God regrets things.  But it doesn’t mean He’d been wrong or made a mistake.  When your raw materials are sinful men, the process is ugly, but the final result will be worth it.

God anoints Saul.  He rejects Saul.  All part of the process.

“I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the LORD all that night. (1 Sam. 15:11)

Samuel was angry.  He didn’t like the way the plan was unfolding and the political risk he was forced to accept.  Samuel mourned for Saul, taking the easy, routine, and complacent way, instead of saying something godly like, “I’m the Lord’s servant.”

1 Samuel 16:1 The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”  2 But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”

There ya’ go.  Samuel is afraid.  It’s easier to be complacent with evil infiltrating an entire nation than to confront it by taking political risk that might be personally harmful. (And some people think the Bible isn’t relevant…)

Divine Intervention.  The nation was in crisis. 
The king had failed to do the LORD’s work and obey His commands. 
Divine Intervention. 
A new king, but not one that looks like what the people would want. 
These things take time.

1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”…

David—the man after God’s own heart–was not there.  He was working.  But Samuel still had his anointing oil and as of this moment, had no one to anoint.  “There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”…

Sheep?  What kind of king would a shepherd make? 

1 Samuel 16:12 Then the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.” 13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon David.  (1 Samuel 16:1-13)

Questions for further thought:

• Shepherds were on the low end of society.  Kings were at the upper end of the social ladder.  Why is it telling that God would choose a shepherd?
• Think about the Christmas story and the announcement being given to shepherds (Luke 2:8-17).  Now think about Jesus as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-18).  What does it say about human judgments and the ones who find favor with God?
• It was around 15 years between the moment God told Samuel to anoint David as king with the Spirit of the LORD resting powerfully upon him … and the time he would finally rule as king.  Fifteen years of waiting!  What does this tell us about God’s view of time?
• What does it tell us about patience on the part of David, year after year, when he knew he’d been anointed?
• What was God doing with David during those 15 years?  What was he doing with Saul and the world?
• Samuel told Saul the LORD’s message that he was rejected.  Saul also knew that David was to succeed him, and that put David at significant political risk.  What about faith in God defies political risk?  What does it say about one’s priorities?

Lord Jesus, in many ways You were countercultural; You were a revolutionary; and the revolution that You inspired has been God-honoring since the day You rose from the grave. We ask Lord that we might look at political risk the same way that You do, and do Your will, in the same way that You commanded giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and giving to God what is God’s.

We ask Lord that You would firm our resolve to have You as our priority. Father, that we would understand the consequences of leadership in the human realm, and our desire be an obligation according to Your word to submit to those authorities in our lives. Yet Lord we need to appreciate and acknowledge that You must be our highest priority and when those in human authority over us insist upon things that do not honor You that there is available to us, in the United States, a conscientious objection that Christians can have…to bring honor to You in all our comings and goings.

We acknowledge Your consequences upon those in leadership, for a world that has gone astray. The Bible was never more relevant than it is today! We ask for Your guidance for Christians in this difficult day and time. We ask for You to affirm our resolve, that we would stand for You no matter what the culture is doing, and that we would remain and endure as a light shining in darkness! Give us confidence, Lord, that the light that we shine is one that could never be extinguished because Jesus is the Light of the World and a city on a hill can never be hidden. A light on a stand can never be extinguished and so may we hold high this light as a beacon of our hope in Christ until You return.

We ask Lord that those family members and friends, those in our circles of influence who do not know You Lord, that they would see Your light at this Christmas Season like never before! That in the shadow of COVID and peril, this eternal Light points to You again and again just like at Lent, just like at Good Friday when all hope seemed lost, and just like Easter Sunday when it was rekindled anew.

