The LORD Our Righteousness

“‘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 [he] will be called:

The Lord Our Righteousness.’”

~Jeremiah 33:14-16 (NIV).

This is the prophesy of the coming Messiah, fulfilled in Jesus. It also calls forth to another day—the second coming or Parousia.

It is a frustratingly sad reality for Jeremiah to see the kingly Davidic line and the city of Jerusalem continue to go to rack and ruin—yet, the future hope in this part of Jeremiah is compelling. It takes us back to 23:5-6; indeed, this section above is more or less a repeat of that one. The City for whom no one cared (Jer. 30:17) is now (then) destined to have an eternal Carer.

The prophesy of Christ, in Jeremiah’s context, should always be read with the backdrop of the then present calamities in mind. Monarchs like Zedekiah failed ingloriously, but Jeremiah sees a day when the Lord will raise up a Davidic king—in Isaiah, a king for all humankind (66:21)—who “will never fail” (Jer. 33:17).

We can draw two things at least from the passage above with regard to, “The Lord Our Righteousness”:

1. At this time—which for us is both a present and future reality—we can and will be saved. This is wonderful news for us that we can hardly celebrate enough.

2. We own rights to the name Righteousness, for the linkages made to the Lord, even though it is not fully our own. God, in Jesus, is guarantor of the Spiritually-saving transaction and relationship. Without God we’re not in the least bit righteous; with him, we are and can be in deed.

Perhaps most of all this prophesy sets forth a vision for the true King to take reign; to reclaim his creation—as was originally designed.

Leadership: looking both back to Jeremiah’s time and then forward to now we see all throughout history examples replete in both good and bad. The good rulers always led with a strong moral front. Morality and leadership go hand in hand. For Jeremiah there was nothing to write home about; even for us, our leaders mightn’t inspire much hope in us at times. But, we have a great Leader in Jesus. He is in control. In this we can see our futures are not so bleak.

The true King, Our Righteousness, gives us the keys to real success—on God’s terms—and we love being beneficiaries where we can live in safety; where justice and righteousness reign. And that occurs to a certain degree—even at times to a great extent—in this world.

How much greater again then will it be when Jesus comes for the second and final time?

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

References:

Derek Kidner, The Message of Jeremiah – The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 1987), p. 114-15.

J. Andrew Dearman, Jeremiah-Lamentations – The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002), pp. 218-23; 304-07.