I need to say this to you, too. There is much to tempt the mature as well as the young. The addictions and adulteries that tempt us and trip us can make us believe we have fallen away from God forever. You may consider your sin to have separated you from the potential of God's love. You may consider your difficulty to be the proof of God's punishment. But the message of Jeremiah is that even though deserving and experiencing punishment for the sin that is their own fault, God's people are loved by their God.
How can God act this way? How can He be loving to those whose own actions have made them shameful?
III. God makes the Shameful Shine with Heaven's Glory.
I have friends who recently got a new puppy. They gave it the name Josephine Chateaubolier Sofrer St. Vincent. Must be some dog, right? Its breed is officially listed as Heinz 57 -- it's a mix, a mutt. But they gave it a wonderful name to make it say how special it is to them regardless of what others may think.
Advertisement
Now at times due to your weaknesses, failures or sin you may not feel very significant to God, but I want you to recognize how special you are to Him by the name He gives you. Do you see it here? In
verse 16 Jeremiah says that when the branch comes, the nation represented by Judah and Jerusalem will be saved and "it" will be called "The Lord our Righteousness." To what does "it" refer? Sometimes great Scripture truths like the best Christmas gifts come in the smallest packages. The prophet has made a crucial point with this little pronoun. A few chapters before when these very same words are used, the promised Messiah is called the Lord our Righteousness (
cf. 23:6). But now the despised and sinful nation is called the Lord our Righteousness; to emphasize the point the prophet actually changed that little pronoun "it" to the feminine so that we cannot mistake his point: this despicable nation will be saved and her name will be the Lord our Righteousness. God plans to give His own name to His people. It sounds impossible that these people who are such a mix of sin and failure could be special to God, but to tell them that they are, He gives them a wonderful name.
He gives His people His name. But He gives them even more than that to make them shine with His glory.
He also gives His people His nature. What is that name? The Lord our Righteousness. The branch that is to come, the Messiah, is called the Lord our Righteousness. He will provide the righteousness this sinful people could not provide for themselves. Oh, they could not have known clearly what we now know so well. God would provide the righteousness He required through His own Son. He who knew no sin would become sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God. He would cover us with His body so that we would shine with the righteousness that is His.