#DailyDevotion Jesus Is The Branch Of David

Jeremiah 23:5-6 ⁵“The days will come,” says the LORD, “when I will raise for David a righteous Branch Who will rule as King and act wisely. He will create fairness and righteousness in the land. ⁶When He comes, Judah will be saved, and Israel will live safely. This is the name that He will be called: The-LORD-Our-Righteousness.Things don’t look so good for the house of David during Jeremiah’s time. One king after another is being taken out and soon the Babylonians will finish off Jerusalem with its Davidic kings for good. The best they will do later is a governor. But the LORD affirms to Jeremiah, the Davidic house and the people of Israel he will not forget his promise to David. Now the LORD promised something similar a couple a hundred years earlier through the prophet Isaiah who wrote 4, ² “At that time the LORD’s plant (Branch) will become beautiful and wonderful, and the produce of the land will be the pride and glory of those who escaped in Israel.³Then whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called His holy one, everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem.”

Again Isaiah prophecies 11 “A Shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a Branch will produce fruit. ²The LORD’s Spirit will rest on Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. ³The fear of the LORD will please Him. He will not judge just by what He sees or decide by what He hears… ⁵Righteousness will be the belt around His waist and faithfulness around His hips.” Jesus is this Branch, this root and shoot of Jesse, where the LORD takes the Davidic house back to Jesse and makes a New David, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Zechariah says in chapter 6, ¹²“Tell him: The LORD of armies says, ‘Here is the Man Whose name is Branch. He will sprout up from where He is planted, and will build the LORD’s temple.” Now he is speaking of Joshua the high priest who is the type for Jesus (Joshua in Greek) who is both our high priest and king before the Father. Jesus is the Branch and he is the one who is “The LORD Our Righteousness.” He is the LORD and he gives us his righteousness through faith in him, his name and his works. He credits us with his righteousness through faith to stand before the Father on his throne on judgment day.

Now the neat thing about Jesus, our righteousness, is that through baptism, we his people are identified with him. So Isaiah prophesies, 60²¹ “Your people will all be righteous. They will own the land forever. They will be a branch the LORD planted, that His hands made to give Him glory.” And Jeremiah also tells us, 33¹⁴“’The time will come,’ says the LORD, ‘when I will do the good thing I promised to the house of Israel and of Judah. ¹⁵In those days, at that time, I will make a righteous Branch grow for David, and He will do what is right and just in the land. 16Then Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety, and the city will be called: The-LORD-Our-Righteousness.’” So we are identified with the Branch, as the Branch in Christ and we are given his name through faith in him, “The LORD Our Righteousness.”

Heavenly Father, we thank you for fulfilling your promise to your servant David and giving us Jesus to be our righteousness. Grant us faith to believe this and to live our lives in this faith so we may enter that city by which we are named. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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