The Righteous Branch
At this point, the Lord was very angry with his people. He said, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture. You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds.”
Then the remnant of His flock would be gathered out of all the countries where they had been driven and would bring them back to their fold where they would be fruitful and multiply.
Shepherds would be set over them who would care for them and they would fear no more, nor be dismayed. Neither would any go missing.
The days were coming when the Lord would raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he would reign as king and deal wisely. He would execute justice and righteousness in the land.
In his days Judah would be saved, and Israel would dwell securely. And he would be called, ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
It was a time when people would no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they would dwell in their own land.
Lying Prophets
Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me;
all my bones shake;
I am like a drunken man,
like a man overcome by wine,
because of the Lord
and because of his holy words.
For the land is full of adulterers;
because of the curse the land mourns,
and the pastures of the wilderness
are dried up.
Their course is evil,
and their might is not right.
“Both prophet and priest are ungodly;
even in my house I have found their evil,”
declares the Lord.
-Jeremiah 23:9-11
Because of their evil deeds, the Lord would make their paths slippery and dark in which they would be driven and fall. They would have disaster brought upon them in the year of their punishment.
The prophets of Samaria prophesied to Baal and led the people of Israel astray. The prophets of Jerusalem committed adultery and walked in lies. They strengthened the hands of evildoers, so that no one would turn from their evil.
The Lord said, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.”
They continued to say to those who despised the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you,’ and to those who continued to follow their own stubborn hearts, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’
For who among them has stood
in the council of the Lord
to see and to hear his word,
or who has paid attention to
his word and listened?
-Jeremiah 23:18
Behold, the storm of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth,
a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished
the intents of his heart.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly.
-Jeremiah 23:19-20
I did not send prophets,
yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.
But if they stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed
my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their deeds.
-Jeremiah 23:21-22
The Lord said, “Am I a God at hand, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth?”
The Lord heard all the prophets who would prophesy in His name saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ But there were lies in the hearts of those prophets and they prophesied lies and deceit of their own hearts, who thought to make people forget the Lord’s name by their dreams that they would tell one another. Even their fathers had forgotten the Lord’s name for Baal.
The Lord was against the prophets who told lying dreams and led His people astray by their lies and recklessness when the Lord had not sent them or charged them to do so. They did not profit the people at all.
When one of the people, a prophet, or a priest asked, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ Jeremiah was to tell them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you off, declares the Lord.’
The Good Figs and the Bad Figs
After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem the king of Judah and the officials, the Lord showed Jeremiah a vision:
There were two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.
The Lord asked Jeremiah what he saw. Jeremiah replied, “Figs, the good figs are very good, and the bad figs are very bad.” Then the word of the Lord went to Jeremiah and said,
“Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.”
“But thus says the Lord: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”
Seventy Years of Captivity
For twenty-three years now the word of the Lord had gone to Jeremiah and he had spoken persistently to the people but they had not listened. They did not listen or incline their ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to all of His servants, the prophets, saying,
“Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land the Lord has given you and your fathers from of old and forever. Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will send you no harm.” Yet, the people had not listened.
Therefore the Lord would send Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon to go against the land and surrounding nations to devote destruction on the people. They would be “banished from the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.”
The whole land would become a ruin and a waste, and the nations would serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then after seventy years, the Lord would punish the king of Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans for their iniquity and make their land and everlasting waste.
The Cup of the Lord’s Wrath
God told Jeremiah, “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.”
So Jeremiah took the cup from the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent him drink from it.
If they refused to accept the cup he was to tell them that they must drink! No one would go unpunished when the Lord began to work disaster on the cities, for the Lord was ‘summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth.’
The Lord will roar from on high,
and from his holy habitation utter his voice;
he will roar mightily against his fold,
and shout, like those who tread grapes,
against all the inhabitants of the earth.
The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth,
for the Lord has an indictment
against the nations;
he is entering into judgment with all flesh,
and the wicked he will put to the sword,
declares the Lord.
-Jeremiah 25:30-31
Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Behold, disaster is going forth
from nation to nation,
and a great tempest is stirring
from the farthest parts of the earth!
-Jeremiah 25:32