THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL – JEREMIAH – PART 2 – Chapters 16 and 23 and 29 – I WILL GATHER AND RAISE UP SHEPHERDS
We continue these studies in Jeremiah looking at the future glory of Israel in its restoration.
{{Jeremiah 16:21 “Therefore, behold, I am going to make them know - This time I will make them know My power and My might, and they shall know that My name is the LORD.”}}
This is a single verse but from Isaiah you may remember we looked at the way the prophets jumped from one time period to another abruptly from verse to verse. We have this time jump here, for the verse before ours is this – {{Jeremiah 16:20 “Can man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods!”}} (which is set in Jeremiah’s current time); and the verse after ours is {{Jeremiah 17:22 “The sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus; with a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars . . .”}} (which is back to Jeremiah’s own time).
VERSE 21. Isn’t it wonderful that it is God who will be taking the initiative in the restoration of His people. He will MAKE them know. They are going to know His power and His might, and it is when they know and recognise that, then they will know the Lord their God. They will know that by repentance, and all this happens in the Tribulation for it is then they will see the wrath of God and be conscious then that this is His power and might, as their fathers did when they left Egypt so long ago in God’s deliverance. It will be the step of their deliverance and restoration in the coming day. This time they will know His power and might because it is unleashed at Armageddon and they will see it in His coming to the Mount of Olives. They will know their Messiah in that day. His name is Jehovah.
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{{Jeremiah 23:1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD. Jer 23:2 Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them. Behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the LORD. Jer 23:3 “THEN I MYSELF SHALL GATHER THE REMNANT OF MY FLOCK out of all the countries where I have driven them and shall bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. Jer 23:4 I SHALL ALSO RAISE UP SHEPHERDS OVER THEM and they will tend them and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD.}}
As is often the case in prophetic writing, the problem is put and then God’s future plan will supplant that. Here, the problem is false shepherds (and that would include priests, elders, and prophets, and even the king), and God’s charge against them is that they have destroyed and scattered the sheep because they have not cared for them. They have been committing evil deeds, but God will hold them accountable for that. Leadership always carries great responsibility, and these false shepherds failed. How many likewise are failing in the churches? I like the way the NASB expresses verse 2. God will attend to the betrayers of His flock because they have not attended to the flock in the duty they had.
In verse 3, God will step into human history and gather all those scattered sheep, those who are redeemed and saved in the Tribulation, gathering them from all countries. He will bring them back to Israel (Isaiah focuses on that a lot), multiply them and make them fruitful. It was God who had driven them from their homeland because of their unrepentant idolatry, and it is God who will gather them back to their homeland because of His great love. Once gathered, He will appoint true and faithful shepherds, so that no more, will the sheep be afraid, terrified and missing. Those shepherds will be under-shepherds because the Lord is the Shepherd of the sheep, true both for the Church and Israel.
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{{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. Jer 23:6 “In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely, and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’ Jer 23:7 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ Jer 23:8 but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.”}}
VERSE 5. This is future with the indicator introducing the verse. It will not happen until the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (The Branch) comes to execute judgement on Israel's enemies, and then claims the earthly throne of His father David and reigns as King over the whole earth from Jerusalem – {{Zechariah 14:9 “And the LORD will be king over all the earth. In that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.”}} {{Zechariah 14:17 “And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them.”}}
When Jesus came the first time, He came as the prophecy of Zechariah indicated, but He came in rejection and there was a presentation on Palm Sunday, but this was but a glimmer of the glorious coming that happens at the Second Coming. {{Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”}} Jesus will come again in the touchdown on the Mount of Olives, and enter Jerusalem and He will be received as the rightful King. There is an erroneous thought going around that it is David who returns to reign and it comes from this verse, {{Jeremiah 30:9 “But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.”}} Jesus has descended from David, and ascends David’s throne. I have stated previously in Isaiah and already in Jeremiah, how important “justice” and “righteousness” are.
