Jeremiah [Part 5] - The Lord Our Righteousness

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom. Today, we're going to share a fascinating text that is very, very interesting, and it's quite unknown by a lot of our brothers and sisters, pastors, leaders, and professors in the West because of the language. So, the Lord will bless our study, and I'm going to take you to chapter 23 of Jeremiah. We're going to mention some things that are apropos very pertinent to Israel today, but not only today, to the leadership of God's people in every context—then in the days of Jeremiah and until this very day now in Israel.

Jeremiah 23, I'm going to read from verse 1:

Now, in verse 5—and that's the verse that I wanted to bring to you and stress:

A very Messianic text. We're going to talk about the Messianic aspect of it, but let me just, for our time’s sake in Israel, discuss the first four verses.

The prophets, in general—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos—all of them criticize the leadership of the people, the shepherds. Jeremiah does the same. The shepherds—who are the shepherds? The prophets, the kings, the spiritual leaders in the temple, the priests—they're the shepherds of the people. Ezekiel is very harsh in chapter 34 of Ezekiel. He's very harsh; he's very strong, much harsher than Jeremiah, about the shepherds, the leadership.

That brings Jeremiah to another level, in which he says the shepherds are not taking care of the flock. They're not taking care of the people. They're not feeding them right. I have scattered my sheep out of the land of Israel to all the countries where I have driven them. But I, God says, will bring them back. I will bring them back to their land, to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase.

And now we're coming into the Messianic text, verse 5 and down. That was the condition of the people. The people will be scattered in the world, and God says, “I will bring them back to their own field, to their own fold, to their own place.” But now He's going to give us the identity of who and how this prophecy will be fulfilled.

'The Lord Our Righteousness', of course, the word “Lord”—I'm looking at the Hebrew text at the same time—when it is in the English translations, it translates the tetragrammaton 'Jehovah', the holy name of God, the four letters. So, the name of this ruler king will be 'Jehovah Our Righteousness', God Himself, in other words. But wait a minute. The previous verse is a problem because this person that will be called Jehovah Our Righteousness—David will be a branch of righteousness. This is the person that will be called, in the next verse, the Lord Our Righteousness.

The word in English is “branch,” the word in Hebrew is “plant,” not just a branch. The whole plant is from David. Now, this is not a new idea. The idea that the Messiah is a plant, a root, a tree is throughout the prophets. In Isaiah chapter 11, if I go to Isaiah chapter 11, then you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Chapter 11 of Isaiah, we'll start with verse 1:

again the word “branch”,

The description goes on in Isaiah chapter 11.

So, you see here again, Isaiah is talking about a Messianic figure. From where is this Messianic figure? He is a branch from the stem of Jesse, the family of King David. Jesse was David's father. And so this character that is from the family of Jesse, from Bethlehem, is full of the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. It's a Messianic figure he's talking about. If we read more of the chapter, we'd see that he's talking about a Messianic figure. Now, so we have Isaiah identifying the Messiah, and the orthodox-Jewish rabbis see these texts as a Messianic text. Isaiah sees it as a shoot, a plant, a root that grows out of Jesse, the family of David—a branch that comes out of the root of the family of David, full of the spirit of God, the spirit of wisdom, all the seven spirits that Isaiah is talking about.

And then Jeremiah, in chapter 23, verse 5, 6, and on:

So, this is clearly a Messianic text. The new thing about this Messianic text is that the name of this king, the name of this ruler that is from the House of David, a branch from the House of David, a branch of David, but his name will be the Lord Our Righteousness. I said already earlier, the Lord is the tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of the Lord that is pronounced by most as Jehovah in the West.

Oh, here is a Messianic text that attributes divinity to this person born from the tribe of Judah, from the House of David, and he is called the branch, a plant. Now what, what is—why is the Messiah called the plant? Because a plant is a living thing; it's a thing that lives and grows and can give fruit. So, in both cases that we saw in Isaiah chapter 11 and now in Jeremiah chapter 23, we see this branch from David, branch of righteousness as a Messianic figure. I'm going to read a little more from chapter 23, verse 7 and 8:

Oh wow! I'll get goosebumps when I read this. This person identified as a branch from the House of David, his name is the Lord Our Righteousness, will, in the future, in the days that are coming, said the Lord, the big event will not be the Exodus from Egypt, happened sometime between the 14th and the 12th century BC in the past. But he's talking about the future. This character, that his name is the Lord Our Righteousness from the family of David—and the prophet swears, “As the Lord lives who brought up the descendants of the House of Israel,” no longer they will say from the land of Egypt, but from the North country and from all the countries where I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land."

So, you've got here three prophetic elements that are very important. The first one is from the House of David, a plant like Isaiah 11, and it's not the only place. Second of all, The Exodus will no longer be the main event of Israel's history. There will be an Exodus, not from Egypt, but from all the countries where God has gathered his children. In Israel right now, we have immigrants from 103 countries. You can walk the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and other cities, and hear Jews speaking many, many languages. Unusual when you travel in most of Europe. As traveling, you see tourists from all over the world. In Italy, you see tourists from all over. London, tourists from all over the world. But it's not talking about tourists. He's talking that God is going to bring his children from all the countries that he's scattered them, and they will dwell in their own land in safety.

So, from all the countries from the world. Now, this is a nice text, an interesting text, a Messianic text, but things get complicated. They get complicated. Why? Because we have a very, very similar text with some of the same elements in another chapter in Jeremiah. This time, it's going to be in chapter 33, not 23, but in chapter 33. So, let's go to chapter 33 of Jeremiah and see the interesting parallel. Chapter 33, verse 16. Very similar text, almost word for word, part of it:

Very interesting parallel text. One is talking about a branch, a plant from the House of David. The other one is talking about Jerusalem, and both of them have the same mission: Judah will be saved in these days, like in Jeremiah chapter 23, verse 5. And the inhabitants will dwell in safety. And the name of Jerusalem will be the same as the name of the branch from the House of David. As a person, that person will be called Jehovah Righteousness, and Jerusalem, and in Jeremiah 33, it will be called by the same name. Jerusalem will be called 'the Lord Our Righteousness'.

Oh, very interesting. Even more interesting, I'm going to read verse 17 and 18 of chapter 33:

So, yeah, look again. This time, Jerusalem is called 'the Lord Our Righteousness', but it's still connected with David. Verse 17: David shall never lack a man to sit on his throne of the House of Israel, and the priests will never lack a man to offer offerings in Jerusalem. Wow! What do we have here in summary? We have a Messianic text that connects the Messiah, the branch from the House of David, which is already identified by Isaiah in chapter 11. It connects it with three things: one is dwelling in safety in the land, which we still don't have; second, returning exiles from all the countries of the world; and third, salvation—the restoration of the land and of the people of Israel, and I believe of the world. One is connected to a person; the other one is connected with the same name to the city of Jerusalem.

So, when you come and visit Jerusalem and you see things that you may not like, that are not exactly the way they should be, remember Jerusalem is the only city in the world that has this promise that it will be called 'the Lord Our Righteousness', and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will dwell in safety. Hallelujah! A very interesting parallel text between chapter 23, verse 5 and 6, and chapter 33 of Jeremiah, chapter 33, verse 16, 17, and 18. So, God bless you all. Keep digging, you'll find divine riches in the word of God.