Help us to see that Jesus is not just a helpless little baby in a manger but rather the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the eternal invading time…the Word made flesh! He rose from the grave and was victorious over death and that if it weren’t for Jesus, we would all perish in our sins. Bring us to that sure knowledge of You, Lord, that sure knowledge of Your salvation that touched the earth when You were born in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago. Help us to see with open eyes. Help us to receive with open hearts this Christmas gift of Yours to all mankind. We praise You and thank You for the faithfulness of Your Son Jesus Christ in whose Name we pray. Amen.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

A Promised Land means nothing if the Israelites move in and pollute it by sinning instead of displaying behavior becoming of Chosen People.  So God issues Ten Commandments beginning with Exodus 20:1 And God spoke all these words: 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me…”

Now they’d been tested in the desert and found wanting.  Faithlessly fearing man when God had already displayed His Divine Intervention many times.  God was very displeased—angry even—and said, “For forty years– one year for each of the forty days you explored the land– you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have Me against you.’ I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against Me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.” (Numbers 14:34-35)

All this…amazingly… after “The LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven.” (Read Exodus 20:1-22)

They’d seen it.  They’d known it.  They’d been shown it by Divine Intervention at the giving of the Ten Commandments.  And still sin has a tight grip, even on the Chosen People who had been eyewitnesses to God’s goodness and been given ample preparation for them to flourish in a land flowing with milk and honey He wanted them to enter.

Questions for further thought:

• What causes people who have been shown the truth to still reject it? 
• What does it say about the person/people rejecting it? 
• What hope is there for those who have seen the truth and rejected it? 
• Does God just overlook it or are there natural consequences for such behavior? 
• Are there any truths you’re being shown that you are refusing to accept?

Forgive us, Father, for the many ways that we reject and displease You, making You angry with us.  Forgive us for how we look askance at the blessings that You have in store for us in the future, and instead we look at human abilities and power structures—all the while denying You!  Looking in fear at our fellow man, Oh Lord.  Forgive us!  Open our eyes, remove the scales that keep us from seeing the truth, scales put there by the evil one who desires to deceive us and kill us, to lead us astray, and to lead us away from You, Lord.  We do not want You against us; we want You for us, and so help us to be people who obey You, who love You, who cherish You, who are willing to follow obediently, Lord.  You are righteous in all Your judgments. You are all wise and all-knowing.  Your timing is perfect.  Help us to have faith to do what You require. Help us to have that faith that is of great value to life now and our hope for the future.  We thank You for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We thank You for the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us.  We ask, Father, that You would protect our hearts.  We’ve seen Your power on our behalf.  Clearly show us what is true and give us obedient hearts to follow You in all things, at all times, and in all ways.  Be glorified in us today, Lord. Amen.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

What does it take for you to believe something?  Just reading it in print, or someone you regard saying that it’s so?  Maybe having it pass the “fact-checker” test or someone on Twitter telling you that it’s true?  Or sometimes, do you need to know it by someone showing you…in order to see it with your own eyes, experience it, and walk through it before you’ll wake up and fully believe? 

The Israelites and the Egyptians were about to get that and more.

Two problems though: The Israelites began to doubt and in their impatience, thought Moses was bringing nothing but trouble instead of rescue, and second, the Israelites had to look stupid to others before they’d finally get out.

This is the Exodus equivalent of God choosing “the foolish things of the world to shame the wise … the weak things of the world to shame the strong… so that no one may boast before Him.” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)  But no one likes to look weak or foolish even when it serves God’s purpose.

Exodus 14:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. 3 Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” So the Israelites did this. (Exodus 14:1-4)

Isn’t it interesting that the most arrogant among us–in their conceit–will pass judgment on others, and fail to see the map (or the trap) laid before them?  Even showing them, their arrogance causes them to misinterpret.

Pharaoh concludes the Israelites are lesser beings, that they’re stupid and confused…instead of his thinking, “I’d better watch out.  These people are Chosen.  Their God has already done some pretty powerful stuff.  Don’t mess with their God.  Just let them go and be done with it.” 

But no, the arrogant are self-deluded.  Power does that to people.

Here comes Divine Intervention of a most awesome kind because God was going to glorify Himself.  Moses stands there with his staff.  The waters of the Red Sea part.  The presumed to be confused march through on dry land, not at all hemmed in by desert and sea. 

Still not getting it that the Chosen People were on their way out to worship God in the desert, the Egyptians rush in.  “During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.  He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, ‘Let’s get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt.’” (Exodus 14:24-25)

Questions for further thought:

• Read Exodus 14:10-31.  How did God thoroughly glorify Himself? 
• In what way is there poetic justice in Pharaoh thinking the Israelites were confused when they weren’t but in verse 24 the LORD threw the whole Egyptian army into confusion? 
• Without Divine Intervention, the Israelites had no hope.  What does this teach us about prayer and trusting God for deliverance by His intervention at the perfect moment?

