Introduction:
Jeremiah was God’s prophet during the reign of the Kings of Judah Josiah and Zedekiah. He prophesied against the sins of Judah declaring the exile to come at the hands of the Babylonians. Judah’s sins included the worship of false gods and idols, particularly Asherah, the goddess associated with fertility and motherhood, and Baal, the god of fertility, weather, and war. The worship of Baal often involved rituals and sacrifices which included the practice of child sacrifice. Judah repeatedly violated their covenant with God with their worship of these ‘gods’ or demons, all leading to a cycle of disobedience and punishment.
There was the exploitation of the poor and vulnerable, neglecting justice and righteousness in society. Many false prophets misled the people, promoting messages contrary to God’s warnings through Jeremiah. These prophets were telling the people that they would not see war, famine, plague and death and that because they had the temple in Jerusalem and their religious system that God would throw back the Babylonians from invading Judah.
The consequences of Judah’s rebellion due to their persistent rebellion and rejection of God’s Word was proclaimed by Jeremiah and he conveyed to the people that their sins were “engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point on the tablet of their hearts and on the horns of their altars,” indicating a deep-seated flint like hardness of heart and a total rejection of God’s Word and His ways (Jeremiah 17:1).
The ultimate consequence of these sins was the sacking of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Temple and the exile to Babylon where Judah would face the repercussions of their wilful violations of God’s Word.
Judah’s sins were not just acts of disobedience but a fundamental turning away from God, an apostasy fuelled by a rejection of His Word as seen in their idolatrous practices, and social injustices, their carnality being attached to this world, and enslaved to the ways and things of this world, given over to luxury, the pleasures of the flesh accompanied by lasciviousness, covetousness and sexual immorality related to their idolatry.
Now God always sends a warning before He sends judgement. Jeremiah’s messages included calls for repentance, emphasizing that if Judah turned back to God, they could avoid disaster. Jeremiah prophesied for approximately 40 years before the fall of Judah, which occurred in 586 BC. His prophetic ministry began around 627 BC during the reign of King Josiah.
The Background
The struggle between Judah and Babylon was long and ultimately disastrous for Judah. During the reign of King Jehoiakim (609—597 BC), “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years” (2 Kings 24:1). The beginning of Jehoiakim’s servitude was 605 BC. Three years later, Judah’s king rebelled against Babylon, refusing to pay the tribute. Nebuchadnezzar quelled the rebellion and took prisoners back to Babylon—Daniel and his three friends among them. After Jehoiakim’s death in 597 BC, his 18-year-old son, Jehoiachin, became king, reigning for three months and doing evil in God’s sight (verses 8–9).
During Jehoiachin’s reign, in 597 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city of Jerusalem. Jehoiachin gave himself up, and we have the following report: “The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign and carried off all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the LORD, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the LORD had foretold.
He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valour, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained, except the poorest people of the land” (2 Kings 24:11–14). This second deportation of Jews to Babylon included the priest Ezekiel, who later wrote the book that bears his name.
The nation of Judah continued to exist under Babylonian rule with King Zedekiah installed in Jerusalem as a puppet king. But Zedekiah, too, rebelled, and “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. And they built siege works all around it. So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah” (2 Kings 25:1–2).
The city fell in 586 BC: “Nebuchadnezzar’s armies burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile. But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and ploughmen” (2 Kings 25:9–12). With these matters in view let’s now consider our text…
Jeremiah 23:1-8 : Exposition
(Vs.1-2)”Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD. “Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend My people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the LORD.”
Here we see the LORD’s scathing judgement being pronounced on the false prophets. These were those who flattered the people with their false and spiritually deceptive prophecies much like we see today within wider Christendom especially over the internet. The prophets in the time of Jeremiah comforted God’s people in their sins and did not address it but avoided it not only deceiving their hearers but also being deceived themselves. So it is with all false prophets today (2 Timothy 3:13). Today, as we see the last apostasy coming into full swing these connivers abound within wider Christendom and even among the Body of Messiah as they abounded in the time of Jeremiah.
