Month: March 2020

215. A King of Judgment and Justice

Jeremiah 23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

This Messianic Prophecy of a righteous Branch and a King from the line of David contains a promise that the Messiah will reign and prosper. This prophecy came true in the Coming of Christ to the earth: Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God. In Him the Kingdom has come, so repent and believe the Gospel. The rule of God and the prospering occurs in the hearts of believers, because for now the reign of God and the prospering of the Kingdom are spiritual and eternal. This is what the Lord promises to us: our loving Lord will rule in the hearts of believers and they will spiritually prosper throughout their lives. This reigning and prospering does not always work itself out visibly in our earthly life. But in the midst of sin, suffering, death and pain God Himself is here in our hearts and lives ruling all things for our eternal good. The Lord reigns!

The other part of the promise is that He, the Messiah, will execute judgment and justice in the earth. We know that Christ will come again at the Last Day and execute just justice for all Creation. All Evil and all Enemies shall be eternally judged, and they will never ever again disrupt or disturb the perfect environment and the righteous people of the New Heaven and New Earth. This is the purpose of Judgment: all evil will be permanently exiled, judged, condemned and confined to the Lake of Fire, and believers will enjoy God’s Life and God’s presence unfettered forever.

The unbelievable promise is also that this execution of justice is being worked out and effected even during our earthly lives. This is unbelievable because we do not see judgment and justice being done. Justice has never been rendered perfectly in the history of a sinful world. “Life is not fair,” and it never will be. Everyone complains about that. Jesus was unjustly accused and unfairly condemned; and we are, too, so often: we suffer many kinds of things that we don’t think we deserve. But faith sees: God has a plan and He is working out all things for good (and for justice). We need this promise of judgment and justice in the earth: to see what we can’t see. Believe it: God will be fair. He is working out judgment and justice.

In the Church the Lord is daily and richly forgiving all sins, while at the same time daily and richly judging all sins. He did both at the Cross; it is finished and final. Trust God to execute.

214. Shepherds will Feed

Jeremiah 23:4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.

God promises us shepherds, who will feed us so that we do not fear any longer, not be dismayed, and not be lacking. The Good Shepherd has been provided for us: He feeds us; in Him we have no fears; we are not disappointed, and we shall not lack. The Lord is my Shepherd; I will lack nothing. With Jesus, I need nothing more. He feeds me with the Word and Spirit, and meets all my real needs.

Yes, the Lord has given us the Good Shepherd, but in addition He provides us human beings who are shepherds “with skin on,” to feed us and meet every spiritual need. Another name for shepherd is “pastor.’ God has given pastors for all members of the flock of God. We have also been given various kinds of spiritual leaders, elders, advisors, mentors, counselors, confessors, and brothers and sisters in Christ. The promise implies that the Lord will not leave us without someone in our life who will feed, lead and guide. He will not leave us orphans. And if you ask, the Lord will provide the person to come into your life who will be the shepherd you need.

This promise also encourages us to seek out the kind of spiritual shepherd we need. The promise means that He will not let us down. He sets us the shepherds over us.

213. Gather His Flock

Jeremiah 23:3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.

The remnant of the flock of the Lord is all the believers in Jesus Christ. The first meaning of remnant in context includes the faithful Israelites who have been scattered in the Exile. By extension, the flock includes all faithful believers who are scattered throughout the world. These believers in Christ are the result of God’s gathering. The fruitful increase of the remnant has grown into the worldwide invisible Church.

For each individual believer in Jesus the promise is ever true: He will gather us into the flock of fellow Christians from wherever we have strayed or been driven. The Holy Spirit gathers the whole Christian Church and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. He gathers each individual and He gathers all the individual believers into One Flock under One Shepherd. In this flock they will be fruitful and increase.

