In Numbers 23:19, we are told this foundational truth: “God is not a man that He should lie.” We should find solace in this promise, this character of God. In our last look at Psalm 110, we found the most quoted Old Testament passage. In it we see Jesus the King, the High Priest, and that He is powerful and strong. Jeremiah is writing to the southern kingdom of Judah; this is about 627 BC. He is warning the people that there is no hope for rescue. Sadly, many false prophets had told the people that God would rescue the people and destroy the power of Babylon, and the people were holding on to this false hope. The people hated Jeremiah; look at Jeremiah 20:1-6, 18:18 – and the people turned to false prophets (Jeremiah 7:5-11).
When Jeremiah tells them God’s judgments, they say they will repent, but they don’t really repent; they are just doing lip service. So, God sends Jeremiah to tell them that there will be judgement; they will not be able to resist the power of Babylon. They will either die or be taken away as captives. In the midst of this judgment, God gives them a bit of hope. There is a need for a bit of hope because the situation is so bad that, back in Jeremiah 15:1-4, God tells us that even if Moses and Samuel were to plead for Israel, He would not relent. Even these two men could not help. The judgment that was coming is secure and sure. Nothing will stop it.
In the midst of this, God offers a two-stage prophecy for hope. Verses 3-4 offer prophecy that will be fulfilled in the short term, 70 years to be exact, and then in 5-8, there is a yet-to-be-fulfilled future prophecy. The people were captured; we have the story of Daniel and his three friends who end up in Babylon with him. These are a part of that group that is taken as captives into Babylon. Others are left to care for the broken land of Judah and the destroyed city of Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands die, and their bodies are left to the birds of the air and beasts of the fields.
But around 538 BC, as is recorded in Daniel 5 and prophesied in Isaiah 44-45, a man named Cyrus the Mede invades Babylon and takes the nation. He soon begins to send the Jews back to their homeland, and the prophecy of Jeremiah 23:3-4 is fulfilled. The scattered people do come back; they once again are a people, and they stay that way until 70 AD, when General Titus of the Roman Empire invades Israel, kills about 1,000,000 Jews, and burns the temple; yes, that same temple that Jesus walked in.
But there is a future promise that is yet to be fulfilled; in this, we see a man called The Branch of Righteousness. Jesus is referred to as the Branch in Jeremiah 33:14-18, Isaiah 11:1-5, Zechariah 3:6-10, and then again in Zechariah 6:12-13. They are told about a temple that this Branch will build, and we see that prophesied and described in Ezekiel 40-46. Here we are promised, just like in Psalm 110, that He will both be King and Priest, an office only for Melchizedek, whom we established in the last post of Jesus.
We are told in Jeremiah 23:6 that in the day of the Branch, Israel will dwell in safety. They do not dwell that way now, so this is a future, yet-to-be-fulfilled promise. But make no mistake, this will happen. God says so!! One day soon, God will deliberately seek out the Jews from the four corners of the earth, bring them back to the Promised Land, and begin a head-to-head battle between those that hate Israel and the Lord Jesus Himself that culminates in Revelation 19.
It is high time to repent. Call on Jesus and fall on His mercy. The next time you see Him, He will come as the Almighty, All-Powerful Living God whose words will kill millions. Now is the day to be saved.
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario