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Read Jeremiah 33:14-16.
Jeremiah’s world was a mess. King after king ignored his warnings and turned the nation away from God and toward sin and idolatry. Jeremiah presented to the people a message of punishment and retribution if they did not change their ways and turn, once again, to God.
As Jeremiah wrote this week’s Advent passage, Jerusalem was falling apart. Like many of our own cities it had become a place of injustice and violence. "I have hidden my face from this city," God announced through the prophet, "because of all their wickedness" (33:5). So when Jeremiah announced God's promise of a "righteous Branch to spring up for David," he spoke to deeply felt longings, longings that many in our cities can feel today.
Regardless of our environment, we find in these verses the promise of new life springing from the old. A “shoot” or “branch” will bud from the old stalk of David. The prophetic promise specifies that this "branch” will "execute justice and righteousness in the land.” Because of this, “Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.” God would re-establish righteousness and rebuild a right relationship between God and the people. From this passage we get the feeling that it’s a done deal—God redeems messes.
We cannot read Jeremiah’s words without the awful sense that they describe something deeply true about the world we know. Genocide in Darfur, lawlessness in Iraq, the quest for nuclear weapons by Iran and North Korea, the growing wave of violence and hopelessness that grows like a cancer in our cities all force us to ask ourselves where we can properly place our hope.
God intends for justice and righteousness to prevail in the world. This hope has sustained faithful people through many faithless times. Often in Scripture the promises of God come in the most difficult circumstances, as if God intends that we not live by the certainties we see and know.
During Advent we are meant to recall and experience this "waiting for God." And for many who follow Christ this waiting has become a time of great distress. Perhaps by standing with them, we can understand how the promise of the Messiah’s coming is associated with deep suffering and anguish. As in the time of Jeremiah we are not to expect simple political solutions: evil has gone unchecked for too long. But we are reminded that there is to be another appearance of this Branch who will execute justice. When the circumstances appear darkest, the promise shines brightest. When people are faint from fear they will see "the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" (Luke 21:27).
Prayer: As we again wait to celebrate Your Advent, show us where we must also work to bring about Your justice and righteousness, O God. Amen.
Ingrid Dvirnak
ABCRM Newsletter Editor
Cheyenne, WY
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