Jeremiah 23:5

PROPHECY OF THE RIGHTEOUS BRANCH

"Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king, and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called: Jehovah our Righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that they shall no more say, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries whither I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land."

"A righteous Branch ..." (Jeremiah 23:5). Without any doubt whatever, this is a promise of the Holy Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The near-unanimous opinion of the greatest scholars of a thousand years has held this passage to be a prophecy of Jesus the Christ the Son of God. The words of it cannot possibly refer to any one else. Who else, among all the people ever born, could honestly be called JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS?

We shall cite only a few examples of what well-known writers have said and are still saying about this passage.

The announcement concerns the ideal king Messiah.[7] Messiah is here called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, because he is Jehovah; and he is our righteousness because he justifies us by his merits.[8] As a title, BRANCH traces the human and divine ancestry of Messiah and focuses upon the kingly and priestly natures of the Messianic task.[9] In Jeremiah 23:5-8, we have the promise of Messiah.[10] Under the just scepter of Messiah, all Israel will reach the destiny designed for it by the Lord.[11] We have not many prophecies of Christ in Jeremiah, but here is a very illustrious one. Doubtless the prophet speaks of him and of no other man.[12] Some scholars question this oracle, feeling that messianism was not a significant element in Jeremiah's thought. But how can we know that? when the concept of messianism is found here, in Jeremiah 33:15-16; Jeremiah 3:15-18, and in Jeremiah 31:31-34; and this is surely an instance of a direct reference to the messianic King.[13] The title BRANCH here has much in common semantically with "seed" (Genesis 3:15), the Davidic Son (2 Samuel 7), and with Isaiah's Servant of the Lord ... Here is the highest fulfillment of the Seed of Woman, the Son of David, and the Servant of the Lord.[14] This title, The Plant, is here unmistakably applied to the Messianic King.[15]

There are at least a hundred other references in this writer's library that could be added to these; but these are sufficient for the moment.

We should be aware, however, that Satan is never content to allow any holy prophecy of the Son of God to remain unchallenged in the sacred scriptures; and there constantly surfaces evidence of satanic objections to every prophecy in the Word of God. Note the following paragraph.

"The concept of the coming king is not of major importance in Jeremiah. The Christian is tempted to find a reference to Christ here. Others suggest Zerubbabel (Haggai 2:23)."[16]

It seems strange that such a comment as this should come from a former Bible professor in a Christian university. He strongly implies here that there is no reference to Christ in this passage, an interpretation that must be rejected. And who are those "others" who suggest Zerubbabel? Zerubbabel was no king in any sense of the word. Who are the `others'? They are those who try to edit Christ out of every prophecy in the Bible. (See my dissertation on Zerubbabel in Vol. 3 of my commentaries on the minor prophets, pp. 188f.) Zerubbabel was a deputy of Darius the Great, king of Babylon, and being a favorite of that monarch was permitted to lead a group back to Jerusalem, where he served the king of Babylon as governor of Judah. He was of the seed of David all right, but as a son of Shealtiel, he was the legal heir to the non-existent throne of Israel, but was absolutely unqualified to sit on David's throne because of the prohibition of Jeremiah 22:30.

We wish to note another serious blunder in the above quotation. The reference to Christians being "Tempted to find Christ" in the passage here implies that Christians might not be as reliable as some other people in arriving at a true interpretation of the Word of God. The opposite of this is true. An apostle of Jesus Christ flatly declared that unless one is indeed a believer in Christ Jesus, "Even to this day, in the reading of the Old Covenant, a veil lieth upon their heart" (2 Corinthians 3:15)! No one who is not a Christian can properly read and interpret the Old Testament. That is the very thing that produces so much irresponsible writing on the Old Testament today.

The futility of seeking a fulfillment of that promise of an ideal king at any time between the captivity and the First Advent of Christ is seen in the prophecy of Hosea who declared that Israel would continue "without king, without prince" (Hosea 3:4) etc. The earthly house of David was terminated in the previous chapter. "But even with the temporal kingship abolished, the sure mercies of David were still sure."[17] Those sure mercies, however, would be accomplished not by some racial group nor in some literal city such as Jerusalem, but in the realization of the Messianic Kingdom of Christ.

"And he shall reign as king ..." (Jeremiah 23:5). He shall reign as king, not as a puppet like Zedekiah, and not as a deputy of the king of Babylon like Zerubbabel.

"He shall be called JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ..." (Jeremiah 23:6). Who but Jesus Christ was ever entitled to a name like this? Ten times in the Greek New Testament Jesus is called God. Other than in the instance of a few lunatics has this name ever been applied to any person except our Lord.

We agree with Feinberg that the "forensic righteousness" (imputed righteousness) of the New Testament is not in this passage. Furthermore, we do not believe it is in the New Testament either! The righteousness here is genuine, intrinsic righteousness. How is it, then, called "our righteousness?" This is outlined in seven KJV verses of the N.T.: Romans 3:22,26; Galatians 2:16,20; 3:22; Ephesians 3:12; and Philippians 3:9. In all these verses properly translated, it is affirmed that men are saved by the "faith of Christ'; and it is Christ's righteousness alone that ever saved anyone. How? By God's imputing righteousness to stinking sinners? A thousand times NO! God's way of saving sinners is by transferring the sinners into Christ, after they are willing to renounce themselves or deny themselves and to become identified with Christ, as Christ, and "in Christ" by being baptized into him (Galatians 3:26-27; Romans 6:3-5, and 1 Corinthians 12:13). Thus they partake of a righteousness that is truly genuine in the fullest sense of the word.

"As Jehovah liveth who ... led the seed of the children out of the north country ..." (Jeremiah 23:8). This greater exodus than the coming up out of Egypt was not fulfilled by the handful of returnees from Babylon. In the Exodus from Egypt, the tribe of Judah alone boasted over 600,000; therefore this greater exodus refers to the "innumerable company of the redeemed in Christ" (Revelation 7:9,10).

"And they shall dwell in their own land ..." (Jeremiah 23:8). Again we remember the words of Cheyne already quoted in this chapter, "To be in Christ is to be in the true Canaan." In addition to that, there never was for Israel, either safety or salvation in the old Canaan. Salvation is found nowhere, but nowhere, except in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Before leaving this great prophecy, we should point out that the metaphor also appears in Isaiah 11:1; Zechariah 3:8; 6:11, etc. (See my comments "en loco" which will supplement what is written here.)

CONCERNING THE FALSE PROPHETS

The wisdom of devoting most of the chapter to this subject appears in the fact that every generation has its quota of false prophets, and that such false teachers are the principal reason for the disobedience exhibited continually throughout history by the rebellious race of Adam. Our own generation needs this chapter as desperately as did the generation of Jeremiah. Note also, that despite the fact of the false teachers being the more to blame for the sins of the people, the sinful people also perished nevertheless. As Jesus said, "If the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into the ditch."