[1] “Oh No! The shepherds are destroying and scattering the sheep in my pasture!” says Adonai. [2] Therefore this is what Adonai, the God of Isra’el, says against the shepherds who shepherd my people: “You have scattered my flock, driven them away and not taken care of them. So, I will ‘take care of you’ because of your evil deeds,” says Adonai. Jeremiah 23 1-2
Jeremiah 23 is a book that I have read multiple times in many different versions and translations over the past week as there is so much to break down within these verses. The shepherds referenced by Jeremiah are not just the false prophets and priests that were not following Adonai, but also the kings of Judah. The last four kings before the exile are called out and rebuked by Jeremiah as false shepherds. They did not pass the test of righteousness, and we see Adonai promise a day in which He Himself would gather his flock and install righteous rulers in their place.
[3] “I myself will gather what remains of my flock from all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their homes, and they will be fruitful and increase their numbers. [4] I will appoint shepherds over them who will shepherd them; then they will no longer be afraid or disgraced; and none will be missing.” Says Adonai. Jeremiah 23:3-4
What is amazing, is that when we look at these two verses, we know that Adonai did indeed bring the Jewish people back into the land when Persia defeated the Babylonian empire and is covered in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. However, this was fulfilled again in modern times. Israel was brought back from the countries they had been driven to, and to their homeland when the country was re-established in 1948 after WWII. We are also seeing numerous Jewish people around the world accepting Yeshua as Messiah. www.oneforisrael.org has numerous testimonies of Jewish and Israeli people who have come to Messiah, and they are incredible to listen to.
Verses 5 and 6 open up a beautiful messianic prophecy. [5] “The days are coming,” says Adonai when I will raise a righteous Branch for David. He will reign as king and succeed; he will do what is just and right in the land. [6] In his days Y’hudah will be saved, Isra’el will live in safety, and the name given to him will be Adonai Tzidkenu (The Lord our righteousness). The four kings that reigned during Jeremiah’s ministry were descendants of David, yet unlike him they were not men after God’s own heart. They were branches of that family tree that did not bear good fruit. Yeshua would come from the family tree of David not only through His adopted father Joseph as shown in Matthew, but also through His mother Mary as seen in the book of Luke from a different branch, thus making it possible from Him to fulfill this prophecy. We can look even deeper at the word “Branch” and find even more. Branch or tsemach (tseh-makh) in Hebrew means growth (which sprouts), sprouting, growth of the vine, process of grown, of vine, the bed where it grew. When I read this list of definitions, I instantly thought of words Yeshua said in John 15. [5] “I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who stay united with me, and I with them, are the ones who bear much fruit; because apart from me you can’t do a thing. [6] Unless a person remains untied with me, he is thrown away like a branch and dried up. Such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire, where they are burned up. John 15:5-6 This righteous Branch of David, or growth of the vine, became the true vine, the strong vine, and when we are in the family of Messiah, we are grafted into Him and united with Him. Tsemach (צמח), when broken down letter by letter paints the picture of Messiah. Sade means humility or righteousness, Mem means perfection or completion, and Chet is the joining of man to God, grace, or salvation through Yeshua. A righteous Branch indeed.
