5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
This is a most amazing prophecy! This prophecy declares four things, but I will present them as five, and you will soon see why.
(1) I will raise unto David...
This chapter and prophecy comes immediately after chapter 22 and the curse on Coniah. So, however we understand that word of the Lord to Coniah, it most definitely did not signal the end of the Davidic line and the Messianic promise to David.
(2) I will raise unto David a righteous Branch
Branch is a very clear Messianic reference. The Hebrew word for Branch occurs twelve times in the Old Testament, and five of those times it is translated branch: Isaiah 4:2, Jeremiah 23:5, Jeremiah 33:15, Zechariah 3:8, Zechariah 6:12 Here is a really good article on Branch.
(3) A king shall reign and prosper
This righteous Branch will be a king who will reign and prosper. This prophecy is uttered at a time when the line of David is “laid off” as it were and the people are about to go off into captivity. All is not lost, I will raise unto David a king who shall reign and prosper. This is Christ.
(4) In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely
King Messiah will bring salvation and security, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. The coming of Christ and the kingdom of God will bring salvation. As Zacharias prophesied at the birth of his son John:
That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us... That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
This is the kingdom of God Jesus introduced at his first coming. But the salvation now is spiritual, just the first-fruits of what is to come. When he returns he will establish this kingdom on the earth, and Israel will be saved and dwell safely as promised. Then the New Heaven, the New Earth, New Jerusalem. Of his kingdom there shall be no end!
(5) The LORD our righteousness
As you may know, the King James, whenever it comes to the personal name of God, YHWH, uses Lord in all caps, LORD. In Hebrew this is YHWH tsidkenu, YHWH our righteousness. The old way of pronouncing this is Jehovah tsidkenu. Nowadays people tend to say, Yahweh tsidkenu. No matter how you say it, this is awesome!
Jeremiah is clearly preaching the gospel!
What is righteousness? Righteousness is "conformity to a standard; the state of him who is such as he ought to be."+ Another way of saying this is, Righteousness is that which God requires of us, which we don't have. The promise here is that God will Himself provide for us what He requires of us, which we lack - it is the Lord himself who will be our righteousness.
Now, while the New Testament nowhere uses this as a name for Jesus, the Apostle Paul makes it abundantly clear the gospel is about righteousness:
Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ... For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Philippians 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
This is why Paul speaks so often of justification. In our English Bibles we have justify, righteous, righteousness, justification. It looks like they are translations of different Greek words. But in Greek it’s all one family: justify is the verb, just and righteous the adjectives, righteousness and justification the nouns. Justify means “to declare righteous.”
Romans 4:1-25 is very interesting here. A word occurs eleven times that is translated counted, reckoned, imputed. We are justified or declared righteous by imputed righteousness. And what righteousness is reckoned to our account? The righteousness of God. I remember hearing early in my Christian life that justification meant just as if I’d never sinned. That’s forgiveness. But forgiveness merely removes my failure to be what I ought to be. That’s not sufficient, I need a positive righteousness, and that is what God does when He justifies me, he imputes righteousness to me, just as if I’d always obeyed. Christ paid my sin debt by his death on the cross - there is forgiveness through his blood; but he also obeyed for me – his righteousness is imputed to me. In a sermon on Jeremiah 23:6 Charles Spurgeon said, "Just as the merit of his blood takes away our sin, so the merit of his obedience is imputed to us for righteousness." That is justification.
Ok. How am I justified or declared righteous? or, What must I do to be justified?
Romans 3:21-26
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
This is the gospel: God now offers righteousness to the one who believes in Jesus; through faith in Christ we are justified (forgiven of our sins and righteousness imputed to us) freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. As Paul himself concludes:
Romans 5:1
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
This is Jeremiah's prophesy: Christ will come and we will call him YHWH tsidkenu, the LORD our righteousness. That which was promised by the prophet is now proclaimed in the gospel. Christ has come and offers us righteousness, His righteousness, so that we may be saved and restored to God. As the Holy Spirit says, The righteous by faith shall live.
Have you believed in Jesus and been justified by God?
Next: They shall serve the Lord their God and David their king
+ ISBE International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
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