Jeremiah 23:1-8.\u00a0 We have just spent several days reading warnings by Jeremiah.\u00a0 Most of the book has contained warnings about the coming disaster at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 We have also seen that Nebuchadnezzar was being used by God as a tool to deal with the rebellion and disrespect of the people of Judah toward him (sin).\u00a0 More recently we have been reading warnings directed at the various kings of Judah who reigned near the end, just before Nebuchadnezzar took over (and while he was taking over).<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s reading starts out with more warnings.\u00a0 Remember that the word \u201cwoe\u201d means something like \u201clook out\u201d.\u00a0 This warning is to the \u201cshepherds\u201d.\u00a0 Shepherds are guys who watch sheep, usually the sheep belong to someone else.\u00a0 In this case the sheep are the LORD\u2019s (Yahweh, the personal name of the one true God).\u00a0 In verse 2 we learn that God is not talking about literal sheep but about people.\u00a0 The fact that he identified himself as the \u201cGod of Israel\u201d in verse 2 tells us that the particular people he is talking about are the Jews (Israelites).\u00a0 Shepherds are supposed to protect the sheep, keep track of them, and lead them wherever they need to go.\u00a0 According to verse 2 these shepherds of Israel did just the opposite.\u00a0 The people God is talking to were probably the priests and false prophets in the land; the religious leaders, but the reference could also have been referring to kings as well.\u00a0 God says that because they have not attended to his sheep that he is going to attend to them.\u00a0 That word \u201cattend\u201d means to \u201ccount, govern, punish, visit, look after\u201d.\u00a0 What God is saying is that these guys had not kept an eye on his sheep but he has kept and eye on them and now they are going to be dealt with.\u00a0 And we are told that their deeds have been evil; they have been very very bad and now they are going to suffer for it.<\/p>\n
In verse 3 we see a change in the message.\u00a0 After chapters of warnings God gives a message of hope.\u00a0 Since the guys God put in charge didn\u2019t do their job and the people of Israel where scattered all over the place God himself would bring them back.\u00a0 God had made promises to Abraham and David about a forever kingdom and he was not about to go back on his word.\u00a0 Not everyone who was descended from Abraham would be a part of that kingdom, many had rejected God, and remember God won\u2019t force us to be a part of his forever family.\u00a0 But there were those who had been faithful to God (like Jeremiah) and God promises to bring back those who were. God then promises to raise up new shepherds who will take care of the sheep and the sheep will live in peace.\u00a0 Like a lot of prophecy this could find fulfillment on several levels over a period of time.\u00a0 After the Babylonian captivity the people were brought back to the physical land by Nehemiah and were encouraged to follow God.\u00a0 The Jewish people, mostly, continued in their failure to wholeheartedly follow God.\u00a0 But God was working a plan that was bigger than the Jewish people (see \u201cThe Old Testament Connection\u201d<\/a>).<\/p>\n In verses 5-6 we get a glimpse of this bigger plan.\u00a0 In verse 5 God moves from talking about new and faithful shepherds to one leader in particular.\u00a0 This leader is called the righteous Branch.\u00a0 This is a way of saying that the person will be a descendant of David.\u00a0 We are told that this person will be a good king and will bring security to the people who have been restored to the land.\u00a0 This king will be called \u201cYahweh who makes us right\u201d.\u00a0 The Jewish people had been promised a forever kingdom ruled by a descendant of David and God is reassuring them that one day that will still happen.\u00a0 It is interesting that Jesus name means \u201cYahweh is salvation\u201d and that Jesus is the one who makes things right between us and God.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 day the Jewish people actually started to recognize him as the promised coming king but they were looking for a guy to kick Rome out of the land.\u00a0 They were missing the \u201crighteousness\u201d part.\u00a0 A kingdom is nothing but dirt without people so Jesus was about getting people right with God first.\u00a0 The taking over the land part will come but right now God is gathering people for his kingdom.\u00a0 So there is a definite fulfillment of part of the prediction in Jesus, in fact he becomes the ultimate fulfillment.<\/p>\n Followers of Jesus are also a\u00a0 part of the fulfillment of this prediction by Jeremiah.\u00a0 In Ephesians 4:11 we are told that God gave some as apostles (the word means \u201csent ones\u201d like missionaries, some as prophets, some as evangelists (guys who mostly focus on how people can get right with God through Jesus) and some as pastor-teachers\u201d.\u00a0 The word \u201cpastor: means the same thing as \u201cshepherd\u201d.\u00a0 And we see from the following verses in Ephesians 4 that these guys really do take care of God\u2019s people; they are faithful leaders.\u00a0 So there is a sort of fulfillment of the prediction found in the church (a word that means chosen or picked ones).\u00a0 Right new we are God\u2019s chosen people and we have a job to do together of helping people understand who Jesus is, what he has done of all of us, and their need to turn to God through Jesus.<\/p>\n IN verse 7-8 we see a possible double fulfillment of the prediction.\u00a0 70 years after the Babylonian Captivity some of the Jewish people started to return to the land.\u00a0 The temple was rebuilt and the stage was set for Jesus to be born and serve the people.\u00a0 Remember that Jeremiah referred to Nebuchadnezzar as being a king form the north because that was the route that he would take when invading the land.\u00a0 But much later in history the Jewish people were scattered again and many wound up in Russia and Eastern Europe.\u00a0 After World War 2 many of these people emigrated back to the land and the modern state of Israel was formed.\u00a0 This may be again setting the stage for the second coming of Jesus, this time in victory over the land.\u00a0 This part of the promise to the Jewish people is reconfirmed in the book of Revelation where we also see God raising up Jewish men to lead people to Jesus and ultimately we see Jesus conquering all invaders both physical and spiritual once and for all.<\/p>\n God is serious about sin, it will be punished.\u00a0 The good news is that Jesus took that punishment for all mankind (1 John 2:2).\u00a0 The sad part is that many will reject his offer; wanting to do it their own way they will suffer eternal separation from God.\u00a0 God wants people in his kingdom and has gone to unbelievable extreme of having his son become one of us to suffer death for us.\u00a0 Now God is giving mankind time to accept (or reject) Jesus.\u00a0 One day he will return and gather all who are his own together, give us new forever bodies, and welcome us into his forever universe.\u00a0 I hope all who read this will take God up on his totally cool offer.<\/p>\n God help me be a good shepherd of your sheep.\u00a0 Help me gather people to you not scatter them.\u00a0 Help me give them peace and remove fear from their lives.\u00a0 Let them learn about you from my words and my actions.\u00a0 Use me to lead them by still waters to great pastures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jeremiah 23:1-8.\u00a0 We have just spent several days reading warnings by Jeremiah.\u00a0 Most of the book has contained warnings about the coming disaster at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 We have also seen that Nebuchadnezzar was being used by God as a tool to deal with the rebellion and disrespect of the people of Judah toward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1728,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions\/1728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}