Have you ever felt like God left you? Like the promises you thought were yours had been ripped away and there was no way they were ever coming back? If you have been hurt or betrayed by people, if you have watched something you loved fall apart, if you have ever felt desolate and alone, you know that feeling.
Now take that feeling and multiply it many times. That is where the people of Judah find themselves in Jeremiah 33.
They had just been kicked out of the land God gave them and the kingly line of David had been destroyed. Zedekiah, the last king, the last thing he ever saw was his sons killed before his own eyes were put out. The temple had been burned and the priesthood had no place to serve. Everything God had promised them looked like it was gone forever.
Any normal person would think God had walked away.
The Two Promises In Jeremiah 33
In the middle of that broken moment, God spoke through Jeremiah and reminded His people of two promises He had made a long time before. These were two promises He had no intention of breaking!
The First Promise: A King
Jeremiah 33:17 “For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel.”
David will never lack a descendant to sit on his throne.
This was God was promising that a Son of David would reign forever. Forever is a long time!
The people of Judah looked around at a burned city and an empty throne, and God said: The throne is not empty forever. A King is coming from the line of David who will reign and never lose His throne.
That King is Jesus.
Luke 1:32-33 “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
The angel Gabriel said this to Mary about the child she would carry. He was directly connecting Jesus to the promise God made in Jeremiah 33:17. The eternal King had come in the image of man.
The Second Promise: A Priest
Jeremiah 33:18 “Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.”
There will always be a priest offering sacrifices before God.
This one is even bigger than it sounds because the priesthood was tied to the temple, and the temple was gone. How could there always be a priest if the temple itself was destroyed?
The answer is Jesus.
Hebrews 7:24-25 “But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
Jesus is not just King, He is also the eternal Priest. He offered Himself once for all as the perfect sacrifice, and He now sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for every Christian, forever.
The two promises come together in one Person. Jesus is our King and our Priest at the same time.
How Sure Are These Promises?
Now watch what God said next because He knew the people would struggle to believe Him.
Jeremiah 33:20-21 “Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne.”
God tied His promise to David directly to the sun and the moon. He is saying: If you can stop the sun from coming up tomorrow, then maybe you can stop my promise from being fulfilled. If you can make it so night never falls again, then maybe you can break my covenant with David.
But you cannot stop the sun. So the promise cannot be broken.
Every sunrise is a sermon from God. Every sunset is another witness. The sky itself preaches the faithfulness of God every twenty-four hours.
Jesus Came The First Time Exactly As Promised
The first time Jesus came, He came as a humble servant. Not on a throne, an army or in glory. He was born in a stable, laid in a manger, and raised in a carpenter’s home. He came to die for the sins of the world and defeat death through resurrection on the third day.
He did not come to reign the first time. That is not what the first coming was for.
The first coming was as sure as the sun. Every prophecy pointed to it and it happened exactly when and how God said it would.
Jesus Is Coming Back To Reign
But there is a second coming and this time He will not come as a servant. When Jesus returns He will come as the King.
Revelation 19:16 “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Revelation 20:6 “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
Jesus is coming back to sit on the throne of David and reign for a thousand years. That is the fulfillment of Jeremiah 33:17. The King is coming to take His throne.
And how sure is this promise?
As sure as the sun comes up tomorrow!
The Bible calls the return of Christ our “blessed hope.”
Titus 2:13 “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
But biblical hope is not a wish or wishful thinking. It is not “I sure hope this happens.”
Biblical hope is a sure thing that has not happened yet.
We do not know the exact day or hour. Jesus said even He did not know it in His earthly ministry, but only the Father. But we know it is coming and we know it is as certain as tomorrow’s sunrise.
If you feel like God has left you, remember Judah. They sat in the ashes of a destroyed city with a broken kingly line and a scattered priesthood, and God spoke into that darkness with two promises they thought were dead.
Every morning when the sun comes up, let it remind you. God keeps His promises. The One who is coming will come. And He will not tarry.
As sure as the sun comes up tomorrow, Jesus is coming back.
