A Christmas Carol: W1 - FRI
Prophecies and promises Isaiah 7:14 All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).
Isaiah 9:2 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine…6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!
Isaiah 53: 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
I freely admit that I love a story of a hero, whether real or fictitious (Superman, Captain America, etc…), I’ll take them all. There’s just something about the picture of a hero swooping in, at just the right time, to save those that can’t save themselves, that gives me chills every time.
God never leaves us in darkness, there is always a story of hope even if off on the horizon. And in the midst of our human story, when things seemed hopeless, God sends us a promise in the form of a prophecy.
As the story goes, God’s chosen people, the Israelites, are in captivity. They are far away from their home, from the temple, and they are enslaved. It wasn’t the first time it had happened to them as a people, and maybe that’s what made it even worse. Their history kept repeating itself, so what’s to say it wouldn’t continue to do so from now till the end of time.
But in the midst of their darkness, their struggle, a hero is coming. That hero will come as a child, and is the fulfillment of the promise that God is with them. The government will rest on his shoulders and will bring a piece that will never end. He is everything they’ve ever dreamed of.
However, in the midst of these promises comes another one that is harder to process. Isaiah tells of God sending a servant who, among other things, would be pierced for our wrongs, crushed for our sins. The reason this didn’t make sense is because in Isaiah 9, we’re told that our hero will be an everlasting father, that his kingdom will never end, that he will reign, forever. So how can that be if he is pierced and crushed?
Obviously, we’ll see how the religious leaders and teachers of the day misinterpreted God’s prophecies and promises. They only got part of the story right. There would be a coming kingdom, but it was not of this world. There would be a coming hero, but that hero had no throne on earth to sit on, for that hero would be God in the flesh. And that hero, in order to save us, would have to lay down His life for us.
Certainly, a hero was coming. The promise was made, and the promise would give them hope. They would hold onto that hope for 100’s of years as they watched and waited. However, when the fullness of time had come they would be quick to realize that their hero? He wasn’t the one they wanted, but he was definitely the one that we all needed.
Isaiah 9:2 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine…6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!
Isaiah 53: 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
I freely admit that I love a story of a hero, whether real or fictitious (Superman, Captain America, etc…), I’ll take them all. There’s just something about the picture of a hero swooping in, at just the right time, to save those that can’t save themselves, that gives me chills every time.
God never leaves us in darkness, there is always a story of hope even if off on the horizon. And in the midst of our human story, when things seemed hopeless, God sends us a promise in the form of a prophecy.
As the story goes, God’s chosen people, the Israelites, are in captivity. They are far away from their home, from the temple, and they are enslaved. It wasn’t the first time it had happened to them as a people, and maybe that’s what made it even worse. Their history kept repeating itself, so what’s to say it wouldn’t continue to do so from now till the end of time.
But in the midst of their darkness, their struggle, a hero is coming. That hero will come as a child, and is the fulfillment of the promise that God is with them. The government will rest on his shoulders and will bring a piece that will never end. He is everything they’ve ever dreamed of.
However, in the midst of these promises comes another one that is harder to process. Isaiah tells of God sending a servant who, among other things, would be pierced for our wrongs, crushed for our sins. The reason this didn’t make sense is because in Isaiah 9, we’re told that our hero will be an everlasting father, that his kingdom will never end, that he will reign, forever. So how can that be if he is pierced and crushed?
Obviously, we’ll see how the religious leaders and teachers of the day misinterpreted God’s prophecies and promises. They only got part of the story right. There would be a coming kingdom, but it was not of this world. There would be a coming hero, but that hero had no throne on earth to sit on, for that hero would be God in the flesh. And that hero, in order to save us, would have to lay down His life for us.
Certainly, a hero was coming. The promise was made, and the promise would give them hope. They would hold onto that hope for 100’s of years as they watched and waited. However, when the fullness of time had come they would be quick to realize that their hero? He wasn’t the one they wanted, but he was definitely the one that we all needed.
- Is there a promise of God’s that you hold onto when life is particularly difficult?
- Of all the names for God, which one is one of your favorites and why?
- How do you and I stay open to what God is up to even when what He’s up to isn’t what we want, but it is definitely what we need?
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