NOTES for Jer 33:1-26

City houses are being destroyed by those who came to fight the enemies. Is this not an image of how often human efforts lead to results directly opposite to what was intended? Those who would like to protect actually ruin, because they are guided by limited human ideas. But the One who warned the people about the threat of destruction wants to save them from it. Just when the disasters He foretold begin to fall on sinners, He confirms that the hour will come when the good word He spoke about the people will be fulfilled.

Against the background of the promises of the people's future joyful life in unity with the Lord, revealed through prophecy, the promise to raise up a righteous Branch for the house of David stands out. It must have been hard for Jeremiah's contemporaries, and for Jeremiah himself, to imagine that this did not refer to an earthly king. But for a long time now there have been no kings on Israel's throne, nor do Levites offer sacrifices in the Jerusalem Temple; for almost two thousand years even the Temple itself has been gone.

But for those who believe that the word of the Lord is unshakable, historical circumstances do not cancel the deep fulfillment of the prophecy. For the reign of the only King, who made the chief sacrifice in the universe, cannot cease.

The people need a leader, a true one appointed by God. And so, in the days when Jerusalem and the entire Davidic dynasty were perishing, the prophet promises that God will preserve a “Branch,” a descendant of David who will lead the renewed kingdom. Historically, this will not happen: even after the exile, Judea will no longer be an independent kingdom, except for several years under the Maccabean dynasty.

But besides outward, “great” history, there is another history in which faith sees more deeply than ordinary knowledge. This prophecy will not be forgotten: it will become messianic, referring to the coming King, who will not only save Judea and lead it to God, but will become the Light of the world and the Hope of all nations.

More often than other prophets, Jeremiah speaks of something fairly obvious, though not fully understood by his contemporaries: every covenant ever made with God is made for ever. God cancels nothing and renounces nothing. He remains faithful to promises once given and covenants once made. This is understandable: God's plan can be fulfilled only in this way. God cannot make its fulfilment dependent on changeable human nature—and every covenant God has made and every promise he has given is part of his plan.

But it is not only a matter of God's plan as such. Above all, it is a matter of God himself. For all his plans are expressions of his will. His action in the world he created is inseparable from his own existence and from his awareness of his own being. He acts in the world—and indeed creates the world—not because he wanted to play some game on a cosmic scale, but because both the creation of the world and his every action within it are part of, and an expression of, his own life, which can only be what it is.

The world, of course, is neither identical with God nor an outflow from God; yet its very existence has meaning only in the context of God's life. And if this is true of everything from a grain of sand to a human being, it is all the more true of God's people, for whom he has special plans. This means that he will carry out his plan in any event. The only question is who among his people will realise the possibilities they have as members of his people, and how.

Human freedom, after all, has not been abolished. To be God's people is a calling to fulfil the possibility of actively participating in the fulfilment of God's design for the human person and for humanity. It is a possibility that must, however, be realised; it will not unfold of its own accord. Yet, regardless of the attitude of those to whom it is offered, it remains theirs until the end of time. This is why God's covenants and promises are unchanging: they are the very condition that makes this possibility available. But they provide no guarantees. The only guarantee is the ‘yes’ a person says to God in response to his call—a ‘yes’ that will have to be repeated again and again until the end of time.