Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah has been speaking to Zedekiah and bringing to his remembrance his three brothers and nephew, and how they did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and how that God judged them for it, and the judgments that he brought against them.
And now Zedekiah is doing the same thing. But Jeremiah also realizes that there’s not only the problem of the kings of Judah setting a bad example and leading the people astray, the last four kings that will rule in Judah, but the pastors and the prophets have done that which is wicked as well. And they have taken the people and taken their focus off of God, and taken their focus off of justice, truth, and seeking to walk in righteousness, and have justified the wickedness and evil that’s going on, and saying God’s judgment isn’t coming.
Now in chapter 23, Jeremiah deals with this, but he also, in the beginning portion of this, talks to Zedekiah about another king that is going to come. And this king is totally different. I’m going to see who this king is this evening.
He begins chapter 23 by referring, Jeremiah refers to the pastors. That’s the spiritual leaders, those that were to be there to give comfort and direction. Really the pastors were supposed to be the shepherds of the people.
But Jesus talked about those that were not true pastors, and he called them false shepherds, or he called them hirelings. You remember that Jesus gave the example of the hireling, and when the wolves came, the hireling ran away. When difficulties came, he wasn’t there for the people.
He wasn’t there for the sheep. And Jesus said a true shepherd would lay down his life for the sheep, and Jesus was speaking about himself. That he was literally going to lay down his life for us, because of the depth of his love and his concern and care for us, and to protect us from the wickedness and the evil of this world, and to deliver us out of it.
Now Jeremiah is going to talk about that shepherd, but first he’s going to talk about the false shepherds, or the false prophets. And he says, Woe unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastor, saith the Lord. The false pastors, the pastors that are there, they’re not there to help the sheep, but they’re there to scatter them, to destroy the flock, to allow evil to come out upon them.
It’s said that a sheep is about the most defenseless of the farm animals against wolves and other predators. When it’s by itself, it really can’t do much. And one of the things that Satan loves to do is to scatter the sheep, so that they’re not gathering together.
There’s a reason that the Lord said in the book of Hebrews, that you’re not to forsake the assembling together of yourselves, but rather you’re to come together to encourage one another, and to exhort one another unto good deeds, and to seek to follow the Lord. You’re to be focusing as a body of believers, as a flock, on the shepherd, and to keep your eyes on him. The false shepherd wants you to disperse and destroy you, and that’s exactly what the pastors of Judah were doing at this time.
They were causing the people, instead of being drawn closer to God, to be driven far from him, and to embrace false gods and ways of wickedness and evil. Jeremiah goes on, Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people, ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, sayeth the Lord, and I will gather the remnant of my flock.
So we see here that these false shepherds, they drove the sheep far from God, they didn’t want them to focus on the Lord, they didn’t want them to have anything to do with God, set an example that would turn them from the Lord, and God says, but I’m the one that’s ultimately in control. Now, the Lord had told Judah and Israel, unless they would repent, Isaiah was there and spoke first, and then Jeremiah came afterwards, along with Ezekiel, and then others that were there at the same time, Hosea and others, and they spoke of the fact that the people were following false gods and committing spiritual adultery and not looking to the Lord, and God was going to judge them for it, and so they would be scattered, which they were. And he said he was going to allow them to be taken into captivity, and we studied during the time of the kings of Israel how Israel was taken into captivity by the Assyrians, now Judah is ready to be taken into captivity by the Babylonians, and they’re going to be scattered.
And then we see that he’s going to call them back into the land of Judah, but they’re once again going to be scattered during the Roman occupation of Israel, and then they’ll be scattered throughout the whole earth and throughout all the nations. And so the Lord is speaking, and a lot of times prophecies deal with two different layers. The prophet is speaking to the people that are directly in front of him, and he’s also speaking about the future and future events that are going to occur to their descendants and to those that will be living later.
And that’s exactly what Jeremiah is going to be doing here. This is going to be a Messianic prophecy that he’s going to be giving that we’re going to look at now, where he’s going to speak about this pastor who’s coming who’s a good pastor, this king who’s coming who’s a just king, this king who’s coming in righteousness and truth, and he’s going to sit upon the throne of David, and he will be the one that will rule and reign from that throne. And Jeremiah is going to speak of him.
