How did we get to the point of needing a promised Savior? 

Better question is when have we NOT needed a Savior?

Truth is, mankind has needed a Savior since we decided we’d prefer independence over the gift of “God with us.”  Way back in the Garden of Eden, even at banishment, there was a promise of the Savior, often called the “protoevangelion”.

Genesis 3:14-15 “So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

There has been an interlude of waiting for our Savior since then with God’s promise that the Savior will crush the head of the devil and his evil minions.  The Savior has already put this gift on layaway with His down-payment, and soon He will crush the curse of sin forever.

Questions for further study:

We are living in the time of “already-not-yet”…having already received this gift of salvation, but not yet with Him in heaven.

How did Jesus Christ our Lord crush the curse of sin?  When and where did that happen?  What was the proof that God did it?

Romans 6:3 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Why are we still waiting for part 2? Why does it take more time for this promise to be fulfilled:  “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” (Romans 16:20) 

“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians. 15:54-57)

Final victory and resting in Him forever is a gift of God for which we must wait. Jesus reassured us in John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” 

What is the evidence this is true while we wait in the second Interlude?  (See John 14:16, 26)

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Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• 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.

“Joy to the world, the Savior reigns

Let men their songs employ

While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains

Repeat the sounding joy…”

The Savior reigns, all joy indeed because it’s a Savior we needed due to our estrangement from our Lord and God.  It was all our fault. Human sin created an obstacle to God being with us and a world without God is hell.

Joseph knew mankind’s estrangement in the long, silent Interlude.   
Perhaps his yearning for Messiah prepared him for this encounter. 

“After he had considered [divorcing Mary quietly], an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).” (Matthew 1:20-23)

In the birth narrative of Jesus as recorded by Matthew, Joseph has a significant role. The fulfilling of prophecy is clearly outlined.  First, he is identified as “Joseph son of David.”  He is the second (and therefore legal) witness to the fact of the virgin conception, first by the angelic pronouncement in a dream, but also directly identified as fulfilling the prophecy from Isaiah 7: 14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

Matthew 1:24-25 “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.” 

It will be the first of several integral, Scripture fulfilling events which Joseph’s role made possible.  He is often considered an ancillary figure, but that would be to diminish the truth of what Joseph brings to the narrative.  He was God’s chosen man for the moment to be the earthly father of our Savior, Jesus, named as Scripture says “because He will save his people from their sins.”

Questions for further study:

Identify the things that Joseph did, contributing both to the birth narrative and prophecy fulfillment.  (Matthew 1:20-25)

Read Luke 2:1-16.  Joseph is there, too.  Identify ways in which his role contributed to the birth narrative.

After Jesus was born, there was more fulfillment of Scripture directly related to Joseph’s faithfulness.  Read Matthew 2:13-23.

Many women bristle at male leadership. I do not. I marvel at what Joseph did as faithfulness and how vastly different the Scriptures would be if Mary had been the one receiving all the revelations/dreams and had been dragging their family around. Take a moment and thank God for the gift of Joseph in the Christmas narrative. This world needs more godly men who will lead with righteousness.

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• 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 Interlude continued until the One who was born King of the Jews, Jesus Christ.  He would be from the “stump of Jesse” a throwback to before there was a royal line.  He is the Holy Seed, and His Kingship is from above, not from any direct human right to the throne.

Who is this Jesse? 1 Samuel 17: 12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was old and well advanced in years.

Questions for further study:

Why might Jesse’s background as an Ephrathite from Bethlehem be significant? 

Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” 3 Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. 4 He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. 5 And he will be their peace

Identify the interlude. 

Read Isaiah 6: 11 Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?” And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted, and the fields ruined and ravaged, 12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. 13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

And then there are the famous Magi who show up to worship Him.

Matthew 2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: 6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'”

At the Crucifixion of Christ, what sign was affixed to His Cross? See Matthew 27:37, though it is noteworthy that it is among the rare statements recorded in all 4 Gospels.

