Jeremiah and the Righteous Branch

Jeremiah 33:14-16

Living between promise and fulfillment is difficult.

The Lord swore to David that one of his sons would sit on the throne forever. But by Jeremiah’s day, that promise looked like a fading memory.

After David and Solomon, the kingdom fractured, the great tree split in two. Israel in the north plunged into idolatry and was swept away by Assyria. Judah in the south followed the same path, stumbling after the gods of the nations.

By the time we reach Jeremiah, the stump of David’s line appears rotten. Jerusalem is surrounded by Babylon. Jehoiachin has surrendered and been hauled off in chains. Nebuchadnezzar installs Zedekiah as a puppet king. His very name means, “The Lord is righteous,” yet he rejects the Lord’s word, rebels against God, and leads Judah deeper into disaster.

Chapters 32–33 unfold in Zedekiah’s final year. The walls are trembling. Babylon’s siege towers loom. Jeremiah is imprisoned for speaking the truth, for declaring that the city would fall, that surrender was God’s command, and that the prophets promising peace were lying. His confinement is a picture of Judah’s own condition: bound, blind, and unwilling to hear. The end is certain. Jerusalem will burn. Zedekiah will flee. He will watch his sons die before his eyes, and then lose his sight forever.

At the very moment when the house of David seems cut down to the root, when the palace is threatened, the temple system is collapsing, and the land is being emptied; that is when God speaks a word of hope, a word of promise, a word about a righteous Branch He Himself will cause to spring up from David’s line.

It is a reminder that when we see ruin, God is preparing redemption; when the line of David seems finished, God is setting the stage for Christ, the promised King.

This morning, through Jeremiah’s lens, I want us to see Jesus as the Righteous King: the King of righteousness, the King of justice, the King of salvation, so that we might look to His reign with joy and peace as we begin this Advent season.

Christ is the King of Righteousness

A righteousness that speaks both to His work and to His rightful legitimacy as King.

What does a righteous King do?

In Scripture, righteousness is relational. It means acting in perfect conformity to the obligations of a covenant relationship. So when Jeremiah hears of a “righteous Branch,” he is not simply hearing about moral purity, he is hearing of a King who will do for His people everything God has promised to do.

Where Judah’s kings had broken covenant, this King will keep it. Where their leadership brought idolatry, injustice, and ruin, this King will establish faithfulness, justice, and peace.

True righteousness appears in His protecting, providing, and defending His people; the very things the faithless kings refused to do. Every act of deliverance becomes a revelation of the Lord’s own righteousness.

Who is the rightful King?

Jeremiah had watched the throne of David cheapened by foreign powers:

Jehoiakim was placed there by Pharaoh Neco.

Zedekiah was installed by Nebuchadnezzar.

Both men were illegitimate placeholders, and neither lived in a way that honored the God they claimed to serve. The monarchy was corrupt, the line looked broken, and the promise to David seemed spent. But God declares otherwise.

God promises a King who will not merely restore David’s line but fulfill the covenant God made with David: an heir whose rule would be everlasting.

The gospels show clearly that Jesus was descended from David, therefore a rightful heir to the throne.

But scripture widens the lens even further. As our Larger Catechism teaches, God made the covenant of grace with Christ Himself as the second Adam. In Him, the true Son, the covenant cannot fail. Christ is both the recipient and keeper of God’s promises.

The elect, united to Him, share in all the blessings He secured.

Abraham was promised a people and a land.

David was promised a throne and an eternal heir.

Every promise finds its yes and amen in Christ.

“The LORD is our Righteousness.”

That is the name God gives to the King. And astonishingly, Jeremiah says that name belongs also to the people who live under His reign. The righteousness we lack is the righteousness He provides.

We stand before God not clothed in our obedience, but wrapped in the perfect obedience of Christ, the righteous King, the rightful King, the covenant-keeping King.

Christ is the King of Justice

It was the duty of Israel’s king to uphold justice. Psalm 72 holds out the ideal: “He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.”

That was the charge laid before every son of David. But again and again, the kings failed. Their courts were corrupt, the vulnerable were exploited, and the prophets had to stand in the palace doorway pleading with them to “do justice and righteousness.”

Against that backdrop, God promises Jeremiah a King who will not need correction. A righteous Branch who will perfectly embody God’s standards; a King who will do what no son of David ever fully did, uphold the justice of God without deviation.

The Justice of Christ’s First Coming

In His first coming, Christ came to deal with divine justice at its deepest level. He came not merely to pronounce judgments but to bear judgment. Not to condemn sinners, but to stand in the place of sinners. He satisfied the wrath of God for His people, taking upon Himself the legal demands that stood against us.

At the cross, justice and mercy meet in perfect harmony. The penalty is paid. The curse is absorbed. The debt is settled. And now, when the accuser whispers shame, we silence him with this truth: every ounce of justice our sin deserved has already fallen on the King Himself.

The Justice of Christ’s Second Coming

His second coming will also be about justice, but this time, not justice borne, but justice executed. The King who carried the judgment of God will return to bring the judgment of God.

He will reward those who lived by faith in Him.

He will judge all who denied Him.

He will vindicate the righteous, expose the wicked, and set all things right.

Every person will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For those who refused Him, it will be a day of terror. But for those who belong to Him, those purchased by His blood and kept by His grace, it will be a wonder beyond words. We will stand before the Judge who is also our Savior, the King who bore our justice so He could give us His mercy.

Christ is the King of Salvation

Who does the King save? “Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell secure.”

The King saves His own. He doesn’t give up on the lost cause, but those near and far, those scattered and broken, the weak and the wandering; they are the ones He saves. He loses none of those given to Him.

How does the King save? Through His life of obedience, His death for sin, His resurrection power, His ascended reign. He saves completely. He secures eternally. He protects fully.

Life in the Branch

So as we begin this Advent season, and as we come to the Table in worship today, let this promise dwell in your soul:

Rest in God’s covenant promise in Christ.

Trust in His righteousness as He grows righteousness in you.

Take comfort in His justice, already satisfied, soon to be completed.

Rejoice in His salvation, given freely to all who belong to Him.

The Branch has sprung from David’s line. The King has come. And He will come again. Let us prepare our hearts to feast with Him.