He’s going to speak about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so let’s take a look at that and what Jeremiah says, And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increased. Now, the nation of Israel wasn’t driven into multiple countries during the Assyrian or Babylonian captivities.
It was basically into Assyria and Babylon and some of the nations that were under the control of Assyria and Babylon right around there. But what happened under the Roman rule is they were driven into really scattered throughout the whole world. And one of the things that happened during the Roman Empire, when Rome ruled just about all of the Middle East and much of Europe, most of Europe, and also went into part of Asia and Northern Africa.
When they were ruling all of this, when God scattered the people, the Roman Empire had the means by which they could take those people and they’d be transported or they’d have access to deliver them as slaves or they could escape from the persecution by going on different, because Rome had all these roadways and it was an excellent means of getting around compared to what it had been. What had happened in the first century when not only was the Jewish people scattered amongst the nations, but the gospel was able to go out and make tremendous inroads throughout the then known world because of what Rome had done in building all the infrastructure of the roads and the ability to travel, which they didn’t have prior to that. And so we see that Jeremiah is not only looking at what’s going to happen to Judah, but he’s looking forward to what’s going to happen when all these people are going to be scattered and the Jews will be very few Jews left in Israel because they’ll be scattered amongst all the nations of the world.
And today, even right now, it’s estimated there’s about, I think it’s 7 million Jews in Israel. And in America, there’s about 6 million. And then there is another 2 to 3 million scattered throughout the rest of the world.
And what’s amazing is they’re coming back and they’re going back to Israel. I just read an article that last month, they had, I think it’s in the last month or two months, they had 13,000 people that made Aliyah to Israel, that is returning to Israel. In the middle of the war, they’re returning to Israel.
Why? Because of the persecution and the anti-Semitism that you’re seeing coming up in our country. And God really, the scripture tells us that God is calling them back. He’s calling them back just like Jeremiah is saying right here.
I’m going to call the people that have been scattered and the reason they were scattered because of the false teaching and the false beliefs and the rebellion against God. And so they were scattered, but now I’m going to call them back. I’m going to bring my sheep back and put them in the fold.
And so God is doing that. And he told Jeremiah what was going to happen. In verse 4,
And I will set up shepherds over them, which shall feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.
Now, it’s amazing. He says in the previous verse that when they come back, when they come back into the land, they shall be fruitful and increase. He’s going to set up shepherds that are going to tell them the truth.
And an amazing thing is happening in Israel right now. More people are interested in the Messiah than have ever been interested in the Messiah. More people are reading, getting New Testaments in Hebrew or listening to Christian broadcasts that are in Hebrew in Israel than have ever done it before.
God is fulfilling his words. God is bringing men and teachers into Israel through different ministries like One for Israel, Jews for Jesus, the Friends of Israel, and other ministries that are going in there and teaching the people and teaching them in the Hebrew language and also making available what is referred to as the New Testament that is really the fulfillment of God’s Scripture, making it complete and showing the promises of Jesus. And people are interested in reading them.
And just as it says here, God was going to increase their prosperity, which he did. Israel, it’s amazing. Just to give you a little insight along those lines, what’s happening in Israel right now, their stock market is doing really well and their economy is doing really well in spite of the war.
They are not going backwards, but actually right now they are doing much better than many, many other nations in the world. And God is blessing them in spite of what their enemies are trying to do to them. And God said it would happen.
And they are a blessing to the whole world. They bring crops to Europe, they sell flowers to the Netherlands. It’s amazing what’s happening in Israel and the different technology.
They have more technology going on in Tel Aviv than they do in Silicon Valley. And some of the things that they are developing over there are even further ahead than they are in Silicon Valley. So we see that God said that all this was going to happen.
He’s going to set up these teachers that are going to bring the truth, going to help his flock be gathered together and focus on him.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up unto David a righteous branch. Now what is that? A righteous branch.
Well, a branch, the Lord Jesus is referred to as the branch or he’s coming forth out of David. And he is going to sit upon the throne of David and he’s referred to as the branch. And the Lord is going to raise him up.
It’s speaking of when Jesus returns and that he’s going to return to gather and be the shepherd to his flock and the king to his people. And a king shall reign and prosper and
shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. Now it’s amazing what Jeremiah is saying.