Instead of tending to the sheep and feeding them the nutritious spiritual grain of God’s Word, these greedy self-made covetous shepherds were in fact destroying and scattering God’s flock and feeding them to the wolves of Satan’s kingdom and setting them up to be “devoured” as it were by the Babylonians who had been steadily infiltrating and taking possession of Judah during the first two invasions and then in the third invasion sacking Jerusalem and destroying the Temple.
In Jeremiah chapter 23 from verses 9-32 we are told what these false prophets were saying and doing and what they were saying and doing is a distinct and conspicuous mark within wider Christendom with its ecumenical, interfaith alliances and laying aside the Word of God and even seeping into the wider Body of Messiah. Jeremiah was overwhelmed by these false prophets and false priests leading the masses astray and away from God’s Word (Vs.9).
Jeremiah could not join the circle of the merrymakers being the false prophets and teachers in their religious euphoria and heady mesmerising visions, words of prophecy and self-generated dreams of one sort or another. Jeremiah said; “Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts. I never sat with the band of revellers (merrymakers), nor did I celebrate with them. Because Your hand was on me, I sat alone, for You have filled me with indignation” (Jeremiah 15:16-17).
These false prophets were godless, they had caused a spiritual famine in Judah, their path was a slippery one leading down to Hades and taking multitudes with them into that dark and deep pit in Sheol. They were committing adultery, living a lie, strengthening the hand of evildoers and not seeking to turn them away from their wickedness. They were infected with the sins and practices of Sodom and Gomorrah. God would make these false prophets eat “bitter food” and drink “poisoned water” because they had spread ungodliness throughout the land (Vs. 10-15).
They were filling people’s heads with false hopes and speaking visions of their own minds, not from the LORD’s mouth. They told the people that despised the LORD and whose hearts were stubborn that they would have peace implying that no matter what they were doing that He would prosper them in every way. These false prophets and priests of the LORD were also telling His people that no harm would come to them.
However these wicked greedy shepherds had not stood in God’s presence and heard His Word because if they had they would have turned His people away from wickedness. Instead they were so eager to run with their “feel good, emotionally soothing” messages. They may have deceived the people and themselves however they could not deceive the LORD. They were even having dreams, the delusions of their own minds and encouraged one another in what they were perpetrating as God’s Word, which of course it wasn’t and their dreaming and scheming did nothing to stem the tide of idolatry (Vs. 16-27).
God Himself said through His prophet; “Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has My Word speak it faithfully. For what does straw to do with grain?” declares the LORD. Is not My Word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?”
God was against these prophets who were stealing each other’s visions and wagging their tongues, who were prophesying false dreams, leading His people astray with their reckless boasting, those God had not sent or appointed or were of any benefit spiritually to His people (Vs. 28-32). Today western Christendom and even Israel by and large, except for the remnant of God’s people, mirror the last days of the Kingdom of Judah and the Islamic Trojan Horse (the modern ‘Babylonians’) is well entrenched within the western nations, especially those traditionally associated with Biblical Judeo-Christianity.
It also needs to be said that within Israel and within the Muslim nations multitudes are coming to a saving faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus and there are revivals happening in various places, even in the west, however it is a minority compared to those who are turning away from God and pursuing wickedness. In the time of Jeremiah undoubtedly there were supposed spiritual ‘revivals’ of one sort or another with great fervour and emotion and false and mixed worship, however, God’s people were not being prepared for what was coming.
Today in many assemblies, especially those nations that are wealthy and where persecution is not happening, the people of God by and large are being fed a steady diet of “straw” which has no spiritual nourishment. It seems dreams and prophecies are all the rage today. Dreams and visions have their place but they are no substitute for the nutritious spiritual “grain” of God’s Word which under the anointing of the blessed Holy Spirit can fan into flame the desire for the LORD and His Word and ways, and like a hammer that can break the rock hard heart to pieces so that men and women might once again call on the name of the LORD and be saved and revived!
