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Good Monday morning dear “Walking with Jesus” friends.
Many of you may know that I serve as “Pastor to Missionaries” with a wonderful mission organization (TEAM.org) which has about 600 missionaries around the world in current active service and about 400 retired living in North America. This past weekend I sent a note to the retired missionaries, asking for stories from those who sensed God’s call on their lives during WWII and went to serve Jesus in those places which had been devastated by the war. Oh my the stories I’ve received over the weekend… simply remarkable! How God can bring out of the ashes of something so terrible as WWII, a great wave of new young missionaries who went out in the late 1940’s and 50’s, bringing the hope and help of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to places and people which were war ravaged.
I mention that because today again let’s look into the Old Testament to see that in times of terrible war, God was pointing forward to a day of great hope… Christmas!
Isaiah 9:8 through 10:4 is a very painful description of God’s judgment on His people Israel (the northern kingdom) which has totally turned away from God and into idol worship and rejection of everything about Jehovah God. In those verses you’ll notice a frightening verse repeated four times (Is. 9:12b; 17b;21b; 10:4b). Do you see it? “yet for all this, His anger is not turned away, His hand is still upraised.”
Over the weekend we looked at God’s wonderful promise that one day in the future… “To us a child is born, a son is given and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace…” (Is. 9:6,7) That promise was held onto for 7 centuries, until finally Jesus was born in fulfillment of this promise of God. But the promise was made in a terrible time, and in the years that followed this promise, God poured out His great punishment upon Israel for their mockery and abandonment of Him. That’s what we see described in Isaiah 9:8-10:4.
Historically, this actually happened in 722bc, when the mighty army of the empire of Assyria swept across what is today Lebanon, Syria and northern Israel, slaughtering thousands of people, burning their villages to the ground and taking everything of value. (2 Kings 17).
There’s a very important lesson here my friends, and I believe we in America should take careful note. God will not be mocked. When a nation declares themselves to be “one nation under God”. When a nation prints “In God we trust” on its currency. When a nation’s founding documents declare its allegiance to God… then God watches to see if it’s true. Our nation has been profoundly blessed by God, I’m sure you would agree. But when that same nation mocks God, removes God from every segment of society, rejects God. . .God will respond, for God will not be mocked. He is patient and gracious but He is holy and just. How close is America to experiencing the judgement of God… only God knows.
In Isaiah 10:5 God turns the focus on the wicked, invading army of Assyria and pronounces His judgement on them. Indeed when Assyria completed their conquest of northern Israel they turned their focus on Jerusalem, but times had changed in Jerusalem. Wicked king Ahaz had died and his son king Hezekiah was a repentant, God honoring man who in the very first month of his reign opened the doors of the Temple and began to clean up Jerusalem, removing the idols his father had erected and restoring worship of Holy God in the Temple. 2 Chronicles 29-31 is one of the most amazing stories of revival and restoration of God’s blessing on Jerusalem and the people of Judah.
Sadly, the ruthless army of Assyria saw all the positive restoration taking place in Jerusalem and surrounded the city to destroy it. 2 Chronicles 32 is one of the greatest stories of God’s deliverance of His people in direct response to their prayers! Here it is in one verse… “King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, cried out in prayer to heaven… and the LORD sent an angel who annihilated all the fighting men and the leaders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he went into the temple of his god, some of his sons cut him down with the sword! So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from Sennacherib king of Assyria… He took care of them on every side.” (2 Chron. 32:2-22). This was such a remarkable event Isaiah dedicates two chapters to it as well, (36&37).
Now my friends, in the middle of all this, God sends a fresh word to Isaiah about the future. Look at Is. 11:1-5. “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit…” Do you remember who Jesse is? That’s king David’s father. Do you see the word “Branch” has a capital ‘B’? That’s not a typo. This is pointing forward to Jesus and Christmas!!
Isaiah continues… “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD…” Isaiah goes on to describe how this Holy Spirit anointed person will judge with righteousness, His words will be powerful, and… “…the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to Him…” (Is. 11:10). As you consider how hundreds of millions of people have come to Jesus from all around the world, do you see how this is being fulfilled?
Look next at Isaiah 12 my friends and see this wonderful 6 verses of future praise and celebration in the midst of all this warfare and bloodshed. It’s a celebration of Jesus and the difference HE can make in a single life, a family, a community, a nation… and eventually our whole world! “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song, He has become my salvation… in that day you will say ‘Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done, and proclaim that His name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for He has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”
While Isaiah was led of God to speak harsh truth about judgment, he also had the great privilege of giving several wonderful pictures of a future day when Jesus would come and bring great hope to Israel and the world. Of course people often asked…when, where, how will He come? How will we recognize Him when He comes? Here in Isaiah 11 Isaiah made it clear: He would be a descendant of Jesse and his son king David. This past weekend we saw He would live and work in the region of northern Israel (Is. 9:1,2). And in Is. 9:6,7 it’s clear this special man would be born into David’s royal line and God Almighty would send Him.
Finally, at the same time Isaiah was writing all these prophecies, another man came forward claiming he too had some important words from God, the prophet Micah. His message was essentially the same… great warning against the northern kingdom Israel and assurance that God’s judgment was coming. And then right in the middle of his warnings, Micah says this: “But you, Bethlehem… though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times… He will stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they will live securely, for then His greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And He will be their peace.” (Micah 5:2,4)
Oh my! For the first time the place where this child will be born is named in the Bible. Not only will his ancestral line trace all the way back to Jesse of Bethlehem, but He will be born there! And that’s why, the Magi who came from the east following a star, stopped in Jerusalem looking for the newborn King of Israel. But King Herod “…called together all the chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ (Messiah) was to be born. ‘In Bethlehem in Judea’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written.” (Matt. 2:4,5) and they quoted Micah 5:2! You’ll remember the Magi left them and followed the star to Bethlehem, right to the house where they found Jesus!! We’ll look at that story more closely in a few days.
There are some other Old Testament Scriptures which point forward to Jesus, but I think it’s time we jump into the Gospel accounts of the Christmas story… so we’ll do that starting tomorrow. Let’s just end today with one last prophetic word. The last page of the Old Testament, written about 400bc. The prophet Malachi writes “See, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then suddenly the LORD you are seeking will come to His temple; the messenger of the covenant whom you desire, will come’ says the LORD Almighty.” (Malachi 3:1) Do you see Malachi saying there will come someone who will prepare the way for the Messiah?
Then the final two verses of the Old Testament: “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5,6) With the last words of the Old Testament God gives us a clue to be watching for. Someone will come like the prophet Elijah, who will draw all the people to God… a forerunner of the Messiah!
You probably have a white blank page between your Old Testament and New Testament in your Bible, right? That page represents SILENCE. After Malachi 4:5,6 no prophet claimed to have any new word from God for 400 years! 4 centuries of time… as people watched, waited, listened... and that’s where we’ll pick up the story tomorrow, as the silence is broken with an angelic announcement!
Click to read today’s chapter: Isaiah 9; Isaiah 10; Isaiah 11; Isaiah 12. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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