Let us now focus our attention back to the word shepherd and take a closer look at it. As noted earlier, the term shepherd was used in the ancient Near East as a title for appointed leaders. Psalm 23 lays out Adonai as an example of how His people were to be shepherded and taken care of. In fact, shepherd or ra’ah (raw-aw) in Hebrew is defined as a companion, a friend, one who cares for flocks, to rule with a focus on care and concern or a ruler or teacher of people as a flock. Throughout the Word, sheep are used to describe God’s people, and was used in the teachings of Yeshua with the parable of the sheep (Matthew 18:12-14, Luke 15:3-7), a warning of false prophets wearing sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15), He told His disciples that He was sending them out like sheep among wolves (Matthew 10:16), He rebuked the Pharisees who condemned Him after healing a man with a withered hand saying, “If you have a sheep that falls into a pit on Shabbat, which one of you won’t take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!” (Matthew 12:11-12), before His crucifixion, as He told the twelve what was to happen, He quoted Zechariah 13:7 saying, “I will strike the shepherd dead, and the sheep will be scattered.” (Mark 14:27), in describing a sheep pen, He said that the shepherd knows each sheep by name and the sheep hear and know his voice and that He is the Good Shepherd that would lay down His life for His sheep [thus making Him Shepherd and perfect sacrificial lamb]. (John 10:1-5, 11)
In this message Jeremiah delivered about the false prophets, he described their ways being godless and wicked (Jeremiah 23:11), that they had led Adonai’s people astray, lived in lies and encouraged evildoers so that none would turn from their sin. (23:13-14) He told the people not to listen to the words of these prophets as they were lies and causing the people to act foolishly as the words of these prophets were from their own minds and not from Adonai. (23:16) Shepherd, Ra’ah רעה is spelled with the letters Reysh, Ayin, and Hey, and when we look at the shadow meanings of each letter, we can see how they indeed describe these false shepherds. Reysh in shadow means abusing the power of leadership or prideful man. Ayin in shadow means greed, and Hey in shadow means self-deception.
The final part of this chapter holds a phrase that I spent several days meditating on and studying. [33] “When [someone from] this people, a prophet or a cohen asks you, ‘What is the burden of Adonai?’ you are to answer them, ‘What burden? I am throwing you off,’ says Adonai. [34] As for a prophet, cohen or [someone else] from this people who speaks about ‘the burden of Adonai’, I will punish him and his household.” [35] So, when you speak with your neighbor or brother ask, “What answer has Adonai given?” or “What has Adonai said?” [36] Don’t use the expression, “burden of Adonai” anymore; for every person’s own word will be his burden. Must you twist the words of the living God, of Adonai-Tzva’ot, our God? [37] So, when speaking to a prophet, ask, “what answer has Adonai given you?” or “What did Adonai say?” [38] But if you talk about “the burden of Adonai, then here is what Adonai says: “Because you use this expression, ‘the burden of Adonai,’ after I have already sent you the order not to say, ‘the burden of Adonai’, [39] I will lift you up, burden that you are, and throw you off, away from my presence – you and the city I gave you and your ancestors. [40] Then I will subject you to everlasting disgrace – eternal, unforgettable shame.”
I rolled the phrase “the burden of Adonai” around for a while as I wasn’t in a place where I could really sit and look up what the word burden meant in this context. When I finally did, I found that burden, or massa (mas-saw) in Hebrew not only means a load, tribute, lifting, or that which is carried, in these particular verses, it means prophetic utterance or oracle. Upon finding that out, I let this marinate in my mind and spirit a little longer, asking Adonai what it was that I needed to learn and see about this phrase. When the revelation came to me, my eyes went wide, my mouth fell open and I couldn’t get to my bible fast enough.
The burden of Adonai is a prophetic utterance or a word.
Yeshua is the Word, as we know from John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word.
In John 8:12, Yeshua said, “I am the light of the world”. And in Matthew 11:30 said, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
The burden is a Word of the Lord, the Lord is the Word who is also the light of the world. His burden (Word) is light. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp for my foot and light on my path.” His burden is not just light in weight, it is illuminating and lights up the world. If His burden is light, then what is his yoke? Yoke is defined as what is high or above, height or elevation, a covering or mantel. In Matthew 11:30, it shows that we are to take up His mantel and His Word in which to light up the world around us. It is more than just about the burdens we carry through this life. It is about trading the weight of this world for the covering, the mantle of Messiah and shining in His Word by living it day by day. Yoke ol (ole), has a numeric value of 100 and I discovered something interesting when looking at other words and phrases for this value. The letter Koph when spelled out is spelled with the letters koph and pei. As I was reading through its definitions in the BDB, they included hollow or flat of the hand, palm, fist, hands spread out in prayer, sole of the foot, pan or vessel and huge hand-shaped BRANCHES or fronds of palm-trees. At the beginning of this post, we saw how Adonai was going to raise up a righteous Branch, and it is the yoke of this Branch that we are to cover ourselves with. We have been called out of darkness, out of bondage, out of burdens into His wonderful light, His Word His love and His grace.
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