Jeremiah 23:5-6
‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord,
‘That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
And execute judgment and righteousness in the [c]earth.
In His days, Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called:
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Judah’s kings had failed catastrophically, leading the nation into idolatry and exile. Into that ruin God speaks a promise: ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord. From a destroyed dynasty, God promises new life, and that promise points straight to Jesus Christ.
The word Branch is a rich messianic image: a green shoot springing from a tree that looked dead (Isaiah 11:1; Zechariah 6:12). When Jesus was born, the throne of David had stood vacant for centuries, and Judea was an occupied province. Yet Matthew and Luke trace His lineage back to David (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-31), and Gabriel told Mary, The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David… his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:32-33). The Branch rose, exactly as promised, out of what seemed a hopeless stump.
Unlike the failed kings before Him, Jesus reigned in flawless righteousness. He fulfilled all righteousness at His baptism (Matthew 3:15), called His followers to a righteousness exceeding the scribes’ (Matthew 5:20), and lived without sin (John 8:46; Hebrews 4:15). He defended the poor, welcomed the outcast, and confronted the powerful. Paul declares that in Him the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17). Jesus is not just a righteous King; He is the very source of righteousness for His people.
Jeremiah promised that Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety, but the rescue Jesus brings is greater than any political deliverance. His name itself means Yahweh saves, for he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21), and He came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). The safety He gives is peace with God, secured at the cross and sealed by the empty tomb. This salvation reaches beyond ethnic Israel to gather a new people of God from every nation, who find in Him eternal safety from sin, death, and judgment.
The climax of the prophecy is the King’s name: The Lord Our Righteousness (Yahweh Tsidkenu). Jesus is Yahweh come in the flesh to be our righteousness. Christ became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). Through faith in Him, a righteousness from God is credited to us apart from the law (Romans 3:21-22), for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4). On the cross, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Our righteousness is not self-generated. We do not climb to God by our performance; we are clothed in Christ Himself. We long to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith (Philippians 3:9). God does not ask us to manufacture righteousness; He provides it as a gift.
Prayer points:
- Praise God for raising the righteous Branch from David’s line and for keeping His covenant promise when all human kings had failed.
- Confess any striving to earn God’s approval, and rest afresh in the truth that our righteousness is a gift in Christ.
- Ask that Jesus would reign as just and righteous King over our hearts, our church, and the brokenness of the world.
Soli Deo Gloria – to God alone be the glory!
Rev. Luke Haisa
