Perhaps the single most
astounding supernatural event ever to take place, outside of creation itself,
was the incarnation of Jesus the Christ. And by incarnation, I refer not only
to the miraculous birth, but to the entirety of Christ taking on human flesh
and dwelling among us. To Christians, it is rightly called the most significant
event in history.
It is quite easy for us to
look back from our vantage point in history and understand at least to some
extent how this event was one of wonder and amazement. Less easy for us to realize is how important
the coming of the Messiah was held to be by believers before the period of time
which bears his name: A.D. - the abbreviation for the Latin "anno
Domini" - which means "in the year of the Lord." I would like to try to convey a little bit of the
sense of anxious waiting and expectation and excitement that was present in the
faithful of the time period before the coming of the Savior.
When
we look at the Bible, we find that throughout Old Testament history, God's
people looked forward to the coming of a Savior, though the details of that
event were often only seen through a mirror dimly, to borrow a phrase from Paul's
letter to the Corinthians.
Most
theologians seem to agree that Genesis 3:15 contains the first promise of a
coming savior. You will recall that Adam
and Eve had just confessed that they had broken God's command, and while the
promise was made in a statement to the serpent, it was given in the presence of
Adam and Eve, and for their benefit.
"And the
LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed
above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou
go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Genesis 3:14-15
This promise of enmity
between Eve and the serpent, and between her offspring and the serpent's
offspring are fulfilled on at least two levels.
On a purely natural level, is there any member of animal kingdom that is
as universally disliked as snakes? On a
spiritual level though, the enmity is even more pronounced. We might consider
the seed of the serpent to be the spirit of disobedience, which has clearly,
throughout history, been at war against the seed of the Woman who is Jesus
Christ. Satan, embodied by the serpent in the garden, now most often embodied
by this spirit of disobedience, did indeed bruise the Messiah's fully human
body in the crucifixion; but that same act which Satan meant for evil was the
way God chose to crush the head of the serpent.
Great damage was done to the human race when Satan
beguiled Adam and Eve to choose to disobey God's command. However, this promise that the seed of the
woman would triumph over that damage, while it contained very little in the way
of specific information as to how it would be accomplished, seems to have been
fully embraced by them. So much so, that
in the very first verse of Genesis 4 we read this: "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and
bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD." - Or "by the help of the LORD" as some translations put it. This
has often been cited as an indication that Eve mistakenly thought that the
promise of her offspring bruising the head of the serpent was being fulfilled
right then and there in the birth of Cain.
If this was true, then she was to be sorely disappointed to find that
her firstborn was not the promised one who would set things right.
If we were to trace the
Genesis account to the flood and beyond, we would notice that despite the
ongoing rebellion of man in his disobedience to God, there was in every
generation at least some who can be
identified as God's people, though the number was so small in the days of Noah
that a world-wide judgment took place, sparing only one family.
However, throughout this
long period of history, I don't think it’s a stretch to think that all of those
generations of God-fearing people remembered and held fast to that promise made
of one who would be born of a woman and who would bruise the serpent's
head. In fact, that promise was likely
the hope they would treasure in their hearts while personally witnessing that
"the wickedness of man was great in
the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually", as we read of Noah's generation.
In support of that
conjecture, consider this. Adam, who was
an eye witness of this promise, was still alive for the first 243 years of
Methuselah's life. Methuselah was still
alive for nearly the first 100 years of Shem’s life. Shem, the son of Noah, did
not die until Abraham was 150 years old.
In other words, in terms of the possibility of face to face
communication, it would compare to your great-grandfather telling your
grandfather of a great promise, and then your grandfather telling your father,
who in turn tells you. Do you think the
substance of a promise that is life changing and in fact world changing might
survive those few re-tellings?
Just to clarify, the Bible
does not tell us that Abraham ever spoke to Methuselah, or Methuselah to Shem,
or Shem to Abraham, but the possibility does exist. And I might add that I took the liberty of
taking those years quoted from a book called "The Timechart of Biblical
History" without which it is doubtful I'd have noticed the overlap in life
spans. I'll also add that it would be easy enough to confirm the accuracy of
the chart using the genealogies listed in Genesis chapters 5, 10, and 11.
Given the close"
generational links", do you think that the great promise given in the
garden may have come to mind when the LORD spoke to Abraham as recorded in
Genesis 12?
"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee
out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a
land that I will shew thee: And I will
make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;
and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will
bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall
all families of the earth be blessed." Genesis 12:1-3
I
can't help but think that this promise was understood by Abraham to be an
extension of the original promise made in the garden. In
fact, I can't help but wonder if that were a factor explaining why Abraham's
wife Sarah seems to attempt to give God's promise a little help when she
arranges for her handmaid to bear Abraham a son, since she herself was
barren. But eventually God did intervene
and Sarah did conceive and bear a
son.
