The Promise of a King

Jeremiah 33:10-11; 14-18

Deuteronomy 6:10-15

2 Kings 22:15-17

Jeremiah 33:10-11

In the silence, the brokenness, and/or desolation can we imagine a God who still acts?

Jeremiah 33:1111 a sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride, and the voice of those saying, Give thanks to the Lord of Armies, for the Lord is good; his faithful love endures forever as they bring thanksgiving sacrifices to the temple of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as in former times, says the Lord.

Jeremiah 33:14-1614 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will fulfill the good promise that I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.15 In those days and at that timeI will cause a Righteous Branch to sprout up for David, and he will administer justice and righteousness in the land.16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is what she will be named:The Lord Is Our Righteousness.

Jeremiah 33:15 In those days and at that timeI will cause a Righteous Branch to sprout up for David, and he will administer justice and righteousness in the land.

The Lord Is Our Righteousness.

What is God up to?

Amy Robertson (Director of Lifelong Learning at Congregation Or Hadash):The thing about this text–the beauty and the really awfully challenge of it–is that it asks us to hold both the real, and legitimate suffering and fear and uncertainty alongside hope that a seemingly impossible dream will yet come true. It feels particularly pointed to me that at this moment in the text at this moment that the hope is offered, we have not yet hit bottom. We are far from the bottom. This text is not saying, “It’s all up from here, your suffering is over.” It doesn’t actually tell us anything about what will happen tomorrow or even what will happen to our bodies, or in our lifetime. It’s not that kind of prediction, and it doesn’t tell us not to be afraid, or that the suffering isn’t real. It says what seems impossible is not impossible. At any moment it could be the moment that God will break through and bring this vision of peace. It reminds me of our conversation about Sarah and how she laughed to hear that she’d have a child. Everything in her life, everything she had ever known, indicated very clearly to her that this was not the case. Sometimes in those painful moments, the certainty of resignation to that fate, to that loss, is more comfortable, is almost easier than perpetuating the state of uncertainty forever.So, Sarah laughed at this truly ridiculous prediction, and then the impossible happened to her. It sure did! As we talked about in that episode, though this doesn’t negate the suffering of women who cannot bear children. It doesn’t promise that God is going to make a habit of doing this kind of thing and it doesn’t tell anyone, except Sarah in this case, how things will turn out.All it says is the impossible is not impossible. Whether or not, you can hold that vast expense between the suffering of this moment, and the promise of relief from that suffering in some mysterious hazy future, they are both true. It is so easy and so tempting to try to use hope to erase the suffering or let the suffering take up all the space and leave no room for hope but this chapter asks us to hold both.Hope should never be wheeled as a weapon against those who are suffering, nor should we let our world become so small, that our imagination shrinks down so tightly that we can no longer dream of peace and envision it, and taste it, in our soul to remember what it looks like because peace is what’s coming.