In many assemblies today in evangelical and charismatic circles those in the pulpits no longer preach on repentance, hell, judgement, and the need for righteousness before a Holy Triune God and about God’s end-time prophetic purposes for His people Israel and the Body of Messiah spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel.
When you consider the preaching of the Hebrew prophets, the apostles, the Lord Jesus Himself they all gave men and women the law of God before they gave them the grace of God. Just as Judah was mixing pagan worship with the worship of the LORD so many within wider Christendom are doing the same thing.
As a famous preacher once said; “a ship in the water is alright but water in the shop isn’t!” We are to be in this world but not of this world. When the world seeps into the Body of Messiah the ship will start to flounder and many will sink into the depths on that downward journey to Hades. Our Lord Jesus Himself said; “Then they (false brethren) will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love (agape) will grow cold. But the one who has endured to the end, he will be saved” (Matthew 24:9-13).
Today there is an empire that is rising in the world that is a terrifying and frightening and very powerful with large iron teeth that tares apart its victims and crushes and devours its victims and tramples underfoot whatever is left and it is Islam which is a threat not only to Israel but to the western nations. It is an empire saturated in the character and despotism of the Ancient Empire of Babylon (Daniel 7:7-8; 23-25).
Islam’s ultimate goal is not only to eradicate Israel and Christianity but to have a global caliphate ruled by Sharia Law. It is an empire that only the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus will completely destroy (Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45; 7:26) (Isaiah 34:1-10; 63: 1-6) (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
We are told in God’s Word not to despise prophecies but to test them to see if they line up with Word of God. As it is written; “Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21). As it is also written; “For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to prophets for God is not a God of disorder, but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints” (1 Corinthians 14:31-33). In the time of Jeremiah there was a very small faithful remnant but most of the people were spiritually backslidden and for the most part had apostatized.
Now God always has an end in view of bringing blessing to His people in the end once they have turned back to Him and He always prefers to have mercy before He sends judgement. This is consistent in both Testaments. When you consider Jeremiah prophesying over a 40 year period the LORD was giving His people a considerable amount of time to repent even though “the axe had already been laid to the root.”
It was the same in the time of the Lord Jesus when after He had been crucified, resurrected and had ascended to His father, that God gave Israel another 70 years to repent before the second temple was destroyed by the Romans and Jerusalem sacked and then the surviving Jews went into exile for almost 2,000 years until the nation was reborn in a day in 1948. Now let’s continue…
(Vs.3) “I myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number.”
Even in the last days of the kingdom of Judah all was not lost and it is the same today for the nation of Israel. Today there are still many Jewish exiles that need to come home to Israel and according to the prophets of God they would start to be brought back but in unbelief. The prophet Ezekiel tells us that they would be brought back to Israel in unbelief but encounter the Messiah as their saviour, Lord and Passover Lamb after they were back in the land of Israel. Ezekiel Chapter 37 tells us this clearly. They are restored to the Land (Vs. 1-8). They are spiritually restored in the land (Vs.9-14). They inherit the Messianic Kingdom as one nation under one shepherd no longer divided (Vs. 15- 28). In the Messianic kingdom Israel will have shepherds that God has appointed. And so we read…
(Vs.4) “I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD.”
On the Day of Pentecost the LORD gave His people His shepherds. These were the twelve original apostles and after them others that He ordained to the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-13). True shepherd tend the flock over which the LORD has made them overseers. He says to them “shepherd my people Israel!” In the Millennial Messianic Kingdom on earth in the age to come His people will no longer be afraid or terrified because He will be dwelling among them by His Spirit and through the Messiah their King our Lord Jesus reigning on David’s throne at Jerusalem.
