“Behold the days are coming,” declares the Lord. “When I’ll raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: the Lord is our righteousness.”
– Jeremiah 23:5–6
Yes, this is a promise of the Messiah in the book of Jeremiah. This is a promise of Jesus to come. God says, “The days are coming when I’m going to raise up for David,” so from the line of David, “A righteous branch” with a capital B. This is talking about a descendant from the line of David who will reign as king, this is talking about Jesus. And listen to this description, “He will reign as king. He will deal wisely and he will execute justice, righteousness in the land,” on the earth. “In his days. In Jesus’ days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: the Lord is our righteousness.”
Jeremiah 23:5–6 reminds us to fix our eyes upon Jesus.
There are some times when we read a verse or part of Scripture and we just need to stop and praise God or in this instance specifically, praise God the Son, praise Jesus for being all these things. So let’s do that right now. Let’s just fix our eyes on Jesus and pray.
Oh God, we praise you for this promise to send your Son, Jesus, we praise you as the Righteous Branch, the Sinless Branch, the Perfect Branch. None of these kings in the Old Testament were perfect or righteous. You are the Righteous Branch, the Righteous King for whom we have longed, all of history has longed, and we praise you as the Reigning King, and we praise you for your wise dealings.
Jeremiah 23:5–6 encourages us to praise Jesus for his perfect attributes.
Jesus, we praise you for your infinite wisdom and for all that you do flowing from perfect wisdom. Lord, we praise you for the justice and righteousness that have shown on the earth and you will ultimately bring about in the earth perfect righteousness to come. We praise you for the salvation we have in you, as the people of God, we praise you for saving us from our sins. We praise you for in you alone do we dwell securely. Oh, we praise you as our Secure Dwelling today. And this is the name by which we praise you, the Lord is our righteousness.
You are our righteousness. Who are we? We are sinners who have turned to our own ways, from your ways. Lord, we deserve eternal judgment before you. We praise you for your love for us. We praise you for forgiving us of our sins and not stopping there, but clothing us with your righteousness. That we right now are clothed in your righteousness. All glory be to your name, Jesus, you are our righteousness.
Prayer for the Jordanian Arabs
We praise you and we pray that your name as the Righteous King, the Just King, the Saving King, the one in whom all people can dwell securely. We pray that your Name would spread, the truth about you would spread to all the peoples of the world, including Jordanian Arabs. God, for 5 million of them please cause the gospel of Jesus, the King, to spread to all Jordanian Arabs. We pray for that. Oh, God. All of this according to your Word, which we love in Jeremiah 23:5–6. In the name of Jesus, the Righteous Branch, the Lord is our righteousness. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
