THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL – JEREMIAH – PART 1 – Chapters 3 and 4 – TRUTH JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
INTRODUCTION:- Almost every Old Testament prophet mentions the RESTORATION OF ISRAEL in his writings and some prophets major on that theme, particularly Hosea, Zechariah, Joel, Haggai, Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Israel has had a topsy-turvy history in its relationship with the Lord, and nationally, they never learned from their mistakes. It was like a constant round-a-bout of sin, partial repentance, restoration, and then sin again. Israel is just so typical of the instability that is part of the fallen nature, and that problem can only be overcome by the work of the Spirit of God. That is why the outpouring of the Spirit on the nation after the Tribulation gets a lot of mention and we shall see that.
God made large and wonderful promises to Abraham and even in the darkest periods of national history those promises were never withdrawn, for God loves His people more than we can understand. He loves that sinful, rebellious people, and they have been judged for their sin. When they lived in the land after exiting Egypt, if they sinned, God allowed their enemies to come and they suffered, then when they turned to recognise God, He delivered them, only to have the whole cycle happen again. This was seen in the time of the Judges, who were deliverers God gave His people, and beyond that even, until God said, “Enough is enough.” It was at that juncture, God gave them over to their own desire and they went into captivity in Babylon.
Israel adopted idolatry almost worse than the surrounding nations who practised it. In fact, so bad was it that Hosea had to say {{Hosea 4:17 “Ephraim is joined to idols; Let him alone.”}} That was the Northern Kingdom after the division of Jereboam but later on, Judah was just as bad.
God promised captivity for the nation over and over again because of their sin and then it happened; Israel going to Assyria and Judah going to Babylon. Even though there were partial returns to the land of Israel it was always under foreign domination right up until 1948. Promises of restoration always looked dim from the human perspective, but God’s promises will not fail and this people will be brought into amazing blessing, but unlike the Church, which is the heavenly people, Israel’s promises and blessings are in the land and will always be in the land.
There have been three returns/restorations for Israel in regards to the nation but none of those qualifies for the proper restoration God has planned for the nation. Those three are – the return to the promised land after 450 years in Egypt; the return to Jerusalem with Ezra, Jerubbabel and Nehemiah after the Babylonian captivity; and the return to Palestine as a nation in 1947/8. We have completed the restoration passages from Isaiah and now turn to Jeremiah. There is extremely important material in this prophet dealing with Israel’s Restoration!
THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH - WE BEGIN
{{Jeremiah 3:14 Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I am a master to you, and I will take you one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.’ Jeremiah 3:15 Then I will give you SHEPHERDS AFTER MY OWN HEART, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding, Jeremiah 3:16 and it shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the LORD, “they shall say no more, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD,’ and it shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they miss it, nor shall it be made again. Jeremiah 3:17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the LORD,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the LORD. Nor shall they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. Jeremiah 3:18 In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.}}
The first restoration passage in Jeremiah is another remarkable one. Jeremiah seems to me to be very compassionate towards his own people and so excited about their restoration as we see when we get to the middle sections of the book. In the passage before us we have a string of prophecies that still barely touch on the multitude of blessing that the Lord will fulfill for His earthly people in the coming day. The preterists and the subscribers to Replacement Theology or Covenant Theology (supersessionism) reject the future restoration blessings of Israel and place all these prophecies either at the return from the Babylonian captivity, or simply transfer them all to the Church. They are deniers of God’s earthly people and Israel’s rightful heritage.
VERSE 14. A constant theme of prophetic writers is the call to repentance of wayward, adulterous Israel, and that was constant all through their history. In this verse, the faithless nation is addressed but it also features God’s intervention and call. This is the calling of the remnant, and in Isaiah we saw frequent references to the remnant. In the Tribulation, God calls His earthly people by way of repentance and faith when they respond to the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom, and these will be known as the Jewish saints. The call for repentance is worldwide, not just from those in Israel. Upon His return at the Second Coming to the Mount of Olives, the Lord will gather these Jewish believers from all over, some from this city; some from a family, etc., and He restores them to Zion. Isaiah frequently deals with this “calling and transport home” and we looked at those passages in his prophecy earlier. The comment in the verse “‘for I am a master to you” simply means “the LORD is their Ruler”. In fact it is the divine Messiah who is speaking. The irony was that in Jeremiah’s time the people had their master, and their lord, but it was Baal, for that word means “master” or “lord”. False gods are all counterfeit. The true LORD will call His people home at the start of the Millennium.
VERSE 15. When we think into this verse something of great wonder arises. God will give the people true shepherds, a position they rarely had in their history. In fact after the return from Babylon they still could not get it right because both Ezekiel and Malachi are very scathing about the shepherds and priests who fed off the people and who were corrupt. It was a disgrace, but in the Millennial Kingdom, the shepherds will be true. Today, if only our leaders in the government and churches were true! It will not happen this side of glory. The reason it does not happen now is actually stated in this verse, “shepherds after My own heart.” Could it be said of any of us, “They are leaders after God’s own heart”? God testified that of King David {{1 Samuel 13:14 but now your kingdom shall not endure. The LORD has sought out for Himself a man AFTER HIS OWN HEART, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.”}} That is also quoted in Acts 13:22, and he is the only one in the bible to whom that is attributed.
Now the wonder in this verse is what it says about these shepherds, which is this, “who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.” What we know is that the Lord will be in their very midst in Jerusalem as King over the whole earth, but there is still a need to instruct the redeemed saints about the Lord. They are going to learn knowledge (facts, wisdom) and understanding (how to live, and all about the Messianic Kingdom) and these shepherds will instruct a willing audience who crave to be fed, unlike a number of places today when people fall asleep in instruction or the message, (or maybe that is the fault of the speaker/minister/pastor who feeds dried up weeds). I wonder if it is possible that a similar thing will apply to us post-Rapture where shepherds might feed us as well.
