ADVENT SERMON SERIES   

Our Coming Lord

Psalm 25: 1-10 and Jeremiah 33: 14-22

  Pastor Robyn Hogue                        November 29, 2015               Skyline Presbyterian Church

 

Promises are important! We know, for example, that when we make a child a promise, we must do everything we can to keep it or the child will lose trust in us and our word. We also know that if we do not keep a promise to a friend, we may lose that friendship.

Certainly we make promises through all our life. One of the most important ones is made when we stand before a minister to be married. There we promise to love and comfort, to honor and keep faithful to our spouse, in sickness and in health, in sorrow and joy, in hardship and in ease. And we promise that we will have no other lovers and be faithful to that marital partner as long as we both shall live.

And sometimes our words are just empty pledges, having no influence on our life and actions. And often times, we live in guilty regret that we have not kept some spoken word. We think a person who keeps his or her word is a person to be honored and trusted, and we deplore ourselves in those times when we fail to be the trustworthy one.

We even might say that there is only One who perfectly keeps His promises, and if we study the scriptures, we find that One is God. Throughout the Bible, God is a promise-keeping God. “The Word of our God will stand forever,” Isaiah proclaims (Isaiah 40:8). My word “shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,” God vows (Isaiah 55:11). And the whole record of the scriptures tells us this is true.

So it is with the promise to which the Lord refers here in Jeremiah 33:14-15. Over 400 years before the time of Jeremiah, God promised King David that He would establish the Davidic reign forever (2 Samuel 7:13). “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before Me,” God vowed. “Your throne shall be established forever” (v. 16). And then a hundred years before the time of Jeremiah, God renewed that promise through Isaiah: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots” (Isaiah 11:1). In like fashion here in our Jeremiah text, God makes the promise once again: “In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth for David” (Jeremiah 33:15). A Davidic king to sit upon the throne! God guaranteed it by His word! What God guarantees Israel and Judah in this text, however, is not just a Davidic king. It is a righteous descendant of David. For it was very important that the king whom God raised up should be a righteous ruler.

There is no doubt that our world’s kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, and leaders of nations and societies often determine the quality of life for those over whom they rule. A despot in Africa, who is interested only in gaining wealth, can destroy the economy of the nation and plunge the people into poverty. An immoral president in a democracy can undermine the morality of a society and make it think that any style of life is acceptable, because even its president is abandoning ethical rules. Thieving and lying political or religious leaders can lead their followers into a deception that mimics the leader’s lack of moral compass. The same was true in the life of biblical Israel. Repeatedly we find in the history of Israel’s kings the phrase that says some king “made Israel to sin” (examples: 1 Kings 15:3 and 1 Kings 16:26). Thus, when the king was unrighteous, Israel too was unrighteous in the eyes of God. Israel’s life was bound up with the life of its king. The king was Israel. Israel was the king. And that people’s whole fate from the hands of God depended on whether or not a righteous king ruled on the throne.

Israel did have some good kings, such as Josiah and Hezekiah, both of whom carried out sweeping religious reforms. But most of Israel’s kings were not righteous, and that was especially true in the time of Jeremiah. Jehoiakim was a despot, introducing all sorts of mish-mashed worship into Judah, oppressing the poor, and persecuting the prophets. Judah’s final king before the Babylonian exile, Zedekiah, was nothing more than a puppet of the Babylonian empire. When it seemed that the throne would never be occupied again, Israel looked for a righteous and just ruler. Of every king who ascended to or claimed the throne of David, the question was asked, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Are you the long-awaited Branch of the house of David, whom God promised us so long ago?

God is a promise-keeper, whose word is good forever. Therefore on this first Sunday of Advent, we eagerly await the day when we may celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of this age-old promise of a Davidic ruler. Certainly Christ is a righteous Branch of David, fulfilling perfectly the will of God. Bound up with His person and sharing by trust in His righteousness, we are counted pure in the eyes of God. This is a righteous King who makes us righteous as well. And certainly too, Jesus Christ is just, in His life on this earth, bringing God’s justice and order to the poor and oppressed, condemning the wicked, and setting right the relationships among human beings. Still today the risen Christ by His Spirit guides us in justice for all, and gives us the power to love one another.

And…we wonder if this ancient promise has been fully fulfilled? Do all the nations of the earth including ours, live in safety and security? Are the world’s streets so safe now that we walk them at night? Are the children of our generation surrounded by a society of decency and peace? Can all enjoy an abundant life, free of violence and wrong, fear and upheaval? Or do the wicked still prowl and are countless children of God still faced with the threat of death? Obviously, this promise in scripture of safety and security has not yet fully been realized. The fulfillment of the total promise still awaits its time “in the days that are coming,” when God brings it all to pass.

But remember! God is a promise-keeper. God began to fulfill this promise by sending us God’s own Son in the birth of that babe of Bethlehem. God has always kept God’s word in the past; the whole history of Israel testifies to that faithfulness. So we now know that God will also keep His word—His full word—in the future.

The evil and violence, the sin and suffering that surround us on every side are not the last word. On this first Sunday of Advent, the church not only looks back to the birth of Christ, but we also look forward to Christ’s Second Coming, when He will come to set up His kingdom. Then in fact, safety and security and blessed life will be present for all people, and God will rule over all. Our Coming Lord is a promise-keeper whose word will come to pass.