Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
When you think of a voice of HOPE for your generation, who has that been? Is there someone who has courageously spoken truth which has awakened hope for you regardless of the darkness around you, no matter where you live in the world nor your age? We’re in a 30-day journey together toward Christmas 2022 and I’ve been drawing us to consider people or events in the ancient history of the Old Testament which pointed forward to that first Christmas and Jesus.
Today let’s go back to about 740bc. A King named Uzziah has just died, leaving the people of Jerusalem, and the surrounding area called Judah, in great grief. He was beloved by many Jewish people for he had reigned 52 years as king and those years had for the most part been times of peace and prosperity.
One man went to the Temple in Jerusalem to grieve, for he was deeply moved by the news of the king’s death. In his memoirs that man described the life changing encounter with God which he had that day: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the LORD, high and exalted, seated on a throne and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above the LORD were seraphim angels, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their face, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD God Almighty, the whole earth is filled with His glory.’ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and the thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke. ‘Woe to me!’ I cried, ‘I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD God Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:1-5)
Wow, what a description of an overwhelming encounter with Almighty God! I wonder what picture comes into your mind as you consider these words. Do you know the name of this man? ISAIAH. And his life was so dramatically changed through this encounter that for the rest of his long life, Mr. Isaiah became a primary spokesman of God, a prophet, who gives us 66 powerful chapters of the messages he received from God. The book of Isaiah is found in the middle of the Bible and pointed forward to the great miracle God accomplished that first Christmas, which changed the world!
Isaiah was overwhelmed by the vision of God he had in the temple that day, and suddenly the vision became very practical and very personal. He records what happened next with these words: “Then one of the seraphim angels flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ Then I heard the voice of the LORD God Almighty saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here I am, send me!” (Is. 6:6-8)
Do you see how this experience points forward to Christmas my friends? Each person who had a key part of the Christmas story was given the privilege to tell their unique story. Mary was led by the Holy Spirit to her old relative Elizabeth for Gabriel had told her that Elizabeth was also experiencing a miraculous pregnancy. (Luke 1:39-45, 56) Mary stayed with Zechariah and Elizabeth for 3 months and can you imagine, my friends, the hours those two women spent talking about the miracle babies growing in their wombs? Zechariah the priest, Elizabeth’s husband, you may recall, had been struck mute by the angel Gabriel who had first brought the news to him. (Luke 1:18-20) Yet during those months I think it’s safe to assume each day Zechariah was using a writing tablet to teach these two dear women all that he had learned in his decades of Scripture studies about God’s promised Messiah and His forerunner. (Luke 1:12-17) Zechariah miraculously regained his ability to speak at a very strategic moment… the naming of his miracle son! (Luke 1:57-79) And immediately his mouth was filled with praise to God and instruction to the people about the significance of this child named John. We know him as John the Baptist, the man privileged to introduce Jesus as “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world…” (John 1:29)
The shepherds, of course, are recorded to be the first people to see the newborn Jesus and the record says: “When the shepherds had seen Him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.” (Luke 2:17) The Magi, following the night star from a distant land, were the people God used to announce to King Herod and his court that Jesus had been born. (Matt. 2:1,2) After they found young Jesus and Mary in Bethlehem, they presented their gifts and worshiped. The record then says, “And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” (Matt. 2:12) We have no record of what they may have told to the people back in the land from which they had come, but can you imagine for the rest of their lives there was no story they were more anxious to tell anyone who would listen, than what they experienced following that star?
For Mr. Isaiah it didn’t take long before he began to receive from God very specific messages that pointed forward to Christmas. Isaiah recorded in his very next chapter, this message: “The LORD Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call Him Immanuel…” (Is. 7:14) The word “virgin” was understood to mean a woman unable to bear children and of course in Israel’s history several women experienced the miraculous intervention of God in opening their wombs, often late in life, to bear children. Usually, these miraculous children had very specific and strategic roles in God’s plan for His people Israel. Do you remember God did that with Sarah, wife of Abraham and her son was Isaac. (Gen. 21:1-7) God did it again with Isaac’s wife Rebekah and she bore twins, Jacob and Esau. (Gen. 25:19-28) God did it again with Jacob and his two wives Rachel and Leah. (Gen. 29 & 30) God did it with the birth of Samson (Judges 13) and finally with Hannah and her miraculous son Samuel, as recorded in 1 Samuel 1,2.But of course, God did it with two women in the Christmas story, old Elizabeth and young Mary. But I’m sure we all understand the distinctive miracle Mary experienced which is unlike any other miraculous conception. Mary’s conception was with the Holy Spirit of God, not with any human man. (Luke 1:30-35) The angel Gabriel had told Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you. So, the holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.” While all those other miraculous conceptions and births were amazing and each child was very significant, never before or since has a conception been accomplished in this miraculous union between a woman and the Holy Spirit of God! And never before or since has the child conceived in this way been known as the Son of God!
Finally, may I point you to one other link between the words of Isaiah, written more than 700 years before that first Christmas, and Jesus? Matthew gives us the unique story of Joseph’s visitation by an angel who explained Mary’s miraculous pregnancy to him. The record says: “The angel said… ‘she will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the LORD had said through the prophet [Isaiah] ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him ‘Immanuel’, which means, ‘God with us’.” Matt. 2:21-23)
Oh, my friends, I began today asking you what voice speaks HOPE to you? It is my sincere desire that these daily “Walking with Jesus” encounters you and I have, bring you HOPE because I point you to Immanuel, Jesus! But what about the young ones, the generations which are following us. Do our voices, yours and mine, bring them HOPE this Christmas because we point them to Jesus? I’ve found a powerful Christmas song sung by children which has deeply touched my heart, and I hope it touches yours:
Today’s Scripture is Isaiah 6:1-8.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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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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