I Will
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“Woe to the shepherds who destroy
and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” declares the Lord.
Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who
care for My people: “You have scattered My flock and have driven them away, and
you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil
deeds, declares the Lord. Then I will gather the
remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I
will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I
will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no
more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which He will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness’” (
Grace
to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
If
you want a job done right, do it yourself.
That’s
not always true, is it? Sometimes, I’m just not the best equipped to do a job. I
can assure you that I’m not volunteering to rewire a house or overhaul a
transmission. I have some rudimentary electrical and mechanical skills, but I
know a professional can get the job done right in less time and that my time
can be better spent on other things. Often, thinking you must do every job
yourself indicates you’re a poor manager; you don’t surround yourself with good
people and trust them to do their jobs.
But
sometimes, it’s true. “I’d better do this one.” It’s essential, and I know I
have the expertise and the skill for this particular task that nobody else has.
Also, I may be the one to whom this job means the most. If it matters to me,
I’m more likely to put in the tender loving care to do it just right.
God
entrusts many tasks to His people. In ancient Israel, for example, He set kings
over His people and called priests to care for the spiritual needs of their
precious souls. But these leaders weren’t always faithful. They didn’t always
care for the sheep entrusted to them as much as God did. So in our text, the
Old Testament Reading for today, God tells Jeremiah that He will step in where
His priests and kings have failed and do the job Himself.
The
Lord says to the shepherds who hadn’t, “I will.”
In
the ancient world, shepherding was a very important job. Sheep, both goats and
lambs, provided the primary source of meat. Sheep and goats were also an essential
part of the Old Testament Israelite worship—the regular sacrifices, even
Passover. Shepherds had crucial tasks in caring for those vital flocks: to
provide food and water, to provide shelter, to protect the sheep from wolves
and other predators, and to guard against thieves.
Not
surprisingly, God, through His Old Testament prophets, often speaks of His
precious people as sheep and of their leaders as shepherds. Jeremiah uses the
image of a shepherd to talk about the priests of his day. The problem is that
those supposed to shepherd, to care for the people, weren’t shepherding.
Hear
God’s accusation (vv 1-2a). “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the
sheep of My pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore
thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for My
people: “You have scattered My flock and have driven them away, and you have
not attended to them.” They had failed to take care of God’s flock. They had
scattered the flock rather than keeping it together. The exile to Babylon resulted
from the people's disobedience, but the shepherds were to blame for not
teaching the people God’s Word in all its truth and purity.
To
these shepherds who hadn’t been shepherding faithfully, God says, “I will” (vv
2b-4).” Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. Then
I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have
driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be
fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them,
and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing,
declares the Lord.”
First,
God says, “I will deal with you, you evil, self-serving, should-have-been
shepherds! And it won’t be pretty.” Then, he says, “I will gather the flock. I will
bring them home to safety and quiet. “And I will appoint new, faithful
shepherds.”
The
Lord says to the rulers who didn’t, “I will.”
In
the ancient world, ruling as king was also a very important job. God appointed
a king over His people to lead them in His ways. A king has many vital
responsibilities: security (or defense) of the people, promotion of the
economic welfare of the nation (fostering trade), administration of justice and
laws, and, in Israel, above all, seeing to it that the priests did their job
properly.
Problem:
the rulers didn’t rule, at least not that way, the way God put them on the
throne to rule. As Jeremiah writes, King Zedekiah was a puppet of Babylon. He
rejected God’s message through Jeremiah. He allowed or promoted the worship of
other gods. His actions, too, led to the destruction of the holy city,
Jerusalem.
God’s
solution? “I will raise up a new king, a new David.” “He will act wisely,
execute justice, save Judah.” In all of this, He will be the reverse of
Zedekiah.
This
point is reinforced using a play on words or, in this case, a play on the
names. Zedekiah was a descendant of David who was placed on the throne by the
Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar as a puppet after the Babylonians captured
Jerusalem and took the former king (Jehoiachin) into exile around 597 BC.
Zedekiah (also called Mattaniah) ruled for about eleven years until the
destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of 587 BC. The name Zedekiah means
“Yahweh is righteous.” Jeremiah calls Jesus “Yahweh our righteousness”
(Jeremiah 23:6). Zedekiah had the name. Jesus gives the gift—the gift of
righteousness. Jesus frees us from self-righteousness, so we rest in His gift
of declared righteousness.
