The following is my translation of the notes and useful applications of the Old Testament Reading for the First Sunday of Advent (Ad Te Levavi), Jeremiah 23:5–8, as they are found in Das Weimarische Bibelwerk (1877). Square brackets indicate my own notes and additions. For the useful applications, I recommend the reader see this very helpful article by Dr. Benjamin T. G. Mayes.
III. He sets before them in contrast [to this account of punishment (v. 1–4)], the prophecy concerning the true Helper and Savior Jesus Christ. (v. 5–8)
Annotated Text
5. “Behold, * the time (of the New Testament) is coming,” says the Lord, “that I will raise up for David (from his stem and descendants, according to My promise) † a righteous Branch (a Son); and He (namely, the Messiah) shall ** be a (spiritual) King, who will rule well, and establish justice and righteousness on earth (He will acquire perfect righteousness through His obedience and suffering,1 and appropriate it to the members of His kingdom through faith, and protect His Church against enemies).
* Jeremiah 30:3
† Isaiah 4:2ff.
** Isaiah 32:1 (33:14–16; Psalm 132:17; Isaiah 11:3ff.)
1 † See Psalm 22:31–32; for He will be a help through an everlasting redemption, v. 6.
6. At that time * shall Judah (the Christian Church) be helped, and shall Israel (who is each true believer in Christ) dwell secure. And this will be His name (the Messiah’s), that one will call Him (in true faith), “The Lord (the true God), who is our righteousness” (who has brought us eternal righteousness, Daniel 9:24; who also has been made righteousness for us from God, 1 Corinthians 1:30; so that we might become in Him the righteousness which avails before God, 2 Corinthians 5:21).
* Jeremiah 33:16; Isaiah 45:24 (Isaiah 53:11; Romans 3:21)
7. Therefore, behold, * the time is coming,” says the Lord, “that one will no longer say, ‘As true as the Lord lives, who has led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt (in a bodily manner),’
* Jeremiah 16:14–15
8. but rather, ‘as true as the Lord lives, who has led forth the seed of the house of Israel (in a spiritual manner according to this type), and has brought them out from the land of the north and from all the lands1 into which I had driven them, so that shall dwell in their own land.’”
1 † This teaches that the talk is of the general assembly of believers in the New Testament, John 10:16; Matthew 8:11; of which those from the north have been a prelude and a sample.
Useful Applications
III. DOCTRINE: That Christ the Son of God who has been sent form the heavenly Father into the world (signified through the true Branch of David), is the King of His believers, by whom they obtain righteousness and eternal salvation. (v. 5–6)
PATTERN OF SOUND WORDS 