Advent 1: The Beginning of Hope

The Beginning of Hope
Jeremiah 33: 14 – 16

I. Introduction.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is the season of the Christian calendar in which we begin to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. It may seem a little early to begin preparing for Christmas. After all, it’s not even December yet! However, starting today, there are only four more Sundays until Christmas.

We are beginning our preparations for Christmas four weeks before Christmas Day. But, we are not the first to begin preparing. Shauna put up our Christmas decorations on Monday of last week. But, Shauna wasn’t the first. Some retail stores and department stores put up their Christmas decoration as soon as Halloween was over. But, these retailers were not the first either.

Perhaps the Prophet Jeremiah was the first to prepare for Christmas when he wrote the words of Scripture we are about to read this morning. These words from Jeremiah were words of hope to a people who were facing one of the most difficult tragedies of their lives. More than likely these words of hope mark the beginning of hope for God’s people. They were probably written (approximately) 587 years before the birth of Jesus.


Read Jeremiah 33: 14 – 16.


If you are like me, then you will agree that there is a big hole in our knowledge of Scripture. We know a lot about the life of Jesus and the birth of the early church. We are comfortable in our knowledge of Creation, the Patriarchs, Moses and the Exodus. We are aware of a period of time when regional Judges ruled over the separate tribes of Israel. We know about the three kings who reigned over the United Kingdom of Israel (Saul, David and Solomon). But, here is when things begin to get very fuzzy. The Kingdom of Israel divided into two Kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Northern Kingdom of Israel was eventually destroyed by the Assyrians. The Southern Kingdom of Judah was taken into captivity in Babylon. After a seventy year Exile, the Judahites returned to their land. But, things were never the same again.

Again, if you are like me, you can confess there is a big hole in our biblical knowledge. For me, the hole begins at the end of Solomon’s reign and ends with the birth of Jesus. That’s a 900 year hole!

The first 300 years of this 900 year hole is the period in which prophets spoke God’s word to God’s people. Jeremiah was one of the last prophets. His ministry was in the Southern Kingdom of Judah during the reigns of the last four kings of Judah.

Jeremiah’s ministry began during the reign of Josiah. Josiah became the King of Judah when he was just eight years old. Josiah is known for the ways he reformed Judaism. He ordered a remodeling project for the Jerusalem Temple. During the remodeling, the workers found a strange book. They read the book to King Josiah, and the King acknowledged that this was an important book. But, nobody knew what it was until they read it to a woman prophet named Huldah.

When Huldah told Josiah this book was the Law God had given to Moses, Josiah led the people in a recommitment to follow God’s Word. Josiah had his workers rebuild the Temple and tear down all the altars to false gods all over Jerusalem and Judah.

As long as Josiah was the king, Judah was faithful to God’s Word. But, Josiah was not king forever. He was killed in battle against Neco, the Pharaoh of Egypt. The Pharaoh chose the next king over Judah and levied high taxes against God’s people.

About this time, Nebuchadnezzar became the King of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah and captured it for himself. He deposed the King of Judah and placed his own vassal to serve over Judah.

In a short time, Nebuchadnezzar’s vassal (Jehoiachin) rebelled against him. The Babylonian army attacked Judah and placed another king over God’s people. The army also looted the Temple and the King’s palace. They took all the gold and silver back to Babylon and placed it in Nebuchadnezzar’s palace.

This king (Zedekiah) also rebelled against Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t going to let this pattern of rebellion continue. So, he laid siege on Jerusalem. The siege lasted for two years. At the end of the siege, the Babylonians utterly destroyed Jerusalem. They tore down the walls around the city; burned the Temple; burned the king’s palace; burned all the houses; and took all the healthy people into captivity.

Jeremiah spoke the Word of God to the people of Judah during these years of political unrest. His message began as a very simple message. He warned that Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed if Judah did not turn back to God. This was not a popular message. Jeremiah was ridiculed and persecuted for speaking God’s Word. At one point, Jeremiah was arrested and brought to court. The religious leaders wanted Jeremiah to receive the death penalty. But, a political leader came to his rescue. He was merely placed in prison.

Jeremiah’s message was not popular. However, there were false prophets who were preaching a very popular message. Jeremiah said that Jerusalem would be destroyed. The false prophets said that God would never allow his people to suffer. They predicted that Nebuchadnezzar would eventually be defeated, and God’s people could return to the “good ole days.”


II. True Hope and False Hope.

This is the difference between hope and false hope. Jeremiah preached hope. The false prophets preached a false hope.

False hope teaches that if you will simply have faith in God, all your problems will go away. God will make you healthy, wealthy and wise. God does not allow his people to suffer. Therefore, any difficulty in life is an indication of a lack of faith.