The Interlude of God as King spanned from the Garden when mankind was banished until the Advent (birth) of Jesus Christ our Lord. It is during this Interlude that His work is being done. He was crucified which relates to another Interlude we’ll look at next as our Deliverer to save us from our sins. For now, “Let earth receive her King” and we acknowledge Him as King of our hearts as we wait for His second Advent, the Return of Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• 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.

If you look at the genealogies of Jesus as recorded in Matthew and Luke, there are some lingering questions about why they differ and theories about why that is the case.  I don’t want to focus on that.  I want to think about Interlude and point out some interesting similarities that the Interlude makes clear. The Interlude displays a beautiful harmony that is easily overlooked.

The Tanakh which is the Jewish Bible containing the Torah (T), the Nevi’im (N) which are the prophets, and the Ketuvim (K) which are the historical writings (the acronym becoming Tanakh) outlines some specific requirements for who the Messiah must be.

He must be a descendent of Abraham (Genesis 22:18).  The next patriarch who is identified in Messianic prophecy is Jacob (Numbers 24:17), assuming Isaac, the legitimate son as the child of promise to Abraham and Sarah.  Of Jacob’s sons Judah (Genesis 49:10).  Skip some time and Jesse appears (Isaiah 11:1) and his famous youngest son David (2 Samuel 7:13-16).  After King David, there is another listed requirement in prophecy for the Messiah:  Zerubbabel (Haggai 2:22-23).

Wait, you might be thinking, what happened to the rest of the royal line?  Interlude.  Exactly.  And Zerubbabel was no king.  He was a governor whose family tree included royalty, but the royal line had ended …that is…until the Interlude was over and the advent of Messiah.

Both Mary’s (biological and birth) and Joseph’s (legal as adopted) genealogy have Abraham (Matthew 1:1-2, Luke 3:34).  They both have Jacob (Matthew 1:2, Luke 3:34) and Judah (Matthew 1:3, Luke 3:33).  They both have Jesse (Matthew 1:6, Luke 3:32) and they both have Zerubbabel (Matthew 1:12-13, Luke 3:27). 

Whether you look from Mary’s or Joseph’s legal adoptive recorded genealogies, Jesus fits the Messiah perfectly in the royal line post-Interlude to be born “King of the Jews.”

Questions for further thought:

Today, I’ve used a lot of Scripture verses. I’d encourage you to read back through them and ask yourself whether any other person could have met all those requirements on both his birth mother and legal genealogies. What is the one difference between Jesus and Joseph’s natural born sons, Jesus’ brothers?

Ask yourself why it is important that there is harmony and precision on all the requirements for the Messiah. There are differences, yes, and theories to reconcile them abound. But on the points that matter (the Messianic requirements) the whole of Scripture and the Interlude demonstrate that it’s not a strict human transmission of royalty from father to son. That is what a strict genealogy would suggest and would apply equally to Jesus’ brothers, yes?

Instead, through the virgin birth, God skips generations spiritually to show that God is Father, and He has chosen His Son Jesus Christ as both Priest and King which we will soon see is important. Not two Messianic figures (a Priest and a King) as some thought, but the two offices in perfect harmony in the Interlude.

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• 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 was God ever acknowledged as king?  Better question is when was God not the rightful King?  First, let’s acknowledge that He was never one like what He described earthly kings as doing in yesterday’s look at what brought about the Interlude’s royal vacancy.  What did God’s kingship look like?

From the time of man’s creation, God has been a benevolent king sharing, delegating His rightful rulership over His creation with Adam and Eve, the pinnacle of His creative endeavors.

The Garden in Eden wasn’t just a paradise of plants and animals.  It was, in a sense, both the location of the head of government and a temple.

Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there He put the man He had formed. The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground– trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:8-9,15)

Unlike man’s kingdom which is all about power, God’s kingdom is all about love. 

In God’s kingdom, there was freedom and responsibility.  In God’s world, we had an ongoing communication and provision.  When God was king, He gave everything as blessing and took nothing.  Work (as stewardship and ruling) was a pleasure as plants yielded their fruit with no struggle against the elements whatsoever.  God treated us as beloved children, not slaves.  From such a king we would never need relief.

