Title: New World, November 28
New world
Jeremiah 33:14-18
Yahweh's Promise
The following words were given to Jeremiah, who was in spiritual communication with Yahweh. “The day will come when I will bring the blessing I promised to the people of Israel and Judah” (verse 14). If we approach this way of expression from the level of writing, we would think that God speaks like a human being, but we cannot think that way. It means that Jeremiah, whose heart was filled with the Holy Spirit, had an enlightenment as if Yahweh God was speaking directly. It was “the promise of Yahweh God.” This promise has already been given before. “The day when I raised the orthodox royal descendants of David will come. These are my words, there is nothing wrong with them. As a wise king, he will conduct right government in the world. With him as king, Judah and Israel will live in peace. We will call him by the name of ‘Yahweh, who brings us back to life’” (Jeremiah 23:5,6). Jeremiah, now imprisoned in prison with the fate of a crumbling nation in front of his eyes, is now recalling the promise he had heard from Yahweh. It would be ruined right away, but in the end, I held on to the promise that Yahweh God would open a way for us to live.
correct politics
The promises of Yahweh God given to Jeremiah are as follows. The orthodox royal descendant of David who will come in the future is that “they will conduct right government in the world” (verse 15). Jeremiah once described King Josiah's rule as correct politics. While criticizing his son Jehoiakim's wrong politics, he found the epitome of right politics in Josiah. “Who do you care about? If you use a cypress, does it feel like you are reigning with it? Didn't your father live a good life without regrets eating and drinking while practicing law and justice? Didn't you just live well while upholding the human rights of the poor? that's what it means to know me I say smart. But you are only greedy for money. They open their eyes to shed innocent blood, and only intend to oppress the people and provoke them” (Jeremiah 22:15-17). The right politics mentioned in today's text means building up the human rights of the poor. It would mean that the king's government who believes in Yahweh should focus his best on these things.
The future the Jews hoped for was very political in nature. Jeremiah's prophecy also declares that David's orthodox royal descendant will appear and lead the right government. Compared to us today, the ancient Jews were much more bound to the idea that God's rule was politically operative. So, the prophets constantly shouted to the stubborn kings to conduct politics according to the will of Yahweh, and in the process suffered considerable damage. The fact that the ancient Jews thought the kingdom of God was political means that they valued realistic life that much. Appealing to personal morality is one way to actually help the marginalized and the poor, but a political solution would be the most effective. These things still hold true for us today. If we could change the tax system in terms of social justice, or if we could redirect the money used to buy weapons of war to such welfare and relief, we could solve the problems of the poor much more effectively.
Jeremiah preaches the word of Yahweh, saying, “In Jerusalem, everyone will live in peace” (verse 16) when proper government is implemented. You can fully understand how anxious people who are waiting for the day when they will “live in peace” have usually lived with anxiety. At that time, the reason people were not relieved was not that the empire called Babylon had attacked, but rather that the just politics that protected the human rights of the poor had disappeared. Now they waited for the day when David's orthodox royal descendant would appear and solve this problem completely, and everyone would live in peace. It was given as the promise of Yahweh God through Jeremiah.
Yahweh's promise through Jeremiah included a religious as well as a political element. This is the promise that the throne will be inherited through the descendants of David and that religious ceremonies will continue through the tribe of Levi (verse 18). The Jews had in mind both the political and religious aspects of the nature of the nation in which God's reign would fully come. Considering the fact that the real power of ancient civilization has always been dictated by political and religious leaders, as can be seen from the historical fact that emperors and popes ruled Europe after the persecuted Christianity became the state religion of Rome, the ancient Jews It is natural to expect the restoration of the dynasty and the restoration of the Levi family.
In the end, the new world where Jeremiah awaits the fulfillment of Yahweh's promises can be said to be the time when the legitimacy of politics and religion, which were cut off by Babylon, is restored. It was God's promise to them, who were always restless due to the threat of their survival. It's like we hoped to be liberated and take on the shape of a nation during the Japanese colonial rule. They would have considered the proof that Yahweh God is alive when they can no longer be forced to wander aimlessly and can proudly declare that they have a kingdom. It's a very natural idea from what we've seen.
the reign of jesus christ
Today, we must pay attention to the fact that although the promise of Yahweh God proclaimed through Jeremiah was fulfilled 70 years later, Judea did not enjoy complete peace because of it. The succession of kingship through David's descendants could not continue, and after Jerusalem was again destroyed by Rome in AD 70, sacrificial practices through the Levites ceased. Jeremiah's hopes and hopes may have been fulfilled only after 2,500 years had passed. After World War II, Israel became an independent state, but due to the conflict with Palestine, they still cannot live comfortably on the streets of Jerusalem. If so, the promise of Yahweh God proclaimed by Jeremiah would still be unfulfilled.
Earlier, I said that the Jewish waiting for the Messiah and our Christianity are communicating in some parts, but there is tension in other parts. The Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah because they still see political salvation as the fundamental act of the Messiah. Even when Jesus first appeared in history, many people were disappointed and returned to Jesus because of this political hope for the Messiah, and this phenomenon still exists today.
We can never neglect political events. As we confirmed earlier, correct politics can be considered the most appropriate action in the world in that it protects the human rights of the poor. Nevertheless, we Christians do not believe that our lives are completed through politics. Even in the Nordic countries where democratization and welfare are thought to have been perfected, the meaninglessness and emptiness of life still follow us like fate, and even if we have personally fulfilled numerous desires, we cannot think that our lives are at all complete with them. is. This does not mean, however, that we can indulge in historical nihilism. Unless we are spiritually connected to that ultimate world of life that transcends history, we should take more seriously the fact that all of our actions are instantly marred by their tentativeness and finiteness. Conversely, only those who are aware of such a transcendent power can fight without fear in the face of the absurdity of this history.
While Jesus was already being tried by Pilate, He said that His kingdom was not the country that Pilate, a representative Roman politician, was interested in, but the kingdom of God the Father. Jesus has given us a different dimension of life. Because only God, the Creator of this world, can complete human life, He told us to seek only the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Of course, God's reign can sometimes be manifested in a political way, in the art and literature, or in the natural sciences. But since the reign of God and the reign of the Holy Spirit, who freely act in his own person, are always beyond our intentions and judgments, it is far better for us to leave him to his will than to bring him into our thoughts. If not to the desired degree, but in such a way, we cannot participate in the world of life at all.
In this respect, we Christians live waiting for Jesus to come to this earth. We are not waiting for a politician like David to appear, but we are waiting for the return of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who created the world and who will judge it, to come back to us according to his promise. That world is a whole new world. It is not a slight advancement or improvement in our lives, but the beginning of a whole new life, as happened in the resurrection of Jesus. Live your life to the fullest within the conditions of your life. But all such life attempts must be connected to the Second Coming of Jesus who is coming to you. At that time, just as children who used to play in the neighborhood have to stop playing when they call at home, we need to stop our daily lives and welcome the world of life. As we approach the first Sunday of Advent, I urge you to seriously reflect on the content of this waiting.