Categories
Sovereignty

Day 12: God’s Sovereignty in the Advent

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luke 2:6-7

This advent season we focused on the key characters and events identified in the birth of Christ at his first advent. We have stood with Zechariah and watched the smoke rise off the altar of  incense in the Temple. We walked alongside the righteous Elizabeth as she strove to honor God in her bareness. We’ve stood as a shadow near the throne of King Herod and examined how even a wicked king points us to the hope found in Jesus. Perhaps you can still hear the echoes of John the Baptist from the corners of the wilderness heralding the message of repentance and the news of the kingdom’s arrival. And let us not forget the lessons of both manhood and betrothal we gleaned from our time traveling from Judea to Egypt and back with Mary and Joseph. From the angels to the elderly, each person who appears at the first advent of Christ has a unique story that points us to the second advent of the Savior. And although these blessed saints have their proper place in the first advent story, it is all too easy to focus on the people in the story and miss the One whom the people and the story are meant to glorify: God.

When we come to the Bible, we must not merely think of the Scriptures as individual segments of history placed alongside one another to make a nice, cozy compendium consisting of isolated stories and events. No, to do that would be to miss the grander story that the individual stories mean to tell, for the Bible has one central plot, one central narrative. And that narrative, which works as God’s revelation of himself to man, is a storyline of God’s sovereignty over all things, particularly the redemption of man. Now, by saying God is sovereign, we mean that he has “absolute rule and authority over all things.”[1]

This attribute of God, his sovereignty, can be seen by the unfolding of events in the first advent of Christ. The timeline of these events does not begin in Luke 1, or even in Genesis 1; but rather, as the Apostle Paul teaches in 2 Timothy 1:9, “salvation is the result of a purpose given in Christ Jesus ‘before the ages began.’”[2] Yes, the Bible teaches that before God ever said, “Let there be light,” He promised eternal life. Titus 1:1-2 testifies of this truth, saying, “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ . . . in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.” These works of the Apostle Paul show us that the redemptive storyline of the Bible began, not when Adam and Eve sinned, but before Adam and Eve were ever created. Based upon his promise of eternal life for his people, it was, as far as we know time, always God’s purpose to reconcile people to himself through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. From before time began, God’s sovereign plan for redemption was always Jesus and the story of the first advent is the capstone of God sovereignly working out the details of this magnificent plan.

Now, to be sure, we do not merely have to infer God’s sovereignty from the Bible, but rather we can learn this attribute of God from such explicit passages as Psalm 115:3, which says, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” And Ephesians 1:11, which says that God, “works all things according to the counsel of his will.” And, as suggested previously, when we look at the story of the first advent, this is what we see God doing: working out the details of His plan of salvation that he promised before the ages (Titus 1:2) “according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).

If you happen to doubt this, think about some of these events for a moment: From the testimony of Gabriel, we see God’s intimate involvement in the first advent. It was God who sent Gabriel to Zechariah and Mary to tell of the conception and birth of both John the Baptist and Jesus (Luke 1:19, 26). It was God who made it possible for Elizabeth to have a son in her old, barren age (Luke 1:37). It was even God who revealed to the prophet Micah that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem, and some eight centuries later it was the same promise-fulfilling, sovereign God who ordered the census via Caesar which would require Mary and Joseph to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem while she was pregnant and close to birthing Jesus (Micah 5:2; Luke 2:1-5). Coincidence? No. God’s sovereignty on display. Yes!

And lest we think that God quit and then restarted working out his plan of redemption somewhere between Malachi and Matthew, how about the genealogy of Christ listed in Luke 3? Here is a list of names, highlighted by Adam, Abraham, and David, which takes us but 90 fleeting seconds to read is, in reality, a detailed record of thousands of years of God’s sovereignty in ensuring that Jesus would be born in the appointed place, at the appointed time, to the appointed person, and for the appointed purpose of accomplishing God’s sovereign plan: saving “his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

It is the first advent of Christ that functions as the marquee event in scripture displaying God’s sovereignty over all people and all events for all time. And to display this even further, we will visit the Garden of Eden this advent season one last time. Recall that God placed Adam and Eve in the garden and in an expression of his wisdom and his will, he forbids them to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17). Upon Adam and Eve’s temptation and Fall, the Lord pronounced curses upon the couple, first to the woman and then to the man. The Lord said to Eve, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children” (Genesis 3:16). And to Adam, God said, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). Here is arguably the most somber moment in all of Scripture, save the cross, as God pronounces the curses of painful childbearing and death upon two sinners. Now, think about the first advent of Jesus. Is it not the curse of childbirth given to Eve that brought the Savior into the world when Mary conceived? Is it not the curse of death given to Adam that saw Jesus cancel the debt of sin when he was executed in his own death on the cross? Is there a greater display of God’s sovereignty? What God dealt to Adam and Eve as curses in Genesis 3, he sovereignly used thousands of years and many generations later to save his people from their sins through the birth and death of Jesus at the first advent.

In his sermon titled The Crux of Christmas, Pastor Alistair Begg concisely connects the dots between God’s sovereignty, the first advent of Christ, and the redemption of man, saying,

Here’s the point, though: the storyline of the Bible . . . is not of a plan that God instituted but which went wrong and then had to be, if you like, reconfigured and reinvented. No, not for a moment! If you read your Bible from the back to the front or from the front to the back as well, you will discover . . . that God’s purpose from all of eternity was not Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden but was Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. It was Christ on the cross that from the very beginning of the work of God in his kingdom—it was to establish that people that are his very own . . . You see, the great mystery of it is that when you look into the cradle in Bethlehem, you gaze into the face of “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” I suggest to you, that really is the crux of Christmas.[3]

If the unchanging God sovereignly worked out all things to accomplish the first advent of Christ, we joyfully expect him to sovereignly work out all things to accomplish the events of the second advent of Christ. God’s sovereignty is where our hope rests and where our worship finds direction; and this is true, not just this advent season, but in every day between now and the second advent of the Savior.

