Read Psalm 65

Christmas and New Year brings many of us to a pause. We celebrate Jesus’ birth, swap presents, eat good food, spend time with friends and family, and many of us take a break of sorts from our daily grind. It can be a time to reflect, and also a time to look forward (whether with hope or uncertainty) to what will come in the next twelve months.

As we reflect, and look forward, let’s remember to also thank God for another year of salvation, and look forward to another year of God’s goodness too. Psalm 65 encourages us to do this through its praise of God’s salvation, praise of God’s power, and praise of God’s provision. All three of these themes are worthy of praise at Christmas-time, New Years, and all year!

Psalm 65 begins with praise for God’s salvation, experienced through being restored to God’s presence. Praise is appropriate and due to God from his people (v.1), especially in the Old Testament context of offering vows. We might say today that praise is due to God from his people, especially in a worship service!

It is God who hears the prayers of his followers, and to whom people from all over the world will come to experience God’s presence (v.2). Their hearts may be filled with sin, but God is the one who atones “for our transgressions” (v.3). God’s free grace, shown through his free choice, restores our relationship with God to enjoy his presence and find satisfaction in him (v.4).

But God does not just hear us and answer our prayers by forgiving our sins. God also performs powerful deeds (v.5) that are worthy of praise. These deeds are described as God’s response to the plight of his people, showing God is not some distant deity who does not care about what happens day to day. Nor is God’s power bound but displayed so that God is “ the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas” (v.5).

This refers not just to God’s creating acts, but his continued acts of providence in upholding Creation and his miraculous interventions. God’s creation of the mountains shows his great power and might (v.6), and his continued power over the chaos of the roaring seas his continual providence over all things (v.7).

God’s power is also demonstrated in his stilling “the tumult of the peoples” (v.7) by intervening in history, so “that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs” (v.8). God’s acts and power are not just intended for some, but for all the earth, as we see in the coming of Christ the Messiah of the nations.

Praise for God extends not just to his salvific presence and his providential power, but also to God’s provision. God is the one who waters the lands, causing vegetation to grow (vv.9-10). In Israel, where rains arriving at certain times of the year were needed for the crops to grow to avoid a famine, this was a demonstration of God’s provision. God was literally watering their vegetable gardens!

But God’s provision goes beyond heavenly sprinklers, because God is the one who causes those watered crops to grow and be fruitful. “You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance” (v.11). The pastures are plentiful, and the flocks of animals are liberally dotted among the meadows where they receive the food and drink they need (vv.12-13).

All of this provision causes the farmer, and indeed every one of God’s People, to rejoice and praise God for his continued goodness.

These three themes, presence (through salvation), power, and provision, are themes we can reflect on as we reach Christmas and a New Year.

Christmas reminds us of God’s great power, intervening in history through his salvation plan which reached its climax at the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord in a lowly manger in little Bethlehem. Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel truly was God present with us to save us from our sins.

And that salvation was not just for a select group of individuals physically descended from Abraham, but for the ends of the earth! That is why we proclaim Christ among all the nations; not just because God commanded it, but so that his great power might be displayed as he draws people from all sorts of places, times, and backgrounds to himself.

As we feast in our own individual ways at Christmas and swap presents, we too are enjoying the bounty of God’s provision for us. That provision is not just material, but relational and spiritual too. God has blessed us with another year of salvation. God has provided us with another year of experiences, good or bad, for our ultimate good. God has blessed us through his Church, and his work of grace and sanctification in our lives.

Thank God for another year of salvation in our lives. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

Read Genesis 21:1-7

The presents start to appear under the tree. The advent calendars have fewer and fewer days yet unopened to reveal their treats. The countdown clock shows fewer and fewer sleeps until the big day. The time is drawing near for Christmas Day. The time when the signs that point forward to the big day are fulfilled.

