Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Righteous King and the New Covenant Hope (Jeremiah) | Thomas R. Schreiner

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The Righteous King and the New Covenant Hope (Jeremiah) | Thomas R. Schreiner · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. This is the deep dive, and today
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we are getting into one of the most challenging books in the
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Bible, but also one of the most hopeful, the prophecy of
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Jeremiah. It really is both of those
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things at once. We've gone through a lot of
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analysis from our source material, and what we really
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want to do is get to the heart of the tension in this book, the
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tension between, you know, this inevitable divine justice and
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the absolute certainty of God's promise for salvation in the
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future. That is the core of it, Yeah.
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Jeremiah is a book with a dual mission.
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It makes you look straight at the catastrophic failures of
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God's people. But then it just pivots in this
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spectacular way, right? And it offers a vision of grace
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that is so total it changes the whole picture.
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Our goal here is to pull out the key insights that explain how
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judgment and salvation can possibly function side by side
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in one story. And what's so helpful is that
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Jeremiah himself gives us the perfect outline.
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It's right there in chapter 1, verse 10.
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This one verse is like the theological framework for the
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entire. Book it really is.
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God appoints the prophet to do 6 things and they're split into
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two clear groups, to pluck up and to breakdown, to destroy and
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to overthrow, and then to build and to plant.
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That order is so critical, isn't it?
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Yeah. It tells you that there is no
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building until something is first broken down.
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You can't just skip ahead to the comfort of the New Covenant
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without wrestling with why the Exile was so tragically
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necessary. So that's what we'll do.
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We'll follow that divine blueprint, first the case for
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condemnation and then the promise of restoration.
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Just to set the scene, Jeremiah's ministry was a long,
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heartbreaking ordeal. It spanned decades.
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Yeah, he starts around 626 BC during that brief revival under
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King Josiah. Then he sees the total collapse
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of Judah, the Babylonian conquest in 586 BC.
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And the book even ends with this final sad little detail of King
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Jehoiichun being released from prison in 562 BC.
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This man saw it all. He lived and breathed the
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tragedy of his own nation. It was a painful, painful
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assignment. And his personal life was
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completely tangled up in the he was foretelling.
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But before we get to his own suffering, we have to focus on
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that first half of the Commission, the Divine purpose
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to pluck up and to breakdown. OK, so let's start with the
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authority Jeremiah carried. I mean, this wasn't just some
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political commentator or a local wise man.
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He was the direct mouthpiece for the sovereign of the entire
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cosmos. That's right, and our analysis
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really brings out that God's choice of Jeremiah was set from
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eternity. It's more than just a job offer,
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it's a statement about divine election.
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Before he was even born, right? Exactly, Jeremiah 1.5 says the
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Lord consecrated him, appointed him as a prophet to the nation's
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before he was in the womb. This is a calling that comes
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before he could even choose it. The Lord set His identity and
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His mission before He took his first breath.
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And because that appointment was sovereign, the words he spoke
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carried, well, a kind of legal, irreversible weight.
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The Lord puts the words directly into His mouth.
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That's the key. When we talk about His purpose
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being to break down and build up, we need to see the word
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itself as the active agent. Jeremiah wasn't just, you know,
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predicting a possible future. His declaration was the very
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instrument that made those things happen.
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So his faithful proclamation of God's message meant judgement
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was going to happen and salvation was going to follow.
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His words shaped reality. The first reality they shaped
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was a catastrophe, and that catastrophe was tied again and
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again to a specific threat from a specific direction, the North.
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That prediction is just relentless, especially in the
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early chapters. It's not some general feeling of
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doom or a slow decline. It's a specific external
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military disaster coming from the north to destroy Judah and
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Jerusalem. It's concrete.
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Very concrete, and the prophecy gets even more specific.
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It names names. Jeremiah says explicitly that
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Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, will be the one to
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flatten Jerusalem and, even more devastating for their religious
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identity, the Temple itself. And the fact that this came true
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in 586 BC is what confirmed he was a true prophet.
