Covenant – The Twelve Days of 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
⁶⁹and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David,
⁷⁰as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
⁷¹that we should be saved from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us;
⁷²to show the mercy promised to our fathers
    and to remember his holy covenant,
⁷³the 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).

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.