JEREMIAH 231-8: MY RIGHTEOUSNESS
Have you ever come across someone who is a real prophet of doom? The sort of person who looks at a glass and sees it as half empty and not half full. I am sure we have all come across such people. In the Bible Jeremiah is the prophet of doom in many ways. He thunders against the people of Judah. He spoke the Word of God some 587BC when Zedekiah was king of Judah. We are going to look at some 8 verses in chapter 23 but let me just set them in context. In chapter 21 Zedekiah had sent a delegation to Jeremiah to find out what God was saying to the kingdom at that time. Chapters 21-27 are the record of the sermons which Jeremiah preached at that time. In chapter 22 Jeremiah is instructed by God to go to Zedekiah’s house and preach – this he does. So chapter 23 is taking place in the palace before Zedekiah and the court officials.
VERSES 1-2 SHEPHERDS OR WOLVES.
We sometimes say of someone that they are ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing.’ What we mean by that is that they are not really what they seem. Jeremiah says exactly that about the leaders of Judah. He is not only speaking of the king but also of the courtiers and the priests. They had been charged by God to lead the people in the ways of God but they had done the very opposite. Look at what God says through Jeremiah to them – verses 1-2. They had scattered, they had destroyed – they were supposed to unite and build up the people but they did the very opposite. The people supposed to be leading, setting an example, teaching the ways of God and bringing the people together under God actually did the opposite. The result is that God will visit judgement upon them for this. You see Zedekiah was actually a very weak king and because of his weakness those around him did as they pleased. They were open to corruption and bribery and it was not beyond them to shed innocent blood to get their way. They all stand guilty before God as false leaders and as failed leaders.
VERSES 3-4 THE SHEPHERD GATHERS IN THE SHEEP.
Because those whom god had placed in leadership had failed and the sheep were now scattered all over the world. At this time the people of Israel were in captivity to Babylon and Assyria. God now, as always, takes the initiative. God, the true Shepherd of his people, is going to gather his people together again. He is going to stretch out his arm and gather them around him. He will also replace the faithless shepherds with faithful shepherds. God will not see his people scattered and lost forever. No, he will intervene, as he did in the past, because his desire is for his people to be one and to be lead in the way of righteousness before him. So God through Jeremiah speaks of this regathering of his people.
VERSES 5-6 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The Lord now addresses the people concerning one who will come to be their Righteousness. Let us look closely at these two verses because they are central to our understanding of how Jesus is our righteousness before God.
The days are coming – this is a very familiar saying in the OT. It is a saying which pointed forward to the day of the coming Messiah. So when Jeremiah speaks these words immediately his hearers knew he was speaking of the promised day of the Messiah.
…to David a righteous Branch. In the OT David is seen as the perfect king. God had established a covenant with David (2 Samuel 7.8-16), in which he promised to establish David’s throne forever. That is why when we get to Matthew’s gospel Matthew is at great pains to trace the lineage of Christ back to David. It is also why on Palm Sunday the people chanted ‘Hosanna to the son of David.’ This Righteous One, who would gather and lead the people of God, is a branch (or shoot) from the line of David. That is why Isaiah in chapter 53 speaks of him as a shoot growing out of the dry ground. So this Righteous One is coming in the future and is of the lineage of David.
King – he will be a king who will rule with wisdom and with justice – in stark contrast to the present situation. He could not be but a king being of the line of David, the royal family. He will rule with the wisdom of Solomon and justice will be a mark of his kingdom. This king will bring together all of the qualities and characteristics of past kings and yet he will exceed them.
Judah saved, Israel safe – you see under the present king and leaders the people were not safe. When sheep have no shepherd to lead them, to protect them and to guide them then they are in danger from every wild animal no matter how small or insignificant. The people without a true shepherd faced constant danger from the nations around them. They faced the constant danger of falling into idolatry and of immorality. But when this Righteous One comes he will save them from this and he will protect them from these dangers.
The Lord Our Righteousness – Zedekiah meant ‘the Lord is my righteousness’ but this shepherds very name is Righteousness. He is the very thing Zedekiah’s name spoke of. He actually is Righteousness – not only in name but also in person.
The Lord – this person will be divine. He actually uses the name of God – Jehovah, here. They can be in no doubt that the Righteous one he here speaks about is God. When we turn to the NT we have there in the gospels the unfolding of the mystery of the Incarnation and the fact that Jesus is God – see for example John 1.