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But here's an insight from the source analysis that I find
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fascinating. Jeremiah puts an expiration date
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on God's wrath. Yes he does.
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He gives a specific timeline for the captivity.
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A 70 year exile. And the amazing thing isn't just
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that he got the date right, but that God's judgment is bounded.
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It's measured. It's not just arbitrary rage.
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So there's a structure of hope built right into the penalty
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itself. Exactly.
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And we also have to remember the scope of God's rule here.
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The judgment doesn't just stop at Judah's border.
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It's universal. It's universal.
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Chapters 46 through 51 list God's judgments against all the
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surrounding nations. This shows that the God of
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Israel isn't some tribal deity. He is the supreme ruler over all
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of human history and politics. And even Babylon, the empire God
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used as his hammer to punish Judah, even they are held
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accountable. That's what's so incredible.
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Babylon will suffer for its own pride and tyranny.
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It shows that God is in complete control.
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Even the instrument of His judgment answers to His justice.
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So if the what was destruction? The big question is why?
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Why did the chosen people, the ones with the temple and the
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law, face of punishment that was arguably worse than what they've
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experienced in Egypt? The answer is just inescapable
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throughout the whole book. It's the central theme.
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They violated the covenant stipulations that were
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established at Sinai. So Jeremiah is like a prosecutor
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holding up the original contract.
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That's a great way to put it. He holds the Sinai contract in
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one hand and the scroll of Deuteronomy in the other and
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shows how the current disaster is a direct result of their
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disobedience, it's cause and effect.
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It's as if he's saying, look, the fine print was always there.
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We signed up for this punishment if we failed.
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Our sources point out how the character of Deuteronomy,
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especially its curses, just comes to life in Chapter 11.
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Absolutely. The covenant was crystal clear.
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Yeah, if Israel obeyed, they would be his treasured
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possession, but they walked in the stubbornness of their own
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hearts and just refused to keep the agreement.
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So the indictment is simple. Very simple.
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Judah refused to submit to Yahweh's lordship.
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They rejected the rule of their own king.
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And what's so baffling, as Chapter 2 points out, is how
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irrational this abandonment was. He calls it shocking and
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astonishing. It is Yahweh had nurtured them,
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cared for them, delivered them from slavery, and yet they
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despise his rule and went looking for satisfaction
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somewhere else. Hashtag hashtag.
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See specific failures deep seated sin.
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The sources use a specific Hebrew word for this defection,
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don't they? Azab.
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Yes, which means to forsake. And it implies A conscious,
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active abandonment. This isn't just passively
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drifting away. This is, you know, a tragic
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divorce. And that act of abandonment
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leads to that devastating image in chapter 2, verse 13.
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Israel forsook Yahweh, the fountain of living waters, for
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broken cisterns that hold no water.
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It's the definition of spiritual delusion, leaving the one true
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life giving source for these useless man made substitutes
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that can't satisfy you, can't sustain you.
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And the immediate result of forsaking God was violating the
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very first commandment. Instantly, they turned to
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serving and worshipping other gods.
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They brought offerings to Ball and in the most heartbreaking
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way, sacrificed their own children to Molech, thinking
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these false gods would somehow give them security or provision.
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Which shows a catastrophic failure to even recognize who
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Yahweh is, his incomparable nature.
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They completely missed it. Jeremiah 10 asks who is like
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you, O Lord? And the answer is nobody.
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Idols are just useless pieces of wood.
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Yahweh is the living king who made the entire world.
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And from there the rejection of His law just follows naturally.
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They kept up the external religious stuff, temple worship,
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sacrifices, but completely ignored the one thing the
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covenant required, obedience. That is such a critical
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distinction. They made a false Talisman out
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of the temple. They really thought the physical
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existence of the building would somehow protect them from
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Judgement A. Kind of good luck charm.