Lord Jesus, be glorified in our prayers and in our faith as we trust in You for Your perfect timing, Your perfect plan, and Your perfect intervention in our lives.  Father God, we praise You for the plan that You have for our deliverance, for the promised return of Your Son, our Lord Jesus in the Last Day to bring those who have faith in You through disaster and calamity and into Your glorious presence.  We ask, Father, that You would be glorified in us now and always as we exercise our trust in You.  We humbly ask Your mercy upon our lives, our families, our nation, and our world.  Please show mercy where mercy can be shown, deliver—by the power of Your Holy Spirit–poetic justice where it is deserved.  Help us to see You clearly as the only true God.  We offer these prayers in the mighty Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

The most grievous and powerful plague upon Egypt was also the most important Divine Intervention for the ancient Hebrews.  It’s a pattern of salvation and one set apart for remembrance through the ages: the plague against the firstborn in Egypt.  Jews and Christians alike celebrate it as Passover, even today thousands of years later, because it was a Divine Intervention of the most amazing kind.

It was catastrophic for “the Egyptians” (read not as a modern national identity, but as powerful people of that day those who worshiped other gods).  For them, it was devastating.  Tragic.  Horrific. 

“Moses said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt– worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal.’ Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.” (Exodus 11:4-7)

A clear and compelling case of God’s playing favorites.  The Chosen People??  How dare God choose some to save and to punish others!  Who does He think He is?  That must be how the Egyptians who lost their firstborn sons felt, never mind that their Pharaoh had demanded not just the firstborn, but all sons of the Hebrews be thrown into the Nile not that long ago.  (Exodus 1:22)

But there’s this little thing called worship and a really big deal about which god one worships: one of our making, or the One who made us. 
One can be remade, reshaped, and rejected at will.
The other—the One True God—will not be mocked. 
Moses makes it plain to the most powerful man in the world.

“All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will leave.” Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.  The LORD had said to Moses, “Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you– so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt.” (Exodus 11:8-9)

Questions for further thought.

• Read about the preparations for the Passover in Exodus 12, identifying what was God’s Divine Intervention and what was man’s participation.
• “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.  The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.  “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD– a lasting ordinance (Exodus 12:12-14).
• In what ways does God incorporate human responses into His Divine Intervention?  Why does God honor human will and freedom?
• How were God’s wonders multiplied in Egypt? 
• What types of situations merit God’s intervention?
• This was a big Divine Intervention.  Does God always do big, global events, or can He also do micro-interventions that are just as miraculous and purposeful?
• In the modern world, people will resort to murder over cartoons of their prophet.  What about making fun of Christians and the Christ, cartoons and defacing churches, even burning them, and engaging in antisemitism to no consequence?  Would you say that is mocking God? 
• What about God’s understanding and use of time is informative here?

Let’s pray, Thank You, Lord, for the deliverance that You gave the Israelites on that terrible night when You killed the firstborn of Egypt, yet spared the Israelites who had obediently painted blood upon the doorposts of their homes. Lord, You establish ways of living, ways of doing things… You outline them in Your word, You lay them upon our hearts as a function of conscience, and You codify them through– not just the 10 Commandments—but also through the laws of many God-fearing nations. We thank You that You are a God who will not be mocked because You are the One True God.  We humbly accept and welcome that vengeance is Yours, and in Your timing, You make everything right.  So during these days when things are so confusing, when there are assertions and challenges, and caution statements from social media warning about disputed ideas someone doesn’t want us to hear, we thank You that Your word is true, Your word is solid, Your word is reliable, and that You are the One True God who will never be mocked, who will execute wrath in Your timing and to exquisite perfection. Thank You, Father, for Jesus, Your Son and our Savior and it’s in His mighty Name that we pray, humbly offering ourselves as His servants to follow Him until His return. Amen.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Today, I’m going somewhat controversial on you.  I was trained in the tradition of a “pre-Tribulation Rapture”.  Whoa, whoa, whoa! you say.  Too confusing.  I don’t understand it.  Don’t go there, you say. 

