It appears that the days that “are surely
coming” still haven’t arrived as the righteous Branch raised up for David was
“despised and rejected” (Isaiah 53) and crucified by the sheep he came to
shepherd. Of course the righteous Branch was resurrected and the remnant gathered
on Pentecost would proclaim the reign of the righteous Branch from Jerusalem to
Samaria to the ends of the earth. Unfortunately the empire figured out
assimilation was the best way to stamp out the Holy Spirit fire so the remnant would
be more true to Roman rule than the righteous Branch. And so even if there are
days of righteousness and justice and wise dealings they don’t last as one
tyrant is overthrown only to be replaced by another. So what shall we say about
this promise as yet unfilled? Well maybe Jeremiah’s idea of what the Branch
would accomplish and God’s “plans to prosper… with a hope and a future”
(Jeremiah 29:11) were not exactly the same thing. In the temporal realm
branches raised up are not like the capital B Branch that comes humble and
riding on a donkey and in the grand scheme of things we should not look to
small b Branches to be anything more than twigs. We are citizens of a realm
that exists simultaneously in the finite present and the infinite future and as
such are free like Jeremiah to speak truth to “the powers that be” without
counting the cost even if the cost is a cross. In that way the days that “are
surely coming” have already arrived and are still coming as we work to
transform what is into what will be waiting with eager expectation for the day
when “they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing”
will have fully come.
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