Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Are you a planner or a spontaneous person? Do you like to see well laid out plans come together in accomplishing something really important? On this Tuesday before Christmas, all around the world, people are living out the details of their well-prepared Christmas plans, including travel and gifts, meals and making memories. Did you know that the original Christmas was the accomplishment of a very detailed plan of God which had been prepared long, long before?
60 years after that Christmas the apostle Paul wrote this to the Jesus followers in the region of Galatia: “When the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship by God.” (Gal. 4:4) Wow, do you hear the power, the precision and unbelievable accomplishments of God’s Christmas plan?
Did you know God’s Christmas plan involved LOTS of people, through centuries of time, and very significant events? We’ve been following that overview of God’s story since August, calling it “the Grand Narrative”. We began in Genesis, and we’ve arrived at the Christmas story found in Matthew & Luke. Very often along the way, God spoke loudly and clearly telling our world that HE had an overall plan which would culminate in God sending a Savior to our broken world!
Do you suppose Zechariah, the old priest and father of miracle baby John the Baptist, was reading the ancient prophets with a much keener eye, looking for evidence that God’s Christmas plan was actually happening right then and involving Zechariah and Elizabeth and their son John? Watch that my friends. Are you and I reading God’s Word daily with an eye to see how God is including us in what God is doing right now in our world, especially in the places where you and I are living this Christmas?
You see, more than 700 years earlier, Isaiah had written several messages from God about God’s Christmas plan, which may have stirred old Zechariah deeply and I hope stirs your heart and mine today. Let’s look at one of those found in Isaiah 46: “Listen to me…you whom I have upheld since your birth and carried since you were born. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am God who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you, I will sustain you and I will rescue you. With whom will you compare Me…?” (Is. 46:3-5)
I love that challenge from the God who conceived and birthed you and me, the God who has sustained our lives every day we’ve lived! Do you and I recognize that God is working His plans for our generations right now? This Christmas, in the busyness of our personal plans, let’s consider how much effort and attention to detail it has required of God to sustain our lives, through all we’ve experienced, bringing us to this moment! And let’s thank Him!! I’m sure old Zechariah was! And let’s be alert, looking very closely, to see if we can discern what the plan is that God is working in our lives this Christmas!
And, my friends, there’s more from Isaiah: “Remember the former things, those of long ago, I am God and there is no other…I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still yet to come. I say: ‘My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please…” (Is. 46:9,10) Oh my that’s powerful and true; and you and I should live every day in the confidence that God has an overall purpose that He is accomplishing in our world, for His glory and the good of our human race!
As old Zechariah and Elizabeth took turns holding their miracle 6-month-old son John, he was evidence of this 700-year-old promise! For God’s Christmas plan required someone to announce the Messiah, and that would be John’s mission! But John could only do it well if he understood God’s plan and purpose, and preparing John would be Zechariah and Elizabeth’s mission.
And yes, my friends, there’s more of God’s message from Isaiah: “What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. Listen to Me, you stubborn hearted, you who are now far from My righteousness. I am bringing My righteousness near; it is not far away; and My salvation will not be delayed.“ (Is. 46:11-13)
If old Zechariah was reading that, I’m sure a shiver went up his spine. While yes, this applied directly to the miracle of God raising up King Cyrus to issue an unexpected decree that the Jewish exiles could leave captivity and return to rebuild Jerusalem and God’s great temple; it even more applied to God’s Christmas plan and God’s Son Jesus to be Savior for the world! At that very moment, two days before His birth, Joseph and Mary were slowly making their way to Bethlehem, with Mary very pregnant with Jesus, God incarnate!
The time was now; God’s plan was not going to be delayed by a census! In fact, God would use the census to bring Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, the exact place (Micah 5:2) God had predicted His Son would be born of a woman. God incarnate, to make salvation from sin bondage and redemption into God’s righteousness possible and available first to Jews and then to the Gentiles of the whole world! And amazingly God’s Christmas plan was not to be restricted to only those people alive at that time, but that Christmas and the life Jesus lived, and especially the death and resurrection of Jesus would make Jesus Savior for the entire world in every generation, for all time!
That’s why Isaiah wrote this message from God: “Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past. Was it not I, the LORD? There is no God apart from Me, a righteous God and a Savior… Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn, My mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked. Before Me every knee will bow, by Me every tongue will swear. They will say of Me, ‘In the LORD alone is deliverance…” (Is. 45:21-24) There it is my friends, God’s Christmas plan of Salvation for the world for all time!
While we rush to accomplish our Christmas plans, let’s celebrate God’s Christmas plan which is far more important and let’s thank God for how His plan has affected your life and mine! More reflection notes are at the ‘Grand Narrative’ link below and, oh my, I found a wonderful new worship song that fits so well with our reflections today; and I’ll be here tomorrow, waiting for you on Christmas Eve!
Today’s Scripture: Isaiah 46.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.