Questions for further study:

When God offered us love and provision, freedom in Him and with Him, we desired independence from Him.  In what ways do we still desire independence from God?

According to a recent survey, 60% of millennials think that socialism is good because everyone is taken care of by the government.  Will this look more like God as benevolent king or the kind that treated people as slaves like what God said human kings would do (1 Samuel 8)?

Why would we want a Messianic King?  How would He be different than earthly kings?  Will heaven under the kingship of God look more like Eden?

Do you yearn for such a king? How does an Interlude influence our yearnings?

As we continue our look at the Interlude between God as King and a return to God as King, seeing all the pollution of kingship by man in between, ask yourself if you’re ready for God as King.

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• 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.

God ended the royal line to create an Interlude.  Got it.  But, wait, didn’t God initiate the royal line?  It was promised to Judah going way back before there ever was a king over Israel.  And God sanctioned it, right?

1 Samuel 8: 5 [The elders of Israel] said to [the priest Samuel], “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD.

7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”

10 Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king.

11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.   12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.  13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.  14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.  15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.  16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.  17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.

18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.”

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD.  22 The LORD answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”

Questions for further study:

Summarizing today’s thoughts might be “Give us a king!  Give us a king!”  and God’s reply “Are you sure?  You’re not going to like it.”  Sometimes the worst punishment is to give us what we think we want.  In what ways did the Israelites reject God as their king?  (Read Malachi 1:6-7 and 2:17, for further thought)

Look again at Malachi 2:17, have we ever appeased a “woke culture” by normalizing sin? Do we ever question “Where is the God of justice?”

Why did God give them a king then, if He knew the future (which He surely does) and that every human king would cruelly disappoint?

How do we reject God as King? (Think about lies and truth, sin and righteousness. Read John 8:34-59 for insight into the rejection of Christ and its root.)

What will it take for us to embrace God as King? Might that be a point of having an Interlude?

As we go back in time from Mary and Joseph not being direct royal office holders, back 500 years over the full interlude they knew about as their history, and we can see what led to the end of the direct royal Messianic line we looked at yesterday. 

As existed in Israel before Judah, there were enough bad kings to exhaust even God’s patience.  There comes a time when enough is enough.  The Ten Northern Tribes of Israel were carried off into Assyrian Captivity.  From Jeroboam 1 to Hoshea—nineteen bad kings, one after the other, not a good one in the bunch, Israel was done.  Finished.  Kaput.

But the royal line God established was never through Israel but Judah. 

And even that would involve an Interlude.

The tribes of Judah (and Benjamin) had a series of kings, twenty of them to be exact, and sad to say, there were more bad ones than good ones.  God had enough of Judah’s royal line which had become corrupted even through Israel’s United Kingdom years of Saul, David, and Solomon. Captivity in Babylon was God’s choice, plan, and intended outcome of ending Judah’s royal line on earth.

Now hold on, you say.  What about Judah?
After all, there was a promise in Abraham’s blessing about a scepter and a ruler.

Genesis 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.

What about that?  That’s saying that the Messianic King was to come from the line of Judah. “No king” for 500 years was not a “departure” from Judah to someone else.  But it was an Interlude, a parenthesis of time, a placeholder brought about by bad, bad kings.

Questions for further study:

Why do you think a placeholder of time, an interlude, was necessary?

Before the bad king series, think about Saul and his following after evil and consulting a witch.  Think about David committing just about every sin under the sun and shedding blood, even though he repented and was a man after God’s own heart, he was still a sinner.  Think about Solomon and his many foreign wives.  Why might God not want to go the direct descendent route?  What would that say about sin? 

Even the good kings had sin.  1 Corinthians 6: 9 “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?”  What did the Interlude do to help us see that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and the Messianic Deliverer came to set even good kings free from bondage to sin?

Some of the bad kings had good kids.  Some good kings had bad kids who became bad kings.  Some bad kings had bad kids who were a chip off the old block of bad old dad.  Are children of godly parents automatically going to be godly?  What about children of sinful parents?  For every parent out there, what can you do to ensure your children learn how to live so they will model it when they reach adulthood?  (See Proverbs 10: 6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” And Deuteronomy 11:18-21)

Now think about parents like Mary and Joseph.  How could imperfect sinners (though righteous by human standards) raise a child who is the perfect Son of God?  How might an Interlude have helped frame their expectations of themselves and given them increased faith that God was bringing it all to fruition and it was not up to them? 

