“In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.”
” I will make the descendants of David my servant and Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars in the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.”
Roughly 586 years would pass before this prophecy would be revealed in the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. The Babylonians would take the Israelites into exile for 70 years. After that, Israel would have a brief comeback, but a silent 400-plus years would pass before the Lord would speak. The time of the prophets would come to an end with the birth of Christ.
Just think how renowned John the Baptist was. After 400-plus years of no prophets and no word from the Lord, John the Baptist entered the equation, speaking just like the prophets of old. He must have drawn so much attention. No one alive in those days would have ever heard a prophet speak. The Israelites had been searching for God for a long time and slowly replacing Levitical law with hundreds of tiny things to do to live like the Lord. They became legalistic about rules and regulations. Your life must look like this and you must do that to be close to God.
Verse 22 gives us a reminder of our role in this world. We are to be Levites who minister before the Lord. The Israelite leaders never forgot their role; they just added to it to become more holy. John 14:1-6 says, “1 Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, ]I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Thomas asks a real question in verse 5. It is the same question that the Israelites had been asking for over 400 years: “We do not know where you are going, and how can we know your way?” The answer is simple, Jesus! Jesus says that He is the way, the truth, and the life they had been searching for. It was hard to accept Jesus and this truth because, for so long, they had been winging it with do’s and regulations. Their faith had become a system of things to do, and the relationship part of it had been lost.
It has been over 2,000 years since Jesus walked this earth. I can see how people in today’s world can slip into the same mindset—nothing supernatural, nothing amazing, no relationship with Christ, just a preacher nagging at us, telling everyone to be holy and stop sinning. The relationship is lost. Jesus wants to be your closest companion. He is not a system of regulations but a deep, abiding relationship.
Meet with Jesus every day and study the word of God. After all, you and I are supposed to be called Levites and minister to the Lord. These guys took a lifelong vow to serve the Lord. What vow have you taken?
Prayer: Father, we are called a royal priesthood and a holy nation under God. I pray that today I will take tangible steps to know You better. I pray that I will carve out time to study and read Your word. I pray I will always listen for Your Holy Spirit guiding me and always heed the calling and direction of Your Holy Spirit. I pray that I seek You first and Your righteousness and that I rest in You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let It Go 
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