Interlude-Let Earth Receive Her King

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.