When God promises, God acts. The deed follows the word which announces it. As Christmas quickly approaches, we remember again God’s fulfilment of the many promises he made about the coming of Jesus, the promised son. Just as Isaac’s birth fulfilled the promise made to Abraham and Sarah, so too the birth of Jesus is God’s fulfilment of his words of promise. The same words of announcement that promise salvation from our sins for all who believe.

Abraham and Sarah were as old as the hills, and God’s announcement of a son born to them both brought laughter on two separate occasions to each of them in turn. Neither could believe their ears. But God would act on his own initiative, not in response to theirs.

After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin, and another episode of weakness and doubt on Abraham’s part (yet both involving God protecting his people), the time for fulfilment finally arrived.

“The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised” (v.1). Where before Sarah had only known and come to expect the sadness of childlessness, God visited Sarah long after the usual years for giving birth to change the tune.

Following this miraculous event, Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham (v.2). Just as God had promised, a year later he returned and gave Abraham and Sarah the promised son who would inherit the promises made to and received by Abraham, so many years before.

Abraham, who was faithful to the covenant God made with him, responded with faith and obedience. He named his son Isaac, fulfilling God’s command (v.3, cf. 17:19). He circumcised Isaac, giving him the covenant sign and seal, fulfilling God’s command (v.4, cf. 17:9-12).

Isaac means “he laughs”. Isaac’s name was a forever memory of the disbelief both showed when God announced his plans, but also the joy they felt at the birth of the baby boy who fulfilled the promise.

After all, it truly was a miracle. Abraham was 100 years old (v.5), and Sarah herself was ninety. Moreover, Sarah had borne the pain of being unable to bear children until now, yet she had borne Abraham a son in old age (v.7). 

Sarah herself recognised that the joy was not just for her and Abraham, but for others who would one day benefit from God’s acts. “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me” (v.6). This was not the laughter of mockery, “of course God would fulfil his promises!” but of shared joy. The child was the fulfilment of a promise, a promised son, but also the inheritor of the promise to Abraham that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:3).

However, this was not the climax of the story for Abraham and Sarah. Genesis does not immediately jump forward to Isaac’s adult life and marriage. Isaac had to grow through adversity (Gen 21:8-21). 

But more than the mocking laughter of an older half-brother (and probably the rest), Isaac was the “object” of a test of Abraham’s faith. Isaac was the promised son, but he was not the sacrifice for sin. A ram had to be provided as a substitute (Gen. 22:13). God would provide that substitute, just as he provided a substitute animal instead of Isaac, Abraham’s only son of the promise (Gen. 22:14).

Which brings us to Jesus. The far-off promised son, born as promised (Isaiah 7:14) of a virgin (Matt. 1:22-25). The promised son who would fulfil the promise to bless all the nations, “for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). A son who also grew up facing adversity. Yet who did so without sin.

Unlike Isaac, Jesus’ life was not spared on the day of sacrifice. God did indeed provide a substitute, but not for Jesus. Jesus was the substitute sacrifice for us. Born to die. Born to bear the penalty for our sins, on our behalf, so we can live in renewed and restored fellowship with God. Not just now, but for all time.

The promise God made in the Garden of Eden, and again and again throughout history, of the snake crusher who would deal to the problem of sin. Who would fulfil the Covenant of Grace, proclaimed in the Garden, to Abraham, and to others throughout history.

Christmas is a reminder that God fulfils his promises. God’s words announced. God acted. He sent his son to take on true human flesh, exactly like us. But unlike us, to live perfectly and die for us. And be the eternal reigning king.

Merry Christmas.

Read Genesis 17:15-18:15

We are quickly approaching Christmas, and for us here in New Zealand the big heaving sigh of relief as many of us arrive at a (long overdue) break. In the middle of the festivities and the last stumbling steps towards the yearly finish line, we can let our eyes slip from the reason behind Christmas. It is not candy canes and scorched almonds (my kryptonite), presents, and barbecues, but Christ who is the focus of the season.

