The following is my translation of the notes and useful applications of the Old Testament Reading for the First Sunday of Advent (Ad Te Levavi), Jeremiah 23:5–8, as they are found in Das Weimarische Bibelwerk (1877). Square brackets indicate my own notes and additions. For the useful applications, I recommend the reader see this very helpful article by Dr. Benjamin T. G. Mayes.
III. He sets before them in contrast [to this account of punishment (v. 1–4)], the prophecy concerning the true Helper and Savior Jesus Christ. (v. 5–8)
Annotated Text
5. “Behold, * the time (of the New Testament) is coming,” says the Lord, “that I will raise up for David (from his stem and descendants, according to My promise) † a righteous Branch (a Son); and He (namely, the Messiah) shall ** be a (spiritual) King, who will rule well, and establish justice and righteousness on earth (He will acquire perfect righteousness through His obedience and suffering,1 and appropriate it to the members of His kingdom through faith, and protect His Church against enemies).
1 † See Psalm 22:31–32; for He will be a help through an everlasting redemption, v. 6.
6. At that time * shall Judah (the Christian Church) be helped, and shall Israel (who is each true believer in Christ) dwell secure. And this will be His name (the Messiah’s), that one will call Him (in true faith), “The Lord (the true God), who is our righteousness” (who has brought us eternal righteousness, Daniel 9:24; who also has been made righteousness for us from God, 1 Corinthians 1:30; so that we might become in Him the righteousness which avails before God, 2 Corinthians 5:21).
7. Therefore, behold, * the time is coming,” says the Lord, “that one will no longer say, ‘As true as the Lord lives, who has led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt (in a bodily manner),’
* Jeremiah 16:14–15
8. but rather, ‘as true as the Lord lives, who has led forth the seed of the house of Israel (in a spiritual manner according to this type), and has brought them out from the land of the north and from all the lands1 into which I had driven them, so that shall dwell in their own land.’”
1 † This teaches that the talk is of the general assembly of believers in the New Testament, John 10:16; Matthew 8:11; of which those from the north have been a prelude and a sample.
Useful Applications
III. DOCTRINE: That Christ the Son of God who has been sent form the heavenly Father into the world (signified through the true Branch of David), is the King of His believers, by whom they obtain righteousness and eternal salvation. (v. 5–6)
The following is my translation of the notes and useful applications for the Old Testament Reading for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity, Jeremiah 23:16–29, as they are found in Das Weimarische Bibelwerk (1877). Square brackets indicate my own notes and additions. For the useful applications, I recommend the reader see this very helpful article by Dr. Benjamin T. G. Mayes.
IV. A repetition of the rebuking sermon, where Jeremiah recounts at length the sins of the false shepherds and how God will punish them. (v. 9–32)
Annotated Text
16. So says the Lord (the God) of Sabaoth: * “Do not listen to the words of the (hypocritical) prophets, who prophesy to you (only peace and good). They deceive you (with such caressing sermons), for they preach to you a vision of their own heart (what they themselves have thought), and not from the mouth of the Lord.
* Jeremiah 6:14, 14:14, 27:14–15
17. They say to those who blaspheme me * (to all idolatrous and wicked sinners, when they ought to admonish them to repentance): ‘The Lord has said, “It will go well for you.”’ And to all those ** who walk according to the darkness of their heart, they say: ‘No misfortune will come upon you’ (but they lead themselves and the people astray).”
* Hebrew: “despise.” (Even if it did not happen outright, this nevertheless was the fruit of the inappropriate comfort amidst ruling wickedness.)
18. For * who has stood in the council of the Lord, who has seen and heard His Word? (Who has told them what they so audaciously prattle? I know nothing of it.) Who has understood and heard His Word? (They or I? Is it not so that the Lord has not sent them? The result will show it, for…)
* Romans 11:34ff. (Isaiah 40:13ff.)
19. Behold, a * storm (misfortune and punishment) of the Lord shall come with fury (will come with great power upon them), and a terrible tempest will fall upon the head of the godless.