Our sins drive us away from God and His Kingdom, but the Lord promises the faithful that He will continually gather them into the Flock and into Himself. He calls us to repentance and faith regularly. We respond with thankfulness and praise and the resultant good works and witness. Because of the Lord’s promise we can trust Him that He will call, gather, enlighten and sanctify us, and we shall be fruitful and increase. This is God’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

212. A Mighty Terrible One

Jeremiah 20:11 But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.

The Lord is with me: that’s a promise. The Lord is a mighty terrible one: that doesn’t sound like a promise. But it is. The beauty of this promise is that the Lord will win for me over all enemies. The Enemy (Sin, Death, Devil) will not prevail, for my Lord is mighty and terrible against them. This is a good news promise for me, since my enemies are always around and in me to destroy, steal and kill. But I have a mighty one with me who will do terrible things against them. If Jesus is with me, I can rest secure and comfortable in His strong hands. The forgiveness of sin is a mighty power that fights for me against the Enemy. The Resurrection of Christ is a terrible power that violently overthrows Death forever. The Devil has nothing in me and Death is defeated utterly forever. God is with me to protect and save.

The immediate context is the promise for Jeremiah personally to protect him from his persecutors. These people, who are used by the spiritual enemies, will stumble; they will not prevail; they will be greatly ashamed and not prosper; and finally, the everlasting confusion of Sin, Death and Devil will never be forgotten, ever. This is a guarantee of victory and eternal life. The promise is extended to each of us in all the conditions of life in which we find ourselves. The world and the flesh will be used by our Enemies to continue their assaults on the soul, but they will not prevail for the mighty terrible one is with me.

This promise is assured to us in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Life is mine forever and nothing can take it from me. We do not see how terrible and violent the Resurrection of Christ really is. That Resurrection is with us and in us now. And we know our bodies will rise again to be with the Lord forever at the Last Day. This is an awesome promise from a terrible God.

211. The Hands of a Potter

Jeremiah 18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the Lord, Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

We are clay on the potter’s wheel, ready to be molded and shaped according to the desires of the potter. This actually is a wonderful promise: I am in God’s hands. We naturally resist that truth, but when the Spirit brings us to faith, we are very glad to accept this for the great promise that it is. If I believe in Jesus then I know beyond any doubt that God is good. Then I place myself in His hands, and I can rest assured that that is a good place to be. By faith we surrender and say to the Lord, “I am in your hands. Mold me and shape me according to your good and gracious will.”

This is a promise we need to take hold of many times, especially in those times when we don’t understand what God is doing or why He is doing it. It is not so easy to believe that the Lord always knows what He is doing, and that He is doing it for our good. “Why did God allow this to happen? I don’t know, but I am in God’s hands and He will always make good come out of it.” 

We may not like to admit it, but, like Job, we will finally surrender ourselves to the shaping hands of the Lord. We have to admit that, no matter how good I think I am, we still have rough edges that need to be trimmed. Or, in a different metaphor, we need to be pruned. I am always a work in progress and God is not finished with me yet. So we stay on the potter’s wheel and remain in God’s good hands.

There are two dangers we face: 1) One danger is the temptation to jump off the wheel and out of God’s hands. We don’t like the shaping process and we don’t like what God is doing. So people give up on God and turn their back on Him and ignore or deny God, mostly because He didn’t do what they thought He should do. They don’t want to be in God’s hands because the shaping process hurts. 2) The second danger is similar. It is hardening prematurely, and getting permanently stuck in the present unfinished shape we are in. “Do not harden your heart.” When we complain or ask “Why?” we either jump off the wheel or harden the heart. We cannot know the reasons why, but we can know that God knows. And it is a good reason. In God’s hands all things work together for good. Stay in His good hands and let the Potter do his work.

210. God Gives and Rewards

Jeremiah 17:10 I the Lord search he heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

The promise is that the Lord will give to every person justly and accurately according to his ways and the fruit of his behavior. Perfect justice will be rendered to all people Some Day. This, of course, is judgment on Judgment Day. This is not a good news promise awaiting unbelievers; for them this statement is a dire warning: repent and turn from your sinful ways. God is keeping a full accounting, and every little or large sin will be righteously paid for in The Judgment. No one gets away with anything. The Judgment will be according to works: How did we live? What kind of works did we do? What fruits are produced through our life? Every sinner innately knows this judgment is coming. And fears.

