By Liaf
Summer’s just started. I, along with many of you, am busy. I have things to do and places to go. I know my contributions to this site will slow down a bit and I will keep the messages short again as with this message (well… fairly short). But I wanted to comment and teach on ‘typical’ Christian messages you may hear in church, see on TV, or read in a magazine. You’ve heard it all before, but now I thought I’d comment on some common themes from our slant. This message is one example and I will probably do more such messages in the future.
Turn to Jeremiah 33:3. You often heard the
verse “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and
shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
“Amen!” shouts a roller in the pew next to you.
“Are you ready to receive a blessing from Gee-yod?”
exclaims the visiting evangelist on fire for the Lord. You know
how it goes. The essence of the message is that whatever
one wants they can call on the Lord and he will “show them
great and mighty things”. After all, who can go wrong if we
get a great and mighty answer from the Lord for whatever ails us?
As usual, I like to put that verse in the context of that
chapter. Now I am not saying you cannot call on the Lord for
whatever reason. No, not at all. But I am interested why
God would put such a promise like that in this chapter unless it
has something directly to do with it. The word
“mighty” literally means “hidden”.
Strong’s concordance has “inaccessible” associated
with this word. In the abstract sense, that would imply esoteric.
The idea that “mighty” is connected to
“hidden” is right here in my KJV Bible I bought
straight from a famous TV evangelist (he was selling Bibles so I
humored him). They are saying that. This is not my own
interpretation. But I agree with them on this interpretation. If
we look at this chapter, it starts out that Jeremiah was in the
court of the prison when the Word of the Lord came to him with
this promise. What did God say after this promise?
“OK, Jeremiah. Believe for a miracle with all your heart and
you will not only go free, but you will have many blessings both
spiritually and materially from the Lord.” Is that what God
said afterward here? The way this verse is taught, oftentimes
that is what people are lead to believe will happen when they
claim this promise. No. God did not say that. Instead he said
(v4-v9), “For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel,
concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of
the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by
the sword; They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is fill
them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in
mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have
hid my face from this city. Behold, I will bring it health and
cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the
abundance of peace and truth. And I will
cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to
return, and will build them, as
at the first. And I will cleanse them from
all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I
will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have
sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. And it
shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all
the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good
that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble
for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure
unto it.”
This sort of makes all our self-centered prosperity theology a little embarrassing, don’t you think? Sure, God will indeed bless us, as he did Jeremiah and promised him safety. However, this promise was not for that per se as many are led to believe. Notice what immediately follows is the promised good that God will do for the city, Israel and Judah after their punishment. Do you want to know something “hidden” (mighty)? “A-a-a-a-a-a-a-men!” OK. Tell ya what. YOU ARE ALREADY HERE. There’s no prosperity theology here. No “say it and claim it” here either. THIS HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE TRUTH ABOUT ISRAEL AND JUDAH. That’s what this whole site is about--- showing you God’s mighty thing! Sadly however, the fact is most people do not see or care about the true significance of this promise. Most theologians see the FALL of Israel and Judah, and they have some vague cognition about their future restoration, but they do not see the hidden things of the Lord. Sure, they see the “great” part--- they fell. They see another “great” thing--- from the feeble people of Judah God saw to their restoration to bring Messiah. But the hidden thing is that work which God does with these people in the meantime (which was critical to bringing the gospel to all the world and to bless the entire Earth).
“Whaaaa. What do you mean, Liaf?”
questions the puzzled ‘amen’ person whose curiosity now
has became engaged. Let’s skip to the end of that chapter.
This is the climax to ALL that is the mighty and hidden thing
from the Lord. This is the essence of what we teach here. With
reassurance to Jerusalem and the royal house, God promised a
future King who will reign while they will be safe once again:
Jeremiah 33:15-16: In those days, and at
that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to
grow up unto David; and he shall execute
judgment and righteousness in the land. [This is
Christ during millennium.] In those days shall Judah be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name
wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.
After that promise, there is a break in the text dealing with the perpetual nature of the Davidic throne in the meantime:
(v17) For thus saith the LORD; David shall
never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house
of Israel.