[1] John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Biblical Truth (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2017), 937.

[2] Samuel Renihan, The Mystery of Christ: His Covenant & His Kingdom (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2020), 152.

[3] Alistair Begg, “The Crux of Christmas,” Truth for Life, Parkside Church, December 2, 2018, https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/crux-christmas/.

Categories
Abraham

Day 11: Abraham’s Role in the First Advent

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Matthew 1:1

It may be strange at first to associate the patriarch Abraham with the First Advent of Jesus. Yet, Abraham is in the first advent story, and his role is more vital than one may suppose at first mention. After John the Baptist’s birth, his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to prophesy. Listen carefully to his prophecy for the mention of Abraham:

And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers
    and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74     that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75     in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

Luke 1:68-75

Verse 69 of Luke 1 clues us in on the fact that Zechariah is talking about Jesus in this passage by saying that God “has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David” (v. 69). Then, Zechariah lists the reasons why God raised up this horn of salvation: 1) so that Israel would be saved from their enemies, 2) to show the mercy promised to their fathers, and 3) to remember his holy covenant that he swore to Abraham. Zechariah’s prophecy teaches that the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant find their fulfillment in the horn of salvation, Jesus. And this is precisely what Abraham has to do with the first advent.

A Path of Promise

Let’s rewind in our Bibles to the book of Genesis when God first visited Abraham. His name back then was Abram. Abram, his wife Sarai (Sare-eye) (who would later become known as Sarah), his father Terah (Tara), and his nephew Lot lived in a desert land called Haran (Hair-in). Sometime after Abram’s father passed away, the Lord spoke to him and said, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 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” (Genesis 12:1-3). This is the promise God made to Abraham that Zechariah refers to in Luke 1 when he says, “the oath that [God] swore to Abraham” (Luke 1:73).

One of the best commentaries you can find today on Genesis 12 and Luke 1:73 for that matter, is found in Galatians 3. The Apostle Paul, while discussing faith in his letter to the Galatians, brings up Abraham in Genesis 12. Paul writes, “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed’” (Galatians 3:7-8). Did you catch what Paul said there about the gospel? Paul said that when God promised his blessing to Abraham way back in Genesis 12, that Abraham heard the gospel preached to him. The Gospel of Jesus was preached to Abraham in Genesis 12! For this reason, we must understand that the good news (or gospel) of Christ’s first coming was always God’s plan to fulfill his covenant promises to Abraham.

God’s promise to Abraham was that “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” How does God fulfill this promise to Abraham? The answer is through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Paul makes this crystal clear in Galatians 3:14. Listen in as Paul links together Abraham, Jesus, and the promise of the Holy Spirit, saying, “in Christ the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (emphasis added).

So, in review, here are the links in the chain that connect Abraham to the Advent: In Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham and promised to bless him and to make a great nation from him. Then, at the first advent, Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection ensured the salvation of many. Christ’s inauguration of the New Covenant ushered in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to all believers. In Galatians 3, the Apostle Paul reveals that those who possess the Holy Spirit through faith are counted as the offspring of Abraham. Thus, simultaneously providing the population of the great nation promised to Abraham and the blessing to all nations.

Back to Zechariah’s Prophecy

Zechariah’s prophecy in Luke chapter 1 is an illuminating example of what The Twelve Days of Advent is designed to do. Zechariah reflected and projected: he reflected upon the promises made to Abraham and projected hope for God’s people through the fulfillment of those promises, in Christ. If God has granted you faith and repentance, then you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, and you are the offspring of Abraham. Therefore, you stand as a recipient of the hope found in Jesus’ first advent, fully realized at his second advent. How does this sound for hope?

“We, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (Luke 1:74-75).

Categories
Marriage

Day 10: Mary and Joseph’s Betrothal

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.

Luke 1:26-27

In this passage, Luke mentions an angel sent from God, Joseph’s connection to King David, and twice the virgin state of Mary. The appearance of these miraculous and meritorious contextual elements tends to overshadow a word that is typically foreign to the 21st-century western vocabulary: betrothed (bih-trothd). The angel Gabriel, the Davidic lineage, and the virgin birth mentioned in Luke 1:26-27 all hold their rightful places within the first advent, but the betrothal of Mary and Joseph also points us directly to the second coming of our Savior by providing a vivid picture of our current reality: as Mary waited for the consummation of her marriage, so we presently await the day when Jesus returns in glory for his Bride. A basic understanding of the concept of betrothal, where we find Mary and Joseph in this text, will help us to uncover the theological implications of the word. Perhaps, we will even value the concept of betrothal like the way we value Luke’s mention Gabriel’s message, David’s offspring, and Mary’s chastity.

Before investigating the concept of betrothal, I want to make it clear that I am not attempting to over-spiritualize the text in Luke 1:26-27. However, I am asserting that this is one detail among many in the first advent story that, if understood properly, causes us to think and find hope in the second advent of Christ. My aim is for the listener to never skim over the word “betrothal” in Luke 1:27 and fail to think about the day Christ comes back to be with his Bride.

Describing the Concept of Betrothal

Historically, the Jewish union between one man and one woman consisted of three stages: engagement, betrothal, and marriage.[1] Although not exactly like the Hebrews did, we readily understand the concepts of engagement and marriage through observations in modern culture. Today, one may try to relate the betrothal period to a modern-day engagement (the period between the proposal and wedding ceremony), however, this likening minimizes the significance of a betrothal by disregarding its binding legal demands.

“Betrothal meant the entering into the legal contract of marriage.”[2] Deuteronomy 22:23-27 displays how binding a betrothal was on its participants. This text teaches that infidelity during the betrothal period was tantamount to adultery between a husband and wife.