To
us who ask, “Who will?” the Lord says, “I will.”
Since Judah’s kings had utterly
failed to carry out God’s assignment, the Lord would get rid of them and
replace them with shepherds after His own heart, faithful shepherds who would
do the job that the Lord had called them to do.
The passage that follows, as is
often the case in the Old Testament, brings together prophecies about the
return from exile, the messianic age, and the Messiah Himself. The Lord
promises to perform a great miracle. He gives His people hope for the future.
Though the Lord had announced the effective end of the rule of the house of
David, yet He was not about to forget the promises He had made to David (2
Samuel 7:11-16). From David’s offspring would come the Messiah, the great and
good King of His people. Jeremiah gives us the richest Gospel promise of His
entire prophecy.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which He will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness’” (
There is no comparison between this
Branch of David and the last fruitless branches of David’s house who had been
occupying the throne in Jerusalem. The “Branch” of whom Jeremiah writes would
be righteous. He would be righteous not just in obeying the Law or in some
external sense but in every way. He would be righteous in and of Himself
because He would be without sin.
He would not only be righteous in
and of Himself but also rule righteously. He would bring about and exercise
righteousness in all He did and said. He would show a genuine understanding of
the Law’s righteousness in all of His activity. The effect of His rule of
righteousness would be dramatic. Judah would be saved; Israel would dwell in
safety. These are pictures of confidence, certainty, and peace.
We
might have expected all of this. We would surely expect God to replace wicked
priests and kings, shepherds and rulers who weren’t doing their jobs. We’re unsurprised
that He’d gather His flock and give them new shepherds and kings.
But
actually, God does something unexpected. He says, “This job is too important
and is more important to Me than to anybody else. “I’m the one who has the
know-how, the skill, and I’m the one who will give this job tender loving
care like nobody else. “I’ll do this job myself.”
The
cause of His peace and its guarantee, its true characteristics, are revealed by
the name that the Lord gives to the Messiah: Yahweh our Righteousness. Here,
the whole Gospel, the whole message of Scripture, is summed up in a few
precious words. The Lord Himself is our righteousness. For that to be true, the
Lord Himself must have become one of us, having taken all we are upon Himself.
These
words point us to the miracle of the incarnation, the Word made flesh. But they
also point to that most comforting truth: not only is the Messiah righteousness
in Himself, but through His perfect life of obedience, His suffering and death,
and rising to life, He won for our justification, reconciliation with God, and the
forgiveness of sins. What He is and what He has done, He has done for us. He
has given us a gift of righteousness, a righteousness that we could never have
gained for ourselves. Here is the door that opens heaven and keeps it open:
Yahweh is our righteousness; yes, the Lord is your righteousness. What He did,
He did for you. He has made you His own. This is your certainty, hope, and
confidence: the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you.
God
replaces those faithless leaders with Himself. He becomes the shepherd. Jesus
says, “I am the Good Shepherd,” “the Lord,” the “my shepherd” of
Psalm 23. He becomes the King. The righteous Branch, David, is the Son of the
David to Mary. He reigns over us, always wisely, justly, righteously.
Even
more, He lays down His life for the sheep, becomes the sacrifice for His flock,
His people—even for the faithless shepherds. God the Father asks, “Who will go to
take the place of the faithless shepherds? Who will go to pay the price for these
sheep who have followed their faithless leaders and wandered away? Who will
suffer everything they deserve, even the punishments of hell, so that we can
have them back with us?”
And
God’s own Son answers, “I will.”
“I
will become Your Shepherd and King. “
“I
will die for you.
“I
will rise for you.
“I
will wash you clean in Holy Baptism.
“I
will give you My very body and blood to eat and drink for the forgiveness of
your sins.
“I
will hear your prayers and bring them to My heavenly Father.
“I
will gather you to Myself on the Last Day.”
This
was a job only Jesus, the Good Shepherd, could do. And He did. And He will. Go
in the peace of the Lord and serve your neighbor with joy. You are forgiven for
all your sins.
In
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are
from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All
rights reserved.
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