None of these kings that ruled, even David and Solomon, under whom the nation of Israel had the largest kingdom and greatest influence in the world under their reign of any of the other kings that came after them. And these last four kings had no influence at all. They were actually destroyed by the nations around them.
Between Egypt taking away the brother of Zedekiah and his older brother and then Babylon taking away his next brother and then Babylon taking away his nephew and ultimately Babylon taking away his other brother Zedekiah which we’ll see later on. They had no influence over other nations. But Jeremiah is saying there’s coming a king who will rule and he’ll have justice and righteousness and he’ll rule from the throne of David and he’ll have that influence over all the nations of the world.
Who would that be? Jesus. It’s Jesus when he comes and establishes the millennial kingdom. And so Jeremiah is looking forward to the millennial kingdom when Jesus shall come and establish it.
Now you and I will be caught up in the rapture before Jesus returns at the end of the great tribulation to establish this kingdom. But that day is coming and what a day that will be. We just sang about that.
What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. And the thing is he’s going to come and he’s going to reign and prosper and he’ll execute judgment and justice in the earth. Is there judgment and justice? You look around the world today and there is no judgment and justice.
Just what happened out, I don’t know if you remember, I believe it was about a year and a half ago, there were four college students that were murdered in their house that they were living in out in that same Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, somewhere out in that region. And they caught the man relatively quick. They had the death penalty for him.
He was going to receive the death penalty. He was up to receive it. But he made a deal with the government where he said I’ll submit to being put in prison for the rest of my life, but I won’t if you take the death penalty off the table because he knew he was going to be convicted.
And the one father is just livid of one of these kids because this man isn’t receiving the death penalty for what he did. And they said that the dad walked up to the courthouse because they were going to have the first hearing and the judge was going to explain what the agreement had been. And so he took his family up there because they were going in, but he stopped at the steps of the courthouse and turned and walked away in protest over what was happening.
There’s no justice. God said if you shed blood by murder, your blood shall be shed. Why? It was to be not only justice, but it was to be that which would see people to see the horror of murder.
And now it’s treated just like it’s not that big a deal. But justice is coming. There’s a day where true justice will be.
And those people that have thought they’ve got away with being able to cut a deal and serve a lighter sentence or serve, like this guy, life in prison so I don’t have to die, when they die, ultimately their judgment is coming and they’ll have to stand before the just king. And when Jesus returns and establishes his kingdom on earth at the end of the thousand year reign, will come the great white throne judgment. And if your name isn’t found in the book of life, that is if you’re not a believer, what’s going to happen is you’re going to have to stand before the Lord and give an account of your life with your actions.
And your sins will speak of the justice that he must impart to you in judging you properly. This is who they’re speaking of. Jesus is going to come and do it.
That’s who Jeremiah is speaking of. In his days Judah shall be saved. Now, was Judah saved at this time? The answer is no, because we saw earlier the people were hiding false gods in their house until the sons and the nephew of Josiah came to power and then they felt comfortable as these men began to worship false gods again to bring their false gods out and to open them openly.
They didn’t have a heart for God. But God’s saying there’s coming a day where that’s all going to change. And in one day the people will be saved.
And the scriptures talk about that in the book of Revelation where it says that at the end of the great tribulation the nations of the earth are going to come against Israel. And people will probably say well why would they come against Israel? Well look at what’s happening today. You’ve got nations of the earth that are turning against Israel.
After October 7th just about everybody in the world is going this is horrible what happened to Israel and justice needs to be carried out. But then how quickly they forgot and today you have nations of the world that are saying Israel is the one that’s the problem. Israel is the one that’s creating the problem over there.
You have people in our own country who claim to be conservatives. Many of them claim to be Christians who are turning against Israel and say those aren’t really the people of God. The church is the people of God.
And the Jews aren’t the ones that God has chosen people. And they’re not to be pandered with but rather they’re to be judged. And you’ve got some very well known conservative podcasters who are saying that that not that long ago after October 7th we’re kind of sounding like we’re on Israel’s side but now they’ve turned 180 degrees going the other direction.
Well the whole world’s going to do that. And the whole world’s going to turn against Israel. Why? Because the whole world is going to turn against God.
