Justice, or Fire
Introduction: God's Political Audit
We live in an age of timid Christianity. It is a pietism that has conceded the public square to the devil, under the guise of being "spiritual." The modern evangelical impulse is to treat politics as a dirty business, a distraction from the real work of the gospel, which is understood to be a private, internal affair between a man and his Maker. But the God of the Bible is not the private deity of the pietists. He is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, and He has a great deal to say about how this earth is to be governed. He is not running for office. He is the one who installs and deposes kings.
The Scriptures do not give us a political party platform, but they do give us a political theology. They give us the job description for the civil magistrate. And what we find in our text today is nothing less than a divine performance review, a political audit of the ruling house of Judah. God sends his prophet Jeremiah to the very seat of power, the house of the king, and delivers a non-negotiable mandate, followed by a non-negotiable warning. This is not a suggestion. It is not a friendly bit of advice from a faith leader. It is a command from the King of the cosmos, and it comes with teeth.
We must disabuse ourselves of the notion that God is somehow neutral or uninterested in the affairs of state. He is intensely interested. He is interested because He is a God of justice, and the civil magistrate is His appointed minister to execute that justice on earth (Romans 13:4). When the government fails to do its God-given duty, it is not merely a policy failure; it is a theological rebellion. It is a direct affront to the character of God. And as our text makes terrifyingly clear, such rebellion invites a fiery response.
Jeremiah is speaking to the house of David, the line of kings that God Himself had established. If God holds His own covenant line to this standard, how much more does He hold the pagan and post-Christian rulers of our own day to account? The principles laid down here are timeless because justice is timeless. God's demand for a just civil order has not been rescinded. So let us hear the word of the Lord, not just as ancient history for Judah, but as a living and active word for us today.
The Text
Then say to the household of the king of Judah, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, O house of David, thus says Yahweh: "Render justice every morning; And deliver the person who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor, Lest My wrath go forth like fire And burn with none to extinguish it, Because of the evil of their deeds. Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, O rocky plain," declares Yahweh, "You men who say, 'Who will come down against us? Or who will enter into our dwelling places?' But I will punish you according to the results of your deeds," declares Yahweh, "And I will kindle a fire in its forest That it may devour all its surroundings."
(Jeremiah 21:11-14 LSB)
The Magistrate's Job Description (vv. 11-12)
The message begins with a summons to attention and a clear, concise command.
"Hear the word of Yahweh, O house of David, thus says Yahweh: 'Render justice every morning; And deliver the person who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor...'" (Jeremiah 21:11-12a)
The first duty of any ruler, before all else, is to "Hear the word of Yahweh." A ruler who does not see himself as under authority is, by definition, a tyrant. The foundation of all just rule is the recognition that you are not the ultimate authority. God is. The king is not the source of law; he is a servant of the law, God's law. This is the bedrock principle of limited government.
And what is the specific content of this word? It is a two-fold task. First, "Render justice every morning." Justice is not an occasional pursuit or a matter for blue-ribbon commissions. It is a daily grind. The word for justice here, mishpat, refers to judgment according to a standard. It means making right decisions, punishing the wicked, and vindicating the righteous. It must be done "every morning," signifying consistency, diligence, and priority. Justice is the first business of the day for a godly government.
Second, they are to "deliver the person who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor." This is the protective function of government. The magistrate is to be a terror to evildoers. He is to use the power of the sword to defend the innocent from predators. Notice the specificity. This is not a command to eliminate poverty or guarantee equal outcomes. It is a command to stop criminals. It is about protecting property and life from those who would take it by force. This is the core of what the civil government is for: to punish evil and protect the innocent so that the rest of society can go about its business in peace.
When a government fails at this basic task, when it allows criminals to operate with impunity, or worse, when it becomes the oppressor itself through corruption and tyranny, it has abdicated its divine mandate. And that leads directly to the sanction. "Lest My wrath go forth like fire and burn with none to extinguish it, because of the evil of their deeds." Make no mistake, the "evil of their deeds" here is precisely their failure to render justice. For a magistrate, injustice is not just a mistake; it is a high crime against the throne of God. And God's wrath against it is not a gentle simmer; it is an unquenchable, all-consuming fire.
The Fortress of Arrogance (v. 13)
In verse 13, God identifies the root cause of their injustice: a deep-seated, blasphemous arrogance.
"Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, O rocky plain," declares Yahweh, "You men who say, 'Who will come down against us? Or who will enter into our dwelling places?'" (Jeremiah 21:13 LSB)
These are some of the most terrifying words in Scripture: "Behold, I am against you." When God is for you, who can be against you? But when God is against you, who can possibly be for you? He is speaking to Jerusalem, a city set on a hill, a natural fortress, the "rocky plain." They had come to trust in their geography, their military fortifications, and their political alliances. Their security was in their strategic position, not in their covenant God.
Their proud boast was, "Who will come down against us?" This is the language of the deep state. It is the arrogance of the entrenched establishment that believes it is untouchable. They look at their high walls, their intelligence agencies, their economic power, and their control of the institutions, and they sneer at any thought of accountability. They have forgotten that the highest walls are no defense against the judgment of God. Their pride has blinded them. They think their "dwelling places" are secure, but they are living on the slopes of a volcano that is about to erupt with the fiery wrath of God.
This is a perennial temptation for all seats of power. Washington D.C., Brussels, Beijing, they are all "rocky plains" in their own minds. They trust in their military might, their economic leverage, and their surveillance capabilities. They believe they are the masters of their own destiny, accountable to no one. But God says, "I am against you." He takes this kind of arrogance personally. He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Their self-proclaimed security is the very thing that guarantees their destruction.
The Inevitable Harvest (v. 14)
The chapter concludes with the certainty and the nature of the coming judgment.
"But I will punish you according to the results of your deeds," declares Yahweh, "And I will kindle a fire in its forest that it may devour all its surroundings." (Jeremiah 21:14 LSB)
God's judgment is never arbitrary. It is always just. He will punish them "according to the results of your deeds." The Hebrew word is "fruit." They will eat the bitter fruit of the tree they have planted. The fruit of injustice is destruction. The fruit of oppression is ruin. The fruit of arrogance is humiliation. The consequences are baked into the sin itself. God's judgment is simply the bringing of their deeds to their logical and bitter conclusion. He gives them over to the chaos they have cultivated.
And God is the active agent in this. He says, "I will kindle a fire." He does not simply withdraw His blessing and let nature take its course. He is the one who brings the invading armies. He is the one who directs the course of history to accomplish His purposes. The fire will be kindled "in its forest," a likely reference to the palace, which was built with cedar from Lebanon, or to the dense urban sprawl of the city. The point is that the fire starts at the center, in the heart of the corrupt regime, and it will "devour all its surroundings."
When God judges the capital, the whole country gets burned. The corruption of the rulers inevitably spreads to the entire nation, and so the judgment on the rulers inevitably engulfs the entire nation. No one is left untouched. This is a stark warning against the idea that we can be personally pious while our nation's leaders thumb their noses at God's standards of justice. The fire of judgment does not make such fine distinctions.
The Just King and His Secure People
The house of David failed. The kings of Judah, with few exceptions, failed to render justice and deliver the oppressed. They trusted in their rocky plain and were consumed by the fire of God's wrath. Their failure points us to our need for a perfect king, a true Son of David who would not fail.
That King is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who perfectly rendered justice. He is the one who, on the cross, delivered us, the robbed and oppressed, from the power of our ultimate oppressor, Satan, sin, and death. He did this not by calling down fire on His enemies, but by taking the unquenchable fire of God's wrath upon Himself in our place.
He is the King who did not trust in a rocky plain, but who is the Rock of our salvation. And we, the Church, are now the inhabitants of the true secure dwelling place. We are a city on a hill, built upon the rock of Christ, and the gates of Hell cannot prevail against us. Our security is not in our political savvy, our wealth, or our military, but in the finished work of our righteous King.
But this does not mean we retreat from the world. It means we go into the world with the authority of this King. We are to be the prophetic voice that Jeremiah was. We are to go to the household of our own kings, our presidents, our governors, and our legislators, and we are to say, "Hear the word of the Lord! Render justice! Deliver the oppressed!" We must warn them that if they persist in their injustice and their arrogant self-reliance, the fire of God's judgment will surely come. We do this not to overthrow the government, but to call it to its God-ordained purpose.
We must demand true justice, the punishment of the wicked and the protection of the innocent. And as we do, we point them to the only source of true justice, the King of kings, Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can deliver any of us from the fire to come. He is the only secure fortress. All other ground is sinking sand. All other rocky plains will be consumed.