Watch me.  (grinning)

There’s a reason I hold timing of “The Rapture” loosely, the Rapture, of course, being that moment of the End Times when Christians alive will (after the God-fearers who have long passed) rise to be with our Savior.  In the pre-Tribulation idea, the blessed all rise so that the only ones left behind are those who suffer the Tribulation.  The blessed have been elected to avoid all that unpleasantness and turmoil.  At least that’s the idea of a Rapture that happens before the horrific Tribulation (when everything really bad hits the fan.) 

Let’s be clear: I understand why some people believe it will all happen that way and I won’t criticize those who do because no one really knows.

Here’s what feeds my view: Jesus didn’t just come as a Christmas baby, important as that event was.  He came to die on a Good Friday Cross.  He promised that He will come back and bring us to be with Him (John 14:1-4).  That return will include The Rapture. Until then, it’s follow Him….but what does that mean?

I believe today’s Scripture can help us understand what happens in the End Times.  Today, we’re in Exodus.  God’s people are supposed to leave Egypt to worship God.  Through His servant Moses, God announces plagues on all of Egypt.

Exodus 7:16 Then say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened.  17 This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.  18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.'”  19 The LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt– over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs– and they will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.”

Everyone was plagued with some of it.  The Nile was not selective.  Verses 20-21 of Exodus 7 tell us blood was everywhere and all the open Nile water everywhere was undrinkable for 7 days.

Everyone suffered.  Hold that thought. 
Here comes Divine Intervention.

Beginning in Exodus 8:21, there’s a difference.  A plague of flies is announced.  Exodus 8:22 “‘But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land.  23 I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This sign will occur tomorrow.'”

Reread those two verses.  It’s powerful and encouraging.  God is distinguishing between people who are His and people who are not—it’s a sign.  Plagues all around.  But God’s people are shielded as a witness that they are different.  They are shielded by the power of God while plagues take place all around them.  The Egyptians can see it.  God’s people can see it. Distinctions: it preaches.

Questions for further thought:

• Why didn’t God just take all the Israelites out of Goshen and zap the Egyptians with plague after plague while the Hebrews made haste out of Egypt? 
• Think about wrath versus witness.  How does this relate to a pattern perhaps of the End Times?  Read Zephaniah 1:11-18.  Is the very end sudden or gradual? 
• What about punishment leading up to that day?  Read Revelation 7.  Who are the ones in white robes (verses 13-14)? 
• Why might God want to delay beaming up all the good little Christians while He zaps those left behind to smoldering cinders?  Think deeply about the character of God, the importance of witness, and the terrible balance of love and wrath God performs with absolute perfection, delicate meticulousness, and complete righteousness.

Father God, how we praise You that You are a merciful God! You are steadfast in Your love, boundless in Your grace and mercy! We praise You and thank You for the powerful witness of Christians in a dark world…oh, that we may be emboldened to shine our light even more so as the Day of Your return approaches! We thank You Lord for the persecution and suffering that Jesus endured, and the way that He learned obedience through His suffering. May we look at suffering in our lives through a different lens, through the lens of witness, and as these times of difficulty become more and more dire, we ask Lord that the power of Your Holy Spirit would shield us from whatever comes. O Lord that You would bring us safely into the Kingdom. We thank You that the Scriptures remind us that nothing can snatch us out of Your hands. We hold to that truth, Lord! We cling to that promise, and we praise You and thank You that there is nothing that compares to You! There is nothing that can be done to us in this life that compares to what good You will accomplish even in a world of rebellious unbelievers and unrepentant sinners. Lord we ask that You would show mercy upon our family members, use us as witnesses to Your grace during this holy season of Your Son’s birth. Lord, many of us know people intimately (maybe a spouse, maybe a child, maybe parents, siblings, neighbors, or friends) who are not saved. We ask Lord that You would delay Your judgment until they’ve awakened from their slumber, that You would empower us, giving the words necessary to bring them to a saving faith in You before the End comes. We praise You, Lord, that it is Your desire that none perish but all come to repentance. And while we know not all will, we thank You Lord for this divine bridge of mercy called patience, called the long wait. We know Lord that You are every bit as active in the times of our waiting as You are in the times of Your action. Thank You for where we can see You at work. We ask that You would redeem the waiting times of our lives for our good and Your glory. Amen.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Exodus 2:23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.   24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.

