NOTES for Jer 23:5

In the prophetic books the Messiah is often called a "sprout" or a "shoot." Jeremiah calls Him this as well. What does this title mean? At first glance it can seem that this epithet does not fit very well for the righteous king as the pre-exilic prophets saw the Messiah. After all, a sprout is something weak, barely breaking through the earth, something that can easily be damaged, intentionally or by accident. But it is precisely with young shoots that the possibility of renewing and rejuvenating a garden or vineyard is connected. In a vineyard, for example, old branches have to be pruned periodically in order to give young shoots the opportunity to grow.

If this is not done regularly, at some point one can be left without a harvest. It is no wonder that the prophet connects the future of the people precisely with young shoots, and their return from Babylon to the land of their fathers with the Messiah, who will become the embodiment of the people's spiritual renewal (vv. 5-6). Jeremiah understood perfectly what many of his contemporaries refused to understand. At that time, after some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem had already been deported to Babylon, many thought that everything happening was merely a small historical misunderstanding. These people were sure that it would soon end and everything would again be as before.

They did not believe that Jerusalem, the city of a great tradition, the only city on earth where the Temple of the one true God stood, could be destroyed. It seemed to them that God would never allow such a thing. Therefore they were ready even for an anti-Babylonian uprising, in order to bring nearer the day of complete liberation from the power of Babylonia. But these people did not understand the main thing: without spiritual renewal the people have no future.

In place of the former people a new one had to appear, just as young shoots appear on a vine in place of old, cut-off branches. Jeremiah spoke of the spiritual renewal of the people and of movement forward, into the future. The majority of his contemporaries wanted, on the contrary, to return to the past. They dreamed not of spiritual renewal, but of a restoration of the past, which seemed ideal to them. But God decided otherwise.

He had no need for restoration. But the spiritual renewal of His people was absolutely necessary. All later Jewish history confirmed the prophet's rightness. But the matter is not only the spiritual condition of the people. The matter is also that without its spiritual renewal the Messiah would have had no one to come to. The history of the people had to continue for the sake of Christ and His Kingdom. And God continued it, carrying out His plan for the salvation of the world.

The rebukes continue, but once again amid severe warnings we see a ray of hope. The people still have only to go into exile and a new slavery, yet words of prophecy are already sounding about the coming return from captivity - about the fact that the same Lord who once led His people out of Egyptian captivity will free them also from the rule of new conquerors. But more than that, He gives a prophetic promise of the righteous Branch of David. Even if this part of the prophecy was not fully understood by Jeremiah's contemporaries, here the seed of readiness to receive the Savior was planted in their hearts, a seed that would have to sprout over the following centuries.

It must not be accidental that precisely after the prophecy about the One who will become the Good Shepherd, the Lord again returns to denouncing false shepherds and false prophets.

This problem, however, is relevant today as well. And the issue is not only that in every age there have been enough frauds who fooled a trusting public. Perhaps far more dangerous is sincere and selfless self-deception, when a person mistakes his own conclusions, or a projection of the subconscious, the deception of his own heart, for a voice from above. But here prophecy warns of the danger: if former prophets turned away from the Lord, exchanging Him for Baal, then new ones risk exchanging the Lord for their own illusions and dreams.