Have you ever heard that message before? I wish that were true. I wish God would simply rescue all his followers out of this economy. I wish the church didn’t have to deal with financial shortfalls. I wish that I never had to do funerals for Christians who suffer from long-term illnesses. As long as we live in this world, we will face the sufferings and pain of what it means to be human. False hope says we will never suffer. God’s hope says that God is with us when we suffer and will bring us out better on the other side of suffering.

False hope also deifies the past. Don’t get me wrong. The past is very comfortable. We have already lived the past. The past is the only thing we really know. We cannot fully know what is going on in the present. It is impossible to predict the future. The past is all we really know, and that is very comfortable. But, God is not the God of the past alone. He is the God of the past, present and future. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the God who was, who is and who is to come. False hope is when we deify the past and do all we can to return to the past.

Again, don’t get me wrong…I think the 1950’s were a great period in the life of the church. Of course, I wasn’t alive in the 1950’s, but I’ve heard some of you talk about it. Our young men returned home from war. They got married. They had babies. They bought houses. They joined churches. Oh, I wish we could go back to the “good ole days.” There are two things I know about the “good ole days.” First, they probably weren’t. Second, God does not call us to mourn the loss of the “good ole days.” God calls us to yearn for a better future.

This is what it means to have hope. To let go of the past; to live faithfully in the present; and to trust God for a better future.


III. Verse 14… "'The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.

The hope Jeremiah preached about was not a return to the “good ole days.” Jeremiah did not promise that God would deliver his people from suffering. In fact, it was just the opposite. Jeremiah warned the people of Judah that their Temple and city would be destroyed one day. He warned them that they would experience extreme suffering. There would be no food in Jerusalem for two years. The streets would be filled with the bodies of those who had died of starvation. The houses would be torn down to reinforce the walls of the city.

BUT… “Days are coming.” There is hope on the other side of suffering. That is a message we need to hear this morning. God’s future is better than the present. God’s future is even better than the past.

God’s future is based on the promises God made in the past. Since, God is the same yesterday, today and forever, we can trust that his promises never fail. God will keep his word.

Perhaps this is the most important thing about hope. The promise is not as important as the One who made the promise. God said, “The days are coming when I will fulfill the gracious promise…” We don’t place our hope in the promise or the preacher. We put our hope on the One who made the promise, because God is capable of living up to his word.


IV. Verse 15… "'In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land.

This is not the first time Jeremiah had written about this promise. We find these words (almost identically) in Jeremiah 23: 5 – 6. Yet, even that was not the first time God made this promise. This is a repeat of the promise God made to David in 2 Samuel 7.

There are several ways we could interpret Jeremiah’s phrase “Righteous Branch.” A very literal reading would be that God would one day raise up a “legitimate heir” of David to be the King of Judah. In the context, this makes a lot of sense. Zedekiah was the king, but he was a vassal king for Babylon. Zedekiah was not loyal to either Judah or to the God of Judah. He was loyal to Nebuchadnezzar. Therefore, Jeremiah could have been criticizing the king as an “illegitimate king.”

Another literal reading would be that one day God would give Judah a “Righteous King,” a king who followed in the footsteps of David and Josiah. In this case, it could be said that Jeremiah was calling for another religious reform by criticizing the king as “unrighteous.”

A third possibility is that Jeremiah is pointing to the Messiah. There could be only one “legitimate heir” of David. There could be only one “righteous king.” Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to David and the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s hope.


V. Verse 16… In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.'

Jeremiah’s prophecy ends with a very curious phrase, “This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD (is) Our Righteousness.” There is a footnote in the New International Version, which tells us there is more than one way to interpret these words. The pronoun “it” could possibly be interpreted as “he.”

If we choose to interpret this as “it,” then Jeremiah is predicting that the city of Jerusalem will one day be known by the name, “The LORD Is Our Righteousness.” However, if we choose to interpret this as “he,” then Jeremiah is predicting that the Righteous King and Legitimate Heir of David will one day be known by the name: “The LORD Is Our Righteousness.”

God’s promise to Judah and Jerusalem is a promise of safety and salvation. Safety and salvation cannot come from a city. Safety and salvation come only from a Person. That Person is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Legitimate Heir of David, and the Only Righteous King.

Just as safety and salvation can only come through the Person of Jesus, so true righteousness can only come through a Person. Righteousness does not come from the Law or the Temple. It does not come from living in a certain city or under the reign of a human king. The Lord is our righteousness.


VI. Conclusion.

Jeremiah was way ahead of us in preparing for Christmas. He began preparing 587 years before Jesus was born.

The Birth of Jesus is the Beginning of Hope. Hope that is not based on a promise or a preacher. Hope that is based on the God who made the promise and will fulfill his promise to us to bring the only Legitimate Heir, the only Righteous King...Jesus Christ, the Lord Is Our Righteousness.