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A good luck charm. Exactly.
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And Jeremiah just shatters that delusion by bringing up the
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history of Shiloh, the place where the Tabernacle in the Ark
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used to be. He says if God didn't spare
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Shiloh, what makes you think he'll spare Jerusalem just
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because you have a fancier building?
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They confused architecture with faithfulness.
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Then the language gets intensely personal, doesn't it?
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It's described as spiritual adultery.
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It is Judah's apostasy is compared to treachery, like a
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wife who is unfaithful to her husband.
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And this goes back to another Hebrew term, dabak, which means
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to cling. Like a loincloth.
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The image in chapter 13. Yes, the people were supposed to
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cling to Yahweh like a loincloth clings to the waste to bring Him
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praise, But because they chose not to trust and cling to Him,
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the relationship was torn apart. It resulted in divine divorce
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and exile. And the result of that covenant
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breakdown was just a total moral collapse.
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The prophet says they didn't even know how to blush anymore
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because sin had become so normal.
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It infected every corner of their society, their greed,
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their social injustice. They refused to care for those
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vulnerable people, the poor, the sojourners, the widows, the
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orphans. The list of sins is just a
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systematic breakdown of the 10 commandments.
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It is lying, murder, stealing, even offering their children as
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sacrifices. And the sources drive home this
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devastating point that this sin wasn't just a behavioral
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problem, it was ingrained in their very being.
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It was as unchangeable as a leopard changing at spots.
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And the imagery just gets more intense.
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It does. In chapter 17 it says the sin of
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Judah isn't written in pencil. It's engraved on the tablet of
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their heart with a pen of iron, with a point of a diamond.
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Wow. This tells you the depth of the
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depravity was beyond human ability to fix.
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The problem was systemic, it was internal, it was fundamental.
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They needed a core change that they could not possibly perform
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on themselves. And because the sin was so
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fundamental, the judgment had to be just as devastating.
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And that's where we get this idea of AD creation.
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This is a powerful, terrifying concept.
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In chapter 4, Jeremiah describes God essentially hitting the
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cosmic reset button on the land of Judah.
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The desolation. He describes No Light, No
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People, no birds is a direct echo of Genesis 1.2, the chaos
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and void before creation. So God is literally sending the
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land back to a state of primordial chaos.
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That's the image, and it confirms that the punishments,
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the sword, the famine, the pestilence, these weren't random
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disasters. They were the specific curses
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spelled out in the Sinai covenant in Leviticus 26 and
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Deuteronomy 28. God was keeping his promise
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precisely as the covenant laid out.
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Hashtag hashtag tag D The blindness of post exile Judah.
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What's so heartbreaking about Jeremiah's story, though, is
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that even after the first wave of destruction, even after
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seeing the prophecies come true before their eyes, the people
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were still spiritually blind. Chapters 40 to 45 are so
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important for this reason. They show that Judah's problem
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was not external. After the governor get a lie is
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murdered the people left behind, led by a man named Johannon.
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They're afraid of what the Babylonians will do.
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And they want to flee to Egypt. They do.
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So they go to Jeremiah and they put on this big show of piety,
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claiming they'll obey whatever the Lord says, whether he tells
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them to stay or go. But it's all a ruse.
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A complete ruse, because when Jeremiah delivers the word that
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they must stay in the land or judgment will follow them to
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Egypt, they immediately reject it.
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They refuse to believe it was God speaking.
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And their explanation for why the judgment happened in the 1st
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place is just astonishing. It's unbelievable.
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They claim the disaster happened because they had stopped making
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offerings to a false goddess, the Queen of Heaven.
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They essentially blame their troubles on Yahweh's demand for
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exclusive worship. Which just confirms their
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idolatry was still absolute. It crystallizes the absolute
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need for the New Covenant. They saw Jerusalem fall, they
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were dragged into exile, and they still preferred the lives
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of idolatry. They physically dragged Jeremiah
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with them to Egypt, where he predicted even more judgement.
