In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which [the righteous Branch] will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’ Jeremiah 33:16

I remember the day vividly. Our church secretary came into my classroom, flustered, with a look of concern on her face. She motioned for me to go into my office so we could speak in private. She asked me to turn on the television. I looked in astonishment as the second jet struck the south tower of the World Trade Center. In a brief moment, I realized that the security and safety of the United States had been lost. No longer would mere geographic isolation be enough. Would my daughter and the children I taught face a life of imminent danger?

I often wonder if this concern was on the mind of every parent, all the time, in the nation of Judah. Her history had been one of constant military conquest and defeat. Were her parents wondering in the days of the heavily armed Philistines whether their children would be enslaved? Were her parents wondering if their infants would be among the next children bashed against the walls by the Assyrians? Were her parents constantly wrestling with whether to go into servitude in Babylon or die by famine, disease, or sword within the walls of Jerusalem?

How beautiful these words of Jeremiah must have sounded in their ears. Amidst Jeremiah’s prophecies about the uncertain future of the physical nation of Judah, he brings good news of the spiritual future of his people. The LORD will save them. The LORD will restore peace to His people. When all around them their world seemed to be falling apart, the LORD would call them out of it to dwell in peace with Him forever.

How can this be? The LORD will provide a Savior. His role as champion goes far beyond earthly battlefields. He will come into this world to take on the powers of evil in the spiritual realms. He will carry the fight all the way to the cross where He will defeat death once and for all through His own death. He will establish peace, not worldly peace, but peace with the LORD. He is our righteous king. We have been saved. We live in peace.

Blessings on your Advent Season,

Frank Van Brocklin Principal/Staff Minister