RTW 2024

“In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.” 

Jeremiah 33:15-16 (NRSVUE)

God’s promise of good things in the future though the present looked bleak:

And yet, O Sovereign LORD, you have told me to buy the field—paying good money for it before these witnesses—even though the city will soon be handed over to the Babylonians.
Jeremiah 32:25

• Branch: צֶמַח  tsemach: sprout, growth, branch
• Tree/plant analogies throughout the OT symbolize: growth, abundance, peace, life, spiritual prosperity, stability, protection, strength, expansion, safety, well-being, flourishing, careful cultivation.
• For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
  Isaiah 53:2 (ESV)
• For the Israeilites, the idea of sitting under the shade of one’s own fig tree indicated safety, peace and well-being. During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all of them under their vines and fig trees.
  1 Kings 4:25
• Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path that sinners tread or sit in the seat of scoffers, but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. (NRSV)
  Psalm 1:1-3
• Growth takes time. It doesn’t always look pretty. It doesn’t always happen in ideal circumstances. 
• Jesus is our safety, our צֶמַח  (tsemach), our reminder that things are always growing.
• Growth should look like justice, righteousness, safety.

Never stop growing.