This same scenario played
out in the life of Abraham's grandson Jacob.
His beloved wife Rachel also was barren, and she too arranged for her
husband to have a child by her handmaid. Later when Rachel did bear a son, she said that "God had taken away her reproach."
John Gill in his commentary
on that passage says this: "the reproach of barrenness with which she was
reproached among her neighbors; and perhaps by her sister Leah, and indeed it
was a general reproach in those times; and especially, it was the more grievous
to good women in the family of Abraham, because they were not the means of
multiplying his seed according to the promise, and could have no hope of the
Messiah springing from them." close quote.
This holding on to and
looking for the fulfillment of the promises of one being born of woman in whom
all the families of the earth would be blessed when he bruised the head of the
serpent seems to have become a major motivation for childbearing in
Israel. And of course as time went on,
by further revelations by God, the details of how this would come about were
made clearer.
Over 400 years later, the
first Passover took place as the LORD brought the nation of Israel out of
bondage in Egypt. God's command to sacrifice a lamb, and to put its blood upon
the door posts of the homes of the children of Israel so that they could escape
the judgment of Egypt was a picture of the coming judgment of all men. This was
a significant clue as to the exact nature of God's method for the seed of the
woman to bless all the families of the earth.
The subsequent giving of the Law through Moses only served to reinforce
the necessity of the birth of the promised one by showing them the many ways
that they fell short so they would not miss the fact that they, like Adam, were
disobedient.
When God, by way of his
servant Moses, instituted the sacrificial offerings in Israel, it was yet more
information about this promised one and how he would defeat the serpent.
In the book of Judges we
read of another woman who was barren, but who received a visit from the angel
of the LORD
"And there was a certain man of
Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was
barren, and bare not. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and
said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt
conceive, and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine
nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: For, lo, thou shalt conceive,
and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a
Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the
hand of the Philistines." Judges 13:2-5
By this point in time, the
Israelites had possessed the written history given by God to Moses, for about
300 years. That history, which we still
possess today in the first 5 books of the Old Testament, contained both and
account of the promise from the garden and the promise to Abraham of a son born
of a woman who would set things right.
Do you think that maybe
when the angel of the LORD appeared to Manoah saying his wife would bear a son
who would be a deliverer, that they made a connection? Don't you think that they at least hoped
that this was to be the long awaited fulfillment of those promises? I do.
Not only that, but don't
you suppose the other God fearing men and women in Israel knew of Manoah's
visitation by the angel of the LORD? How
the angel promised that his wife would bear a son who would deliver Israel? And
Samson did indeed deliver Israel from the Philistines, insuring their
continuing existence as a people of God.
Certainly he was not "the" deliverer that was hoped
for, which was attested to by what we might be tempted to refer to as character
flaws, but can be more accurately labeled sins.
But the point is that there
can be no doubt that in Israel there was expectation and an anxious looking for
of the birth of the promised one. The
son who would be born of woman would set the things right that had gone so
horribly wrong because of Adam's disobedience! All the families of the earth
would be blessed by this promised one who would come through the nation of
Israel.
We see this reproach and
despair of a barren woman played out once again in the birth of the prophet
Samuel. His mother Hannah poured out her heart to the LORD as recorded in the
1st Book of Samuel.
"And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD,
and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and
said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine
handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto
thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of
his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head." 1 Samuel 1:10-11
Elkanah called her inability
to have children an affliction. No doubt
she too felt that deep seated desire to be a part of the great work her people,
not only to become a great nation, but as part of that, to be a blessing to all
of the families of the earth. And
perhaps, just perhaps, that God would choose her to be the woman who would bear
the promised one. The one who would
finally set things right! The one who would undo the damage done to the human
race in the garden.
This attitude endured and
was still prevalent at the time of the birth of Christ. In the first chapter of Luke we read of Zacharias
and Elisabeth, who are referred to as "well stricken in years." Can
there be any doubt then, that this inability to bear a child in light of the
promises of a coming deliverer still weighed heavily on the mind of Elizabeth
causing her to refer to it as a reproach among men, as recorded in Luke
1:24-25:
"And after those days his
wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath the
Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my
reproach among men."
You may have noticed a
common thread through the Old Testament, of women who are barren, who by the
intervention of God, bear a son. We saw
it with Abraham's wife Sarah, with Isaac's wife Rebekah, Jacob's wife Rachel. We see that with the mother of Samson,
Samuel's mother Hannah, and even continuing into the New Testament with
Elisabeth the mother of John the Baptist.
