“The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, ‘Stand in the gate of the LORD’S house and proclaim there this word and say, “Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the LORD!”‘ … ‘Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,’ declares the LORD… Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched”‘” (Jer 7:1-2, 11, 20).
While reading these verses this morning, I briefly thought I was in one of the Gospels. Yeshua’s message closely echoes Jeremiah’s. Like Jeremiah, Yeshua came to the temple and accused Israel of making it a den of robbers (Matt 21:12-13). Like Jeremiah, he foretold the temple’s destruction (Matt 24:1-2), was mocked (Jer 20:7; Matt 27:39), physically abused (Jer 38:6-13; Matt 27:28-30), and bitterly hated by his own people (Jer 11:19; Matt 26:3-4). Both men also pronounced severe judgment on Israel (Jer 7:39; Matt 21:43).
…when we read Yeshua’s words through these deliberate parallels to Jeremiah, we see them as the words of Israel’s Messiah, grieving for Jerusalem and longing for the day when Israel will embrace the Stone the builders rejected.
Yet, why do some readers of the New Testament mistake Yeshua’s judgment on Israel’s leaders and temple for replacement theology? No one would ever take Jeremiah’s warnings as proof that God had rejected His people forever. Jeremiah delivered his messages with a broken heart, wept over Jerusalem (Jer 14:17), and trusted God’s promise to restore Israel through a new covenant (Jer 31:31-34). In the same way, when we read Yeshua’s words through these deliberate parallels to Jeremiah, we see them as the words of Israel’s Messiah, grieving for Jerusalem (Matt 23:37-38) and longing for the day when Israel will embrace the Stone the builders rejected.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, “BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!”‘” (Matt 23:37-39).