Another significant difference in a modern-day engagement and the betrothal between Mary and Joseph is what it takes to terminate each one. Today, if a couple decides to call off the wedding ceremony they simply “break up.” When Joseph thought Mary was pregnant by another man and not the Holy Spirit, he “resolved to divorce her quietly” (Matthew 1:19). Today, the word divorce is often only used to discuss the legal termination of government recognized marriages but back then, a betrothal was seen just as binding as a biblically based marriage between one man and one woman is today.

For Joseph to become betrothed to Mary, he most likely paid the “Bridal Price.” This concept is recorded in Genesis 34:12 and 1 Samuel 18:25. This was a payment to the bride’s father, who would save that payment to ensure care for his daughter incase anything unforeseen happened to her future husband or the marital union itself. The Bridal Price also displayed a level of commitment from the young man to the young woman. This concept portrays perfectly the price Jesus paid on the cross to ensure the future security of his Bride (Acts 20:28).[3] Once the price was paid, the betrothal became binding.

How the Concept of Betrothal Applies Today

The timeframe of the betrothal was typically a year or more but could be shorter depending on the specific situation. During this time, the man would go to his father’s house and prepare for his bride. He would usually build on an additional room and work to furnish it throughout the betrothal. In John 14:2-3, Jesus reveals to his disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them in Heaven. Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

This language exudes betrothal concepts: Jesus is going to his Father’s house, he is preparing rooms, and he is doing it so that his disciples can live with him forever. These facts further the claim that the concept of betrothal has theological implications on our current reality. Jesus paid the bridal price at Calvary, he has gone to his Father’s house to prepare for his Bride, and he will come again one glorious day so that he may dwell with her for all of eternity. The Church is in the betrothal stage of marriage with her Bridegroom and must prepare herself for his second coming.

In the Jewish culture, while the man went away to prepare a room for his betrothed, the Jewish woman had some work of her own to accomplish. She had to assemble her trousseau, or bridal goods. Depending on the woman’s economic status, some of these items may have included clothes, linens, jewelry, basins, and blankets.[4] The picture we get is that the husband was not the only one preparing to permanently dwell with their future spouse. Today, the church is the Bride of Christ. Like the Ancient Jewish bride, we must prepare every day for the consummation of our marriage with the Bridegroom. For Jesus will not fail to prepare a place for us and we must not fail to prepare ourselves for him. Let’s look at Revelation 19:7-9 as we look forward to the consummation of our covenant vows with our Lord:

Let us rejoice and exult and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure – for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’                           

In the words of theologian Wayne Grudem, “To ‘be ready’ for Christ’s return is to be faithfully obeying him in the present.”[5] In this season of the celebration of the first advent of our Lord, may you be found faithfully obeying him in anticipation of his second advent.

[1] Ivan G. Marcus, “Engagement, Betrothal, and Marriage,” in The Jewish Life Cycle: Rites of Passage From Biblical to Modern Times (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004),124-126.

[2] John Barton and John Muddiman, The Oxford Bible Commentary (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2007), 927.

[3] John MacArthur, The Second Coming: Signs of Christ’s Return and the End of the Age (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 1999), 37-38.

[4] Ivan G. Marcus, “Engagement, Betrothal, and Marriage,” in The Jewish Life Cycle: Rites of Passage From Biblical to Modern Times (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004),142.

[5] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 1093.

Categories
Joseph

Day 9: Joseph’s Display of Biblical Manhood

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

Luke 2:1-5

The Gospel of Luke only mentions Joseph four times (1:27; 2:4,16; 3:23), but it is Luke’s last remarks about the carpenter that are particularly revealing. “Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli” (Luke 3:23). The phrase “as was supposed” shows us that people thought Jesus was conceived from the union of Mary and Joseph, despite his conception through the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). When people mention Joseph today, it is often for the apparent small presence he had in Jesus’ life, especially his adulthood. This is because the last mention of Joseph in the Gospels is from a time when Jesus was twelve (Luke 2:41-51). Then, Joseph seemingly disappears and many think this is most likely due to Joseph’s passing. And this is ironic because the people who “supposed” Joseph was Jesus’ father thought so not because of Joseph’s absence from his life, but because of his fatherly presence. From the outside, Joseph portrayed authentic fatherhood toward Jesus. The Bible is not replete with facts and appearances of Joseph, but the 14 times the Gospel writers mention him provide the church with an incredible example of biblical manhood. Here are six lessons of biblical manhood from the life of Joseph at the First Advent of Christ:

Joseph was a Man of Character

Before Joseph was ever a father, he was known to be a “righteous man” (Matthew 1:19). This verse reveals the character of Joseph prior to being a father. This is a lesson to men out there – Don’t wait for premarital counseling to cultivate righteousness. Seek older, wiser men who can disciple you to be a godly son of the Lord, before you pursue becoming a godly father of a child.

Joseph Obeyed God’s Message

There are many words I could use to describe Joseph, but obedient tops my list. On four different occasions God sent an angel to instruct Joseph (Matthew 1:24; 2:13, 19, 22). One phrase my wife and I try to keep in mind as we parent our children is, “Delayed obedience is disobedience.” Joseph never delayed in obeying God’s message. In every instance, Joseph obeyed God immediately.

Joseph Recognized the Significance of the Holy Spirit

The scripture (especially Luke and Matthew) goes to great lengths to make it obvious that Joseph was “a son of David.” This means he was a Jew, taught by his father Heli regarding the word of God.[1] The entire basis for Joseph’s obedience was the involvement of the Holy Spirit in the situation; an involvement that led Joseph to wed Mary and be the guardian of Jesus.

Joseph Selflessly Protected His Family

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke show Joseph traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem to Egypt and back to Nazareth to preserve and protect his family (Mattew 1:18-25; 2:13-15; Luke 2:1-7). A conservative estimate totals well over 300 miles worth of journeying for Joseph and his family. Remember, they did not have cars, buses, or trains. Even if they had ridden on the back of an animal, these trips would have collectively taken days and days. Joseph gave up his time and autonomy in obedience to God to protect his family.