And this warning applies to every thought, word, deed, and desire. God knows the heart, searches it out, and keeps track of every inner thought. There is no escape from the all-seeing, all-knowing search and trial of God. We cannot keep secrets from the Lord, the Judge of all. This truth is frightening for every sinner: I will never get away with anything. God knows and gives accordingly the judgment it deserves. This kind of prophetic truth yields the false doctrine and false hope that I need to do enough good things to outweigh the bad. The problem is that I can do nothing good, for I am not good and I can do nothing good. I am doomed!

But there is good news and a great promise: Jesus forgives and takes away every last, single sin, and no bad thought, word or deed will appear in the judgment. When the books are opened no sin will be found on my account, if I believe in Jesus as my Savior and Lord. Thus the Lord can justly, rightly, finally, and eternally say to me: “Enter into the joy of the Lord.”

And there is more good news: I will be rewarded with great rewards for every righteous thought, word or deed ever done in me and through me. Of course, every good work and good fruit ever done is done by God, never once by me. For in my flesh dwells no good thing. And more good news promises: I will receive the reward for every good work done by the Lord in me. He does the work; I get the reward for it. He will give me according to the fruit of my doing (which is His doing). This precious promise motivates us to repent and believe the Gospel.

209. Blessed like a Tree

Jeremiah 17:7, 8 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

The Bible contains many, many promises of blessing. The condition for receiving blessing here is trust and hope. If you trust in the Lord and your hope is in the Lord you will be blessed. This common refrain induces us to believe in Jesus. The Holy Spirit creates and increases our faith upon the very hearing of these words. We hear the Gospel; the Spirit gives faith in the Gospel; we have hope; and we are blessed.

The simile of blessing, used quite often, is that we are blessed like a well-watered tree. The blessed person is like a tree planted by the waters. The person who meditates on and delights in the Word of God is blessed “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in it season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does he prospers. [Psalm 1:3].” This blessed tree spreads out its roots to the river. Heat and drought will not harm this tree. Its leaf will be green, and it will continually yield fruit.

Most people have seen and experienced the growth and health of a well-watered tree. Those trees that grow near a river or stream look green and alive. It produces leaves and fruit. The Lord uses this common image to encourage us to remain watered with the Word. Daily we remember our Baptism with repentance and faith; daily we spend time with God in the Word; daily we believe the Gospel; daily we commune with the Lord in prayer. The spiritual result will be blessing, health, life, fruit, and growth into the purpose for which we were created and redeemed.

The blessings of trust and hope in the Lord are precious. Hearing the Gospel often and living in the Word daily with repentance, faith and prayer yields such blessing. We have this promise so that we will strongly desire to give the Spirit (the water) an opportunity to work faith and hope into our lives. The tree is you and me; the water is the Spirit; the leaf and the fruit is my outward life. The blessing is life and health and every good. Heat and drought are the parched emptiness of this world. The nourishment of the Spirit sees me through and even strengthens me in times of heat and drought. In all that we do we prosper.

208. Heritage and Land

Jeremiah 12:15 And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.

The Lord promised Abraham land: the land came with Jesus Christ; it is the kingdom of God. This land is within the believer. The Lord promised through Moses land: the land came through Jesus Christ, who perfectly kept the stipulations of the covenant promise, the Ten Commandments and the Law of Moses. Jesus kept the Law in our place and gave us His obedience; Jesus replaced the Law of Moses concerning the temple and its rituals and sacrifices. Ultimately, everything God promised His people is in Jesus. Our faith in Jesus receives all these promises from God.

