Thursday, December 7, 2017

Advent Day 5 ~ Promise


Today's word is promise.

" 'The days are coming', declares the LORD, 
'when I will fulfill the gracious promise 
I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.'

"In those days and at that time 
I will make a righteous Branch 
sprout from David's line; 
he will do what is just and right in the land.

In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it will be called:
The LORD is our righteousness."
Jeremiah 33:14-16

This passage, which by the way is repeated from earlier in the book (Jeremiah 23:5-6), speaks of the promise of God coming to fruition. A time when Israel and Judah would be ruled in righteousness instead of the corruption that reigned for centuries, with power-hungry kings who often led the nations in worshiping false idols. The prophets longed for a king who would rule as God's anointed, modeling His justice and righteousness.The clues to who that king would be are found in this prophetic passage: "Righteous branch" and "David's line". The term "righteous branch" was used by the prophets to express the promise and faithfulness of God (see Isaiah 4:2, 11:1, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15, Zechariah 3:8, 6:12). The Messiah, the prophets said, would come from the line of David (see 2 Samuel 7:12, Psalm 89:3-4, Isaiah 7:13-14, Ezekiel 34:23, 37:24). And so, Matthew's gospel begins with "the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David..." (Matthew 1:1). Then throughout the Christmas story found in Luke's gospel, we see this same phrase: Luke 1:32, 69, 2:4,11. Jesus Christ came to earth in fulfillment of the prophecies God gave Jeremiah, Isaiah and Zechariah. He is the promised One who will do what is just and right. He is the LORD our righteousness. (See also: Romans 3:21-24; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21)

In the Advent season we can reflect on passages such as the ones mentioned above that focus on God's righteousness in the past, in Israel's history. In them we can see the promise fulfilled in Jesus Christ. At the same time, we can allow these promises to build and strengthen our faith today and build our hope for Christ's promised return in the future.





The Advent Words 2017 prompt and Scripture reading calendar can be found in this post or in the Facebook group.

2 comments:

  1. Love these pages Mary! Especially the constellation map thing! Where did you get it? It's a circle! Yay! We love circles!😉

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Yes, we do love circles! It came fromm a book of star charts. I just may be putting some in my shop soon. :)

      Delete