Jeremiah 33:3

The Bible says in Jeremiah 33:3, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” This is a great Bible verse. Many people have memorized this verse and held it dear to their hearts for their entire life. It is a great promise concerning the answer to prayer. Prayer changes things. Why is that: because God answers prayer. Jesus gave the same promise in John 14:13, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

In addition to the promise to answer prayer, there are two extensions to this promise in Jeremiah 33:3. The Lord says that as a result of our prayers, He will show us “great and mighty things.” This means that there is no limit to what we can ask God. We can change the course of the entire world by just one prayer. The Bible says in Matthew 21:21, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.”

The second extension to the promise of answer to prayer in Jeremiah 33:3 is at the end of the verse where the Lord promises to answer prayer with things “which thou knowest not.” In other words, He promises to do even greater things than we ask for. Not only will He answer your prayer, God will go one better than that. He promises to do even more than you ask for. It says in Ephesians 3:20, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 33:4-7, “For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword;[5] They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city.[6] Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.[7] And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.” Notice that God said in Jeremiah 33:5, “I have hid my face from this city.” One of the characteristics of God is that He often hides Himself. Job noticed this characteristic about God. Job said in Job 23:8-9, “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:[9] On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:” That is one of the reasons that it takes a miracle to come to know God. Human beings cannot perceive Jesus Christ and cannot know Jesus Christ without a miracle. Jesus said in John 6:44, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Notice the great promise that the Lord makes in Jeremiah 33:7. He says, “And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.” Many times we talk about consequences: the consequences of poor decisions that we make or the consequences of sin. Of course, such talk is an emphasis on man and an emphasis on man’s potential to greatly fail. As the years go by some people have regrets, wishing that they could go back and correct their errors or go back and make fewer mistakes. But no one can do that. But God can do something. God can do exactly what He said He will do with the nation of Israel. God is going to restore Israel. God is going to make Israel everything that it could have been. Guess what, if you know Jesus Christ as Savior, God is going to do the very same thing with you. You might be failing, but God is succeeding. The Bible says in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 33:8-9, “And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.[9] And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.” God has determined to give a bright future to believers. In order to so, there must be the forgiveness of sins. That is why Jesus came into the world: to pay the price for sin, so that you and I would not have to pay it with our own souls. Jesus rose from the dead, and He ever lives to answer the prayer of anyone who would call out to Him and say, “For give me my sins, Lord Jesus.” Or who would say to Jesus as it says about the publican in Luke 18:13, “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 33:10-11, “Thus saith the LORD; Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast,[11] The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.” Of course, the Lord is talking once again about the good future that He has planned for Israel, and how the destruction that the Babylonians rendered will in itself be destroyed, and life would one day be re-established in Israel the way that it should be. There would be joy and happiness. There would be good things taking place. The god things that would take place are described in Jeremiah 33:11, “The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth forever.” There are two types of joy: human joy and spiritual joy. Perhaps the greatest human joy that can exist is when a bride and bridegroom come togther in God’s will with love for one another. The greatest spiritual joy is the joy of salvation when a person can look to Jesus and say in thankfulness for the forgiveness of sins, “Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth forever.” David said in Psalms 51:12, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.” You are not a happy person unless you know the joy of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Another important point to make about Jeremiah 33:11, especially with some of the supposedly politically-correctness that is infecting our current society, is the fact that this verse speaks of the joy of the bridegroom and the bride. This is just one of many, many instances in the Bible where marriage is depicted between a man and a woman, and never any other way. Jesus said in Matthew 19:4-6, “And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,[5] And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?[6] Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 33:12-13, “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.[13] In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth them, saith the LORD.” This is a description of the kind of life that the Israelites dreamed about. Once they lost their nation, they could only hope and pray that they would get the life back that they had lost. God is telling them that their dreams would be realized. Their country once again would be “an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.” There is a symbolic meaning to this situation also. A flock represents a group of believers. A shepherd over that flock represents Jesus first of all, and then represents a pastor who serves Jesus by teaching the flock the promises of God’s Word. We are losing our country to the attacks against it. If only we had flocks of sheep all over the land following the shepherd. God promised to do it for Israel. We need to pray that He will do it for us also. “O Lord Jesus, raise up those who will follow you, be faithful to your inerrant and infallible Word, and teach the flock the great truths of Christianity.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 33:14-15, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.[15] In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.” Of course, these verses are verses about the Messiah: Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Branch. Jesus branched out of David. In other words, Jesus came in the lineage of David. That is one of the requirements for the Messiah. He had to be in the lineage of King David. That is also why the New Testament starts out by saying in Matthew 1:1, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

It is important to notice that the good things that the Lord promised in Jeremiah 33:14 are associated with the coming of the Messiah as mentioned in verse 15. God’s great promises about the future are always associated with Jesus Christ the Messiah. It is because of Jesus that the promises apply to believers. It is because of Jesus that we have hope for the future. All honor and all glory goes to Jesus because of the future that He has secured for us. Glory and honor and praise goes to Jesus because of what He suffered so that we could be forgiven and so that we could inherit freely the wonders of glory. Jesus is called in Jeremiah 33:15 the “Branch of righteousness” for more than one reason. Jesus is the righteous branch. Jesus lived the righteous life that no one else lived. Jesus obeyed the law of God perfectly. Everyone else has sinned. But Jesus also gives righteousness to all who believe. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you have been given a righteous standing before God based upon the righteousness of Christ. Jesus is called the “Branch of righteousness” because He is the source of all righteousness.

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