Jeremiah 33:17 - Meaning and Application

Three of God’s covenants seemed to be broken and lost during the captivity: his covenant of kingship with David and his descendants, his covenant of priesthood with Aaron and his descendants, and his covenant of special choice with Abraham and his descendants. But God promises here that, even though these covenants seemed interrupted for a time, all three will come to full life again. Their true meaning will be richly fulfilled in the blessings of the New Testament, pictured by the favors given to the Jews after they returned from captivity.

The covenant of kingship would be secured, and its promises would reach their full fulfillment in the kingdom of Christ, the Son of David (Jeremiah 33:17). The throne of Israel was overturned in the captivity, the crown fell from their head, and there was no man left to sit on Israel’s throne. Jeconiah was counted as having no child. After the return from exile, David’s family became important again, but this promise is really fulfilled in the Messiah. David would never lack a man to sit on Israel’s throne, because David would always have a son to reign on his throne.

As long as the Lord Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God’s throne, rules the world, and rules it for the good of the church, which he gives life to and heads over all things, David does not lack a successor. The covenant with David is not broken. When the firstborn was brought into the world, it was said of him, “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever” (Luke 1:32-33).

To confirm this, God says that his covenant with David will be as firm as the fixed order of heaven, just as the stability of God’s promise was compared earlier to the order of the heavens (Jeremiah 31:35-36). There is a covenant of nature that keeps the regular course of providence in place, and here it is called the covenant of day and night (Jeremiah 33:20, Jeremiah 33:25). One part of that covenant is that there will be day and night in their proper season, according to the order set at creation, when God divided light from darkness and appointed their regular pattern and rule, so that the sun rules by day and the moon and stars by night (Genesis 1:4-5, Genesis 1:16). That order was renewed after the flood (Genesis 8:22) and has continued ever since (Psalm 19:2).

Morning and evening both have their appointed times (Psalm 65:8). Dawn knows its place and its hour, and the shadows of evening do the same. As long as the world stands, this order will not change, and this covenant will not be broken. The appointed order of heaven and earth, this regular link between heaven and earth, will never fail (Jeremiah 33:25; compare Job 38:33). In the same way, the covenant of redemption will stand firm with the Redeemer, God’s servant, but also David our King (Jeremiah 33:21).

This means that Christ will have a church on earth to the end of the world. He will see a people born to him, and in them he will continue his work until time itself is gone. Christ’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and when the end comes, and not before, he will hand it over to God the Father. It also means that the condition of his kingdom in this world will be mixed, with prosperity and hardship following one another like day and night. But the main point is clear: just as sure as the sun will rise again tomorrow, whether we live to see it or not, so sure it is that, though the Redeemer’s kingdom may be clouded and obscured for a time by corruption and persecution, it will shine again and regain its glory at the time God has appointed.

God also promises that David’s seed will be as many as the host of heaven, meaning the spiritual children of the Messiah, born to him through the power of his gospel and his Spirit working with it. “From the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth” (Psalm 110:3), meaning that Christ will have a willing people gathered to him. Christ’s seed are not, like David’s descendants, his successors, but his subjects. Yet the day is coming when they will also reign with him (Jeremiah 33:22). As the stars of heaven cannot be numbered, so God will multiply the seed of David, and there will be no danger that the kingdom will die out or be cut off for lack of heirs. The children are many, and if children, then heirs.

The covenant of priesthood would also be secured, and its promises would reach their full accomplishment. This too seemed forgotten during the captivity, when there was no altar and no temple service for the priests to carry out. But this also would revive. It did revive at once after the return to Jerusalem, when priests and Levites were ready to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices continually (Ezra 3:2-3), as promised here (Jeremiah 33:18).

Still, that priesthood soon became corrupt, and the covenant with Levi was broken in practice (as seen in Malachi 2:8). Then, in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, it came to an end. So we must look elsewhere for the full meaning of this promise, that the covenant with the Levites, the priests, God’s ministers, will be as firm and lasting as the covenant of day and night. We find it fully carried out, first, in the priesthood of Christ, which takes the place of Aaron’s priesthood and is the reality behind that shadow. While that great high priest who represents us is always appearing before God for us, presenting the value of his blood by which he made atonement, along with the incense of his intercession, it can truly be said that the Levites do not lack a man before God to offer continually (Hebrews 7:3, Hebrews 7:17). He is a priest forever.

The covenant of priesthood is also called a covenant of peace (Numbers 25:12), and a covenant of life and peace (Malachi 2:5). We can be sure that this covenant is not broken, or even weakened, while Jesus Christ himself is our life and our peace. This covenant of priesthood is joined again and again with the covenant of kingship, because Christ is a priest on his throne, like Melchizedek. It is also fulfilled in a settled gospel ministry. While faithful ministers lead in worship and offer the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise, the priests and Levites do not lack successors, and these are ministers who have received a greater ministry. The apostle says that those who preach the gospel take the place of those who served at the altar (1 Corinthians 9:13-14).

It is also fulfilled in all true believers, who are a holy priesthood and a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:5, 1 Peter 2:9), and who are made kings and priests to God (Revelation 1:6). They offer spiritual sacrifices that please God, and they offer themselves first of all as living sacrifices.

These Levites are included in this promise (Jeremiah 33:22). They will be as countless as the sand on the seashore, just as this was promised about Israel in general (Genesis 22:17). For all God’s spiritual Israel are spiritual priests, made a holy people to serve him (Revelation 5:9-10; Revelation 7:9, 15).

The covenant of special favor will also be kept, and its promises will be fully carried out in gospel Israel. Notice first how this covenant seemed broken during the captivity (Jeremiah 33:24). God asks the prophet, “Have you not heard, and do you not see what these people have said?” This may mean the enemies of Israel, who mocked the destruction of a people once so well known, or the unbelieving Israelites themselves, “this people among whom you live.” They had broken covenant with God, and then they blamed him as if he had not been faithful to them.

The two families the Lord chose, Israel and Judah, had been one people when he chose them. Yet they now said he had rejected them completely. “They despise my people” means they treated the honor of being God’s people as if it were worth nothing at all. The nearby nations looked down on them because they were no longer seen as a nation, only the ruins of one, and they thought all their glory had been brought to dust.

But see how firmly the covenant still stands. It is as steady as the order of day and night. God would sooner let day and night stop than cast away the seed of Jacob. This cannot mean the physical descendants of Jacob, because they were cast off for a time. It must refer to the Christian church, where these promises were to be kept, as the apostle explains (Romans 11:1, etc.).

Christ is the promised seed of David, the one who will rule forever over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Just as this people will never be without such a king, so this king will never be without such a people. Christianity will continue under Christ’s rule, and Christians will remain subject to him, until day and night come to an end. As a sign of this, the promise is repeated: “I will restore their fortunes,” and after bringing them back, “I will have mercy on them.”

That this promise points to believers is clear from (Galatians 6:16), where all who walk by the gospel rule are called the Israel of God, and peace and mercy are promised to them.