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That episode proves that external discipline alone cannot
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fix a fundamentally broken heart.
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Hashtag tag 2. The conflict with the leaders.
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And the stubbornness of the people was just amplified by the
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failure of their leaders. Jeremiah's ministry was 1 long
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conflict with the very people who were supposed to guide the
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nation. Let's start with the kings, the
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so-called shepherds who abuse their flock.
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Hashtag tag tag K Kings and shepherd.
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The sources are really clear that the kings of Judah were
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disaster magnets, and it's because they made systemic
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injustice the law of the land. They were supposed to be agents
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of justice, but instead they actively exploited the
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vulnerable. King Jehoiakim is the perfect
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case study of this just pure vanity.
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He's obsessed with building this lavish, opulent palace while
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oppressing the poor and shedding innocent blood.
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And his defiance of Yahweh was just so blatant, so theatrical.
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When Jeremiah's scroll of prophecy was read to him, he
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didn't just dismiss it, he systematically took a scribes
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knife, cut the scroll into pieces, and burned it in the
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fire. Talk about an extreme form of
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censorship. It is.
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He wasn't just disagreeing with the message, he was trying to
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burn the divine memo out of existence.
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And, the sources point out, he didn't even have the basic
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decency to tear his garments in repentance like his own father
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Josiah had done. And the consequence was severe.
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And personal his offspring wouldn't sit on the throne and
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he would die without dignity, getting the burial of a donkey.
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It just shows that leadership failure has these devastating
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consequences for the person and for the nation.
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Then you have Zedekiah, the Last King, and his failure wasn't so
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much defiance as it was just spineless cowardice.
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And inconsistency. He initially throws Jeremiah in
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prison for the crime of speaking the truth about Jerusalem's
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fall, and his treatment of the Hebrew slaves just shows his
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lack of principle. Right, he frees them for a
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minute. He frees them, following the
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law, but then as soon as the Babylonian army lifts the siege
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for a moment, he reverses course and enslaves them all over
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again. He had no real commitment to the
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covenant when the pressure was on.
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And his defining weakness was his fear of man.
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He was terrified of the Judean officials who saw Jeremiah as a
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traitor. So he lets them abuse and
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imprison the prophet, and ultimately he allows them to
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throw Jeremiah into a muddy cistern to die.
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He literally says he's afraid of them.
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He does. When Jeremiah confronts him,
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Zedekiah admits he fears the Judeans more than he fears the
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word of the Lord. And I would say that fear of man
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was itself a complete failure of covenant fidelity.
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It was the core sin of Israel playing out on the royal stage.
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And that failure leads directly to his own horrifying end,
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watching his sons killed, his own eyes being put out and then
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being dragged off to prison. These kings, these shepherds,
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they just exploited the flock instead of caring for them.
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Hashtag tag tag be priests, wise ones and false prophets.
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The rot went straight through the religious and intellectual
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classes, too. The priests were ungodly.
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They were pursuing financial gain rather than teaching God's
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law. They were just following the
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lead of the false prophets. Exactly, and we even see a chief
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priest named Pashur personally beating and imprisoning
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Jeremiah. The corruption was at the very
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top. Then you had the so-called wise
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ones, the intellectuals who claimed to have but all figured
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out. And Jeremiah calls them fools
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because they rejected the Lord's word.
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They boasted in their own self-confidence, assuming true
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wisdom could never leave their counsel.
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But Jeremiah gives this sharp correction, doesn't he?
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He does. He says true wisdom isn't found
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in self-reliance, it's found only in knowing the Lord.
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The truly wise boast only in Yahweh.
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They feel the grasp that a person can't direct their own
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steps. But Jeremiah saves his harshest
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critique for the false prophets. He does.
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They were prophesying by Baal, they were strengthening the
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hands of evil doers, and they were actively preventing anyone
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from actually repenting. They were selling spiritual
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anesthesia. That's a great way to put it.