* Jeremiah 30:23; Psalm 11:6
20. And * the Lord’s wrath (kindled over them) will not cease, until He does and carries out what He has in His mind; afterward (when these things come to pass, and still even more perfect at the time of the New Testament), you will learn it. (Who as correctly preached and prophesied? I, who preach God’s wrath and punishment, or they, who only preach peace? For so says the Lord concerning them:)
* Jeremiah 30:24
21. “I * did not send the (imagining) prophets, yet they ran (and they prophesied); I did not speak to them (that it shall go well for the Jews), yet they prophesied (no misfortune would come upon them).
* Jeremiah 14:14ff. (27:15, 29:9)
22. For if they (would have) remained in My council * (revealed by Me for the salvation of men, which is true repentance and faith in the promised Messiah, Acts 20:21, 27), and had preached My ** words to My people, then they*** (my people) would have turned from their wicked nature and from their wicked life. (They would have zealously admonished them to conversion. Luther: “God’s Word converts; every other doctrine misleads, etc.” Do they think then that because I am in heaven that I do not know their deeds on earth?)
* That is, the order of grace, according to which repentance and true faith are included together with all the promises.
** 1 Peter 4:11 (Jeremiah 27:18; Luke 24:47)
*** Hebrew: “then they would have — preached to my people, and they – would have admonished them to repent.” (For to preach repentance, especially when corruption has taken root is the sign of a true prophet.)
23. “Am I not a God who is near (and sees all),” says the Lord, “and not a God who is far? (And who does not know what you teach and do? Luther: “They are so secure and brazen, as if I did not see their false doctrine and wicked life.”)”
(Acts 17:27)
24. “Do you think that someone * can hide himself secretly so that I cannot see Him?” says the Lord; “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” (Not with such an extension, but rather with such omnipresence that not even a little room may be named where I would not be present, yet as an immeasurable spirit, John 4:24) says the Lord.
25. “I hear well that * the (hypocritical) prophets (so dangerously) preach and falsely prophesy (teach) in My name (of which they boast in a seductive manner) and say, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed! (The Lord has revealed it to me in a dream.)
* Hebrew: “which”
26. When will the (false) prophets cease, who falsely prophesy and prophesy the deceit of their heart, *
Hebrew: “How long will it continue (in this way)? Does it then stand with these these prophets (in their hearts and pleasure, Ezekiel 13:2) that they preach lies? Or are they prophets to set forth the deceit of their hearts?”
27. and who want * (gladly that it be brought so far in religion) that my people should forget my name (of the Lord) for their dreams (through their prophecies, which they say, that I have revealed to them in a dream), which one preaches to another, just as (in previous times) their fathers forgot my name for Baal?
(Judges 3:7ff.)
* Hebrew: “who then want”
28. A (false) prophet who has dreams preaches (in spite of everything) dreams (Luther: “Let him leave My name in peace, and not say that it is My Word what he dreams, but rather that it is his own word and have his own name.”); but whoever has My Word (that I have placed in his mouth), let him preach My Word correctly. (And let him see to it well that such not be mixed with false doctrine and human ordinances * , for) How do chaff (false doctrine) and wheat (my Word, the heavenly nourishment for the soul) go together?” says the Lord (“The power of my Word is quite different and higher than what breaks forth in their prophesy”).
(Ezekiel 20:39; 1 Peter 4:11)
* as well as set forth the complete order of salvation (see v. 22).
29. Is * My Word not as a (powerful and piercing) fire (which kindles, purifies, and cleanses the hearts of the godly),” says the Lord, and as a (strong) hammer, whichsmashes (the hard) rocks (that is, the stiff-necked and hardened consciences of the godless)? (In that they are powerfully convicted and overcome by My Word.)
* Hebrews 4:12 (Luke 24:32)
Useful Applications
IV. DOCTRINE: That the hearts of men are struck through the preached word (as the spiritual hammer) and are broken for true repentance (v. 29).
PATTERN OF SOUND WORDS 