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Hermeneutics
This morning I want to revisit a concept I have discussed before and will discuss again in the future.
The lens through which we read and interpret our Bibles is important.
When you read your Bible, what are you looking for?
Are you looking for yourself?
Are you looking for love?
Are you looking for holiness?
Are you looking for salvation?
Jesus Throughout
Jesus, God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, is the focus of the Christian celebration of Christmas.
He is mentioned by his earthly name in our Bibles for the first time in Matthew 1 verse 1.
The first mention of his earthly life takes place in Matthew 2 verse 1.
If you had a Bible with 1,000 pages, this would be right around page 763.
The 762 pages that precede this first mention of the name of Jesus are filled with stories which for the last 100 years or so have been taught in Sunday school as moral lessons.
Of heroes and villians.
Jesus in the Old Testament
Some of us avoid the Old Testament because it is confusing.
We don’t know why certain stories are there.
We are confused by the wrath of a Holy God that seems at odds with the loving, peaceful Jesus we have been taught about in Sunday school.
God the Son, from beginning to end.
God the Son, from Genesis to Revelation.
Jesus Christ.
The Redeemer of Humanity.
Jesus Christ.
He, our perfect God, who has existed eternally in perfect harmony and unity and fellowship, stepped out of his heavenly throne room and into our fallen creation.
A creation humans in our sin have utterly corrupted.
And he came here to bring us back.
This is the story of the Bible.
I often reference, and you will not cease to hear me reference, a popular quote from Matt Chandler.
The Bible is not about you.
You are not David, facing your giants and overcoming them.
Jesus is David, standing alone in front of a cowering army conquering sin and death for us.
Only Jesus
Creation
I’m giving away the punch line early here, but in the beginning, there was nothing.
Fall
Abraham
Over two thousand years before the arrival of Jesus, the story of the Hebrew people began with the man Abram, who would come to be known as Abraham.
He is seen as the forefather of Jews, Muslims, and Christians by the adherents of those faiths.
God called Abram out of his homeland, and Abram was obedient.
When Abram was 99 years old, with an aging wife, and with no children, God spoke to him.
Abraham and Isaac - Sarah, the wife of Abraham, was an old, barren woman by the time the promises made by God started to appear as a reality.
They both had laughed at the prospect of Abraham being the father of even one child, much less many nations.
And yet, God opened the womb of the Sarah and she gave birth to a son, whom they loved very much.
And yet, the following occured:
It is here we see foreshadowing of what is to come.
Though we call Jesus the Lamb, it is here that we see God providing a Ram as a sacrifice in the stead of human life.
It is here we see that a replacement sacrifice is acceptable to God.
And, as Abraham recognized that day, the Lord will provide.
I AM
Repeatedly, throughout history, the chosen people of God were embattled, captured, or exiled.
The story of Moses is a well-known narrative, in which God uses the man Moses to bring the chosen people out of Egypt.
It is also a narrative in which one of the most important titles of God is revealed to us.
David and the Kings
Around one thousand years before the arrival of Jesus on earth, the Hebrew people sought a king.
They had wandered and conquered, been enslaved and returned to the promised land to wander more.
They had established a nation been ruled by a series of Judges rather than Kings.
Yet, they desired a king.
They were warned that an earthly king would not be a blessing.
Yet, the people begged and the Lord granted them their wish.
The first king was Saul.
The second was David.
David, the youngest son of Jesse.
A shepherd boy tending sheep.
An unlikely hero, and an unlikely king.
David became king and the Lord blessed his path.
David, a descendent of Abraham.
Abraham, the one with whom God had made a covenant, promising that all nations would be blessed through his descendents.
And now, as king, David also received a covenant from the Lord.
And yet, this wasn’t to happen immediately.
In fact, as i mentioned before, this was 1,000 years before the arrival of Christ.
Exile
The Jews were conquered again, and sent into exile.
And some turned away never to return, but God sent prophets to both rebuke the people and to reinforce the promises he had made.
To the Jews in Exile, the Lord said:
Yearning for a Savior
The Hebrew people have historically been persecuted, as we have seen a bit of today.
Yet, God has always saved a remnant of them.
This yearning for a Redeemer was an ache in the hearts of the Jewish people.
700 years before the birth of Jesus, God said the through the prophet Isaiah:
From the prophet Malachi came the words...
And then, silence.
400 years of silence.
The Arrival
God had spoken through prophets for over one thousand years, and then, silence.
No more prophets.
No further promises.
No reminders of the goodness to come.
Silence.
Until…
Jesus
Jesus, the fulfillment of many promises.
Jesus, God the Son, come to earth to Redeem a fallen humanity.
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