VERSE 16. Faith gives way to sight. The verse says there is no need of the Ark of the Covenant and that is because the Lord is in the midst of them. The Ark with its mercy seat is the fullest representation of Christ in the Old Testament, a study too large to do here, full of teaching and application, but it represented the LORD in the midst of Israel. God was in the midst of His people. When the redeemed Jews are gathered to Zion in the Millennium, there is no need of any Ark because the Lord will dwell in their very midst in His actual Divine Presence. Something of the same applies to us too because in the Lord’s Supper, it is “until He comes” for when He does come, He will be forever in the very midst of His Church.
VERSE 17. Yet again we have another name for Jerusalem which is “THE THRONE OF THE LORD,” for the whole world will see it and Jerusalem will be its focus and the nations will want to gather there, and indeed representatives go yearly for the Feast of Booths (Zechariah chapter 14). How wonderful it will be when Israel will walk and live before God in purity and dependence not in stubbornness of heart or rebellion. They will be true to the Lord of Hosts. In Isaiah we often mentioned the special phrase “In that day” or “At that time” or “In those days” that spoke of the time way ahead, meaning at the end of the Tribulation and the beginning of the Millennium, even right through the Millennium, and we need to note that phrase carefully in the prophets. It was used by many of the prophets, projecting way beyond their own time.
VERSE 18. The verse speaks of unity that was unthinkable between Samaria and Judah in the time of the prophets. God’s people will be one in that day, blessed and unified in their Messiah. “From the north” may be a reference to the Northern Kingdom of Samaria, or even wider such as from all over the world. The fact that the prophet states “the house of Judah” and “the house of Israel” means that God has not abandoned any of them. Israel (then in Jeremiah’s time, Ephraim, even though that kingdom had finished about 135/150 years earlier), though scattered, God will bring together again His people the Jews, all those who were once Israel and Judah.
()() () ()() () ()() () ()() () ()() () ()() () ()() () ()() () ()() () ()() () ()() () ()() () ()() () ()() () ()() () ()() ()
{{Jeremiah 4:1 “If you will return, O Israel,” declares the LORD, “then you should return to Me, and if you will put away your detested things from My presence, and will not waver, Jeremiah 4:2 and you will swear, in TRUTH, in JUSTICE, and in RIGHTEOUSNESS, ‘As the LORD lives,’ then the nations will bless themselves in Him, and in Him they will glory.”}}
Verse 1 begins with a conditional conjunction – “IF”. The conditional return in heart happens in the Great Tribulation. Chapter 4 continues from the previous chapter where in verse 22, Jehovah appeals to the nation with this invitation, {{“Return, O faithless sons. I will heal your faithlessness.” Jeremiah 3:22. Even on the eve of their deportment to Babylon, at least those who survived, the Lord still held out the hand of forgiveness. Also in verse 22 we saw the people’s response, but we know it could not have come from Judah in Jeremiah’s time for they never did repent. The confession there will be enacted in the Tribulation when God takes up the Jews again after the times of the Gentiles has finished with the Rapture of His Bride, the Church. Jehovah calls His wife back to Himself again, and she will respond, something the Jews have not done for at least the last 2500 years.
After the response of the people returning to the Lord, the Lord then spells out a number of conditions governing that return, and there are 3 or 4 of these. It all begins with the first “IF” of verse 1, and these are serious conditions, because in the Tribulation period, it will not be a time for pretend commitment. To be true to the Messiah in those days, may mean forfeiting your life as saints are hunted down and killed for their testimony. Also, there must be steadfastness until the end as we see in {{Matthew 24:12-13 “and because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.”}}
In verse 2 three words are significant – truth, righteousness, justice. They are the three qualities God demands of the repentant Jews, not only in the time of Jeremiah, but also it will pertain to the Jews in the Tribulation. In a careful reading of all the prophets, you can not help but notice that these three virtues were the ones constantly highlighted over and over again, and upheld by the prophets, for Israel sadly lacked them, and trashed God’s truth, and lived unrighteously in idolatry, and showed no justice, and took bribes and thrived under unjust judges. It is those matters that must be addressed and God will have truth, righteousness and justice in His people, Israel, in their day of restoration. That is why He lets them know.
In Jeremiah’s time they did not repent and return, and they had so much to turn from, that they were unwilling, and scorned the prophet’s message and even persecuted him. These three words are special qualities especially noticed in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the Truth, {{John 14:6 “I am the WAY and the TRUTH and the LIFE.”}} He was the Righteous One, and as such, it was then possible for Him to die for the ungodly, the righteousness for the unrighteousness – {{Acts 7:52 “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? and they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become”}} – {{2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin (the Righteous One) to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”}} The last one is justice; He is the Just One – {{1 Peter 3:18 “Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”}}
Because those aspects were especially known in our Lord, then they must be also reflected in us. We must pursue the truth, and The Truth. We must live righteously in this world. We must learn of justice through God’s own word.
In verse 2 of our passage Jeremiah inserts “then” which is most important, and he goes on to say, “THEN the nations will bless themselves in Him, and in Him they will glory.” We must look carefully at the sequence here because it is only AFTER God’s people are walking correctly, will anyone notice and take heed. When the Jews, and even the Christians, are walking openly in truth, righteousness and justice, only then, will that have the correct effect on the nations. In the Millennium, people will come into Israel yearly. They will know the presence of the Lord there and see His righteous people, the redeemed Jews. All will be glorious. Zechariah chapter 14.
