“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end” Isaiah 9:6-7
God’s faithfulness always humbles me, but sometimes I can do nothing but stand in praise and adoration for His steadfastness in my life. Last week there were several of those moments. Whether it’s an answered prayer for an ill friend’s improvement, answered prayers for our children, or comfort for a dear friend’s loss of a loved one. God is always faithful no matter the circumstances because that is who He is. “Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands” (Deut 7:9). In the Old Testament, God used his prophets to point his wayward people to his faithfulness despite their sometimes devastating choices. The Israelites continued in sin throughout history, but God’s grace, mercy, and faithfulness persisted. From our place in time, we know that God’s plan of redemption succeeded. The Good News arrived just as Isaiah claimed, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
In his book, “Why the Nativity?” David Jeremiah addresses twenty-five questions concerning the birth of Jesus, and the first question he speaks to is, “Why the Prophecies?” Christmas time lends itself to reading the gospel accounts of Jesus’s birth, but did you know there are over three hundred prophecies in the Old Testament about the promised Messiah? And all of them concerning the first coming have been fulfilled. In a time when a people most needed hope, the prophets sprinkled the Hebrew Scriptures with glimpses of a coming king that would redeem his people and call them back to God. God’s faithfulness to his people is demonstrated and recorded for us so that we would rely on Him and trust him wholeheartedly. Dr. Jeremiah writes, “Why the prophecies? They show us that even as Jesus was fully a human like us, he was also “one whose origins are from the distant past.” By reading the prophecies, we see the entire mountain range in a breathtaking glance; we behold a magnificent God who works his purposes out through the march of time, patiently but faithfully, down to the smallest detail. We know that this is a God who can be trusted, and this a Messiah who fulfills every hope in our hearts.” May this second week of Advent bring reflections of God’s lovingkindness in your life and restfulness achieved through the knowledge that he can be trusted with all things past or future, and may this bring you peace. And that’s your Tuesday Tidbit.
This week’s photo is of the synagogue in Nazareth. This is the place where the scrolls that included the prophecies would be read to the people.