Now that was a promise!

In Luke 2:9-14 some shepherds tended their flocks by night. All of a sudden an angel of the Lord appeared to them with a message from God. He told them they'd find their Savior, their promised Messiah, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.


What? It seemed inconceivable that Israel's deliverer would come as a baby, and a poor one at that!

Yet the shepherds received the news and hastened to Bethlehem to see what the Lord had made known to them. And, having seen, they rushed to tell others--glorifying and praising God.


What if they hadn't believed the angel of the Lord? What if they hadn't gone to see for themselves? Or, having gone, what if they hadn't bothered to tell others?

What was your response when you heard the Good News about Jesus Christ?

THE Promise - Genesis 3:15

Time to move on to a new promise--the best promise of all!

It took place in the Garden of Eden after the Fall. When God saw man's hopeless condition, he promised to send help, with a capital H. To the serpent, he said:

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.

And so it came to pass that God sent our Savior, the one who would crush our enemy's head.

What has this promise meant to you over the years?

A String of Selah Pearls - Psalm 68:19

Positioned gracefully across the Book of Psalms is a string of seventy-one pearls, lovely beads of wisdom followed by the admonition SELAH which means, “Pause, think on these things, meditate.”

Psalm 68:19 “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.  Selah.”

Meditation

He’s Lord!  He’s God!  Our Savior!  Our Burden Bearer? 

Think of it!  This is God with a capital “G” stooping to do menial tasks.  He gives us each day our daily bread and then helps us carry out the trash.

This is God with a capital “G” serving the very ones who ate forbidden fruit, killed their brothers, stole from each other, lied about it, coveted everything within sight, crucified his only Son and mocked his memory, stoned the prophets, cut others in two.  You name it; man has done it; and God has forgiven it.

Praise be to this God!  We don’t understand this kind of grace.  Perhaps in glory, when we have put aside childish things, when we know even as we are known . . . .  Until then, we look through a glass darkly, we walk in shadows, we stumble and fall.  And through the haze, a strong hand grips our frail ones and gently leads us along.

SELAH

Look up: Matthew 6:11; 11:28-30; Psalm 8:3-4; 78:52; 113:6; Hebrews 11:37; I Corinthians 13:11-12