Series: Dog Daze
Amos 9:13 ESV
Genesis 12:3 ESV
Acts 3:25-26 ESV
Isaiah 7:14 ESV
Luke 1:35 ESV
Micah 5:2 ESV
Matthew 2:4-6 ESV
Psalm 40:6-8 ESV
Hebrews 10:5-10 ESV
Psalm 30:4-5 NKJV
The thing about difficult times is that when God is involved we can be certain the sun will come up and the glory of the Lord will shine.
Eventually.
The difficult part is we do not know when or how.
And so it was with God’s promise to Israel.
In Amos 9:13 the prophet shared, “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.”
We do not know what the answer will look like and sometimes it comes in totally unexpected ways.
That’s often because we think we have some idea what we want it to look like. We often expect God to answer the same way God has answered before.
I mean, seriously, who would have expected the players to be a carpenter from the house and line of David and a young girl (a teenager)?
Who would have expected God’s answer to include an immaculate conception?
Who could have expected a tiny babe to be the Savior?
And most importantly, who could have thought the babe would be the Son of the living God?
Even though it had been foretold as early as Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” They didn’t know what that looked like.
With the fulfillment identified in Acts 3:25-26, “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”
Even though it was written and had been told to every young boy in Temple, who expected what prophets words really meant in Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Even though the ‘coming’ had been prophesied, no one expected what God would do.
So, here’s one thing that isn’t mentioned much. After the time of the prophets there was silence. I mean SILENCE.
For four hundred years there was silence. Those are called the inter-testament years. The years were 400 B.C. to approximately 25 A.D. The last Prophet was Malachi and nothing was spoken or heard until John the Baptist.
We do not know what the people of God thought or did after Malachi until the time of John the Baptist. Did they wonder why God was silent? Did they wonder when God would speak again? Did they wonder about the promises and the answer?
Yet, when John the Baptist showed up he announced the answer was now. The “thing” is it came in a most unexpected way. In Luke 1:35 the young maid Mary was told, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”
Believing what God did, and what God was capable of doing was a stumbling block, even to those would have expected God to act in miraculous ways.
Even though the prophet said it in Micah 5:2:
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel,whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”
And it was fulfilled in such a manner as is written in Matthew 2:4-6, “and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
The thing is that Israel expected the answer for mankind to be a perfect sacrifice like it had always been (an unblemished lamb). No one expected it would be a person that had no blemishes. No one thought it was even possible for one to come who was in complete submission to God’s ultimate plan for humanity.
In Psalm 40:6-8 David wrote, “In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
Suddenly, everything that was unclear…everything the prophets wrote about the coming one came into focus. God’s perfect plan was indeed perfect.
Hebrews 10:5-10 says, “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
After 400 years of silence, it all come into view, and the plan was perfect.
And we shout in Psalm 30:4-5:
“Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.”
And so, JOY came.
Spiritual Practice: Joy
Celebrate with God. Celebrate the perfect plan.
In God, Deborah
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