Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Jeremiah 33:14-15 "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."
THE PROMISED BRANCH OF DAVID (2)
The days in which Jeremiah prophesied, around 600 B.C., were days of national disgrace and religious apostasy.
In another place in Jeremiah, we read this of the nation of Judah: "And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened . . . to me, says the LORD, that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt" (cf. Jeremiah 25). Consequently, Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar became God's instrument of judgment, carrying the people away into captivity for seventy years.
Our day too is a time of national disgrace and religious apostasy. More and more what is evil is called good and what is good is called evil (by Bible standards). More and more, not only the name of God but the very idea of God is being removed from society and the public square.
As Jeremiah lamented -- when he beheld the destruction of Judah by heathen powers (cf. his book of Lamentations) -- so faithful children of God today lament the inroads of unbelief and rank heathenism even within the church; for example, think of "Christian" churches endorsing the horror of abortion and approving the homosexual lifestyle.
What is desperately needed is "that good thing" the merciful God of heaven promised "to the house of Israel and the house of Judah": it is a Person--the Babe of Bethlehem, the "Branch of righteousness" who, as King of kings and Lord of lords, would "execute judgment and righteousness in the earth."
Come, gracious Lord, our hearts renew, Our foes repel, our wrongs redress,
Man's rooted enmity subdue, And crown thy Gospel with success.
Oh, come and reign o'er every land; Let Satan from his throne be hurled,
All nations bow to Thy command, And grace revive a dying world.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 64:3-4)