God hadn’t forgotten.  Remembering with God is something far more profound.  It’s that God heard their cries for help and concluded it was sufficient and now the time was ripe to take the covenant and act upon it.  He’d been holding it reserve, simmering–if you will–upon a back burner while it became actionable…or like a fruit of the tree that needs time for maturity to be ripe.

Exodus 2:25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. Exodus 3:1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.

When we see that God’s timing is always perfect, He no doubt had a matrix of suffering, repentance, but also preparation of Moses who had now been leading sheep, a very necessary skill for Moses to develop before God would take action.  It’s time.

Exodus 3:2 Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.  3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight– why the bush does not burn up.”

Day after day, alone with a bunch of sheep in the wilderness and the hot sun, if a voice booming out of nowhere spoke to him, it might have been cause for Moses to make an appointment with the Ancient Near East mental health expert.  So Divine Intervention and very strange sight indeed.

Exodus 3:4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”  5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”   6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Don’t you wonder if Moses thought, Why are you in a bush?  Or maybe he was too scared to think.  Fortunately, the Lord continued,

“I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

Let’s take another sidebar.  God is ALWAYS concerned about their suffering, but suffering has its productive limits as a learning/growth experience (at which point it becomes oppressive and gratuitous which would make both the suffering and God “not good”).  Suffering has limits.

Exodus 3:8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey– the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.   9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.   10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Exod. 2:23-3:10) 

Questions for further thought:

• Sometimes we hear about “needless suffering” or people asking “Why didn’t God stop this if He exists?”  In what ways can suffering be productive?  Read Romans 5:3-5 for insight. 
• Are some things only learned by experience?
• Read Hebrews 5:7-8.  Jesus suffered.  What does Scripture say He learned?
• Are lessons learned through suffering more indelible and less likely to be forgotten?  Why?

Let’s pray:

Lord Jesus, thank You for the example You set for us– an example that included suffering so that we might know You better and know the Father better. Help us to know what it means to be standing on holy ground. Cultivate in us a desire to respect Your holiness. May we worship You rightly, Almighty Father, as something we do by our new nature and not out of compulsion or a polluted desire to impress others. We praise You and thank You that it is by grace that we have been saved through faith and that it’s not from anything we do…because otherwise in our audacity of misapplied credit, we would boast. Rather, it’s by Your grace, it’s a gift, and we thank You Lord at this Advent season that the best gift we could ever receive: salvation through Jesus Christ. We thank You for this Divine Intervention, reminding us of Your holiness, in Jesus Name. Amen.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

At this point in Biblical history, Pharaohs come and go.  God’s plan still rules.  God even has a sense of humor about it.  Human power structures are only tools that God can use for His own purposes whenever He wants.

Look at the rich irony in today’s reflection.  Pharaoh was ticked off about the Hebrew people being successful even in slavery!  He was ticked because they were succeeding outside of his control.  In a power-hungry way, what was Pharaoh’s solution?  Kill the Hebrew babies.  If he couldn’t stop them from reproducing, he’d kill off what they produced.  So Pharaoh tried to have the Hebrew midwives kill the Hebrew boys at birth, and when that didn’t work, he issued an edict “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” (Exodus 1:22)

So Moses went into the Nile…in a basket.

Exodus 2:3 But when [Moses’ mother] could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.  4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

Baby in the Nile in a basket, enter Pharaoh’s own daughter who decides to adopt him. 

Exodus 2:5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it.   6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

Do any of you, my readers, have daughters?  I read this story of Pharaoh’s daughter and smile.  I begin to imagine the conversation if Pharaoh had one with her.  “Look what I found, Daddy.  Can I keep him?”  And in doing so, Pharaoh’s daughter is an unspoken hero for preserving the very one who would powerfully deliver the Hebrew people out of Egypt some day in the future (likely under another king)…all while her father was hoping to kill off the success of the Hebrews.

