Rescue

Yet there is no record of someone being saved without someone sharing. God is calling them to salvation, and he is calling me to stand between heaven and hell and call them to salvation. So, who in my sphere of influence needs the gospel? That is the meaning in front of the text.

The temptation of course is to sit back and think others will take care of that. You know, the professional Christians (pastors) will take care of this. So, if I harden my heart against those in need, how does God respond to this?

Jeremiah 22:4-10

God’s reaction is pretty simple. He will bring the house to ruin that disobeys this command; on the other hand, those who obey will be blessed (vv. 4-5). The blessing here appeals to the king. The king will be riding through the gates with splendor. One cannot help but think of the parallel passage, Psalm 24:7-10.

Lift up your heads, you gates!

Rise up, ancient doors!

Then the King of glory will come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The Lord, strong and mighty,

the Lord, mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, you gates!

Rise up, ancient doors!

Then the King of glory will come in.

Who is he, this King of glory?

The Lord of Armies,

he is the King of glory. Selah

Jeremiah tells the king of Israel that he could be victorious in battle.

Christ is ultimately victorious. This is why David is a picture of Christ. David was a shepherd who left his home to become a warrior. Jesus is also a Shepherd-Warrior who will fight for his people. The kings that sit on David’s throne are called to imitate his proficiency in battle and his godliness. Both are essential to being a good king. God promises the blessing of military victory to those who show mercy. Could anything be more counterintuitive? What is the relationship between showing mercy and military victory? The relationship is that victory does not come from horses in battle, but victory comes from the Lord. The Lord gives the victory to those who imitate him and follow him. His trajectory is always reaching down in order to reach up. We go down and then we go up. In the same way, the king is to pursue victory by reaching out to those who are the least of these.

This is odd. It’s certainly not taught in any war college or business school. Yet it seems that God brings favor on those who extend mercy. The most obvious New Testament parallel is the explicit promise of Christ that forgiveness will be extended to those who forgive (Matt 6:14; 18:35). God extends mercy to those who extend mercy.

Then in Jeremiah 22:6-7 God makes his reaction specific. The contrast is stark. God considers Judah to be lush like Gilead or Lebanon. These were places that were known for their beauty and their rich resources.^[4] Yet if they continued in this way, their “choicest” cedars would be cut down and burned, and they would become a barren wilderness.

It will be so obvious that other people will take notice (vv. 8-9). Public embarrassment will follow this public sin. The kings are so warned. The rest of the passage is specific warnings to specific kings, the sons of Josiah.

What is going on in the immediate context of Jeremiah 22 is bigger than one action. They are reaching a tipping point. They have been accused of idolatry, and now they are being accused of injustice. Again, a love for the heart of God is missing in both sins. The sins are egregious for the actions themselves but also because of what they say about the heart of Israel. Their heart is turned away from God and therefore turned away from others. It’s clear enough that they are unwilling to take the elevator trip down to examine their hearts, so God warns them to change their behavior. Exaltation or destruction awaits their response.

In the end it’s easy to be dismissive about all of this. The excuses are legion: “God does not care that much about this issue. Think of all the money I give to the church. With that money others can do this. We all have our gifts. I’m good at serving at the church, not so much with people outside the church. I’ll be gracious to people after they get here, but I’m not going to go get them.”

Yet in one story Jesus destroys all of that. In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus says,

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

“‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you?’

“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you didn’t take me in; I was naked and you didn’t clothe me, sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of me.’

“Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help you?’

“Then he will answer them, ‘I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

He compares judgment day to a shepherd who, at the end of the day, will separate his sheep from his goats. The sheep are analogous to God’s sheep. The goats are not God’s sheep. One goes to enteral reward and the other to eternal damnation that, while prepared for the devil and not for them, will be their ultimate home.

The odd thing in this story is that the sheep do not understand what good they did, and the goats do not understand what bad they did. The difference between the two is mercy: one showed mercy and the other did not.

Are we to glean from this that all people who do not show mercy go to hell? No. That would be inconsistent with everything else the Scriptures say about salvation. Jesus is not trying to work out a fully developed doctrine of salvation. What Jesus wants to do with this story is explain what mercy receivers look like. Those who receive mercy, give mercy. This is one of their defining features.

It’s not that mercy gets us into heaven, but mercy demonstrates that we have heaven in our hearts. Mercy does not merit grace; mercy given exposes a heart of grace. The kind of people who have received mercy are the kind of people who show mercy. It’s a hallmark of salvation.

Notice that the criticism God predicts will be leveled against Israel is that they have “abandoned the covenant” (v. 9). The old covenant in its broadest sense covered issues of mercy giving. As the old covenant is enveloped in the new covenant, it’s clear from the words of Christ that the call to give mercy is still there. God has not changed. His heart is still open.