Just as we can struggle and stumble as we look forward to the Christmas holiday and forget to look back at God’s promises fulfilled, so too God’s People have struggled with the promise of a coming son of Abraham. God’s promise of redemption worked through Abraham, who with Sarah was to give birth to a surprise son. That surprise son, the offspring of promise, looked forward to another promised surprise son, one born of a virgin.

After God instituted the covenant sign and seal of circumcision, He promised that Abraham and Sarah would have a child of their own (vv.15-16). While Abraham and Sarah had previously tried their own human schemes to ensure a son for Abraham, resulting in Ishmael, God had his own plan in mind.

Abraham’s initial response to this announcement by God was the laughter of unbelief (v.17). After all, Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. Why would not Ishmael fit God’s bill? (v.18)

God had his own plans and wisdom that were greater than Abraham’s. The inheritor of God’s covenant promises to Abraham would come through Abraham and Sarah, not Ishmael or another (v.19). Ishmael would receive his own blessing (v.20), but Isaac would inherit the promises (v.21). In a year, they would see.

After this, Abraham, Ishmael, and all the men (eg, servants) of his household were circumcised (vv.22-27). They bore on their bodies the sign of the promised descendant who would be cut off and have his blood shed for the sins of all Abraham’s believing children.

Following this, God appeared to Abraham once again at the oaks of Mamre, together with two angelic companions (18:1). Abraham was quick to offer these men hospitality (vv.2-5). Abraham and Sarah raced to throw together a meal, as Sarah prepared bread and Abraham slaughtered an animal to prepare meat (vv.6-8).

After accepting their throw together meal, God asked Abraham where his wife Sarah was (v.9), not because God did not know but to direct Abraham’s attention to the direction of their discussion, and to draw Sarah’s attention from inside the tent.

With both giving their attention, God announced that he would return in a year, and Sarah would have a son (v.10). The promise now had a firm date attached to it.

Sarah at 90 was past the age of childbearing, and so this announcement from a human perspective is fantastic and surprising, to say the least! (v.11) Not surprisingly, Sarah laughed at hearing the seemingly impossible (v.12), just as her husband previously had (17:17). As with Abraham, the laughter carried unbelief from her heart, out through her lips.

So God rhetorically asked Abraham why his wife laughed and doubted his words (v.13). “Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son” (v.14). 

Sarah lied, denying she had laughed. But God rebuked her, stating that she had laughed (v.15). Yet this was not a rebuke that led to judgement, but one that cleared the air. A promise had been made, and God would fulfil it. A surprise son, long after childlessness had become Abraham and Sarah’s norm, would come.

Many years later, Abraham’s far off descendants would receive another promise from God. That at the appointed time, another surprise son would be born. Not in old age, but “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son” whose name would not be Isaac but Immanuel (Is. 7:14).

That son, Jesus, was the true promised offspring of Abraham (Galatians 3:16). God’s promise to Abraham that he would have descendants like stars in the sky, and through him all nations would be blessed, found its ultimate fulfilment in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Isaac was a necessary step along the road, but not the one in whom all God’s promises would ultimately be fulfilled.

This was a message which the first hearers of God’s promises struggled to believe. After all, a child in old age? A virgin conceiving? These are not the norm! But nothing is impossible for God. And God chooses to use the unusual, the surprising, and the miraculous to advance his salvation plan.

God’s promises brought laughter to Abraham and Sarah, though they ultimately believed God’s words. God’s promises through Isaiah met a similar reaction, yet some still waited on their fulfilment. As we reflect at Christmastime, our laughter is not one of unbelief but joy that we are blessed by God’s promises fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Read Isaiah 7

Summary

We live in a time of uncertainty and distress. Great Powers posture and gesture, threatening conflict. A global pandemic grips the globe. Is God faithful to his promises to save and deliver his people?