But first God says He will pluck the people out (of the land): this was the Exile. The Exile was a devastating loss to the people of God: Where was God? Where was God’s promise? Why did God allow this to happen? The people of God had to learn that their sins and idolatry took them out of the land, out of the kingdom, out of the Promise, and away from God. This punishment and judgment was necessary, so that evil would be crushed, and so that people would be ready for the Return of God: the return of the Lord was the coming of Jesus Christ to the people. The Judgment and Curse of the Law (pluck them out) was essential to make the people ready for the return of God and the salvation in Christ.

The Lord will return because He will have compassion on His people and bring them again to the inheritance and to the land. God did this in Jesus, the Son. The Son of God had compassion by dying for them, and His resurrection brought them to the land, which is their promised inheritance from the Father. Our Sin has caused God’s judgment and separation from God; Sin caused loss of God and loss of life (God plucks out). God in Christ has reunited us with God and with life. Eternal Life = The Land. Jesus gave us The Land; believe in Jesus and have eternal life.

If you are in a difficult situation it is because of only one reason: your sin. But the Lord loves you and brings you to His Life once again. Believe Jesus; Believe the Promise. The land is within you.

207. Land of Milk and Honey

Jeremiah 11:5 That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I and said, So be it, O Lord.

God promises us a kingdom of fertility and abundance in the Paradise Kingdom of God in heaven with Him. This Promised Land is guaranteed to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is an eternal life of bliss, health and wealth. The exultant and exuberant joys of this eternal life with God are described in physical and material terms like this: it is a “land flowing with milk and honey.” This colorful phrase helps us understand the spiritual kingdom, which came with Jesus.

Jeremiah is writing this oath from the Lord at a time when the people to whom this promise of land appears entirely unfulfilled. They were exiled from the land and they certainly weren’t living in fertility and abundance. Jeremiah reminds the people that the promise of God will still indeed be fulfilled. Our NT understanding of this promise is that it is spiritual and eternal, not physical and temporal. When Jesus appeared on earth He proclaimed, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” “The kingdom of God is within you.”

The good news of this future promise is also for us in the present life; it lives in the hearts of all believers. We have within us the “land flowing with milk and honey.” The spiritual blessings are abundant: forgiveness, love, peace, joy, and real life. We enjoy the “already” aspects of the kingdom in an inward and spiritual sense. We may not see it or feel it, but by faith it is real. Once we are shed of the sin and evil of this body and this earthly life we will enjoy the kingdom by sight forever. For now, we live by faith.

Our answer to this promise is, “Amen, so be it.” Amen is the response of faith. We are saying, “I believe it. I know it is true. I claim it as my own.”

206. Be His People

Jeremiah 11:4 [This covenant] Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people,, and I will be your God.

God makes a promise that we shall be His people: we belong to Him. He owns us by means of creation and redemption. His control over us and rule over us is good for us and only beneficial. His will and His work on our behalf are always with our interests and needs in mind. He takes care of us as a loving parent, a kindly king, a tender shepherd, and a solicitous owner. It is definitely good to be His people. As a child and a sheep we can rest secure and comfortable in His hands.

God also promises to be our God. If God is good and if God is love and if God is life then this is certainly good news for us who believe in Christ. And we can be sure that He is good, He is love, and He is life because we have seen the Son live, die and rise for us. We want and need no other God, and we look for good only from the one true God. All other gods, especially the Self, are not good and will do us harm.

We are His people and He is our God: this is the covenant the Lord makes with us. This, however, is conditional: if we obey His voice and do His commandments, then the promise comes true for us. Of course, we have failed on our part; we cannot and do not obey and do. But Jesus Christ has kept the commandments and obeyed the voice of the Father perfectly. This perfection is given to us, and in this way, by faith in Christ, we have met the condition. Therefore, the Lord God is bound to keep His part of the covenant promise. This promise is secured to us in the Lord’s Supper, where Jesus says, “This cup is the blood of the covenant.” There is a new testament, and under this covenant the one true God is our God and we are His beloved people for whom God is bound to lovingly care for. Of that there is no doubt.