The Monday after Ad te levavi Sunday, The First Sunday in Advent
Posted on December 2, 2024 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
There is a parallel passage in Jeremiah 23 which also begins, “Behold, the days are coming…” (v. 5). The two prophecies are very similar, but chapter 23 focuses more on the King, and chapter 33 focuses on the kingdom. Jeremiah 23:6 and 33:16 are almost identical, except for a single pronoun. Chapter 23 declares, “this is His name by which He will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.” But today’s text says, “this is the name by which she will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.”
“He” is the Lord Jesus Christ. “She” is the faithful Church, composed of all believers from the Old and New Testaments. The Christian Church is called “The Lord Our Righteousness” because the Christ has put His name on her and applied His righteousness to her, through His Word and Baptism. His righteous people in the time of the Old Testament and the saints in the Christian Church are one kingdom by the power of His Holy Spirit and faith in the only true Savior, our Lord Jesus.
St. Paul says: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). This means God sees the faithful as perfect in Christ. Being forgiven does not just mean we get another chance to do the right thing. Forgiveness means that God sees us as perfectly righteous already, because the perfect righteousness of the Christ covers our sins.
Collect: 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.
