GOD WILL RAISE UP A RIGHTEOUS BRANCH

Jeremiah 22:24-23:8 / Keywords 23:5-6

"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 just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.

 

22:24 “As surely as I live,” declares the Lord, “even if you, Jehoiachin[c] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. 25 I will deliver you into the hands of those who want to kill you, those you fear—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Babylonians.[d] 26 I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die. 27 You will never come back to the land you long to return to.”

28 Is this man Jehoiachin a despised, broken pot,

    an object no one wants?

Why will he and his children be hurled out,

    cast into a land they do not know?

29 O land, land, land,

    hear the word of the Lord!

30 This is what the Lord says:

“Record this man as if childless,

    a man who will not prosper in his lifetime,

for none of his offspring will prosper,

    none will sit on the throne of David

    or rule anymore in Judah.”

The Righteous Branch

23:1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. 2 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord. 3 “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. 4 I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.

5 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,

    “when I will raise up for David[e] a righteous Branch,

a King who will reign wisely

    and do what is just and right in the land.

6 In his days Judah will be saved

    and Israel will live in safety.

This is the name by which he will be called:

    The Lord Our Righteous Savior.

7 “So then, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 8 but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”

Footnotes

c. Jeremiah 22:24 Hebrew Koniah, a variant of Jehoiachin; also in verse 28

d. Jeremiah 22:25 Or Chaldeans

e. Jeremiah 23:5 Or up from David’s line

1. God had no use for King Jehoiachin. The Lord said that, even if Jehoiachin was useful to him, he would still rid himself of him. He would deliver Jehoiachin into the hands of his enemies. Even his mother would be judged just as harshly. They would both be taken to a country not their own, and there they would die.

 

2. Then Jeremiah turned to the priests and other spiritual leaders of the nation. They were supposed to be shepherds of God’s flock. They should have been helping those under their care to grow in faith in God. They should have been pointing the way to God. Instead, what they were doing was destroying and scattering the sheep of the Lord’s pasture. Because they didn’t bestow care on God’s flock, the Lord would bestow punishment on them. They would be supplanted as shepherds for the Lord by others the Lord would raise up as he brought his people back from exile.

 

3. And in that day, the Lord would raise up from the line of David a righteous Branch. He would be a wise and just king. This king is Jesus. He is our Lord and our Righteous Savior.

 

Prayer Father, thank you for Jesus, who you raised up as the Righteous Branch to save your people. Help us as a nation to turn to him and be saved.

One Word God has raised up a Righteous Branch