Israel must still pass through the Time of Jacob’s Trouble but will be saved out of it and a faithful remnant chosen by God’s grace will be protected and inherit their place in the Messianic Kingdom of God on earth. He will reign over them in the character of King David (Jeremiah 30:1-10). Now as we continue in our text we see a prophecy related to the first coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus which also telescopes to His Second Coming and the establishment of His Messianic rule on earth in the age to come.
(Vs.5-6) “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. “In His days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which He will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.”
This righteous branch is the Messiah our Lord Jesus who in His first coming was in the character of Joseph the suffering servant. The Messiah our Lord Jesus was the suffering servant, who was and still is the rightful King of Israel and who in His first coming was to be Israel’s saviour and save His people from their sins. Of course His salvation was for all men and women both Jewish and Gentile. However, the days are also coming when He will come back again in the character of King David as the all-conquering KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORD to strike down His enemies and to save His chosen remnant both in Israel and within wider Christendom and to destroy their enemies (Isaiah 34: 1-10) (Isaiah 63: 1-6) (Revelation 19:11-21).
This prophecy also applies to the end of this present age because as yet Judah has not been saved and Israel as a nation is not living in safety. Notice “the righteous branch”, a reference to the Messiah our Lord Jesus’ divinity, is called by name the LORD Our Righteousness.
At present, except for a remnant of New Covenant Messianic believers, Israel as a nation is still aliens and strangers to their own covenants of promise and the Orthodox Jews for the most part are still clinging to their works based righteousness which cannot save them. They need the righteousness of the Messiah, God’s righteous branch, spiritually credited to their account by God who can only bestow His righteousness on them through a saving faith in Him being the Messiah our Lord Jesus (Romans 3:19-31) (Ephesians 2:8-10) (Titus 3:5-7).
When the Time of Jacob’s Trouble comes upon Israel at the end of it the Messiah our Lord Jesus will return and all surviving Jews still alive on earth will encounter Him and be saved (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). The veil over their hearts, and the partial hardening of their hearts will be removed and in that day all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:25-29). And then we read…
(Vs.7-8) “So then, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ “but they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”
We know from the scriptures that another partial exile is coming for the Jewish people when the armies of the nations will once again surround Jerusalem as we have seen in the past. God will have gathered the armies of the nations to come against Israel because as a nation by and large at present they still reject the only one who can save them. The city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city (Zechariah 14: 1-2).
However, this in no way will be the end of the nation of Israel because when the Messiah at His Second Coming stands again on the Mount of Olives with all of His redeemed saints of all the ages accompanying Him, Israel will be saved and delivered, all rebellion against Him destroyed and the Messianic age will commence! (Zechariah 14:3-21).
Epilogue:
In His discourse on the end-times, especially related to Israel, the Messiah our Lord Jesus said that after He had ascended to His Father in heaven that many false prophets and those with a false anointing would come to Israel and infiltrate the Body of Messiah, and some even claiming to be Him, but that these all would be false and deceptive messengers with a false anointing (Matthew 24:4, 11 24-26).
It is interesting to notice that when His disciples asked the Lord Jesus about the signs that would mark the end-times He warned them once about war, famines, and earthquakes in various places, pestilence and persecution; however He warned them three times about spiritual deception that would be prevalent in the last of the last days in which we are now living.
While spiritual deception and even false Messiah’s have always been around since the time of the apostles who warned about them, they also wrote that in the end-times just preceding the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus that there would be an infestation of them infiltrating the Body of Messiah, something that is a conspicuous mark within the Body of Messiah today, some even claiming to be equal in authority with the original twelve apostles (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). The apostles warned about false prophets and teachers secretly introducing destructive heresies by laying truth and error side by side (2 Peter Chapter 2) (Jude 1:4-16).
