Jeremiah 23:5-6 – An Undiluted Love
5
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
6
In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called:
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
"The saints," thunders Charles Spurgeon in Morning and Evening, "are God's heritage, and he is in the midst of them and will protect them."
We see this sense of intimate Presence beautifully inserted in His inspired words in Jeremiah 23:5-6. Their very kings, the individuals who should reflect Him most majestically, who should be copying down aspects of His character from Deuteronomy as part of their responsibilities, have failed, and He is telling them so in no uncertain terms.
Yet, in the midst of this eyeball-to-eyeball indictment, there's a gleam in the Divine glare. There's a nod of fondness for one who, like this litany of enthroned rascals, has been a very human king but whose ruling passion was still to chase the glory of God. God remembers David, and He pledges to act as much in a kind of tribute to his best as in spite of his worst.
The revelation of messianic glory, first to come, and walk among men, and die, and be resurrected, and received into Heaven and then to return to rule and reign forever, will be somehow familiar to His people because, God says even in His blistering indictment through Jeremiah, His Son will have a striking likeness to David. He translates the Divine glory which could so easily escape definition and become unapproachable to the point of offputting into an example a particular people will understand.
Again in Jeremiah 23:6,, He emphasizes the relatable, as Spurgeon says His people as His heritage and His particular presence in the midst of them. The vastness of Jeremiah 23:5 that You will execute judgment and righteousness in the earth, the whole planet as His domain, is neatly coupled with its particular implications for one country. The same global, even universal, God will save Judah and keep Israel safe.
His people need His Word to bring His attributes home, lest holiness become an abstraction which is no comfort to us. No sooner do we rescue the Gospel by God's grace from reducing God to the human terms by which we too often measure Him than we make the opposite error of failing to remember gratefully that He does by persistent grace enter into the daily details of our lives.
Henri Nouwen in Life of the Beloved gratefully responds to this duality by realizing its necessity as the heartbeat of a vibrant relationship. "We also need an ongoing blessing that allows us to hear in an ever-new way that we belong to a loving God who will never leave us alone, but will remind us always that we are guided by love on every step of our lives."
Knowing Him, even in persistent correction, as in the midst of us and as vindicated before men by our redeemed example, that we are upheld as His heritage rather than hidden away as the exceptions to what He declares good in Genesis, we can deal differently with the variety of lives in disparate stages before us. Declares Ralph Waldo Emerson as quoted in Lions of the West by Robert Morgan, "There is no history, only biography."
Rather than seeing people as the interpositions we must deal with along with our own flesh between worship sessions and until Jesus comes back, we can recognize and rejoice in even glimpses of His image in them. We can see and savor aspects of David, and even of Christ the Better David, in the people in our sphere. We can rejoice in His active Presence among us as demonstrated in His chosen people.
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
6
In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called:
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
"The saints," thunders Charles Spurgeon in Morning and Evening, "are God's heritage, and he is in the midst of them and will protect them."
We see this sense of intimate Presence beautifully inserted in His inspired words in Jeremiah 23:5-6. Their very kings, the individuals who should reflect Him most majestically, who should be copying down aspects of His character from Deuteronomy as part of their responsibilities, have failed, and He is telling them so in no uncertain terms.
Yet, in the midst of this eyeball-to-eyeball indictment, there's a gleam in the Divine glare. There's a nod of fondness for one who, like this litany of enthroned rascals, has been a very human king but whose ruling passion was still to chase the glory of God. God remembers David, and He pledges to act as much in a kind of tribute to his best as in spite of his worst.
The revelation of messianic glory, first to come, and walk among men, and die, and be resurrected, and received into Heaven and then to return to rule and reign forever, will be somehow familiar to His people because, God says even in His blistering indictment through Jeremiah, His Son will have a striking likeness to David. He translates the Divine glory which could so easily escape definition and become unapproachable to the point of offputting into an example a particular people will understand.
Again in Jeremiah 23:6,, He emphasizes the relatable, as Spurgeon says His people as His heritage and His particular presence in the midst of them. The vastness of Jeremiah 23:5 that You will execute judgment and righteousness in the earth, the whole planet as His domain, is neatly coupled with its particular implications for one country. The same global, even universal, God will save Judah and keep Israel safe.
His people need His Word to bring His attributes home, lest holiness become an abstraction which is no comfort to us. No sooner do we rescue the Gospel by God's grace from reducing God to the human terms by which we too often measure Him than we make the opposite error of failing to remember gratefully that He does by persistent grace enter into the daily details of our lives.
Henri Nouwen in Life of the Beloved gratefully responds to this duality by realizing its necessity as the heartbeat of a vibrant relationship. "We also need an ongoing blessing that allows us to hear in an ever-new way that we belong to a loving God who will never leave us alone, but will remind us always that we are guided by love on every step of our lives."
Knowing Him, even in persistent correction, as in the midst of us and as vindicated before men by our redeemed example, that we are upheld as His heritage rather than hidden away as the exceptions to what He declares good in Genesis, we can deal differently with the variety of lives in disparate stages before us. Declares Ralph Waldo Emerson as quoted in Lions of the West by Robert Morgan, "There is no history, only biography."
Rather than seeing people as the interpositions we must deal with along with our own flesh between worship sessions and until Jesus comes back, we can recognize and rejoice in even glimpses of His image in them. We can see and savor aspects of David, and even of Christ the Better David, in the people in our sphere. We can rejoice in His active Presence among us as demonstrated in His chosen people.
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