The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Jeremiah 33:14-16 (NASB) “‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares 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 Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. {16} In those days Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she shall be called: the LORD is our righteousness.’”
‘Behold, days are coming.’ It is a phrase that could hold great promise or great terrors. After all, not all days are created equal and not all days end that way. While the vast majority of your days end up being normal, uneventful, and days that fade away into the tapestry of your life, others remain with you all the other days of your life.
Some days are shared with the masses. Where were you on July 20, 1969 – the moon walk? When did you first hear about space shuttle Challenger explosion on January 28, 1986? Where were you when you watched the towers fall on September 11, 2001?
On a personal level you might remember a particular Christmas or birthday. Your wedding day. A special family vacation. No doubt you remember a day of particular pain, or tragedy, or loss that’s changed you. Some days are more important than others. Some days affect you life more than others. Some days come and stay with you for better or for worse.
In the Old Testament reading assigned for this morning, the prophet Jeremiah prophesies that there are days coming that will be unlike any other in their goodness and wonder. They will be the best days ever because they will be days full of God’s justice and righteousness.
Three times Jeremiah uses the phrase. Verse 14, “Behold, days are coming.” Verse 15 “In those days.” Verse 16, “In those days.” Three times he promises that the days that are coming will be days of promises fulfilled. They will be days wherein God will do what He promised their Israel’s forefathers.
Now when Jeremiah was given to write “Behold the days are coming” his days were not so good. That’s an understatement. They were horrible days. Days of idiolatry, greed, rebellion, oppression, war, and death.
At the time Jeremiah preached and wrote Jeremiah 33, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had laid siege to Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar was starving the people of Jerusalem. In the ancient world a city under siege was a city without hope.
When the Lord God gave Jeremiah to speak and write “‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah, these words must have been a greater comfort to Jeremiah, than to the people to whom he wrote.
As a prophet Jeremiah did not have a good run of it. He was a prophet for 40 years. That’s 14,600 days. For 14,600 days Jeremiah had called the people and the rulers of Jerusalem to repent. He had tried over and over again to restore right doctrine and faithfulness to the children of God. There weren’t very many good days during his 40 years as a prophet.
Thirty two of the 40 years were very hard years. That made for a lot of hard days. For 32 of those years, the Hebrews had kings who encouraged and practiced idolatry, who sacrificed to pagan gods, treated them unjustly, over taxed them, and just made life more difficult. Jeremiah’s church and his country were in serious theological, religious, moral, and national decline.
The entire book of Jeremiah is a combination warnings and promises. He was sent to tell the Hebrews that God would bring about their destruction unless they repented and returned to the right doctrine and practice of the one true religion. He also promised that the Lord God would save the remnant as long as they remained faithful.
The message didn’t sit well King Jehoiakim. In fact, the book we know as the Book of Jeremiah, is actually the second edition of the Book of Jeremiah. The first book was cut into pieces and burned by Jehoiakim because it was an offense to the king and religious rulers.
Of the forty years of Jeremiah’s ministry only eight of them were good ones. These were the eight years of the rule of King Josiah. He began to rebuild Jerusalem and restored orthodox worship to the temple. But Josiah died young and Jeremiah lost the only sympathetic ear he had among the royalty in those days.
What was Jeremiah’s reward for his faithfulness? He was taken captive by Israel’s enemies and deported to Egypt along with the evil doers. There he lived as a prisoner and slave. The prisoner and slave Jeremiah continued to preach and call the people to repentance. Jeremiah died in Egypt. Stoned to death by his fellow countrymen who had become enraged at his call to repentance. Jeremiah probably died about 570 b.c.
The point of this little historic review of Jeremiah is to point out that his life was filled with a lot of bad days. You see the prophets and the apostles of old did not preach or live a theology of glory. They understood that in these days, life is filled with suffering and hardship
Yet he is was the prophet who is known mostly by these words. 14 “Behold, declares the Lord, the days are coming 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 Branch of David to spring forth.”
The phrase, “Behold, the days are coming, ” is used seven times in the book of Jeremiah. It occurs only 12 times in the entire Old Testament. Nine of those 12 times the phrase introduces God’s judgment upon a rebellious people. Jeremiah 9:25 “Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised.’”
