“On Guard!”
Jeremiah 33:10-16 Luke 21:25-36
After Mary and Joseph…it was the shepherds who heard the word of the arrival of a savior. Jeremiah tells us why this happened. The promise that Jeremiah made…a promise of a coming savior…could not have come at a better time. Things were tough for the people of God. Jeremiah himself was in jail. Jerusalem was under the siege of the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar was leading his armies to destroy the city. All of the judgments that Jeremiah had been predicting were about to befall the people of God. The land would be laid waste. The towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem would be deserted. Jerusalem would become a ghost town and the people would be skeptical about the future of the city of God. The people would say, “What a waste!” But the Lord knew the plans he had for his people…plans to make them prosper. Jeremiah 33 began with God promising to tell Jeremiah great and unthinkable things that Jeremiah did not know. In this section of Jeremiah God promised that the ill fortunes would be reversed. Sorrow would become joy. Whatever had been undone in the name of justice would be redone in Peace and safety would return to the people. The proof would come in three leading indications of peace…weddings…thanksgiving…and farming. First…there would be weddings. The blessing of marriage would return to God’s people. The deserted towns and cities of Israel would have people in them once again. Jeremiah had earlier prophesied the death of marriage. Jeremiah…himself…was forbidden to marry. A wedding is an investment in and expectation of a future. But…the people felt they had no future so how could they marry? Jeremiah had told them that God was about to judge them for their sins. Through Jeremiah God warned of a time when all social occasions would come to an end. Invitations would not be mailed. Vows would not be exchanged. The cake would not be cut. You see…a society at war and in sorrow and mourning has no time for weddings. Marriage only happens when people are at peace. But…peace would return. Grace would triumph over judgment. God would redeem his people from captivity. When that happened marriage would not only be permitted…it would be encouraged. A second indicator is thanksgiving. A society in which people interrupt their regular routine to give thanks to God is a good society. When the Israelites were carried away to Babylon they could no longer give thanks to God in Jerusalem. But…God promised that thanksgiving celebrations would be re-established at his temple. To understand the joy of God’s promise…imagine being taken hostage…or…that our whole congregation was captured…made slaves…and forced to march to a faraway country. Imagine how you would long to go back to your home church to worship God. Then…imagine having your freedom restored…and going back home. Imagine rejoining God’s people to sing “Amazing Grace”. How great would your joy be? That’s what it was like for the people of God in the Old Testament. Jeremiah prophesied that someday they would go back to the temple in Jerusalem and sing praise to God. And…they did. God’s people returned to their home cities to sing the same song to the same God in the same temple. They gathered together again for public thanksgiving. A third indicator of peace is farming. Agriculture only works in a stable society…when a farmer knows that he will be living in the same place when the harvest is ready. Warfare and captivity make farming impossible. When ancient armies invaded a land the first thing they did was destroy the crops and livestock. But…God had good news for the farmers…when he promised to restore them to the land. When sheep can graze safely it is a sure sign of peace. The shepherds turned soldiers would become shepherds again. These are the promises God made…promises delivered to the people by Jeremiah. Peace in Israel was only the beginning. God’s most wonderful promise was that he would send a good King. The King would be from the house and line of David. The King would bring salvation to the people of God. The King would come when peace had been restored to Israel. God promised to send the King when generations had restored peace to allow shepherds to abide in their fields…keeping watch over their flocks by night. This would be the time when the Messiah would come. Luke’s gospel story fulfills these promises. A couple of newlyweds went up from Nazareth to a little town in Judea and gave birth to a son. Luke wrote that “there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.” Announcing the birth of Jesus Christ to the shepherds was just as necessary as his birth in the town of Bethlehem…or his being of the line of David…or his being born to a virgin. The Holy Spirit had promised that the Messiah would come in a day of weddings…thanksgiving and farming. The king would come when shepherds had peace enough to count their sheep in the fields. So…what difference does it make that Jeremiah prophesied the birth would come at a time when there was peace enough for shepherds to be in the fields? It’s one of the many proofs that Jesus is the Messiah. Everything about Jesus…including his birth…was a total fulfillment of the promises in the Old Testament…down to the smallest detail. The proof that Jesus is the promised King is not found in just a couple brief passages. It rests on a large number of prophecies…fulfilled prophecies. Someone who questions the truth of Jesus Christ should check what the Bible says. It holds the wisdom of the oldest peoples of the world. It offers many convincing proofs that Jesus is the Savior. His birth…death…and resurrection occurred as they were predicted many centuries before they occurred. Who…except God himself…could predict something centuries in advance and then make it happen. The shepherd promise in Jeremiah 33 tells us that Jesus is exactly the kind of king God promised to send. If the promise about the shepherds is true…wouldn’t all of the other promises of God through Jeremiah be true? Jeremiah said the coming King would be a rightful king. That came true. Jesus was the rightful heir to David’s throne. Jeremiah said the coming king would be a just king. That was another promise fulfilled. In his commentary…Matthew Henry wrote that Jesus is “righteous in enacting laws, waging wars, and giving judgment, righteous in vindicating those that suffer wrong and punishing those that do wrong.” Jeremiah said the coming king would be victorious. Another promise that came true. Jesus has overcome all of God’s enemies. He reigns supreme…even over death. Finally…Jeremiah said the coming king would be a righteous king. He said his name would be the Lord Our Righteousness…the same name given to the city of Jerusalem. Jesus is the answer to the greatest problem of humanity…sin. Jesus absolves sin through his righteousness. Knowing Christ in a personal way brings his righteousness. His righteousness becomes our righteousness. As Jesus told his disciples to be on guard…let us use this knowledge of the truth of Jesus Christ as the Messiah…to keep us on guard against those who would tell us otherwise…on guard against those who would tempt us…on guard during those times of despair and hurt when we might think God has left us. As we enter the time of year when we give thanks for God’s bountiful blessings… and celebrate the prophesied coming of the Lord of Righteousness…let us also release our sorrow…mourning…hurt…anger…and guilt…knowing the promise of God…spoken through Jeremiah…a promise that sorrow will become joy…a promise of redemption though we might feel lost…the promise of a strong and meaningful future. Many of us have watched an outstanding… hard fought sporting contest. It was made outstanding because no one left anything on the bench…on the sidelines. They were on guard against complacency…on guard against waiting for someone else to do what needed to be done…on guard against the expectation of defeat…on guard against the frustration…anger…hurt and doubt of previous losses. Let us be the same as we have opportunities to share…and to live…the Good News that Jeremiah prophesied. Let us come to the Lord’s Table today… renewed with hope as promised by Jeremiah…and as embodied by the Lord of Righteousness with whom we break bread and sip from the cup this morning.