Joseph Discerned Dangers That Could Harm His Family 

Through all of his encounters with angels, God sovereignly trained Joseph to discern dangers that could harm his family. When Joseph took up his wife and child to return to Israel from Egypt, “he heard that Archelaus (ark-uh-lay-us) was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, [and] he was afraid to go there” (Matthew 2:22). Joseph perceived danger and apparently sought guidance from God, who directed him away from the sloppy, tyrannical leadership of Archelaus leading his family into safety.

Joseph Used His Skillset to Provide for His Family

Joseph and Mary moved around a few times in the early years of Jesus’ life. It appears that whether in Israel or Egypt, Joseph provided for his family. Later on, when Jesus began his ministry, he was referred to as “the carpenter’s son” (Matthew 13:55). Some scholars even believe that Joseph chose to settle in Nazareth because of a newly commissioned building project that would have inevitably provided long-term, consistent work for a carpenter like himself. The lesson here is that men of God use their skillset to provide for their family. Joseph’s life portrayed biblical manhood and for a period, he was our Lord’s protector. We are encouraged by his example at the first advent of our Savior and challenged to be found faithful in our God-given callings when the Lord returns at the second advent.

[1] Deuteronomy 6:4-9 commanded the Jewish fathers and mothers to continually teach their children the word of God.

Categories
Gabriel

Day 8: Gabriel’s Messianic Message

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Luke 1:26-33

The Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, once said, “If you had the talents of an angel, you could do no good with them until [your] hour is come.”[1] His assertion rightly implies that an angel has no authority apart from the One who sends him; for, angels are sent from God to specific people, at specific times, and to communicate a specific message. As Spurgeon alludes, even angels must wait upon God’s sovereign timing to execute their divine tasking. As we set out to examine the work of Gabriel at the First Advent of Christ, we must note that in this instance, as Luke records it, the messenger, Gabriel, is inferior to the subject of his message: Jesus (see Hebrews 1). We do not set out to make much of Gabriel, but much of God’s use of Gabriel. Nonetheless, Gabriel, perhaps more than any other character within the scenes of Luke’s advent narrative provides the most insight to the results and ramifications of Christ’s first advent.

Angels: The Dispensers of Divine Bounty

The word angel means “messenger.” Throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, we see the messages of many angels go out to their recipients in an expression of God’s grace, sovereignty, and provision in their lives. In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin, who calls angels “noble and illustrious”[2] captures the essence of their ministry eloquently, saying,

But the point on which the Scriptures specifically insist is that which tends most to our comfort, and to the confirmation of our faith, namely, that angels are the ministers and dispensers of the divine bounty toward us.[3]

Here, Calvin captures the reality that angels dispense “divine bounty,” meant for God’s people. And this necessarily requires us to ask, “From whom does such a bounty come?” Thankfully, when Gabriel appears to both Zechariah and Mary, he makes it well known who he works for and from whom such divine bounty derives.

Gabriel’s Appointed Hour

While standing to the right side of the altar of incense, Gabriel responds to Zechariah’s inquiry, saying, “I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you good news” (Luke 1:19). This good news, as we have seen, is the conception, birth, and ministry of Zechariah’s future son, John the Baptist. And when we hear Luke 1:19, isn’t it easy to focus on the last part of the verse, the good news? But notice the other pieces of information Gabriel gives Zechariah during their encounter in verse 19: 1) Gabriel stands in the presence of God, and 2) he was sent to speak.

Have you ever thought about what the First Advent of Christ was like from Gabriel’s perspective? There is a scene in Isaiah 6 that I cannot help but picture in my mind when I think of what it was like to be Gabriel just prior to Christ’s first advent. In Isaiah 6:1, we read, “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.” As Isaiah unfolds the details of the scene of God’s throne, we see angels calling out to one another, saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (v. 3). Now, I am not suggesting that Gabriel was necessarily among the angels in Isaiah 6 but simply that when he tells Zechariah that he stands in the presence of God, we can utilize the scene in Isaiah 6 to picture Gabriel standing before the throne of a thrice holy God. And, as Gabriel informs us, at some point God gave him his tasking: a message, a place, and a person.

At Gabriel’s second appearance in Luke’s Gospel, his tasking is to go to Nazareth and speak to a virgin named Mary. I cannot help but wonder if Gabriel looked down upon the clouds as he descended upon the Galilean town? And while I am not certain of Gabriel’s exact mode of transportation when he came to Mary, I am certain on the content of his communication to the frightened virgin. Gabriel’s message that day was an announcement of the first advent of the Savior, saying,

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:30-33).

Gabriel’s message is theologically robust, to say the least. His statement contributes to the doctrines of Christ’s deity, his manhood, the Trinity, God’s sovereignty, covenant, and the nature and extent of Christ’s dominion. Even before the child was born, Gabriel pointed Mary to the hope in his eternal reign. Remember, Mary lived in Nazareth, a small village southwest of the Sea of Galilee, under Roman rule and occupation. Her life was marked by the presence of Rome which was a constant reminder of Israel’s need for a Savior and Ruler. It is no wonder that Mary received the angel’s message with willing obedience (Luke 1:38).

A Message of Our Own

Although Rome does not occupy Israel today, there is still hope in the message of Christ’s eternal reign. Like Gabriel, we have been given a specific message to share with specific people in specific places. Where has God placed you and who is it that is close to you but far from God who needs to hear the hope of Christ’s first coming and the warning of his second coming? Perhaps, you’ve identified this person prior to now but maybe fear or timidity has prevented you from sharing the gospel message? If so, consider this:

I propose to you, that it is not your responsibility for how others respond to your evangelistic efforts but rather it is your God-given responsibility to deliver the God-given message.

