Monday after Ad te levavi, the First Sunday in Advent
Posted on November 30, 2020 by under
Scripture: Jeremiah 33:14-18 (NKJV)
33:14 ‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah:
15 ‘In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David a Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
16 ‘In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called:
‘THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS’
17 “For thus says the Lord: ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; 18 nor shall the priests, the Levites, lack a man to offer burnt offerings before Me, to kindle grain offerings, and to sacrifice continually.’”
Devotion
When these words of hope come to Jeremiah, the prophet is in prison in Jerusalem and the city is under siege by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 4 says that the people of Jerusalem were pulling down their houses for materials “to fortify against the siege mounds and the sword.” The kingdom of Judah is about to fall and her people to be slaughtered or carried into exile. In the middle of the terror, God declares, “In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell safely,” for, “I will cause to grow up to David a Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.”
That Branch is the Lord Jesus Christ. He satisfied judgment by taking the world’s sin on Himself, and He brought righteousness by justifying those who believe in Him. He saved Judah not as an earthly nation, but as a holy Church, dedicated and reconciled to God.
Like Jeremiah, the Christian Church today preaches the hope of the Gospel of Christ in the midst of terror and distress. The devil besieges the Truth, the world slaughters the saints, and sin drags away many into despair and unbelief, but the righteousness of Christ covers the Church and makes her His own. Neither the devil, nor the world, nor sin can prevent the Advent of our Lord when He comes again in glory for the fulfillment of our salvation.
Prayer: Stir up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come, that by Thy protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Thy mighty deliverance; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