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They promised peace and security in Yahweh's name.
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They claimed they were getting supernatural revelation, usually
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citing these deceptive dreams they were having.
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But it was all just from their own minds.
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It was they were peddling the deceit of their own minds, often
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just stealing messages from each other.
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And the scary part is why they were so popular.
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They told people what they wanted to hear.
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Exactly. They told the people that it
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would be well with them even though they were despising the
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word of the Lord, and it made them rich.
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They affirmed the people's sin instead of confronting it.
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The contrast he draws between their words and the true word of
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God is so stark. He uses these elemental
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metaphors. The false prophets words were
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like straw, empty, useless, easily burned up.
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But the Lorde true word is a consuming fire and a mighty
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hammer that crushes anything in his path.
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And you see this play out perfectly in the showdown with
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Hananiah in chapter 28. That's the classic example.
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Hananiah claiming God told him prophecies a quick return from
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exile within two years. He even breaks the yoke Jeremiah
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was wearing as a sign. And Jeremiah gives the ultimate
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test of a prophet. He says let's see if your words
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come true. And Hananiah's lie about a quick
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return was exposed as false when Jeremiah accurately predicted
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Hananiah's own death, which happened later that year.
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That incident just cemented Jeremiah's claim to be speaking
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the truth, no matter how unpopular it was.
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Hashtag tag 3. The messenger is grief and fire.
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So now we move from the national failure to Jeremiah's own
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personal experience, and you see how the prophet's life becomes
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this living parable. His identity and his message are
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completely inseparable. Hashtag tag Tag K.
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The inseparability of messenger and message.
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His whole existence was just this stunning paradox.
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On one hand, he found this intense spiritual joy in
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receiving God's Word, he says. Your words were found and I ate
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them. A joy and the delight of my
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heart. He delighted in that communion
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with God. He did, but that very same word
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brought him constant persecution because it was announcing
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destruction. He was basically charged with
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treason for speaking the truth to a nation that didn't want to
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hear. It.
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And yet he couldn't stop. He couldn't, he says.
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The word had this intrinsic, irresistible force even when he
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wanted to back away from his painful mission.
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He describes it as a burning fire.
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Shut up in my bones that he just had to let out.
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The divine message had to be proclaimed, no matter what it
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cost him personally. And that internal struggle was
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made visible in his public life. His deep personal grief, his
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tears over his people's fate. It's mentioned over and over.
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And the Lord make his grief a public spectacle.
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He's told not to get married, not to have a family.
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Right. He's denied the normal comforts
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of life, and that command, that choice, becomes a visible
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physical testimony to the coming disaster.
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This is what we call his representative function.
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And that's the key to understanding his life, isn't
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it? In some parts of the book, the
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prophet's sorrow just seems to completely merge with the Lord's
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own grief. It does.
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His tears reflect Yahweh's own anguish over his people's
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choices. His suffering wasn't just some
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private misfortune. It was communicating something
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about God's heart for Israel even as they were hardening
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their hearts against Him. The message and the messenger
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are intertwined. Completely, and it sets a
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pattern that points forward to the ultimate prophet and
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mediator, Jesus Christ. Hashtag, hashtag be Complex
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emotions and divine vindication. We have to talk about the
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emotional tension in Jeremiah, though.
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How could he weep for his people on one hand and then pray for
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vengeance against them on the other?
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Well. 1st we have to remember the Lord specifically told
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Jeremiah not to pray for the people.
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Their stubbornness had reached a point where national repentance
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was basically impossible. The judgment had to come to
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fulfill the covenant curses. And yet he prays these fierce
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prayers for vengeance against his opponents.
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For a modern reader, that can sound harsh.
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It can, but we have to see it through the lens of covenant
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faithfulness. His frustration wasn't coming
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from some petty personal offense.
