Advent of Messiah (Jeremiah 33:14-16)

 

Advent of Messiah (Jeremiah 33:14-16)

 

The Prophet Jeremiah preaching to the King of Judah at the King's Gate

I saw a meme of Mary and Joseph with the Baby Jesus lying in the manger. In the background, a cow says to a donkey, “I don’t care who he is, he’s not going to lay on my lunch!”

 

Today begins the season of Advent. Advent derives from the Latin adventus, which means “coming.” Advent proclaims the comings of the Christ—whose birth we prepare to celebrate once again, who comes continually in Word and Spirit, and whose return in final victory we anticipate.

 

Our reading today is from the prophet Jeremiah and his prophecies about the restoration of Israel, after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and exile in Babylon.

 

I decided to read all of Jeremiah to get the full story. Jerusalem was the capital city of Judah. Its leadership led Judah into idolatry and with the worship of false gods came every sort of injustice. Selfishness, greed and lust ruled Judean hearts. God continually warned them through the prophets, but Judah stopped their ears and followed their own hearts.

 

The prophets are filled with confrontation and eventually consolation. They confront Israel’s sin, warn of impending disaster, and then offer consolation for the survivors. Our reading comes from a section scholars call the Book of Comfort (Jer 30-33). This morning, we will wade through a lot of confrontational language before receiving comfort.

 

God said through Jeremiah,

 

But my people have exchanged their Glory (the glory of the one true God) for worthless idols. (Jer 2:11b)

They followed worthless idols
    and became worthless themselves. (Jer 2:5b)

 

Jeremiah confronts their behavior.

 

    their houses are full of treachery;

they have become great and rich;

    they have grown fat and sleek.

They know no limits in deeds of wickedness;

    they do not judge with justice

the cause of the orphan, to make them prosper,

    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

Shall I not punish them for these things?

    says the Lord,

       and shall I not bring retribution

    on a nation such as this? (Jer 5:27-29)

 

The Judean king listens to liars, false prophets who say what he wants to hear. Jeremiah was beaten and imprisoned for speaking against Jerusalem and its unfaithful leadership.

 

God laments:

 

 To whom shall I speak and give warning,

    that they may hear?

See, their ears are closed;

    they cannot listen.

The word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn;

    they take no pleasure in it. (Jer 6:10)

 

The corruption of the priesthood is confronted by Jeremiah.

 

Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are safe!”—only to go on doing all these abominations? 

Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? (Jer 7:8-11)

 

You may remember that when Jesus drove out the moneychangers from Herod’s temple courts, he quoted both Isaiah and Jeremiah when he said,

 

 “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” (Mark 11:17)

 

Worst of all, Judah’s worship of foreign gods included child sacrifice.

 

For the people of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord; they have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name, defiling it. And they go on building the high place of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire—which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. (Jer 7:30-31)

 

Reading the prophets is a bit like panning for gold. You have to work through a lot of muck before a nugget appears. But these confrontational words enlighten us to what God finds important: Faithfulness to His covenant, justice for the poor, true worship in His house.

 

Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom; do not let the mighty boast in their might; do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast, boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight...(Jer 9:23-24)

 

Jeremiah warns of the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple and the decimation of its ruling class. The king and his sons, the priests and the false prophets will all be dragged away into exile or fall by the sword.

 

The Lord spoke directly against King Jehoiachim.

 

Thus says the Lord:
Record this man as childless,
    a man who shall not succeed in his days,
for none of his offspring shall succeed
    in sitting on the throne of David
    and ruling again in Judah.

 

One of the most heart wrenching moments in the fall of Jerusalem is in Ezekiel. God showed Ezekiel the idol worship going on inside the temple.

 

And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing—the utterly detestable things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary? (Ezekiel 8:6)

 

He showed the prophet secret chambers where the elders pray to false gods with imagery of creeping things and unclean animals on the walls. He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? (Ezekiel 8:12)

 

God had promised that His presence would remain in the temple forever.

 

When King Solomon built the temple, God told him,

 

“Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.’

 

 

 

 “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. (2^nd Chronicles 7:15-21a)

 

Judah’s idolatry made the situation unsustainable. Because of the desecration of the temple with pagan worship and idols, God moved out.

 

Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels of fire went with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

 

The glory of the Lord went up from the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia. (Ezekiel 10:18-19; 11:22-24a)

 

God removed his presence from the temple and from the city of Jerusalem. The city was destroyed and the temple torn down. But God did not utterly abandon his people. He went into exile with them.

 

 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians.  My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them.  I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. (Jer 24:5-7)

 

God used the humiliation of Judah to transform the hearts of his wayward nation. God promised to restore them with a righteous branch, a son of David who will lead the nation in the right ways of God.

 

God will change the hearts of his people so that they know Him, and His right ways, in their hearts. The messiah will lead them in faithfulness. He will be called Yahweh Zedek, The Lord our Righteousness.  Under his leadership the city of Jerusalem will live by the Lord’s right ways and will be also called The Lord our Righteousness.

 

By what name shall America be called? In John’s Apocalypse, Rome is called the whore of Babylon. What will our name be?

 

We live in a time that feels like exile, but God always keeps a faithful remnant. Though our neighbors may have no regard for the word of God, you are here, faithfully worshipping in God’s house. You are The Lord’s faithful remnant from which He might renew this nation. Though our churches close by thousands each year, a sprouting branch from the stump will grow.

 

Let us remain ever faithful to the Righteous Branch, Jesus Christ. Let us pray for our nation that we all may come to know the Lord. Light your Christmas candles at home and light a flame for Christ in your hearts. Let us continually pray the words of O Little Town of Bethlehem.

 

O holy Child of Bethlehem,

descend to us, we pray;

cast out our sin and enter in;

be born in us today.