This promise takes place before the
millennium because it was saying that the rulers from
David’s line would rule over the house of Israel. Up
to the Babylonian captivity, they were reigning over Judah
but the throne at some point had to be perpetuated in some manner
to fulfill God’s promise to David “unto all
generations”--- not just some generations, one generation or
many generations, but ALL generations. This is a hidden thing we
teach here. Most theologians see the throne of David as FALLEN
only to be re-established at Christ’s Second Coming. In a
sense, they are correct when applying that to the throne in
the land of Israel. However, the Pharez “breach”
was prophesied to occur which paved the way for the justification
of the throne continuing elsewhere (thus reconciling the apparent
‘fallen’ throne yet keeping its existence as God
promised). That’s why God says in v20-22:
Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my
covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there
should not be day and night in their season; Then may also my
covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have
a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests,
my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered,
neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed
of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.
This promise is in keeping with Psalm 89
regarding the astronomical bodies of the sun and moon witnessing
to the perpetual nature of the Davidic covenant. And if you
notice here, David will also have numerous physical and spiritual
descendents (spiritual being through Christ) as with the
birthright tribes! Today, many people of European heritage have
lions in their heraldry which may indicate a family tie to the
house of David or kings of Judah in some way. Doing a random
search one day of common names on a genealogy web site, I found
darned near 30% of people’s names with lions in their
heraldry. That’s a sizeable percentage. “But Liaf, I
thought you said the birthright and great population size was
promised to the tribe of Joseph, not Judah.” I did. And
that’s still correct. However, this promise went to the house
of David, a subgroup of Judah (the Jews) just as the tribe of
Joseph is ONE tribe of twelve. This is no contradiction.
What about the Levites? The same applies.
The tribe of Levi was with BOTH Israel and Judah, so those who
went with the house of Israel would enjoy the same increase in
their population. What about the Levite who offers continual
offerings in v18? I’ll hold my tongue on that one. God is
still working with me yet on this “hidden” thing. I
believe this is a literal offering perpetually offered just as
the throne of David is perpetual. Yes, there are literal
sacrifices by a Levite going on continually somewhere according
to this promise. I have my theory as to who this is, but it needs
more research. I’m a man of faith and all I need to know is
that this promise is valid as God said. I once made a comment
that even if we did not know where the throne of David ended up,
a man or woman of faith would still believe it was somewhere
because God said so. So this is the same situation regarding the
Levite. Let me say this much. It only needs ONE Levite to fulfill
this promise. It does not say anything about the house of Zadok
here (and that’s another subject). Something like this may
not appear too openly to the world. However, when we are talking
about a KING, the implication is he is ruling over at least one
nation (even if it’s a small one). When we are talking about
a sizeable population, this implies a visible group of people.
Thus, to trace a nation, many nations, and kings boils down to
which group you want to pick on. But when we are talking about
ONE MAN, he may be far more obscure.
The chapter ends with these verses:
Moreover the word of the LORD came to
Jeremiah, saying, Considerest thou not what this people have
spoken, saying, The two families [Israel and Judah] which
the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they
have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation
before them. Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day
and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven
and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David
my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers
over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause
their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.
Notice here that God has TWO families of nations. And more specifically, he chose the house of David from the tribe of Judah. This in itself shows that God saw his people as TWO, not one. He then reemphasized the perpetual nature of the Davidic rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob so that they rule over at least some portion of God’s chosen people. A side note here. God said he would “cause their captivity to return”. Reading this at face value oftentimes conjures up images of an end-time return. This is true in the ultimate sense, but in its basic form “captivity” often means “prosperity” in the figurative sense which can also have a pre-millennial fulfillment.
To sum up, what does this promise to call
on the Lord mean in this chapter? It means that God will not only
openly show what happened to his people, but to those who call on
him (with a mind to know deeper things goes without saying) he
will show them what really will become of Israel and Judah, and
how the house of David would continue on. This, in turn, set up
the house of Israel in that special appointed “Place”
where they could re-group, gain strength (i.e, their
“captivity to return” because they are in a new
homeland) and ultimately be the purveyors of the gospel truth.
Thus, they would bring both spiritual blessings to the world, and
physical blessings by marvelous workmanship for all to enjoy. That’s
the mighty (hidden) thing that God will show you and is brought
to you via this web site.