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It was righteous indignation that God's covenant was being so
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consistently defied by hypocrites and false leaders.
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So he saw that judgement was necessary for God's justice to
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be vindicated. And that it was deserved.
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So both his tears of grief and his calls for justice reflected
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the unified reality of God's Word, sorrow, and necessary
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judgement. And his prayer for vengeance was
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answered, which suggests it was rooted in God's righteous anger,
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not just personal malice. That's right.
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But this burden, it wore him down terribly.
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He openly questioned God. He asked if the Lord would
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defend him, if God would be like waters that fail.
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He even accused God of deceiving him since he was being
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mistreated while the promised judgement seemed to be delayed.
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But God's response isn't a rebuke, is it?
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It's a promise. It's a promise of protection.
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As long as Jeremiah spoke God's Word faithfully, God would
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protect and defend him. And that protection held even
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though he was beaten and thrown in prison.
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He was still persuaded that his enemies would see the Lord's
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vengeance. He was, but the pressure was
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just so immense that his despair hits this rock bottom moment
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where he curses the day he was born.
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It's a moment of profound psychological pain.
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And that despair reflects the catastrophic state of Judah
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itself. It does.
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His lament raises this question of the nation's death, or
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perhaps a never having been. But here's the critical take
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away. Even in that absolute despair,
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Jeremiah survives his survival despite his wish for non
21:00
existence. It foreshadows preservation for
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Judah. Judgment is severe, but it is
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not the final word. And that leads us to this
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glorious shift in the book. The second-half of that
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Commission from Chapter 1 to build and to plant The judgment
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is temporary. Israel will be saved and
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restored from exile. Hashtag tag, tag, tag A.
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The call to return and future blessings.
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Before God guarantees the future, He establishes what's
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required in the present repentance.
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The immediate path back to God was shob, the Hebrew word for to
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return or to turn back. The call was to return to Yahweh
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with their whole heart. And Jeremiah uses these great
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agricultural metaphors for this change.
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Repentance is like breaking up the fallow ground of their
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hearts. And cutting back the foreskin of
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the heart, a spiritual internal circumcision, because their
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hearts were too hard for God's Word to take root.
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We see this powerful contrast with the Rechabites in Chapter
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35. That's such a striking story.
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These people strictly follow the strange instructions of their
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human ancestor, living in tents, not drinking wine for
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generations. Yet Israel, who is rescued by
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God from Egypt, couldn't follow the clear commands of their
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divine Father. The Rechabites obedience was a
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condemnation of Israel's disobedience.
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A devastating condemnation, but when that necessary repentance
22:16
and restoration become a future reality, the blessings that are
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promised are extraordinary. Israel will get faithful
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leaders, good shepherds, who will feed them with knowledge
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and understanding. And the old system gets
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superseded, right? The Ark of the Covenant.
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Once the center of everything, it becomes obsolete.
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It won't even be sought out. And this signals the coming of a
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new, greater reality of God's presence that isn't tied to one
22:38
physical object or place. And the vision expands globally.
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Jerusalem becomes the place where Yahweh reigns and all
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nations will stream to it. The division between the
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northern and southern kingdoms, Israel and Judah, will finally
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be healed. And even when Jeremiah is
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praying for the nation while they're still in their sin, he
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acknowledges their only hope isn't their own goodness.
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It's Yahweh acting for his own name's sake.
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He reminds them that idols can't bring rain, only the true Lord
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can restore the land. Hashtag hashtag beep pip.
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A new exodus in heart surgery. So the Exile is definitely not
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the end of the story. Jeremiah promises a new Exodus,
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one that will be even more memorable than the first one
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from Egypt. It's an event that will
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completely redefine Israel's history, and Yahweh promises to
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send fishers and hunters to proactively go and bring his
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people back. This image of gathering the
23:29
scattered flock, it anticipates the New Testament called the
23:32
apostles to be fishers of men. And the vision of salvation just
23:35
keeps expanding. The surrounding nations will
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come to recognize that their idols are worthless and that
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salvation is only found in the Lord.
