As we look into the study today, I want each of you to hold close to your mind our current social situation. I am not trying to get political, but the fact of the matter is the Bible often interacts with our ideas of how life should be lived, both as an individual and as a society. So while this chapter was not written to be an answer to the questions 21st century America is trying to solve, it does provide the believer a rock of hope that we can hold onto. This chapter gives us a glimpse into the Gospel that was to come and has now arrived. It gives a picture of governance that is not derived from nationality but rather from our Creator and Savior, given life through the Spirit. If Christians were to rally around the talking points from this passage, I think that we would experience a lot more hope in our daily walks. We also would live more purposeful lives not from a place of fear or offense but rather a place of strength and provoked revival. 

• Vv. 1-8 We are given by the author a comparison of the one who lives and rules with nobility and those who live as fools. This lifestyle of righteousness was drastically missing from the people of Israel. They were a people content with their possessions and wealth, no longer concerned with the ways of the Lord. They were no longer concerned with anyone but themselves. The evil stand on nothing and speak lies for selfish gains. But it is those who are noble who will speak for truth and seek the will of the Lord. We are given the picture of a righteous king who will rule and care for all people. This is a far cry from the kings of their time.

• Vv. 9-14 The nation has become comfortable and by their comfort they had lost sights of the true God. Just as they had produced bad fruit, God will stop their production of fruit. The wine that they had gotten drunk on is being soaked up and in their soberness they will see the righteousness of the Lord. The city of complacency is being leveled and the people of luxury will be in distress. 

• Vv. 15-20 The author gives this promise: though the land is being leveled, God promises His Spirit to be poured out onto the land making it fruitful once again. This will institute justice, peace, and righteousness among many other good and flavorful fruits. These fruitful fields will come from the wilderness, which was a desert. 

So after all that breakdown, how can we see this through our lens today? We have to recognize the depravity of Israel. Israel had become a place where God was taken for granted. God had brought them into a Promised Land that was promised to their faithful forefathers. God had intervened on behalf of and worked through people in Israel time and again for their good. Yet, Israel continued to produce bad fruit. They adopted the morals and gods of the people around them. They no longer trusted in God but in themselves and the strength of human allies. God was going to, and eventually did, wipe the foundation clean. 

This gives way to the prophetic voice of the righteous king to come. That king would come in the form of Jesus. It is Jesus who would come and reverse the curses and restore man into the Image of God. It is Jesus who would protect the poor, needy, and broken. He brings life giving eternal water to the dry places and gives wisdom and knowledge freely to those who seek. He is the one who uplifts the noble and brings down the lofty. 

Who then are the people, his subjects? The church is the body of Christ and are the people who are the beneficiaries of the fulfillment of his promise. By the Holy Spirit which fills us as believers, we may have fruitful abundant lives set out for the glorification of our God. It is by his grace that we may be called into a relationship to him where we receive the blessings of his rulership in the form of peace. What an amazing promise in times like these.

When will we recognize that the promise of a righteous and just king will not be fulfilled by the empty promises of the next campaign? No human government will quench the thirst for heaven which the world is calling for. Only when we recognize Jesus as ruler of our lives will he come and rain down his Spirit, making this wilderness a fruitful land.