A Righteous Branch
| The days are coming declares the Lord When I will raise up to David a righteous Branch A King who will reign wisely and do what is right and just in the land In His days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety This is the name by which the Branch will be called: The LORD our Righteousness. (Jeremiah23:5-6) |
What is fascinating is that this prophecy also has a double fulfillment: Two years after this prophecy was uttered, the Babylonians occupied Jerusalem for the first time and carried King Jehoiachin into exile. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Jehoiachin's uncle Mattaniah as king and changed his name to Zedekiah which means "The Lord is my Righteousness"!!!
After a few years of peace, Zedekiah failed to heed Jeremiah's advice, and against God's will he rebelled against the Babylonians. This disobedience resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem. Zedekiah turned out to be another bad shepherd...
The Hebrew word for Branch can also be translated as shoot. The image then is of a tree that is cut down, but a shoot emerges from the stump and re-establishes the tree. Five hundred years later, the stump of God's people was still in the ground, but under Roman rule. In a stable in Bethlehem, the stump of David sprouted a shoot.
Jesus is everything that Zedekiah was not. He reigns with wisdom and righteousness. Surrounded by our brokeness and our "Zedekiah legacies" (our insistence on doing things our way) the righteous King went to the cross where He submitted to the Father's will and became our righteousness and we are saved.