Malachi uses the singular version, “Behold the day is coming.” When spoken by a faithful prophet the phrase is a judgment against and an offense to the self righteous. Malachi 4:1-2 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.’”
Jesus used the phrase to announce the judgment on the generation that crucified Him as He carried His cross to Golgatha. Luke 23:29 “Behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore.’”
But then comes the good news for the faithful. In the same paragraph where Jesus promises hell fire and damnation, He also says this of you, “But for you who fear My name the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.” The same day is judgment to the unbeliever and rescue for the believer.
As for the days that Jeremiah writes about, what makes the days so good? What is different about these days than all the others? Jeremiah 23:5 “Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land.’”
“Behold the days are coming” is God’s promise to save His faithful people through the “righteous Branch of David which will spring forth” to do justice.
The Hebrew word that means “to do justice” is Misphat. It occurs 7 times in Jeremiah. Isaiah uses the same word when he wrote about the work of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 42. “Behold, My Servant, Whom I uphold; My chosen One in Whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him. He will bring forth justice to the nations.”
To bring forth or to do justice means much more than a judgment on evil doers. Misphat, “to do justice” means that the poor in spirit, those who humbly confess their sin, shall be made rich in mercy. Misphat means that people who are under every kind of oppression, oppressed by the world, oppressed by the devil, oppressed by their own sinful natures will be made free.
When the Scripture says, “He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. 16 In those days Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety” it doesn’t have political kingdoms in mind. It is speaking about eternal salvation and deliverance from sin, death, and the power of the devil.
This kind of day and justice given in the Advent of the Messiah is first and foremost spiritual. It will lead ultimately to a total and complete justice and righteousness. It brings about days filled with nothing but joy. These are the days that belong not to the first advent of the Christ, but to His to the Second Coming.
In Jeremiah Misphat is a synonym for Righteousness. It is God’s “Redeeming Justice.” Redeeming Justice is brought about by the Righteous Branch of David and this is the Righteousness of God’s people who is Jesus Christ.
That’s the last statement in verse 16, “and this is the name by which she shall be called: the LORD is our righteousness.” “She” refers to Judah and Jerusalem. Judah and Jerusalem are the Old Testament Church. In New Testament “she” is the New Testament Church. This is the name by which she, the Church, shall be called, “The Lord is our Righteousness.”
What was written by the prophet Jeremiah came to pass. For the people in Jeremiah time the fulfillment would come in the future. For us, those days came in the past. The day came when the Righteous Branch of David sprung forth. We call that day Christmas.
I had an Old Testament seminary professor at Fort Wayne who counseled his students, soon to be pastors to keep an eternal perspective, take the long view. The of course is what good Old Testament professors deal in. Old Testament promises that will one day be completely fulfilled. Jeremiah, all his fellow prophets, and the faithful few (remnant) had to endure must in their own days, but they kept an eternal perspective, they took the long view.
But there is another great day; Jesus calls it “that day.” That day is yet coming, our Lord Jesus has promised us, when the heavens above will be shaken and we will see Jesus coming on the clouds with power and great glory. Even as we fix our eyes on those days two thousand years ago, the days of our Lord Jesus, we also watch for that day yet to come.
“In those days” the prophet wrote. Those are the days that truly matter most. It was the days of Jesus. The days of Jesus’ life of total love, obedience, and sacrifice two thousand years ago that carry us to that day of Jesus. In those days two thousand years ago all of your sin and guilt was removed because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Some days are more important than others, more outstanding, more special, more crucial. For those who know Jesus, those days, his days, are the most important of all.
Because of His saving work for us at His first coming, when Jesus comes a second time, He will raise up all the dead, and He will give eternal life and a place in His eternal kingdom to all who trust in Him. Millions and millions of His saints will rise from the dust on that day, and we will shine with them like the stars forever and ever.
Jeremiah will be there, and those who trusted Jeremiah’s words. “In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely” (v 16). On that day, all our troubles will be at an end. And God and his Messiah, King Jesus, will reign forever and ever. That day is coming soon. See some days are more important than others.
AMEN.
May the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.