There is an amazing study in “The Branch” as it relates to the Lord Jesus Christ and this is not the time for that study but I want to give the other 3 verses in that study with the one in Jeremiah 23:5 already mentioned. {{Isaiah 4:2 “In that day the BRANCH OF THE LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel,”}} {{Zechariah 3:8 “Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you - indeed they are men who are a symbol, for behold, I am going to bring in MY SERVANT THE BRANCH.”}} {{Zechariah 6:12 “Then say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Behold, A MAN WHOSE NAME IS BRANCH, for He will branch out from where He is, and He will build the temple of the LORD.”}} The study on the Branch will be done in Jeremiah chapter 33 and verse 15.
VERSE 6. This begins with “In His days” and verse 5 confirms the “His”. It is The Branch. The Branch will save Judah; cause it to dwell securely; and His Name will be “The LORD our righteousness.” Of course all these will be in the restoration blessings. The righteous nature of the people and the land will reflect the righteousness of their Branch King.
VERSES 7-8. The backward look will be replaced by the present conditions. Whereas once the Jews looked to Moses in Egypt as their deliverance to bring them to the promised land, so in the redemption days of Israel, it will be their Messiah who will bring back Jacob’s descendants from all over the world. Living on their own soil is so definite, and you can imagine their feet walking on their own soil. This glorious event will happen but after the Lord Jesus actually places His feet on the Mount of Olives, which will split in two. It is His feet that prepare the position for the nation’s feet.
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{{Jeremiah 29:11 ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you A FUTURE AND A HOPE. Jer 29:12 ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you, Jer 29:13 AND YOU WILL SEEK ME AND FIND ME, WHEN YOU SEARCH FOR ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART. Jer 29:14 I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’}}
VERSE 11. This passage sits in the context promise of the return from Babylon – {{Jeremiah 29:10 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.”}} Then follow the verses we are considering, but this prophecy goes way beyond the Babylon return. In the terrible days of Israel's sin, God had plans for them, but they were the plans of disaster. Those plans played out and it meant defeat by enemies, famine, hardship, subjugation and exile and dispersion. However, God has other plans and He well knows them, and they are plans that relate to the nation’s good, to its welfare, to its future and to its hope. Isn’t it wonderful when there is a bright hope in our future vision, when we know we are going to enter into glory and peace and blessing, not into uncertainty and conflict and every hopeless situation. That is the difference in “The Two Ways”, the way of righteousness and the ways of destruction (Psalm 1 considers that). The Church has that hope and looks out for it. Israel has that hope but currently does not realise it.
VERSES 12-14. Contained here is a universal truth that God hears all those who seek Him and call on Him in all circumstances, but these verses specifically have application to Israel in the time of its restoration. After the removal of the Church, and when God again turns His attention to the lost sheep of Israel, then a remarkable turning begins to happen. The Jews will again seek their God, and God will respond. They will call on Him and pray to Him because the times will be very hard ones, being set in the Tribulation years. God will listen to their prayers, but they will only find Him when the seeking is done in sincerity with their “full heart”, for God will demand nothing less. These will be the days of total commitment and surrender. The Tribulation will not be a time for sham or pretence; there must be total genuineness of heart in searching for God.
The Lord will respond and will be found by His searching people and three promises ensue. He will restore their fortunes and this is not a great mountain of gold. It is the great promise of communion with God in the midst, in the theocracy of God as it was always intended. Secondly, He will gather them from all the nations of the world to where He had driven them in judgement; and thirdly, He will settle them in the land of promise, in that land from the Nile to the Euphrates.
In the United States the President appoints people for his cabinet and they must then go through the gruelling of the Senate when Senators question and try to discredit these appointees. This is especially so when the godless Democrat Senators exhibit the great nastiness they possess. As I edit this the hearings are on for the 2025 Trump appointees and some Democrats seem like they came from hell with their hate.
One appointee, Pam Bondi for the position of Attorney General of the United States, was asked about the west back being part of Israel according to the bible and she confirmed that. She is correct. God confirmed Israel’s territory being from the Nile to the Euphrates and that includes the west bank and where the Palestinians are today. Anti-Semites and Democrats and the Labor Party of Australia and the UK may hate Israel but they will have to answer to God before they are turned into the lake of fire.