And we can see this when we compare the two messages Gabriel delivered in Luke 1, when we see two different responses. First, Zechariah responded in unbelief when Gabriel delivered God’s message to him and his tongue was tied because of this unbelief. Secondly, Mary responded to the angel’s message in resolute faith leading to joy and worship. This is an encouragement to those who are afraid to share the gospel because as far as the reader can determine, Gabriel’s responsibility was never the response of Zechariah or Mary to his message, but the faithfully delivery of the message. The same is true of us today. Like Gabriel, God has given believers a message to share and we are not responsible for their response to our words, but rather we are responsible to obediently share the message and simply trust God with the outcome.

Today, we can learn a lesson or two from Gabriel, the angel who stood in the presence of God. We must listen intently to God’s word and learn it well so that we can share its message with others. We must call sinners everywhere, and especially those nearest ourselves, to reflect on the First Advent of Christ–how he came to deal with sin by dying on the cross to reconcile us to God. And then, project the Second Advent of Christ-when He will come to cast those who are not his in the lake of fire for eternity and share in His glory with His people and reign, as Gabriel says, over a kingdom in which there is no end (Luke 1:33).   In the spirit of encouraging you to share God’s message of the gospel with those who are close to you but far from God, we end with 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. The Apostle writes, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” Praise God that at the first advent our Savior lived a life and died a death to provide a way for us to always be with the Lord. Do as Paul said, and encourage one another with these words!

[1] C.H. Spurgeon, A Call to the Ministry (United States: Revival Literature, n.d.).

[2] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2008), 91.

[3] John Calvin, Institutes, 93.

Categories
Elizabeth

Day 7: Elizabeth – Blameless and Barren

And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

Luke 1:6-7

The story of the first advent revolves around the scene of a mother and her baby. For some, this sight, majestic and wonderful as it is, produces a prick in the heart. Those who are barren, have miscarried, or experienced the loss of a child may feel less joyful than others at the reminder of a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. For these precious people with heavy hearts, we turn to Elizabeth, who Luke describes as: righteous, blameless, barren, and advanced in years (Luke 1:6-7).

Elizabeth and her husband were “righteous before God” (Luke 1:6). The term righteous in both the Old Testament and New Testament carries the sense of conformity to a standard.[1] Their conformity manifested itself as the couple went about “walking blamelessly,” a phrase Luke used to display Zechariah and Elizabeth’s obedience to God’s law, or standard. In Romans 6, Paul captures the very essence of Zechariah and Elizabeth’s lives: obedience leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to sanctification (vv. 17-19). They conformed to God’s standard of holiness through obedience.

In Luke 1:5, just before he called Elizabeth righteous, Luke provided a detail about her ancestry that highlighted the distress of her childlessness. She was “from the daughters of Aaron” (Luke 1:5), which meant she descended from a long line of devout Jewish priests (Lev. 8-9), who were experts in the Levitical Law. “Leviticus 20:20-21 shows that the Hebrews thought childlessness was a sign of divine punishment.”[2] In the eyes of Elizabeth’s family and the society she lived in, her barrenness must have been divine punishment because they thought one could not simultaneously be blameless and barren.

Luke also revealed that Elizabeth was “advanced in years” (Luke 1:7). Her age added hopelessness to her plight.  She referred to her state of elderly barrenness as “my reproach[3] among the people” (Luke 1:25).

Luke’s four descriptions of Elizabeth were: righteous, blameless, barren, and advanced in years (Luke 1:6-7). This description brings into focus the picture of a woman who was deeply aware of her barrenness and society’s view of her state (Luke 1:25), yet never allowed the circumstance to compromise her love and devotion to God or her husband. There is no biblical indication that she blamed, cursed, or disobeyed God because of her barrenness. She was simultaneously blameless and barren. She was not at fault for her infertility despite a historic notion to the contrary. God was not punishing Elizabeth, but rather he was executing his plan in her life.

Even though Elizabeth and Zechariah were blameless, they were not painless. They were image-bearers of God with real feelings and emotions. It is likely that they felt sorrow and sadness. They may have even perceived a sense of emptiness and loss. Despite anything hurtful that they felt, it is evident that the pain of childlessness brought the couple closer to God. In their pursuit of righteousness, they certainly prayed for a child (Luke 1:13). They did not allow their emotions to become their God. They did not let childlessness dictate their treatment of God, themselves, or others. They took their pain, displeasure, distress, emptiness, sorrow, and hurt to the throne of grace for help in a time of need (Heb. 4:15-16). They were without a child, but they were not without a God.

Miraculously, Elizabeth went on to conceive at her advanced age. While pregnant, she became the first person to ever publicly declare that Jesus is Lord (Luke 1:39-45). She did not make this insightful proclamation because she was pregnant, but because she was “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:41; cf. Matt. 16:16-17). Even though her dreams of being a mother were finally becoming a reality, the joy of her salvation was in her Lord, not her child. Her hope was in a baby boy, just not her baby boy. Read Luke 1:39-45 and pay particular attention to Elizabeth’s source of joy, the arrival of her Lord:

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

The transcending lessons of Elizabeth’s story encourages all believers to:

  • endure affliction righteously (2 Timothy 2:12-13)
  • pray and seek God in the midst of difficulty and trials (Philippians 4:4-9)
  • use reproach as an opportunity to grow closer to God and our spouses/family instead of a reason for isolation and abandonment (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
  • realize that nothing is too hard for God (Jeremiah 32:27)
  • recognize that God’s goodness is still present in affliction (Psalm 119:67-68)
  • determine that your source of joy is rooted in the coming of our Lord Jesus and look for that second coming often (Luke 2:10)

[1] John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Biblical Truth (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2017), 184.

[2]  Trent C. Butler Holman New Testament Commentary: Luke,ed. Max Anders(Nashville, TN, B&H Publishing: 2000), 7.

[3] Another appropriate word for reproach is the term “disgrace.” Elizabeth’s situation was seen as more than an unfortunate occurrence, but rather a disgraceful one.

Categories
John the Baptist

Day 6: John the Baptist’s Prophetic Ministry

And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.”