Back to our story:  Exodus 2:7 Then [Moses’] sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” 8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 

Does God chuckle?  One can only wonder.  Not only does Pharaoh’s daughter adopt and save the future leader of the Hebrews, she pays Moses’ mother to nurse him, and then gives Moses a royal education in Pharaoh’s own household.

Exodus 2:10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

Oh, she did far more than draw him out. 
She was an instrument of God’s Divine Intervention.

Questions for further thought:

• How did God use this situation to thwart human abuses of power? 
• Moreover, how did this Divine Intervention pave the way for future deliverance? 
• In what ways do our current situations in worldwide politics display that humans can imagine all kinds of abuses of power, but God is still in control? 
• How might God be using the very weird 2020 to thwart human plotting the same way He did at Babel and the same way He did with Moses? 
• Where is the real battle happening?  Read Ephesians 6:10-13 for insight. 
• Why can we trust God even with 2020?

Let’s pray, Almighty God, holy and righteous Father, we praise You and thank You that You are sovereign over everything. We praise You and thank You that this world is firmly under Your control, that You know exactly what’s going on, that no amount of COVID, no amount of human wrangling, no amount of human abuses of power, no amount of planning, plotting, scheming, conspiring, defrauding, etc. can change the outcome that You have planned.

We praise You and thank You that we fight with weapons that are spiritual and that You are the leader of this cause in the spiritual realm.. for good to win over evil, for light to overcome the darkness, and for the truth to prevail in all circumstances.

We praise You, Lord, that You use even bad choices, bad edicts, bad laws, and rigged situations and utilize them to produce good. You can overcome it all because You are God. Thank You for the way that You have preserved Your people throughout history. We are confident, Lord, that You will preserve us all the way to the day of Your return! We thank You Jesus because You promised to come back and take us to be with You where You are! We thank You that there are places in heaven for those who follow You, and who love You, Lord. We thank You for this season of Advent– a time to turn our hearts towards You, a time to recognize who we are, what we’ve been, what we’re becoming. We ask that You would forgive us for the many sins we have committed against You. Please show mercy to us not because we deserve it but because You are good, You are holy, You are righteous, and You are love! We praise You Lord Jesus! Amen.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

When we love and serve a God who is all-seeing, all-knowing, and ever-present, we need to understand that Divine Interventions happen on His time schedule, not ours.  In His ways, not ours.  And often with a convoluted path leading to surprising outcomes.

Such was the case with Pharaoh who didn’t know God at all.  In Pharaoh’s dungeon, Joseph the dreamer was there.  He knew God and moreover, God knew the plans He had for Joseph.  The path to get from the fields at Shechem (when Joseph was sold into slavery) to the service of Pharaoh is crystal clear looking back over history. As God would have it, one is an honest man who must be feeling like he’s rotting away in prison and the other, a Pharaoh in a lavish and comfortable residence. One of the two of them wasn’t sleeping well.

Pharaoh’s nightmares were Divine Intervention to fulfill God’s plan.

Genesis 41:14 So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh.  15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”  16 “I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”

Joseph (who knew God) was witnessing to Pharaoh who was treated as a god by the Egyptians.  Were it not for Pharaoh’s bad dream, there would never have been an opportunity for a prisoner to speak to such a powerful man.  It was a divine appointment made possible by Divine Intervention.

Questions for thought:

• When things are confusing in the unpredictable way they’re playing out, what is your reaction? 
• The year 2020 has been a confusing year.  “Chalk it up to 2020” has been the motto of everything that went wrong, everything bad that happens, everything substandard, random, strange, or abnormal.  What a year, yes?  Yet, perhaps the reason God laid the Divine Intervention thought on my heart for Advent devotionals is that He’s working in the spiritual realm, doing things we cannot see or predict to open our eyes to witness to people.  Everyone has been under the yoke of COVID.   Everyone is under the yoke of sin.  There is one Person who can take that yoke from us.  And He was born on Christmas Day over 2000 years ago.  His birth remains a pivot point of history.  His life remains a legacy of biblical and historical significance.  Jesus is our Reason for the season.  Are you living in fear of death under the yoke of COVID or do you know the freedom to truly live? 
• Death exists for one reason only: consequence of sin.  If you don’t know Jesus like Pharaoh didn’t, might COVID be a way to get your attention, to see the parallels, to know by experience what a yoke feels like—not so you’ll wither away under it, but so you will seek Christ who will free you from it?
• Why might the world’s powers be trying to ruin every holy day among Christians? Do you think it’s a coincidence?
  