The Lord Jesus also warned us about those manifesting counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders that if possible would be so impressive that even the very elect saints would be in danger of spiritual deception. (Matthew 24:24). Rabbi the apostle Paul tells us the end-time apostasy will pave the way for the coming of the man of sin which will be preceded by all kinds of Satanic miracles, signs and wonders that will deceive many who will be deceived and perish because they refused to love the truth and be saved. God Himself will send them a delusion so that they will believe in the man of sin and so be condemned because they did not believe the truth but have delighted in wickedness (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, 9-11).
This deception will also come to Israel because the man of sin will seat Himself in the Temple and demand to be worshipped and he will have satanic power to persuade and mesmerise the masses with his enchantments. In fact he will be Satan incarnate as a man. Multitudes within Israel and wider Christendom will worship him. He will come at first as an emissary of peace which Israel will receive, yet he will also be accompanied by the armies of the nations. When the man of sin is worshipped in the rebuilt Temple structure at Jerusalem in some way he will be worshipped within apostate Christendom with its denominational and ecumenical structures.
When the armies of the nations under his leadership attack Israel he will sit in the rebuilt temple structure at Jerusalem revealing his true motives, and the Time of Great Tribulation will commence for three and a half years in duration. It will be so bad that for the sake of the survival of the human race and for the elect saints, the faithful remnant, God Himself will cut those days short! (Matthew 24:15-22). At this time there will be so many supernaturally endowed counterfeit prophets with a false anointing destroying many with their reckless lies and deception just like vultures eating up a decaying carcass (Matthew 24:23-28).
After the Messiah our Lord Jesus comes back, having destroyed all opposition wickedness and rebellion, and the surviving remnant of Jews in Jerusalem have been saved, those who are still in exile in the Islamic countries to which they have been exiled will return home to Israel, having seen the Messiah coming back with great power and glory, and believing in Him (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). They will return to live in the land of Israel which will become the chief mountain (kingdom) over all of the surviving mountains (kingdoms) and the Messianic age will commence and Israel will be the capital of the whole world! (Isaiah 2:1-5) (Micah 4:1-8).
Our Triune God says through the prophet Zechariah concerning Israel…
“Though I scatter them among the peoples, yet in distant lands they will remember Me. They and their children will survive, and they will return. I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria (Parts of northern Iraq, south-eastern Turkey, western Iran, and north-eastern Syria). I will bring them to Gilead (located in the north-western part of modern-day Jordan, east of the Jordan River), and Lebanon, and there will not be room enough for them. They will pass through the sea of trouble (The Time of Jacob’s Trouble); the surging sea (the Gentile nations arrayed against Israel) will be subdued and all the depths of the Nile will dry up. Assyria’s pride will be brought down and Egypt’s sceptre will pass away. I will strengthen them in the LORD (the Messiah Himself living among them) and in His name they will live securely,’ declares the LORD (Zechariah 10:9-12).
In the Messianic Kingdom of 1,000 years duration the Millennial Temple will be built and memorial sacrifices will be initiated, not to atone for sin because the blood of Messiah has settled that matter forever in the everlasting covenant established by His shed blood, but animal sacrifices will still be offered in the temple remembering what the Messiah did at the cross in the previous age. Why? Because there will be generations born in the Millennium that will need to know what the Messiah did for mankind. In Ezekiel chapters 40-48 we see the construction of the Millennial temple and the glory of God return to it and the Messiah our Lord Jesus living in the Temple receiving worship and the sacrifices, and the resettling of the tribes of Israel in their allotted territories.
In that day concerning Israel the LORD God almighty will proclaim to the Gentile nations of the world who have survived His Second Coming…
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples (Gentiles) will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to entreat the favour of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will also go.” So many peoples and mighty (Gentile) nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favour of the LORD.’ Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the (Gentile) nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you” (Zechariah 8:20-23).
As Isaiah the prophet also proclaims; “In that day the LORD of hosts will become a beautiful crown And a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people” (Isaiah 28:5). After the Messiah our Lord Jesus has returned, united Israel as one nation and established His Millennial Messianic Kingdom; “in His days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.”