Luke 1:11-13

The Twelve Days of Advent exists to help believers reflect and project; we hope your reflections on the meaning and events of Christ’s first advent will provoke joyful, hopeful worship at the many projections of Christ’s second advent. If there was ever a person whose life was predicated upon projecting the coming of Christ, it was John the Baptist’s. John’s purpose and mission in life was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus.

In ancient days, it was commonplace for kings to send messengers ahead of themselves to prepare the way for their visitation. The messenger, sent in advance, was responsible for removing any hindrances that may impede the king upon his majesty’s arrival. Both Isaiah and Malachi tell of such a messenger who would be the forerunner for Jesus upon his arrival and the initiation of his earthly ministry.

The Prophets and a Priest Discuss John’s Ministry

Isaiah’s prophecy says, “A voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3). Malachi 3:1 foretells of John the Baptist saying, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.” After John’s birth, his father was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied about his son, declaring, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways” (Luke 1:76). These texts portray John the Baptist as God’s prophet who exists to prepare the way for Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry.

John’s father, Zechariah, was not the only person to declare that his son was a prophet from God. In fact, it was the angel Gabriel who first hinted that John the Baptist would be a prophet. When Zechariah burned incense in the temple, Gabriel told the priest that his son John would come “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17).

In Luke 7, while in prison, John the Baptist sent messengers to Jesus, who made inquiries about the authenticity of Christ on behalf of John. When Christ answered their questions and sent the messengers away, Jesus spoke to the crowds around him concerning John, saying,

What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your ways before you (Luke 7:26-27).

In one small discourse, Jesus removes any ambiguity about John’s identity and confirms the message of Isaiah, Malachi, Gabriel, and Zechariah. Jesus teaches us that John the Baptist was God’s prophet who lived to prepare the way for his earthly ministry. And yet, although we often think of John as the one preparing the way for the Lord, we don’t always think of John the Baptist as a prophet.

The Prophetic Ministry of John

The word prophet means “one who speaks in place of” or “spokesman,” meaning that the prophets in the Bible were God’s spokesman to the people. In the Old Testament, the message of the prophets “focused on three key areas:” 1) rebuking Israel for covenant disobedience, 2) warnings and predictions regarding the nations, and 3) “promises of a glorious kingdom in which Israel would be restored under her Messiah.”[1] Although John the Baptist appears in our Bible within the New Testament, his ministry occurred during the Old Covenant before Jesus inaugurated the New Covenant. For this reason, and Gabriel’s comparison of John to the Prophet Elijah, it is helpful to view John’s ministry as similar to the Old Testament prophets. John, like the prophets of old, was empowered by the Holy Spirit to execute his ministry, and here is a taste, through the lens of Luke’s Gospel, of what his ministry was like:

Luke records that John the Baptist was great before the Lord (1:15). His preaching of repentance gave the knowledge of salvation to his people for the forgiveness of sins (1:77). John baptized the repentant and refused baptism to those who were not repentant (Luke 3:7-9). He amassed crowds of disciples compiled of commoners, tax collectors, and even Roman soldiers (Luke 3:10-14). And when Jesus came on the scene, John gladly saw the number of his disciples decrease and the number of Jesus’ disciples increase (John 3:30). John’s ministry, empowered by the Holy Spirit, was so powerful and captivating at times that on many occasions, people confused him with either the prophet Isaiah or the Messiah himself (Luke 3:15).

As powerful as John’s prophetic ministry of preparing the way for the Lord was, John himself said, “I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him” (John 3:28) and, “he who is mightier than I is coming” (Luke 3:16). John’s prophetic ministry ultimately prepared the way for a prophet much greater than himself.

The Word Became Flesh

One of the key differences between John and Jesus is written in Luke 3. Here, we find John the Baptist on the precipice of his earthly ministry, dwelling in the wilderness. In verse 2, Luke records, “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” Then, John goes about proclaiming the message given to him. Like all true prophets before him, John’s message is not his own, but rather his words come from God. So, what is the difference between John and Jesus? John required the word to come to him in the wilderness but Jesus, according to John 1:14, is the word. John required revelation from God but the advent of Jesus is the source of God’s revelation.[2]

So, while we are thankful for John the Baptist’s miraculous, Spirit-filled birth to a barren woman, his powerful prophetic preparation of Christ’s earthly ministry, and his unrelenting message of repentance for forgiveness of sins . . .   we are most thankful that John’s birth and life point us to the miraculous, Spirit-filled birth of a baby born to a virgin and man who died to guarantee the very forgiveness that John preached about.

In the same manner that the priests and kings before Jesus point to the Savior as the final, superior High priest and King of Kings, so do the prophets, like John the Baptist, point us to the superiority of the final and greatest prophet: Jesus (Hebrews 1:1-2) who fulfills this office by revealing to us, by His Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation (WSC Q24).

[1] John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Biblical Truth (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2017), 858.

[2] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 626.

Categories
King

Day 5: Herod’s Reign as King of Judea

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 9:6-7

As an author, Luke is renowned for his inclusion of details that enhance the storyline. In his introduction of Zechariah, he provides a meaningful detail that points to the second advent of Christ, writing, “In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah” (Luke 1:5). After Luke 1:5, the following 20 verses have everything to do with Zechariah and nothing to do with King Herod. By including this detail about Herod, Luke is relaying to his audience some very important context: the Jews living in Judea during this time were under Roman rule.

When Zechariah walked into the temple to burn incense, it had been 400 years since God had spoken through the last prophet, Malachi. During this time, there had been civil and religious unrest within the Hebrew nation, which ended with Herod at the helm of Judea. Herod came into power by purchasing his position and making alliances with key figures in the Roman government.[1]  He was a violent and manipulative king. Jewish historian, Josephus records that during Herod’s reign he “transmitted to eternity many of his family and friends.”[2] Herod did this out of fear that they may threaten his throne.