Our Righteousness. The result of Adam and Eve’s sin was that man fell from fellowship with God. God separated himself from mankind because of sin and from the moment Adam and Eve fell all mankind has bee born in sin. God is Righteous – it is one of his characteristics and we learn in the OT that if we are to have fellowship with him we too must be righteous. In the days of Jeremiah the people of Judah sought to obtain righteousness through obedience to the law of God. They found it impossible because they failed to keep the law perfectly. That is why when Jesus wants to emphasise the impossibility of being right with God through self-effort he tells his listeners that they must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. But Jeremiah here speaks of one whose character, whose very being is Righteousness. That is why he says ‘The Lord (Jehovah)’ is Our Righteousness because God alone is Righteous. Therefore the one whom Jeremiah speaks of is one who is God, who is divine and yet one who comes to be the Righteousness of the people. One who comes amongst them and identifies with them. One who can be known personally by people. Jeremiah is speaking about an individual who will the Righteousness of the people.
Verses 7-8 before I come to explain where Jesus is in all of this I want to briefly explain these two verses because they will help us to understand how Jeremiah was speaking of Jesus in verses 5-6. For the people of God in the OT Egypt and the Exodus was the central miracle which defined who they were and set them apart from all the other nations around them. For them when a prophet spoke of Egypt they understood that he was referring to an old way of life. One of slavery, bondage, bitterness and toil. When a prophet spoke of Israel they understood him to be speaking of living under the promise of God and under God’s blessing. Therefore when Jeremiah here speaks of Egypt and Israel they understood him to be contrasting the bondage, slavery, toil and bitterness of life under the false and failing shepherds of their day and the blessing and promise of living under the true Shepherd – the Righteous One.
SO WHERE IS JESUS?
Turn with me to Romans 3.21-26 – listen to the words Paul wrote some 600 years after the words of Jeremiah.
Do you see what Paul says here? God has revealed in Christ Jesus his Righteousness. Righteousness in the OT was sought in obedience to the Law given by God but all that the law did was convict and convince men of their sinfulness before God. They could never be righteous before God because they broke the law. In order to be righteous before God you have to keep the law 100%. You must love God with all your heart, with all your will and with all your mind. You must love your neighbour as yourself. There must never have been any failing or faulting on this. We know that Christ obeyed and fulfilled the law of God when he lived amongst us. He lived the perfect life in order to make the perfect sacrifice. His blood atoned for our sin. His perfect life he presented to his father not only as an atonement for sin but also as a righteous robe which is put round us when we come to him in repentance and faith. When we come to Christ God forgives us our sins, he justifies us through the sacrifice of Christ, but he also looks at the righteous life of Jesus and he counts that as our life. The perfect life of obedience which Christ lived and which made him acceptable to the Father is imputed to us. Note it is imputed and not imparted. It is not that we are righteous, because we are not, it is that God counts us as righteous because the Lord is Our Righteousness. The merits of his blood takes away our sin and the merits of his obedience provides our righteousness. He is our righteousness and the results of that are:
He has taken us out of Egypt – the land of bitterness, of slavery and bondage and brought us into the land of Israel – the land of promise and blessing. We once lived as slaves we are now free in Christ. We once were people without hope and no future – we now have the hope of eternal life and the promise of heaven. We once were scattered sheep without a shepherd, lost, lonely and afraid but now the Lord Our Righteousness has brought us safely into the fold, we have brothers and sisters in Christ, we are protected and guided by his hand and fear nothing, not even death, because he has promised to be with us even to the end of the age. When God now looks upon us he sees Christ’s life as if it had been our life. He does not see the failure, the sin, the disobedience. He sees a people forgiven of their sin and living in obedience to his will. And the result is that he accepts us, he blesses us and he rewards us as if all that Christ did was done by us, his believing people.
In the Bible the righteousness of Christ is compared to a fine white linen – then I am, if I wear it, without spot. It is compared to wrought gold, then I am, if I wear it, dignified and beautiful, and worthy to sit at the wedding feast of the King of kings. It is compared in the parable of the prodigal son, to the finest of robes and if I wear it the feast is for me.
Finally it is everlasting righteousness – the robe will never wear out. But here is the crux once again. The Lord our Righteousness must become ‘my’ righteousness. Again and again in the Scriptures a universal promise is made to all mankind but it must be appropriated by individuals. Time and time again we read of God making promises and offers to all but calling individuals to respond. John 3.16 – God loves the world (universal promise) but in the second part of the verse it is individuals who believe and are saved. So it is here – Lord Our Righteousness but we must be found wrapped in that righteousness as individuals. God freely gives his righteousness to anyone who believe in Jesus. It comes from God and is appropriated by faith in Jesus. It is something which everyone here this morning needs (Read Romans 3.23) and it has been provided at great cost – the death of Christ (verse 24). Christ presented his life as an atoning sacrifice to God so that his anger and wrath at out sin might be satisfied (verse 25) and that we might be counted righteous before God and therefore acceptable to God.
Question: Is the Lord my righteousness today?
