“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The LORD [Yahweh] our righteousness [tsidkenu].’” (Jeremiah 23:5–6)

Hope of the future had kept God’s people from complete collapse into despondency. The ray of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, the sliver of hope to which one holds, the strong cord on which one desperately hangs? No! Rather, an anchor, a solid reference point as history careens along in this fallen world. From the seed promise in Eden (Gen 3:15) until the coming of the Messiah and His promised return, God has left His golden trail of hope.

During Israel’s darkest times, the downline of King David’s dynasty had turned away from God with exacting punishments. King Jehoiakim (also called Coniah or Jeconiah) was the 20^th generational king in the line of David, and under his watch Israel surrendered to Babylon, the treasures of the temple were removed, and the people taken into captivity. His punishment was that none of his physical descendants would ever carry on the throne of David (Jer 22:28-30, 36:30). The promise to David seems to have come to an end: “He [Jehoiakim king of Judah] shall have no one to sit on the throne of David …” (Jer 36:30).

But God’s promise to David was binding: “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam 7:16). How could this be, if it came to an end with Jehoiakim, the kingly line? What about Jesus being a descendant of David and therefore King of Israel? While the details exceed the scope of this essay, the resolution is found in the two genealogies of Jesus. The blood line, His physical lineage, came through Mary, whose line traced back through King David’s son, Nathan (Luke 34:31). But Jesus’ kingly line was traced back to Jehoiakim (Matt 1:11, there called Jeconiah) through His adoption by Joseph, Mary’s husband. David’s promise was fulfilled then despite the curse on Jehoiakim, which endured.

The point in Jeremiah, though, is that despite the curse discontinuing the Davidic line through unrighteous Jehoiakim, the promise to David still goes on. What a grand hope this was in the darkest time of Israel. God will revive the great promise that a descendant of David would reign with wisdom, justice and righteousness. His name will be “The LORD our righteousness.”

LORD, when the world judges Christians as immoral hypocrites, I take refuge in You, my Righteousness.