December 5
“‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah: In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David a Branch of Righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely, and this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,’” Jeremiah 33:14-16.
The prophecy of Jeremiah assures all readers that God keeps His promises. The promise was given to Abraham that the Messiah and Savior would be a descendant of his. The promise was repeated to Abraham’s son, Isaac, and then to his grandson, Jacob, whose name was changed by God to Israel. The promise was repeated to Judah, the great-grandson of Abraham, and eventually it was repeated to David. In the New Testament, Jesus is referred to repeatedly as the Son – the descendant – of King David.
With certainty, the Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, and said, “The days are coming . . . that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.” The “good thing” is the Good News of God’s gracious promise of forgiveness for all sinners, which would be gained for us through the promised Savior, Jesus. Let there be no doubt about the fulfillment of God’s promise; Jeremiah wrote, “In those days and at that time” which God Himself has chosen, the promise indeed would be fulfilled.
The promised descendant of David of whom Jeremiah wrote is called the Branch of Righteousness. The prophets Isaiah and Zechariah also wrote and spoke of the Branch of Righteousness. The Branch was the promised Messiah and Savior Jesus, whose righteousness covers our sinfulness. The hymn writer wrote:
“Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.”
We can stand before God robed in the garment of Jesus’ righteousness. In the Book of Revelation, the evangelist John wrote of his vision of the multitude before the throne of God: “I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, people, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ . . . Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, ‘Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?’ And I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ So he said to me, ‘These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” Revelation 7:9, 10, 13-14.
In the words of Jeremiah, “Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely.” This refers to the holy Christian Church to which all and only believers in Jesus as God’s Son and their Savior belong. We stand before God robed in Jesus’ righteousness. We stand before God forgiven! There is no sin too great, too grievous, too black, or too vile that it cannot be forgiven! “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin,” 1 John 1:7.
We pray: O loving and gracious God, thank You for sending Your Son, the Branch of Righteousness, to clothe us with His righteousness and to wash away our sins! Move us to share this message of forgiveness to all whom we know and with whom we come into contact. In Jesus’ name. Amen.