November 28, 2021 Text: Jeremiah 33:14-16
Dear Friends in Christ,
When do things and/or people become old? Is a car new until 10 years or 100,000 miles? What about your fridge or your dryer? When do your clothes become old? For some it may be after only a few washes. Hang on to your “old” clothes and then they become vintage and popular at re-sale shops.
How about us? When do we go from young to old? Is it all about how we feel? Is it how others view us? I’ve always been considered young. “Your to young to be a Pastor you should be in high school” was something I heard a lot in my early pastorate. Even today when I tell people I have been in this profession for 30 years they have a hard time believing it. But that is usually people older than I am. When I ask the confirmands over the years most lowball my age, but not all of them. By the way, I’ve got your names in my secret book! I feel good, I can still perform in my sporting events, my mind is still in sync and then a family friend who hasn’t seen me in years says, “Boy, you are getting gray.” So which is it – young and new or old and decaying?
Change is happening and the mirror doesn’t lie. When change and decay occur then anxiety and insecurity can swell up from within. Why didn’t I remember that? Why this pain? Stairs can look like a mountain.
Jeremiah knew about change and decay. He knew about anxiety and insecurity. Jeremiah is here to announce God’s deliverance from all of this. It is a message we need to hear because we all need . . .
“SECURITY”
God speaks through Jeremiah: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” (v. 14-15)
“They day that are coming” is a reference to the birth of Christ and he will “execute justice”; namely pay for our sins at Calvary. Righteousness is the obedience God demands of us but we can’t always be righteous. Christ would have to earn our obedience through His obedience. God reckons us righteous through Christ who died and rose again to pay for our disobedience.
Jeremiah had his insecurities. He saw the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonians. Before that he was in prison and had people reject him because of his preaching God’s Word. They didn’t want to hear it. He saw upheavals and uncertainties. Yet God would comfort him with a promise. A coming Branch, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can we acknowledge the world has always had uncertainty? We are fearful because we see these institutions of church and government and healthcare and education in upheaval. We are concerned about the lack of a justice system. Our security is worn down when people want the pandemic to continue so they can wield the power. But guess what word I heard from an apolitical doctor the other day – endemic. We will still have isolated cases but the hysteria will end. History shows this over and over again. God gives us hope. Political bad decisions have consequences that cannot be made sensible by a 30-second talking point.
“In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely.” (16a) Alfred Edersheim, a noted Jewish convert to Christianity gave this fascinating description of the Roman World at the time of Jesus. See if you notice anything.
“The citizens were idle, dissipated, sunken. Their chief thoughts were of the theater and arena. They were mostly supported at the public cost…200,000 were thus maintained by the State. (There was a rapid decay of home life) partly from corruption, but chiefly from the cessation of marriage, and the nameless abominations of what remained of family life…among the populace religion had degenerated into abject superstition.”
That is what Jesus stepped into. He didn’t secure earthly Judah or Jerusalem. Judah and Jerusalem are references to the church – to Jew and Gentile saved by grace through faith in Christ’s saving us through His blood, death, and resurrection. He secured for us a heavenly Jerusalem. It is ours now and forever.
Let God’s Word address your insecurities: “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken…For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” (Heb. 12:28 & 13:14) Hold on to God’s Word when in doubt or when your gut churns with concern. Also from Hebrews, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
Rejoice with Jeremiah. Beyond the disappointment and challenges of this world that come at us from all angles, beyond the anxieties we have security that is secure. We have the security that the Son of God, the seed of David, brings and freely bestows on us. Be at peace inside as you meet the world on the outside, for you have security in Jesus. Amen.