Aside from his brutality, history also records that Herod was a master builder. He once dedicated the magnificent Antonia Fortress to Mark Antony. He ordered that this fortress be built adjacent to the Jewish temple, so that his soldiers could overlook the temple courts. The fortress stood in the mind of many Hebrews, “as a symbol of Herod’s oppressive rule of the Jewish nation.”[3]

It was under this foreign oppressor when a faithful Jewish woman received news of a different King. At last, a King far greater than Herod was set to walk the roads of Jerusalem. Luke records this in Luke 1:31-33, saying,

“And behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Those who stood outside the temple at the hour of incense in Luke 1 came from a long line of Jewish royalty. Their knowledge of scripture formed their hope that a new king would rise from among them and save the people. Knowing God’s promises to them, surely, the Jews would have known passages like:

  • Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever (2 Samuel 7:16).
  • You have said, ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to my servant: I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations’ (Psalm 89:3-4).

Likewise, it is the Church’s knowledge of scripture today that forms her hope that a righteous King sovereignly reigns; a King who will come a second time to rescue his people from the presence of sin and Satan. The Apostle Paul points us to such hope in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, saying, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” In the same way that the Jews looked forward to the first advent of the Messiah, we too look forward to the second advent of the King of Kings. And it’s important to note that their hope, like ours, was informed by Scripture. Thanks to Luke’s detail about Herod, the first advent causes us to look forward to the arrival of our King at the second advent. When a king is mentioned in scripture, it points us to the King of kings, Jesus. As you have seen with Herod, the kings of the Bible merely point out the inability of any man to do what only Jesus can: Rule his people in perfect justice and righteousness (Isaiah 9:7).

[1] H.I. Hester, The Heart of the New Testament (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman, 1950), 32-33.

[2] Josephus, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1987), 576.

[3] John D. Currid and David P. Barrett. ESV Bible Atlas (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2010), 213.

Categories
Priest

Day 4: Zechariah’s Priesthood

And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.

Luke 1:20

Although Zechariah was described as a righteous priest who walked blamelessly with God, he was not altogether sinless. During the hour of prayer in which he burned incense an angel of the Lord appeared to him. The angel told Zechariah that his wife was destined to conceive and give birth to a son (Luke 1:11-17). Zechariah responded in disbelief, saying, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years” (v.18). As an apparent rebuke for his disbelief, the angel responded, saying, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time” (Luke 1:19-20). Those who prayed outside during this angelic encounter waited on Zechariah to exit the temple, so that he could provide the priest’s customary blessing over them; however this day, when the priest appeared, as Luke 1:22 records, “he was unable to speak to them.”

Let’s compare this event in Luke’s first chapter of the silenced priest, Zechariah, to the scene of Jesus in the last chapter of Luke’s Gospel by looking at one scholar’s observation, saying, “The first chapter [of Luke] pictures Zechariah the priest coming out of the temple speechless and unable to give the customary blessing to the people. The last chapter shows Jesus, our great high priest giving his disciples a parting blessing (Luke 24:51).”[1]

Even a righteous and blameless priest like Zechariah was in need of a Savior. He, along with all other Old Testament priests, were merely “types” of things to come.

A “type” in the language of theology, is a special example, symbol, or picture that God designed beforehand, and that he placed in history at an earlier point in time in order to point forward to a later, larger fulfillment.”[2]

According to Hebrews 8:5, the Old Testament priests, like Zechariah[3] in Luke 1 “serve as a copy or shadow of the heavenly things.” A couple chapters later, in Hebrews 10:1, the author declares that the priesthood, along with its sacrificial system, were simply, “a shadow of the good things to come.” These statements should cause the reader to ask, “What exactly are these “heavenly” and “good” things that the Old Testament priests, like Zechariah, point us to?

The answer to this question can be summarized in one name: Jesus. The OT priests, and the Mosaic Covenant that they worked under, pointed to the ultimate high priest and a better covenant to come. A brief outline of the book of Hebrews displays that Jesus serves His people today as a more superior priest in a more superior priesthood who gave a more superior sacrifice than any who preceded him. Having already examined Zechariah the priest’s disbelief and how it displays one example of his inferiority to our high priest Jesus, we will now look at the superiority of Christ’s priesthood. Hebrews 7:26-28 explains (in part) why Jesus is a better priest than Zechariah or anyone before him, saying,

“For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.”

What we just read in Hebrews 7:26-28 displays eight truths about our high priest, Jesus:

  • Holy (v. 26)
  • Innocent (v. 26)
  • Unstained (v. 26)
  • Separated from sinners (v. 26)
  • Exalted above the heavens (v. 26)
  • Sinless (v. 27)
  • Appointed by God (v. 28; cf. v. 21)
  • Perfect forever (v. 28)

These attributes display the superiority of Jesus’ priesthood, a priesthood that comes with demands on the believer’s life. Some of these demands are also shown in the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews 10:19-25, the author tells us that the basis for our obedience to the priest is the perfect sacrifice the priest gave: Himself, saying,

“Therefore, brothers since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

In the above text we see the phrase “since we have a great priest over the house of God” (v.20). The word “since” in Hebrews 10:20 acts as a conjunction, meaning that it connects two or more items in the text together. Here, the fact that “we have a high priest” is connected (by the word “since”) with three commands that begin with the phrase “let us.” The author of Hebrews is effectively saying, “Since we have a superior high priest, let us do what he commands . . .” and there are three things this high priest commands of us in this text and they read like this:

Since we have a great high priest over the house of God:

  1. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
  2. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
  3. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.[4]

So, how is that Zechariah the priest points us to the second coming of Jesus? It is right there in Hebrews 10:25. The priesthood that Zechariah participated in was a “type” that pointed to Jesus’ priesthood, and Jesus’ priesthood commands that you obey him by encouraging one another, “as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25). The word “Day” here refers to the time when Jesus comes back to “bring salvation to those who await him” (Hebrews 9:28). The priesthood of Christ demands that believers abide by the “let us” commands in Hebrews 10. In an effort to obey these commands, it is important that believers know that they are not left to their own power to fulfill such commands. For, unlike Zechariah or any Jewish priest, Jesus is both the priest and the sacrifice. And the results of Jesus’ offering of himself is that Christians have access to the power of the Holy Spirit, who enables us to obey all of God’s commands. So, when we read in the Bible the phrases “you shall” or “let us,” we must be aware that we already have the power through the Holy Spirit to obey whatever God of us. This power is something that only Jesus, not Zechariah, or any other priest could ever provide for God’s people.

