Jeremiah 23:9-14

The Voice

The shepherd-leaders and shepherd-teachers of God’s people have misled them, and the results have been disastrous. Now God intervenes. God Himself, personally, gathers His exiles from wherever He scattered them and places them under the guidance and tutelage of new shepherds, responsible leaders who will bring them home once again safe and secure. As if that is not enough, God will fulfill the covenant He made with King David hundreds of years earlier and establish a righteous branch of David to reign from Jerusalem. This king will be everything the earlier kings of Judah were not: just, fair, and wise. The restoration of God’s exiles and the installation of this new king—God’s anointed—will be so glorious, so momentous that it will change the course of history. It will surpass God’s rescue of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt.

Jeremiah’s prophecy of this coming king inspires many to look and long for God’s Anointed One, His Messiah, from among the sons of David. Indeed, some of the earliest followers of Jesus will find in Him the fulfillment of these hopes, dreams, and aspirations.

⁹As for the false prophets:
    Deep in my chest, my heart is broken.
I am shaken to the core, like a man who is drunk,
    overcome by too much wine
All because of the Eternal,
    all because of His holy words.

¹⁰Eternal One: The land is full of adulterers;
        surely the curse is in effect and the land mourns.
    The pastures in the wilderness are all dried up,
        for they have set an evil course,
        and their might is not right.
¹¹    For even the prophets and priests are ungodly;
        I have witnessed them perform wicked acts in My temple.
¹²    Now this path they are on will become treacherous, and they will slip and slide;
        they will stumble and fall into the darkness, driven into the gloom.
    For in the year of their punishment,
        I will bring them to ruin.

¹³    I saw something repulsive
        among the prophets of Samaria:
    They prophesied in the name of Baal
        and led My people, Israel, away from Me.
¹⁴    I have seen something horrible among the prophets of Jerusalem:
        worship that is adulterous and deceitful.
    They inspire and encourage people to even more evil;
        now no one turns back from his sin.
    The citizens of Jerusalem remind Me of the wicked people
        who once lived in Sodom and Gomorrah.