Friday, March 13, 2015

God Promises and Delivers

Their prince shall be one of themselves;
    their ruler shall come out from their midst;
I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me,
    for who would dare of himself to approach me?

declares the Lᴏʀᴅ.
And you shall be my people,
    and I will be your God.  (Je 30:21-22)


Jeremiah has been describing the future restoration of Israel and Judah.  Among these is the promise one who will arise from among them and is one of them—i.e. one of their flesh-and-blood brethren.  This is important because he will have two offices in regard to his brethren: king and priest.  God will supply one who will both rule and intercede for the people by drawing near to God.  The only other mention in Scripture of one having this dual role is Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God (Ge 14:18).  There must be one chosen of God to be priest after the order of Melchizedek, who will also rule in peace (as Salem is translated).

After assuring their election, the Lord promises that He will be their God.  This is a wonderful, comforting promise to a nation acting wickedly, but I realize two things.  First, He wants a people.  He wants His elect.  Second, He promises to draw them to Himself and to make Himself available as their God as an act of divine volition and not of their desire.  And being on the heels of the king-priest promised, we might assume that the promised on coming to the people to do all this work is God Himself.  No other person would be able to function in the way needed to bring reconciliation between God and man.

Perhaps you know that I am describing what could only be accomplished and explained through the person and work of Jesus Christ.  It bears repeating.  Here in Jeremiah we have yet another promise of a messiah, who would fulfill, beyond our expectations, all that our God required of both us and Himself and reconcile Creator with created.

What a great God!  What a great Savior!  What a great salvation!

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