sheep follow [me, and I will] lead them out.”
OUT of sin, and INTO everlasting LIFE.
Can you HEAR his voice this morning? Won’t you FOLLOW the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life to become OUR righteousness?