James 2: 5 Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love Him?

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

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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.

So what happened to the royal line if Mary and Joseph weren’t royalty for Jesus to inherit?  Why the 500-year-plus silence?  As the author of RevelationLogic.com called it in conversation to me, there was “a curse upon the royal line.” 

“Surely not!,” you say.  “After all, David was promised a throne that would last forever.” (2 Samuel 7:10-29).   Yeah, I get that.  But the Lord also promised in Jeremiah 22:30

“This is what the LORD says: “Record this man [Zedekiah] as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.”  

Ouch.  Pretty harsh words.  Not.  None.  Anymore. 

Like a divine period at the end of the royal decree from the Eternal King

that the earthly royal line was ending. 

That promise was a shocking down payment on God’s bringing it to pass (and thereby accomplishing that 500-year interlude of royal vacancy). 

2 Kings 25:1 “So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it… 5 the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, 6 and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him.  7 They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.”

In gruesome Ancient Near East wartime tradition, the last memory Zedekiah would have prior to his eyes being gouged out was his sons being executed.  That was the end of the royal line and a lasting memory.

Questions for further study:

How does an interlude overarch time or act as a bridge over sheer human logic?  How did this promise of a never-ending kingdom but the end of the royal line destroy any “point A to point B” of man’s expectations? 

How would the end of the earthly royal line keep people from trying to predict which king would be the Messianic one? Or try to turn him into one?

How might it allow God’s eternal view to proceed and be correctly interpreted?

Why an interlude?  What was so bad about the royal line?

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Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

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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.

Joy to the world!  The Lord is come.  Let Earth receive her King!

But wait.  Mary was no princess turned queen mother and Joseph was no king.  Unlike nearly every king before Him, Jesus did not have birth parents who were office-holding royalty and who died leaving behind their office to their offspring in direct succession. 

Mary and Joseph?  They’d been humble working class, poor even. 
What right did they have to be the parents of a king?

Interludes such as this one had persisted for well over 500 years.  Silence with no king.  Mary and Joseph were living in that era of silence, of interlude, of waiting…just like everyone else.

Questions for further study:

What might the community of Jews within a great civilization like Rome been thinking and feeling about the length of time between the promise of a ruler in the line of David and the One to finally sit on his throne forever (2 Samuel 7:10-29)?

How do we feel waiting for His return?

How might Mary and Joseph have felt, not being direct line as royalty but with the right overall lineage way back?

How might this help us to understand the following verses, God’s grace, and our not being direct line royalty?

John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God– 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

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Advent 2021 begins Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

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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.

Time is of little consequence to God.  He stands outside of it.  A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years no different than a day.  But it is noteworthy that He uses the flow of time in our lives to allow for both action and interlude. 

Why would He do that for us?  Because it enables our growth in faith and maturity.  It creates anticipation.  It helps us to reframe past events for context and process what has happened in the past when it has become complex and overwhelming.  Interludes also prepare us for what will happen next.  From the standpoint of the Bible, an interlude advances the narrative with time for prophecy to be spoken, time to pass, and fulfillment to arrive right on time, a refreshing thought during times of tumult.   

It’s Prophetic Interlude during which God reignites a passion on the part of His people to remember our God, to acknowledge our need for a Savior, to know our Deliverer is coming, and ultimately to receive our King.

The annual celebration of Advent begins on November 28, 2021.  Join me for “Interlude” as preparation to receive our Messiah and King.

Advent 2021 begins Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

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Acknowledging inquiries about an entire season’s devotionals for your study group’s planning purposes, Seminary Gal’s prior seasons’ Advent devotionals can be accessed via the archives to the right and are as follows: 

• Last year’s Advent 2020 “Divine Intervention” series began Sunday, November 29,2020 and we celebrated the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and looked forward to His Second Coming. 
• Advent Devotional Series 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.