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Which fulfills that ancient promise to Abraham that his
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descendants would bring blessing to the whole world.
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And here we get back to the core problem.
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From the beginning of the book, the sin inscribed on the heart.
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Yahweh identifies who will receive his favor, the good
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figs, the ones who submitted to the exile, and for them He
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promises divine heart surgery. He says, I will give them a
24:05
heart to know that I am the Lord, for they shall return to
24:08
me with their whole heart. So the internal systemic problem
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is going to be fixed by a sovereign act of grace.
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An irreversible act and this theme of restoration just
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reaches its absolute peak in chapters 30 through 33, what's
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called the Book of Comfort. These chapters are designed to
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give absolute certainty of their return.
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That's their whole purpose. The core message is that
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Yahweh's plans for His people people will be fulfilled,
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guaranteed by his own character. Israel will be safe, secure, and
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full of praise. And the source of this security
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is God's eternal attitude toward them.
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He loved them with an everlasting love.
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Exactly. The weeping of exile is short
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lived. Israel shall be like a watered
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garden, never languishing again, and the ultimate goal is
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satisfaction. Which brings us back to the
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broken cisterns. My people shall be satisfied
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with my goodness. The promise that their deepest
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longing will finally be met by God's presence and His
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provision. Hashtag tag.
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Hack C The Everlasting New Covenant.
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And this leads to the revolutionary climax of the
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whole book, the promise of the everlasting New Covenant in
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chapter 31. This is fundamentally different
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from the Sinai covenant that Israel kept breaking.
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Sinai was conditional. It relied on human obedience, so
25:21
it was always breachable. The New Covenant is irrevocable
25:24
because it's secured by God's action, not ours.
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It solves the core human failure that the book diagnosis.
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And the revolutionary part is where the law is located.
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It's not on external stone tablets anymore.
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No, the Lord will write His law directly on the hearts of His
25:38
people. This solves the problem of
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internal stubbornness. It guarantees obedience from the
25:43
inside out. Which leads to a completely
25:45
transformed relationship with God.
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Totally under Sinai, the relationship is mediated through
25:51
kings, priests, and prophets. Under the New Covenant, every
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single member will know the Lord directly.
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That spiritual knowledge is internal and universal among all
26:01
of God's people. And the foundation for all this
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has to be total forgiveness. It is sins will be remembered no
26:07
more. The cleansing from guilt is
26:10
comprehensive and final. God will forgive all the guilt
26:13
of their sin and their rebellion.
26:14
And the certainty of this promise is absolute.
26:17
It's guaranteed by the fixed laws of the universe itself.
26:20
It's as sure as the sun, moon, and stars.
26:23
It can no more be revoked than you can measure the heavens or
26:26
find the foundations of the earth.
26:28
God ties His promise to the very fabric of creation.
26:31
And Jeremiah gives this practical, real world
26:33
illustration of this certainty when he buys a field in his
26:36
hometown while Jerusalem is surrounded by the Babylonian
26:38
army. It seems like such an absurd
26:40
act, but that property transfer, signing the deed in the middle
26:44
of a war, was a legal guarantee that life would one day return
26:48
to normal. It showed the absolute surety of
26:50
Israel's return. The Lord reminds Jeremiah that
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nothing, no army, no political situation is too hard for him.
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And finally, God will secure their obedience, not through
27:00
force, but by putting the fear of me in their hearts that they
27:04
may not turn from me. This fear is a gift of the
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Spirit that guarantees their faithfulness, making the
27:10
covenant truly everlasting. And this brings us to the final
27:14
piece of the restoration puzzle, the introduction of the One who
27:17
will bring in and guarantee this new covenant, the future Davidic
27:20
King, the righteous branch. Hashtag hashtag A The future
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Davidic. Kill.