There’s going to come a man and many Christians believe that man is alive today that he’ll be the Antichrist. And he’s going to come and he’s going to have all these answers and the world’s going to believe him. And ultimately he’s going to turn against Israel and when he does the whole world will turn with him.
And the Bible tells us that in the last days the whole world is going to gather together their armies and march on Jerusalem, on Israel, and in the Jezreel Valley which is north of Jerusalem they’re going to have the Battle of Armageddon. But the one that’s going to win is going to be the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s going to come and deliver his people when it appears there is no hope.
And they shall be delivered by him and they shall look upon him whom they pierced and they shall be saved in a day. The Jewish people that have not become believers in Jesus in that moment will be believers in Jesus. And just like it says here, they shall be saved.
There’s going to be a change in their hearts and they’re going to love the Lord. It says, in his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. And if you’ve got a King James Bible those are all in capital letters because it’s speaking of the word Lord there in capital letters means Yahweh.
They’re saying Yahweh our righteousness and it’s all in capital letters because he’s God. So God our righteousness, the Lord Jesus whose God is going to come and deliver Israel. They’re going to believe on him when he comes to deliver them.
And it says, therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say the Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. And right now Jewish people look back and they say, well God delivered the people out of Egypt. And we’ll kind of buy that as a historical event.
We’ll celebrate the Passover to remember it. But we’re really not going to believe in God and really follow him and worship him. We’re going to look back and say the Lord delivered us out of Egypt but he’s not here today.
But what is going to happen when all these events occur? It says, but the Lord liveth which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country. Now, out of the north country he’s speaking initially to those in front of him because they’re going to go into the north country which is Babylon. He says the north country and he’s speaking about what’s happening to the generation that’s before him.
That’s Babylon. But also he’s speaking about future events where they’re going to be delivered out of the north country. And it’s interesting that some of the first big Aliyah movements into Israel were from Russia.
And a lot of Russian Jews came to Israel way back when it first became a nation. During the late 40s, 48, 49, 50s a lot of Russian Jews came and then a lot of European Jews came out of the north country. But today they’re coming from all over the world.
So what does he say here? 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 we’re seeing that there are Jews that are coming back from all nations of the world today. And some of them, you would think well, are there Jews in China? Are there Jews in Africa? And the answer is yeah.
And some of them show because they’ve got they celebrate the same things that the Jews do in the Middle East with the Passover and the holidays and their looks may be a little different because they’ve been separated and many of them have intermarried with some of the local people but they’re still Jewish and they’re being called back. And they’re coming from all over. And God is doing exactly what he says.
Now if you look at what’s happening that is happening in our day this tells you how close we are to the last days. And that we need to understand that God’s promise and just as he said as I deliver them out of Egypt and I’ll deliver them from the north country and from all over the world and I’ll call them back to my land whither I have driven them and they shall dwell in their own land. Now prior to 1948 that hadn’t happened since when Jesus was on the earth and then they weren’t even in control of their own land.
Then you still had the Romans controlling it. You had kings that really weren’t Jewish kings the Herods that were really of Edomite descent. You had others that were given to be governors over Israel like Pontius Pilate who was Roman.
And you see that these people Israel really wasn’t a nation like they had been. But today they are. Today they’re their own nation.
Today they have their own leadership. They still don’t have kings because they’re looking for the king of kings to come. This righteous king that shall come and sit upon the throne of David.
But they are a nation and they do have a land. And it’s been brought to forth by many speakers that speak about prophecy how that in the history of the world no nation had been out of their land for 2,000 years and then be able to come back into their land as a recognizable group of people and into a recognizable land and re-inherit the very land that has always been theirs because this was God’s country God’s nation and God’s land. And now just as Jeremiah said he would he’s bringing his sheep back he’s gathering his herd from all the countries of the earth where he drove them where he allowed them to be driven away and he’s bringing them back.
And as he brings them back the great day is coming where he’s going to sit upon the throne of Jerusalem and not only rule Israel but rule the whole world. Let’s just close in prayer. Lord I pray that you just help us to understand this.
Help us to apply these things to our life and help us to be encouraged as we see your word fulfilled before our eyes.
Jeremiah 23:1-9
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord.
2 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord.
3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.
5 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness.
7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
8 But, 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.
9 Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the Lord, and because of the words of his holiness.