Father in heaven, You are all-seeing all-knowing and ever present. You know the past, the present, and the future. You know how Your circuitous path can lead us straight to Your Son Jesus Christ in whom we have redemption from sin; in whom we can be released from the yoke of sin; the yoke of slavery to spiritual evil; and who can bring us into the true life that awaits eternally in Him. We thank You that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He’s the Way for us to come to You. He is the Truth–absolute truth–because You are absolutely holy, absolutely righteous, and absolutely wonderful! Jesus is the Life: in Him is this fountain of life that each of us needs and without it we perish in our sin. Just as some will die *with* COVID, yet some will live eternally because COVID on this earth resulted in repentance, a change toward freedom brought about by their turning to Jesus Christ in their time of need. I ask, Lord, that for any who do not know You but–like Pharaoh– this time of distress has been a Divine Intervention, an interruption of their days, to get their attention, and draw their focus to knowing what they truly need in this life. They don’t need masks. They don’t need hand sanitizer or contact tracing. What they need is Jesus Christ who was born more than 2000 years ago and whose significance is eternal. What He did on the Cross, in the tomb, and in His resurrection changed the entire course of human history. No mask, no hand sanitizer, no social distancing, nor hand-washing can free us from the yoke of slavery to sin from which there is no therapeutic. There is only one cure. Only Jesus can do that, so I pray Lord that You will take these words of mine, these prayers that I’ve been praying, these devotionals that I’ve been writing, and that You would touch the hearts of people… not for my glory Lord–I’m content being insignificant. I only ask You to use me as a humble, broken instrument of Your goodness and the instrument of Your will to awaken, wake up and shake up those who do not know You! May they come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ so they can be truly free … for Your Word tells us that the one that Jesus has set free is free indeed! We celebrate freedom in Christ, we praise You Lord for this Advent season looking forward to Christmas Day not because of presents under a tree but because of the gift You gave in Your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Pop-tests were always the worst, in my experience.  Catching us off-guard.  Seeing how truly prepared and attentive we are at any given moment.  Testing our nerves, our resolve, and our knowledge.  Showing us who we are when we’re not expecting anything to happen.

Abraham had a pop-test to beat all pop-tests.  He wasn’t expecting it.  He hadn’t heard from God in ages.  Abraham was happily living his life with his cherished son named “Laughter”—you know, Isaac.

BOOM!  Divine Intervention. 
A pop-test coming from God looks like a good thing to God, but to us … well, it’s a test.
To Abraham, a Terrible Horrible Awful Test.

Genesis 22:1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.  2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love– Isaac– and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

WHAT?????

Yeah, Abraham heard Him right.  God wanted to ensure that Abraham knew whether he loved the gift of Isaac more than the Giver, God Almighty.

Genesis 22: 3 “Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.  5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”   

So far so good.  “We will come back to you.”  Abraham was earning more than a participation trophy in the Faith Olympics. 

Genesis 22: 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,

Hold on, Abraham is having his son carry the firewood, no small feat.  No small boy.  He’s probably a teen or a young adult by now.  Some time later?  Yeah, that’s some time.  Time enough to develop unhealthy attachments and turn a son into an object of worship.  Time enough to have taught his son what to believe about God.  Time enough to grow complacent or a little too comfortable.  Time enough to forget God’s promise about Abraham’s being the father of many nations, the blessing and all that.

Genesis 22: 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”  8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

Father, my son, my son.  The test in a nutshell.  Given the nature of the questions and the probable age of Isaac not being a little baby or a toddler, one can only speculate about how Isaac was reacting to all this.  Dad, are you outta your gourd here?  No way!  Fist fight.  Or obedience?  We’ll never know on this side of heaven.  I’m glad I wasn’t there to see it and I’m glad that pop-test wasn’t mine.

Genesis 22: 9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.   10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.  12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Divine Intervention. 
Abraham was proved faithful, not just to God…Abraham learned it by having been tested.

