By James Riley Strange, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of New Testament, Samford University
Our Righteousness
Jeremiah 33:3–8, 14–16
Read chapters 32 through 33 for context. The year is 587 or 586 B.C. The Chaldeans (Babylonians) have destroyed other Judean cities and villages and are now besieging Jerusalem. The end is near. King Zedekiah has locked Jeremiah “in the court of the guard” for prophesying Jerusalem’s downfall. Today’s passage is the second in which Jeremiah prophesies the restoration of Judah after its destruction. The first is a prophetic act in which Jeremiah, despite his imprisonment, buys a plot of land from his cousin, has the deed of sale signed and seals it in a ceramic jar, just as the Dead Sea Scrolls were preserved from Roman destruction. Jeremiah refers both to God’s creation of the world and to God’s redemption from Egypt to show that nothing is too hard for God. Although it seems impossible while the vast Babylonian army has encamped around Jerusalem and is battering the walls, God will restore the people.
God will display His wrath against evil. (3–5)
In these verses, God says He will destroy Jerusalem because of Israel’s “evil.” It is clear from Chapter 32 that God is referring to polytheism, in particular to the practice of infant sacrifice to the Ammonite god Molech. What could lead people to such depravity? The depth of that wickedness seems as impossible as the promise of restoration. However, think of the extermination of the Holocaust and the American institution of slavery, not to mention ongoing slavery through human trafficking. From our own history we know that to reach such evil we only need to take short steps.
God will purify and forgive His children. (6–8)
The transition to words of hope and restoration is immediate, as if God wishes not to dwell on condemnation but to move on to offer hope. God will restore both Judah and Israel, will cleanse them of their guilt and will forgive them.
Jeremiah is speaking of a miracle, for in 586 B.C. as today, no one knew the fate of the “lost” tribes of Israel, whom the Assyrians deported and scattered in 722 B.C. (See Acts 1:6 for another reference to this miracle.) Now Jerusalem is filled with terror but then it “shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations [i.e. Gentiles] of the earth” (Jer. 33:9). As the Jerusalemites are doing now, the Gentiles “shall fear and tremble” and God will bring prosperity.
God will administer His justice and righteousness. (14–16)
Jeremiah uses the image of a “righteous branch” to prophesy that a descendant of David will rule the restored Israel and Judah as their king. Jerusalem, which has lain desolate, occupied by neither human nor beast, will be called “the Lord is our righteousness” (also “the Lord is our justice”) and will again be the capital of the re-established kingdom.
For Christians, of course, this “righteous” or “just branch” is Jesus Christ, and this restoration lies not in Jeremiah’s near future but in our unknown future. In Revelation this new Jerusalem will be built by God Himself, and it will descend to the new earth from the new heaven (Rev. 21:1–14).
One of the things God is saying is that only He can bring about these things. Some may take that to mean that if only God can bring such righteousness or justice, then we should not try to. But both Jeremiah and Jesus are clear. We cannot bring God’s kingdom through our actions, but we begin living now as we will when God’s kingdom is here. That is the Sermon on the Mount. Let us begin doing God’s justice in all our deeds.
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