The people of Israel and Judah will not serve foreign countries. No! They will serve the Lord their God. And they will serve David their king, {\cf2\super [236]} I will send that king to them.
This message is from the Lord,\par “The time is coming,”\par “when I will raise up a good ‘sprout.’ {\cf2\super [181]} \par He will be a king\par who will rule in a wise way.\par He will do what is fair and right\par in the land.\par
I say this because I know the plans that I have for you.” This message is from the Lord. “I have good plans for you. I don’t plan to hurt you. I plan to give you hope and a good future.
One of their own people will lead them.\par That ruler will come from my people.\par People can come close to me\par only if I ask them to.\par So I will ask that leader to come to me,\par and he will be close to me.\par
After this the people of Israel will come back. Then they will look for the Lord their God, and for David their king. In the last days, they will come to honor the Lord and his goodness.
The wise men asked people, “Where is the new baby that is the king of the Jews? We saw the star that shows he was born. We saw the star rise in the sky in the east. We came to worship him.”
God has brought one of David’s descendants {\cf2\super [262]} to Israel (the Jews) to be their Savior. {\cf2\super [263]} That descendant is Jesus. God promised to do this.
David was a prophet {\cf2\super [33]} and knew something God said. God promised David that he would make a person from David’s family to be a king like David. {\cf2\super [34]}