The Days are Coming! And the Very Day is Coming Imminently! The Messianic Promise of God to be Fulfilled by Christ! - December 18, 2021 , Saturday of Third Week of Advent

 The First Reading (Jeremiah 23:5-8) and the Gospel Reading (Matthew1:18-25) of Saturday of Third Week of Advent are both messianic announcements of God’s promises to be fulfilled – first, during the Babylonian exile, through prophet Jeremiah during the Babylonian exile on God’s messianic promise to raise up a righteous branch for David as the King of justice (Jeremiah 23:5), and then, more than 500 years later, during the Roman occupation, through archangel Gabriel, revealing that the Davidic messianic King of justice (Jeremiah 23:5) is the child growing inside the womb of Mary, whom Joseph should welcome as his wife, so that the King to be born shall have his earthly Davidic father, as well (Matthew 1:20-23; cf. Matthew 1:6-16).

Days are coming! (Jeremiah 5, 7), as the days of God’s messianic promise are coming. Jeremiah made this announcement of God for his fellow Israelites scattered by the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, for those remnant Israelites in exile in Babylon. It was dark years when the Israelites were like sheep without a shepherd in far foreign lands. No temple to worship the Lord, and the Ark of the Covenant was missing, as the Babylonians ravaged Jerusalem and its Temple.

It is indicated  with God’s woes that this darkness was a result of bad shepherds, who misled God’s people, pointing bad kings of both the kingdom of Israel (northern kingdom ) and the kingdom of Judah (southern kingdom) (Jeremiah 23:1-4). As a Davidic king of Judah, Josiah worked hard to turn the remaining Jewish kingdom, southern kingdom, back to God through his strenuous reform (2 Chronicles 34:1-53:19), those who reigned Judah upon Josiah’s death (i.e. Matthew 1:11), Jehoahaz (2 Chronicles 36:2-4; cf. Jeremiah 22:10-12), Jehoiakim (2 Chronicles 36:5-8; cf. Jeremiah 22:13-19), Jehoiachin/Jeconiah (2 Chronicles 3:9-10; Matthew 1:11; cf. Jeremiah 23:20-30), and Zedekiah (2 Chronicles 36:11-14; Jeremiah 32:1-5, 52:1-11), were in corrupt and allow foreign powers, first Egypt then Babylonia, to dictate kingdom of Judah, leading to the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem, resulting in scattering God’s people. Again this, Jeremiah expressed God’ woes (Jeremiah 23:1-2; cf. Zechariah 11:4-17).  But he also prophesized God’s promise to rescue the scattered people (Jeremiah 23:3-4; cf. Zechariah 14:4-11).

Through Jeremiah, God said:

I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have banished them and bring them back to their folds; there they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds form them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear or be terrified; none shall be missing (Jeremiah 23:3-4).

See, days are coming, when I will raise up a righteous branch for David; as king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land. In hi days Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell in security. This is the name to be given im: “The Lord our justice” (Jeremiah 23:5-6).

The above oracle of God is His messianic promise for the post-exilic restoration. But, it goes beyond restoring Jerusalem with the administrative leadership of Zerubbabel (1 Chronicle 3:19; Ezra 2:2, 3:1-13; Nehemiah 7:7; Zechariah 4:1-14; Haggai 1:1-2:23; Matthew 1:12-13), as it is also applied to what archangel Gabriel told Joseph in the Gospel Reading (Matthew 1:18-25), because Christ (Messiah) to come to completely fulfill God’s oracle (Jeremiah 23:3-6) as the Davidic shepherd King of justice (cf. Malachi 3:20) is in Mary’s womb due to come out soon.

After God’s promise to bring Christ through Jeremiah’s prophecy projected to the post-exilic restoration (Jeremiah 23:3-6), Jerusalem and its Temple were restored through Zerubbabel's initial governorship (e.g. Haggai 1:1-2:23). However, the Israelites were again drifted away from God and became like lost sheep without a good spiritual leader. Even after the Maccabean revolt against the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, from 167 BC to 160BC, to gain freedom to worship the Lord without foreign power’s desecrating imposition of pagan deities, the Israelites were put under the Roman rule since Pompey’s conquest of Jerusalem in 63BC. And this was also a dark period of no prophet since Malachi, nearly 400 years, until John the Baptist began announcing the imminence of the coming of the Christ as promised by God and as prophesized by Jeremiah, Isaiah, and other prophets.

So, archangel made Annunciation to Mary to be the Theotokos (Mother of God), which she accepted with her fiat, serving God as His handmaid (Luke 1:26-38). And Christ was incarnated settled in the womb of Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35; Matthew 1:20). But, this happened totally unbeknownst to Joseph. And, when he found out about Mary’s unexpected pregnancy, Joseph was troubled but did not want any trouble on Mary. Therefore, Joseph was thinking to secretly break his betrothal with Mary (Matthew 1:19). Otherwise, it would look as if he had committed adultery for marrying a woman impregnated by someone other than him.

It was when archangel Gabriel came to Joseph in his dream and said:

Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary our wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a so and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from sins (Matthew 1:20-21).

Joseph was reminded with these words of Gabriel that God wanted him to be a part of fulfilling His messianic promise to save through the Davidic shepherd King of justice (e.g. Jeremiah 23:3-6; cf. Malachi 3:20), as he is also Davidic (Matthew 1:6-16, called “son of David”(Matthew 1:20). And for this God’s promise to be fulfilled, Joseph needed to take Mary his home as his beloved wife so that he can raise the Christ the King together with Mary the Theotokos.

And Gabriel further explained that this is also to fulfill what Isaiah had prophesized during when Judah was governed by a corrupt king, Ahaz:

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23).

So, Joseph accepted God’s will on him to be an integral part of fulfilling His messianic promise, with his beloved wife, Mary.

Yes, the days are coming, as Jeremiah (Jeremiah 23:5)! The days to celebrate the arrival of the incarnated Christ, Christmas Season, following Advent preparatory Season, spanning from the feast of the Nativity of the Lord to the feast of the Baptism of the Lord! Yes, the day is coming (Jeremiah 23:7)! The day of the incarnated Christ’s arrival, coming out of Mary’s womb in Bethlehem (Micah 5:1)! And the Magi from the east will come to pay their homage to the newborn King!

So, we are concluding Third Week of Advent, the week of Gaudete Sunday, with our increased joyful anticipation to receive the Christ the Shepherd King of justice in our hearts so that we are to be agents of God’s messianic plan to further unfold!

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The genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel Reading (Matthew 1:1-17) of yesterday (December 17, Friday of Third Week of Advent) together with God’s messianic promise through Isaiah, reflecting Jacob’s blessing of Judah (Genesis 49:8-12), as in the First Reading of December 17 (Isaiah 49:2, 8-10), to better understand how today’s readings (Jeremiah 23:5-8; Matthew1:18-25) are related also in the historical context.  We will read Matthew 1:1-25 for Christmas Vigil Mass.