Advent 18: The Righteous Branch

Jeremiah 23:5-6

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.“

Jeremiah 23:5-6

A Timely Message

When you read this passage, you can’t help but get excited. This is absolutely filled with hope. A king coming from the line of David who will bring salvation. This encourages us because we are looking back at it through the lens of the stable. We know this is about baby Jesus born from David’s line in David’s town.

However, the Jews to whom this was originally written were in a completely different context. Some were taken into captivity, and some were about to be taken. They have a “king,” but he’s just a puppet set up by a conquering army. He has no power.

Imagine you were in that situation. How much more meaningful would it be to know that God would send a real king? And not just any king, a king like David (one of his actual offspring). He would really rule and reign, and he would bring peace. Remember that at this time, God’s people had already been split into two nations (Israel and Judah), each with separate kings. The king that Jeremiah was promising would bring unity and peace.

There would be no more wars with Assyria or Babylon.

There would be no more deportation to foreign lands.

God’s king would be in control.

A Godly King

You don’t have to look too far to realize there is more going on here. Look at the attention given to “righteousness.” In just these two verses, we see it mentioned three times. First, we see that God will raise up a “righteous” branch from David’s line. This is important because even before Israel had their first king, God laid out how a king was supposed to reign. He wasn’t supposed to get a ton of wealth for himself; he wasn’t supposed to marry a bunch of women, and he wasn’t supposed to make a huge army. Instead, he was supposed to put his trust and confidence in God and his Word. Look at what God says through Moses.

  “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.”

Deuteronomy 17:18-20

The Jews knew their kings were supposed to reign like this. They also knew that very few of them had. When you read through Kings and Chronicles, it’s easy to see that both Israel and Judah had a bad track record when it came to godly kings. Knowing this makes this prophecy so much sweeter.

Secondly, we see that this king will execute “justice and righteousness.” This is really interesting because it looks like he is emphasizing both sides of the coin. This new king that God was sending would punish evil (justice) and reward the good (righteousness), and he would do so perfectly. The picture of this king is starting to look like someone a little more than human.

Finally, Jeremiah tells us his name will be called, “The LORD is our righteousness.” Okay, now I’m certain this can’t be a human king. God’s people from both the Old and New Testaments knew that only God is righteous. If we have a king who is given this name, he must be more than just a king. Maybe when it was written, they didn’t know that, but as we look back, we know for certain this is a prophecy about Jesus. He is the only one who could ever be appropriately called, “The LORD is our righteousness.”