27:24
Despite the total failure of the current Davidic kings, the book
27:27
promises that a future son of David will indeed sit on the
27:30
throne. The promises made to David are
27:32
irrevocable, just like the covenant that guarantees day and
27:35
night. And this coming ruler is called
27:37
the Righteous Branch, and during his reign perfect justice and
27:40
righteousness will be established everywhere.
27:42
Both Israel and Judah will be saved.
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And his name carries the full theological weight of everything
27:47
we've been talking about. He will be called the Lord is
27:50
our righteousness. Yahweh.
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It's Sid Canoe. Exactly.
27:54
And this is the key insight for us.
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The righteousness that Israel failed to achieve through the
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external law will be provided through this king.
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He is the righteousness of the people.
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His standing is incredibly elevated.
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The people will serve the Lord their God and David their King,
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which suggests a unique high role for this ruler.
28:15
It does, and this branch will fulfill the promise made
28:18
centuries earlier to Abraham. His offspring will be as
28:21
countless as the sand on the seashore.
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So you see all these different covenant streams converging in
28:25
this one Davidic sun. And what about the ritual life?
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The sources note that the Levitical priesthood is also
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said to be irrevocable, that they'll continue to offer
28:33
sacrifices. Hashtag, hashtag.
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Be canonical conclusion and fulfillment.
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When you look at Jeremiah's vision as a whole, it
28:40
anticipates the undoing of Adam's failure and the coming of
28:43
a New Eden. The Old Testament promises that
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Israel will one day see the King in his beauty.
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And the failure of the old system was driven by these
28:51
faulty mediators, the sinful kings and priests we talked
28:54
about. So the New covenant by
28:57
definition requires A mediator who is perfect, one who is
29:01
without sin. And this is where a Reformed
29:03
understanding of Scripture brings it all into focus.
29:05
The New Covenant Jeremiah prophecy is completely fulfilled
29:09
in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
29:11
The law written on the heart. That becomes a reality for
29:14
believers through the indwelling spirit of Christ.
29:17
You see that in Romans and 2nd Corinthians.
29:18
And the promised righteousness of the branch is realized
29:21
through our union with Christ. The righteousness we have isn't
29:25
our own. It's given to us through Him.
29:27
As Second Corinthians 5.21 says, we become the righteousness of
29:31
God in Him. And finally, that promise about
29:34
the irrevocable Levitical priesthood while Jeremiah was
29:37
writing according to the expectations of his time, it's
29:39
fulfilled by the permanent Melchizedekian priesthood of
29:42
Jesus Christ. He is the sinless eternal King
29:45
priest who offers the single comprehensive sacrifice, finally
29:49
enacting the perfect forgiveness that Jeremiah spoke of.
29:51
Hash tag Outro. So we started this deep dive
29:55
with the devastation of plucking up and breaking down, really
29:58
confronting the catastrophic failure of Judah to keep God's
30:01
covenant. But we ended with a certain
30:03
promise of building and planting a future secured by an
30:06
irrevocable, everlasting covenant and a righteous king
30:09
who provides the very thing Israel could not, obedience and
30:13
perfect righteousness. The judgement was necessary
30:15
because God's standard of holiness never changed.
30:18
But His covenant promises were not canceled.
30:20
They were secured and perfected by the promise of the new
30:23
covenant in the coming Davidic king.
30:25
This ensures that sin isn't only judged, but is fully and finally
30:29
forgiven. So as you think about this
30:30
material, consider the incredible burden that was
30:33
placed on the prophet. Jeremiah's life was this unique
30:36
paradox. He simultaneously wept for his
30:40
people in grief and called for their vengeance and righteous
30:42
anger. Think about how the prophet's
30:44
unique personal suffering, reflecting both sorrow and fury,
30:47
helps us understand the perfect, unified response of a sovereign
30:51
God to human sin. That tension between divine
30:54
grief and divine justice is something worth mulling over.