Christmas reminds us that God does act to save and deliver his people, even when times seem desperate. While the initial context of Isaiah 7 was earthly struggles, the greater fulfilment in Christ reminds that God defeats far more than earthly opposition; he saves us from our sins. While those who deny God go on to judgement, everyone who trusts God will enjoy peace with him.

Our Passage Explained

Terror reigned in the hearts of Judah’s people. The Great Power of the time, Assyria, had waned but was now back on the rise. Judah’s northern neighbours, Israel and Syria, wanted Judah to join forces with them in beating back the Assyrians. They were willing to invade Judah to ensure its cooperation (vv.1-2).

King Ahaz, David’s descendant on his throne, worried that he would be overthrown. But God intended otherwise. God sent Isaiah, his prophet, to King Ahaz, representing the royal line of David. Together with his son, Shear-Jashub (meaning “A remnant shall return”), Isaiah went to encourage Ahaz to trust in God and not in the strength of his city defences. 

Israel and Syria’s plans would not succeed; instead within 65 years they would be destroyed (vv.3-9). Ahaz must trust in God because “if you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all” (v.9).

Ahaz is more interested in courting favour with Assyria than with God (2 Kings 16), so God sent Isaiah to him again with another message. This time, God commanded Ahaz, weak of faith, to ask for a sign from God (vv.10-11). Ahaz hid behind false piety (Deut 6:16) to decline God’s offer, since he had already decided to trust Assyria over the Sovereign LORD (v.12).

While he was a member of David’s house and an inheritor of God’s promises made to David (2 Sam 7), his unbelief brought wariness to God (v.13). Despite that, God announces a sign, not so much for Ahaz’s benefit, but for the house of David.

The famous promise is that “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (v.14). There is an argument about whether this promise was only for the distant future, or a double fulfillment in Ahaz’s time and the distant future. In my view, it is most likely a double fulfillment announced here, with an event in history pointing forward to a greater reality (eg, Hosea 11:1). 

Very shortly then a young woman who was a virgin at the time of the prophecy, perhaps a member of the Royal Family, will marry and conceive a child. Expressing her hope in God, she would call the child Immanuel, or “God [is] with us”. Before the child is old enough to eat the “milk and honey” of the Promised Land, Assyria will lay waste the lands of Israel and Syria (vv.15-16, which duly happened about two years later in 732BC).

This sign indicates God’s sovereign control over all events. Ahaz’s lack of faith in God is rebuked by the sign and its fulfillment, even as God’s acts bring an end to the situation which worries Ahaz.

But this sign does not mean happy days for unbelieving Ahaz! Instead, salvation will belong to a remnant who, as Isaiah’s son’s name proclaims, will return from judgement. For the rest though, devastation was coming (v.17-ch.8), from Assyria’s hand. Eventually this would be made complete by Babylon. Out of this devastation, a remnant will experience deliverance through judgement to return to the land. 

To the believing remnant, who unlike Ahaz trust in God’s promises, the Messianic promises of Isaiah 9 belong. However bad the times to come, God’s anointed one who is spoken of in both human and divine language will come to deliver his people.

Our Passage Applied

Those messianic promises find their fulfillment in Christ. Not only that, but God’s virgin sign to the house of David finds its greater fulfillment in Jesus. Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of the virgin Mary, from the line of David. His name, “God saves”, indicated his role in saving from a far greater foe than earthly opposition; Jesus came to save us from our sins.

No wonder then that Matthew’s Gospel quotes Isaiah 7:14 and sees its fulfillment in Jesus (Matt. 1:23). Jesus is our Immanuel. He is, in the truest and greatest sense, God with us. Not just a boy with a name expressing hope in God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises, but a living, breathing image of the invisible God, dwelling with his people.

While judgement still awaits those who reject him, for we among the nations who put our trust in Jesus our Immanuel there is deliverance from the wrath to come. Because Jesus’ birth brings “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! (Luke 2:14).