SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE ADVENT
From the portion of Scripture appointed for the Epistle: “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.” (Jer. 23:5)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
If we had to give a thumbnail sketch of a prophecy, it might go something like this.
1) The subjects of the prophecy have disobeyed God.
2) Unless they repent,
3) God will cause (or permit) judgment, but
4) He will subsequently redeem the faithful.
It is worth thinking about each of those four parts.
First, Man’s disobedience can be defined in terms of the Summary of the Law.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
The prophets most often speak against idolatry, the worship of other gods.
“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Second, just behind idolatry, the prophets speak against injustice.
Next, the prophetic message includes a call to repentance, sometimes this is overt; other times it is simply implied.
Repentance includes asking for forgiveness, of course, but much more importantly it means the intention to quit doing the condemned behavior.
All the sackcloth and ashes in the world are useless unless accompanied by a firm intention to change.
This is reflected in the invitation to Confession: “YE who do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins … and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways, draw near with faith, Draw near with faith, … and make your humble confession to Almighty God.”
Although it may move us toward repentance, simply feeling badly about what we have done is not repentance; repentance is the firm intention to change.
Third, if the people do not repent, God’s judgment will come upon them.
Sometimes, of course, the judgment takes the form of a miraculous action: The Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, the bowls of wrath in Revelation, for examples.
More often, the judgment takes the form of God simply removing his supernatural protection and allowing history or nature to take its course.
Sometimes it is difficult to know into which category a judgement falls.
Droughts, plagues of insects, and famines are part of the normal course of nature; unless God restrains them, they will happen, although they could also be the direct result of divine intervention.
Finally, prophecy almost always concludes with the promise of redemption.
The exiles will return, the earth will be remade, God’s people will be victorious and their enemies destroyed.
Indeed, Salvation History itself is just such a prophecy.
God pronounces judgment on Adam and Eve for their disobedience, baring their way to the Tree of Life, but He leaves them with the promise of redemption.
He tells the serpent “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,” which is clearly a prophecy of the coming of Christ, the seed of a woman.
The portion of Scripture appointed for today, from Jeremiah, belongs to the fourth part of a larger prophecy.
That prophecy begins in Chapter 21.
Zedekiah, the last King of Judah, sends envoys to Jeremiah to ask if God will defend Judah in its rebellion against Babylon.
The answer Jeremiah sends back is not at all encouraging.
Not only will God not defend them, but He Himself will fight against them.
Jerusalem will be besieged by the Babylonians; there will be great famine and pestilence, which always accompanies a siege, and finally the city will fall, and the King, his nobles, and those who survive the siege will be carried away.
Jeremiah counsels the people to flee and give themselves up to the Babylonians before the siege begins to save their lives.
In the prophecy, God makes clear what has brought this judgment on the people and rulers of Judah.
They have not dealt justly the stranger, the fatherless, and widows, they have abandoned the covenant and worshipped other gods.
Even so, God shows them they may yet avoid the judgment through repentance.
He then goes on to pronounce judgment on Judah and on the House of David.
Judah will be carried away into exile; the House of David will no longer rule.
But, as always, the judgment is not the end of the story.
There will be a time of redemption and restoration.
The exile will end; the people will return from Babylon; this would indeed happen about 70 years later.
In our Epistle Jeremiah prophecies, in those days the people will say, “The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.” (Jer. 23:8)
The kingdom will be restored to the House of David; this would indeed happen about six centuries later, with the coming of the Christ.
He prophesies, “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.” (Jeremiah 23:5)
In this, God will fulfill the covenant He made with David, “thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.” (2 Sam. 7:16)
Jesus will be the “righteous branch” which springs forth from the thentofore barren “root of Jesse,” David’s father.
There is a vital point here; God keeps the promises of His covenant, even if it takes six centuries, or even longer.
During the years between the time of the Exile and the time of Christ it did appear God had forgotten His promises to David, but He never did.
The promise of a restored Davidic Kingdom became the “Messianic Expectation,” which sustained the Jewish people.
As hard as it is for us, who cherish the ideals of a republic, to understand just how this promise was cherished by the Jews in exile, afterwards under the rule of the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Hasmoneans, and finally, the Romans.
The promise of a restored Davidic Kingdom was precious to them because a righteous ruler is one of God’s great blessings on a people.
The righteous ruler keeps the people safe from foreign enemies.
He makes good laws, laws which conform to the laws of God.
He sees to it those laws are enforced rigorously and justly and most importantly understands himself as subject to those laws.
The people dwell in peace, prosperity, and safety.
This understanding is reflected in Ezekiel’s prophecy: “David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.” (Ezekiel 37:24-5)
By the same token, being ruled by an unrighteous ruler is a sign of God’s extreme displeasure.
In Psalm 109, in one of the terrible curses asked for his enemies, the Psalmist writes, “Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.” (Psalm 109:6)
I am reminded of a conversation I overhead once.
One man said, “President X is bringing God’s judgment on America.”
The other man said, “Have you considered the possibility President X IS God’s judgment on America?”
Depending on your political persuasion, President X could be the current president or the last, or maybe even both.
Of course, to understand the full impact of an unrighteous ruler on a country, consider Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Idi Amin, or Kim Jung Un.
However much about which we can complain about our rulers, they don’t hold a candle to those men.
In closing, we must consider what we must do to assure to ourselves and our posterity righteous rulers.
Certainly, a proper involvement in the political process, however distasteful, is incumbent upon all Christians.
If you don’t register and vote, if you don’t write your elected officials, you really mustn’t gripe about what they do.
More to the point, however, to change the quality of our leaders requires us to change the culture whose standards and values the leaders reflect.
This cannot be wholesale; the only way to change a culture is by one person at a time.
My friends, carrying out the Great Commission is not only our bounden duty and service, but it is ultimately a matter of personal and national survival.
Amen.
And now we ascribe, as is most justly due, unto Thee, O Lord, all might, majesty, power, and dominion, both now and forever. Amen.