So, when you come across Zechariah’s priesthood as you read the story of the first coming of Christ this advent season, reflect on how the weaknesses of the first priests and priesthood project the need for a superior priest, a need which was ultimately fulfilled through the first advent of Jesus.

[1] Elmer L. Towns and Ben Gutierrez, eds., The Essence of the New Testament: A Survey (B&H Publishing: Nashville, TN, 2012), 76.

[2] Wayne Grudem, C. John Collins, and Thomas R. Schreiner, eds., Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible: A Guide to Reading the Whole Bible (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2015) 15, accessed from https://app.wordsearchbible.lifeway.com.

[3] Remember, even though Zechariah appears in the New Testament Gospel of Luke he is still a priest operating under the old covenant.

[4] It is fitting that we notice the term “us” here. Our faith is corporate, not private. Personal faith is biblical and should not be confused with “private” faith, which is not a biblical concept. Your priest requires you to live your faith in the context of Christian community.

Categories
Prayer

Day 3: Zechariah’s Prayers

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah . . . Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the multitude of people were praying outside at the hour of incense.

Luke 1:5, 8-10

Luke starts his Gospel account by focusing on Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. As the story begins, Zechariah performs his priestly duty of burning incense inside the temple, while the Jews pray outside of the temple. For these prayerful Jews, this time of day is known as “the hour of incense” (v. 10). It finds its roots in Exodus 30:1-10 and the establishment of the tabernacle. Here, God provides Moses with instructions on how to build an altar for the purpose of burning incense. In this passage, God commands Moses that the incense must burn continually and that it should be burnt every morning and at twilight, hence Luke’s phrase, “the hour of incense” (Luke 1:10; cf. Exodus 30:7-8; Hebrews 9:1-4). Later in Exodus, the Lord gives specific instructions to Moses on the composition of the incense, how to mix the spices, and when to burn it. God even warns Moses, saying, “And the incense that you shall make according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves. It shall be for you holy to the Lord” (Exodus 30:37).

This is exactly where we find Zechariah the priest in Luke 1. As he burns incense, he is simply following the instructions from Exodus 30. He is preparing a holy incense for the delight of his Holy God. In the Old Testament days, from Moses down to Zechariah, God’s presence rested in a section of the temple called the Holy of Holies. On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies to present a sacred sacrifice to God (see Leviticus 16). The Holy of Holies was made separate from the rest of the Temple by a large veil (Exodus 26:33). If you were to walk up to that curtain, just prior to entering the Holy of Holies, you would see the altar of incense mentioned in Exodus 30. For 364 days out of the year, the High Priest dared not enter through the veil, but the aroma from the incense passed through the curtain continually. This is significant because it was God’s design given to Moses, meaning that God desired incense to burn in a place so close to his presence that he could enjoy the scent of worship as it passed from the altar, through the veil, and into the Holy of Holies. The incense produced an aroma, like a fine perfume pleasing to God.

In the New Testament, incense represents the continual prayers of God’s people. The most notable connection between incense and prayer, here in Luke’s Gospel, is in Luke 1:10. This verse describes what the people did during the burning of incense, saying, “And the whole multitude of people were praying outside at the hour of incense.”

As mentioned previously, in Exodus 30:7-8, God commands that incense burn day and night (i.e. continually). Compare this with 1 Thessalonians 5:17 which says, “Pray without ceasing.” In the same manner that God desired for incense to burn continually in the Old Testament, God desires His people to pray continuously in the New Testament. Our prayers produce an aroma, like a fine perfume, that is pleasing to God.

Prayers in the Presence of God

Revelation 5:8 explicitly states the symbolism between incense and prayers, saying, “And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”

And let’s look at one more inextricable link between prayer and incense: The layout of the temple itself. For, the layout of the tabernacle in Exodus 30 physically placed the burning incense immediately in front of the presence of God. And as seen, Revelation 5:8 shows the prayers of God’s people immediately in front of the Lamb. This displays that prayer brings us into the presence of God. This is one reason why most expressions of worship begin with prayer. During corporate worship: the offering, singing, reading of scripture, and delivering of the sermon almost always begin with prayer. Scottish Reformer John Knox, “in The Book of Common Order” detailed the prescribed order of the corporate worship service; even in the year 1560, the service began with both confession of sins and invocation of the Spirit.[1] The church then understood that prayer is the mechanism that takes believers from the woes of a fallen world and the cares of this life into the wonder of God’s presence, so that we may worship Him rightly. With all of this in mind, Zechariah, Moses, the image we see around the throne in Revelation 5, one can see the irrefutable link between incense and prayer. What incense always pointed to, and what our prayers are today, is the sincere, genuine, and sacred worship of the Messiah (Revelation 5:8).

From now on when you read Luke’s Gospel and reflect on righteous Zechariah humbly burning incense while the people pray outside the temple, you should not skim past the implications of the priest’s actions, but rather project in your heart and mind what the incense points to: you, humbly praying before the presence of God on his throne in heaven awaiting the second advent of the Savior. The verses in Luke 1, Exodus 30, and Revelation 5 demand that we live as a people who pray continually. Until the day of his second advent, we cry out with the Psalmist, saying, “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you” (Psalm 141:2). May your prayers this advent season burn like incense around the throne of God.

[1] Douglas Bond, The Mighty Weakness of John Knox (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2011), 98.