All of these involve, to at least some extent, a miraculous birth. A barren woman is not called barren because
she was slow to have children, but because she cannot have
children. When a barren woman conceives
it is a miracle. And the older the
barren woman is when she conceives a child, the more miraculous it is. When Sarah became the mother of Isaac at the
age of 90, it was clearly a supernatural event.
Of course all of these were just a foreshadowing of the birth of Christ,
and the picture is always lesser than the fulfillment. As such, these
miraculous births pale in comparison with the miracle of the birth of the
Messiah, not just in the fact of a virgin giving birth, for even that is minor
compared to God taking on human flesh and dwelling among us. But each of these women were another reminder
to faithful Jews which lead to their anxious watching for the coming of the
promised one.
As the years went by, more
and more information about the promised one was revealed to the children of
Israel through the prophets. God sent
the prophet Nathan to tell David that he would raise up one of his offspring
and establish his kingdom and throne forever.
(2 Samuel 7:12-13)
The Psalms are rich with
details about the promised one which was to come. Psalm 2 speaks of YaHWeH's anointed and calls
him his Son and a King set on his holy hill of Zion. Psalm 45 told them that this throne would be
God's throne and reinforced that it would be everlasting. It goes on to say
that the one on this throne would be anointed by God. In light of Hebrews chapter one quoting this
Psalm, it is somewhat easier for us to see that this refers to God the Father
anointing God the Son, but even if those who were at that time looking ahead to
the coming of the Messiah were not able to grasp that fact, this certainly did
much to help them understand his importance.
The prophets Hosea, Micah
and Jeremiah were all used by God to reveal further bits of information
concerning this promised one's birth and life.
None of the other prophets, however, provided as much information about
this anointed one, as did the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah refers to the Messiah,
which means anointed one, as a light to the gentiles several times. God also revealed by way of Isaiah that it
would be a virgin who would bear this deliverer.
Isaiah 9 contains a passage
most of us are familiar with and one which is often quoted this time of year. “For unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name
shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there
shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order
it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for
ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” Isaiah
9:6-7
At the point in time when
Isaiah gave this prophecy, the people of Israel had possessed the book wherein
Moses recorded God's word, for approximately 700 years. This book contained the promise that the seed
of the woman would bruise the serpent's head. The fulfillment of that promise
was narrowed down to all of the families of the earth being blessed through the
offspring of Abraham. Roughly 300 years before Isaiah’s prophesy, David
received promises which both gave much more information about this deliverer
and further narrowed down the family line from which he would be born.
In light of the passage in
Isaiah, a picture of the promised one was becoming increasingly clear, at least
with our 20/20 hindsight and the aid of the new Testament. Of course if we are honest we can see how
this prophecy could be misinterpreted to represent a human deliverer and a
reign over an earthly kingdom. The
government would be on his shoulder. He
would sit on the throne of David to order his kingdom with judgment and justice.
Remember, monotheism was a
cornerstone of Israel: every faithful Israelite knew the words from Deuteronomy
6:4-5 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all
thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." With that in mind, many may have misunderstood
the phrase "The mighty God" in Isaiah 9:6 to be God with a little
"g". On the other hand, referring
to the promised one as "The everlasting Father" may be a little
harder for us to properly grasp than it was in Old Testament times. In Hebrew the term “father” is often used to
denote the possessor of a thing. Thus, “The everlasting Father” could also be
translated “Father of Eternity”, which may help those of us with a “Western” thought
process see that this passage does not
conflict with the doctrine of the Trinity by diluting the distinction between
Father and Son.
But of course more
clarification was soon to come when Isaiah recorded God's words that describe
exactly how the promised one would have his “heel” bruised, but in that act he would
bruise the head of the serpent, how he would be a blessing to all the families
of the earth, and how he would deliver his people. This may be the best presentation
of the Gospel recorded in the Old Testament:
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of
good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice
together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall
bring again Zion.
Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places
of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed
Jerusalem.
The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of
all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our
God.
Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no
unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the
vessels of the LORD.
For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight:
for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your
rereward.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be
exalted and extolled, and be very high.
As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so
marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall
shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall
they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm
of the LORD revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and
as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we
shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he
was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our
sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he
was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was
upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned
every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened
not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who
shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living:
for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the
rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any
deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him
to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his
seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall
prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and
shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many;
for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the
great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured
out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he
bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah
52:7-53:12)
We are among those for whom
the damage done in the fall was made right again through the seed of the woman.
We are of the families of the earth who are blessed through the line of
Abraham. We are among those who have
been healed, have had our sins and iniquities borne, have been justified, and intercession
is made for us.
Seems like a pretty good
reason to celebrate the birth of the one who accomplished all that! Believe it.
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