by Steven Berringer
an article originally published by Always Ready Ministries
Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son.
—Hebrews 1:1-2—
Without all the crucial details of a story, we fail to see how everything fits together. Consider the Superman serial that originally was released in 1948. It consisted of 15 parts that theatres presented at movie matinées over a period of weeks. After the first three episodes established the storyline, subsequent installments ended in cliffhangers! Surely those who saw only some of the chapters were frustrated.
Last time we emphasized this very point in relation to the Christmas story. I want to challenge you to become familiar with Jesus’ entrance into the world as a baby against the backdrop of the broad sweep of world history, and even more importantly, against God’s overtures to humanity in the form of the covenants1 He initiated through the years. The Adamic Covenant and the Noahic Covenant provided hints as to what God would do to reunite humanity to Himself, but these were just two of several agreements God initiated. Let’s pick up where we left off at the end of our discussion last week.
God established His next covenant many years after the Great Flood, after people had repopulated the earth. Because He established it with a man named Abraham (earlier known as Abram), it is called the Abrahamic Covenant. Abraham was a man of faith. God appeared to him repeatedly and told Him he would will have a son from whom a whole nation would arise. Abraham was 75 when God first appeared to him and 100 when Isaac, the promised son, arrived. While “Abraham believed God,” we see times when his faith appears to be weak (see Gen. 17:17-18 in context). Even so, God in His faithfulness caused Abraham and his wife to have a son from whom a great nation did indeed emerge.
A covenant is about God’s faithfulness, sometimes even despite human waywardness and rebellion.
God’s chosen people eventually became slaves in Egypt, but God raised up Moses to lead the people out of captivity. After the Israelites left Egypt, the Lord made another covenant—this one with Moses on Mount Sinai. We find the Mosaic Covenant in Exodus 19-24, where God outlined how His people were to live as His chosen nation. Previously, in Exodus 6:7, God had given this word to Moses to share with the Israelites: “I will take you as my people, and I will be your God.” Unfortunately, the Israelites were unwilling and unable to uphold their end of the covenant. Regardless, God did not abandon them but remained faithful.
God’s people went on to conquer and occupy the promised land. Despite the people’s inconsistency and lack of faith, the Lord kept His promises to them. Eventually, a king named David ruled over the nation. God made the next covenant, which is known as the Davidic Covenant, with King David. He declared to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-13, “I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will…establish the throne of his kingdom forever. “After David’s passing, the nation of Israel began to search for this “Man of God.” Following the reign of David’s son Solomon, Israel split into two nations—the Southern Kingdom of Judah, where David’s descendants ruled, and the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
Eventually the unfaithfulness of both the kings and people lead to the Lord’s allowing both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms to fall and be taken captive. The Northern Kingdom fell in 722 BC and the Southern Kingdom in 586 BC. Significantly, however, even before the Southern Kingdom’s demise, God spoke to a prophet named Jeremiah and told of a “New” covenant He would establish. This one would make the former covenants obsolete. It wasn’t as though God was jettisoning them, but that the New Covenant would embrace them all and bring them to fulfillment. God said, “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.…I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.…I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin” (from Jer. 31:31-34).
Throughout history, the Lord had revealed an increasing number of details about His plan through His successive covenants and through His spokesmen, the prophets. As we have indicated, as they learned more, the people searched for the One who fit the designation of the “Man of God.” Because the people were seeking a warrior, a political leader, a deliverer, and a king—they looked in vain. No one lived up to the expectations the people had of the “Man of God.”
Silence
The people continued to search. They eventually were brought out of captivity only to be taken back into it again until—silence. For 400 years, God was silent about the Man of God and what the people were to do. God had spoken already, but people still didn’t follow Him as they should. Some kept the covenants and laws that they had known as best they could, and others added even more strict laws, thinking these would please God even more. Still, God remained silent.
Crazy Reality
Then, He spoke! A virgin named Mary would have a son, Jesus, and His Father would be God Himself! Jesus would be the very “Man of God” the Scriptures had foretold. Actually, “Man of God” isn’t the biblical term. “Son of Man” is—as well as “Son of God.” Other titles include Savior, Messiah, and Lord. Jesus grew up and began His journey on earth as a human being, yet He never ceased to be God! Fulfilling every prophecy that had been spoken or written about Him, God’s Son would have a ministry that would flip everything the people knew upside down.
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- Jesus would focus on the outsiders, the sick, the broken, and sinners; and use these very people and to change the world.
- Jesus demonstrated that following God involves more than obeying a set of rules.
- His ministry eventually led to His own death on a cross.
- His ministry continued after His death because of His resurrection.
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Most importantly, Jesus is able to forgive sins and give new life to everyone willing to come to Him on His conditions.
We started this article with a quote by an author named Donald Miller. Miller actually said more than we reported earlier. Here is the full quote:
If God is a perfect and loving Being, the most selfless thing He could do would be to create other beings to enjoy Him. And then I started thinking that if those creatures fell away from Him, the most selfless thing a perfect and loving Being could do would be to go and get them, to try and save them from the death that would take place in His absence.2
This is the reality of the Christmas Story! It is the story of a faithful God who loves unconditionally and who makes it possible for sinful humanity to be reunited with Him. It is the story of the One who brings people into God’s family through spiritual birth and adoption.
The One making all this possible is the One whose birthday, and whose arrival on earth as an innocent baby, we now celebrate!
The celebration makes a lot more sense now, doesn’t it?
You will likely find this this Bible-reading plan informative and helpful on and around Christmas. May God bless you richly this Christmas season.
Steven Berringer is the Student Pastor at The Bible Chapel at the Robinson Township near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
December 22, 2018
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Copyright © 2018 by Always Ready Ministries. All rights reserved.
Notes:
1A covenant, you may remember, is an “agreement between God and man in which God pledges to bless those who accept and commit themselves to him.” This from Millard J. Erickson, Concise Dictionary of Christian Theology, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1986), 38.
2Donald Miller, Searching for God Knows What, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2004), 122.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.