Genesis 22:13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

Questions for thought:

• How might you have been proven in this?  How might your children have reacted? 
• Can you think of a way God tested you at some point in your life?  Has it been planned into your calendar or arrived unannounced? 
• In the beautiful pattern of storytelling, how does God give us a picture of a loving father and his only son? 
• Jesus became the Word made flesh, God’s Only Son, and He sacrificed Himself willingly for our sins.  And it wasn’t just a test.  It was for keeps. What is your reaction to this act of love?

Father God Almighty, I thank You for Divine Interruptions in our lives. Thank You for the faith of Abraham, for Isaac, and Jacob–the great patriarchs of our faith and what they mean in the background of Jesus Christ as His truly Jewish heritage.

We praise You Lord that You so loved us that You gave Your only Son to die for our sins so that we might have an eternity in heaven with You. We praise You for His faithfulness and thank You for the faith of all the Saints and the generations before us–how they are to us as a cloud of witnesses to encourage our faith.

We praise You Lord for the sinless life of Jesus, for His birth and the miracle that His birth was in the natural life of Mary and Joseph. A miracle, too, in the lives of the shepherds and to every other human being that has walked the planet whether we acknowledge Your goodness or not.  Our world would be irredeemable had it not been for Jesus. We would have been lost forever and truly lost. I pray Lord that Your divine patience and mercy will flow until such time as You return so that many can come to that saving faith and You would give us boldness to proclaim Jesus is the Way, our reason for this season.  We praise You and exalt You, Lord Jesus.  Amen.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Do you ever find it interesting that the genealogies of Jesus of Nazareth–our Lord and Savior, the Messiah, the Christ–are different in Matthew’s and Luke’s versions? 

Luke’s goes all the way back to Adam to display the foundational level is humanity’s dire need for salvation since the Garden of Eden and the consequence of sin. 

Matthew’s is different.  His description of Jesus’ lineage is to focus upon Jesus’ Jewish background, all the way back through the patriarchs and the promise made to Abraham with the child of promise: Isaac.  This child of promise was Divine Intervention in the lives of two very old people, as fertile as dead ones according to Scripture (Romans 4:19, Hebrews 11:11-12).  Divine Intervention happened as a function of faith.

Genesis 21:1 Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised.  2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.

Questions for further thought:

• Matthew was a Jew.  Why would it be important to him to document that salvation is from the Jews (Jesus’ words in John 4:22) as Matthew begins his Gospel for a Jewish audience? 
• Why is fulfilling of prophecy important? 
• In what way do the events of Advent fulfill Scripture?
• Luke was a Gentile (a non-Jew).  Why would it be important to him to document that salvation goes all the way back to Adam, is for the world, and not restricted to Jews alone?  Luke recorded his Gospel and the book of Acts with the early Church.  It was written for a largely Gentile audience. 
• How do both Gospels work together binding the two in unity of faith?  Read Zechariah 2:10-13 and note the references to the Jews and the nations.  “’Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,’ declares the LORD. 11 ‘Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.  12 The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem.  13 Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.’”

Father God, thank You for Your divine plan of coming to dwell among us here on earth. How amazing that Jesus Christ would lay aside everything from heaven to be born, to enter mankind–not as a ruler but as a servant of Yours! His mission was powerful, yet simple: to do Your will, to bind together the entire world as a people of faith, to be the Messiah You promised to the Jews as a blessing to the whole world, including Gentiles.

We thank You for the way the two gospels of Matthew and Luke work together to point out the very Jewish nature of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His lineage and that salvation is from the Jews and yet the salvation He brings is for the entire world of those who come to You by faith.

We ask Lord that in these last days You would once again open the hearts of the Jewish people to see their Messiah, to see Him as their Savior, and many would come to faith in Him as the remaining remnant of the natural olive tree Your word speaks about.

We thank You, Lord, for this time during which the Gentile community has been grafted in. We thank You that You have not forgotten about the world in Your love for the Jewish people, and You have not forgotten about the Jewish people–Your Chosen People– in Your love for the world, too. We praise You for Divine Intervention in Your joining us together in unity of faith. Bring glory to Yourself by making us one in Christ, one in faith, worshipping You alone. We pray this through our Savior Jesus Christ whose birth we celebrate at Advent. Amen.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.