Isaiah 40:3
Psalm 2:1-12
Mark 1:11
Luke 3:22
Throughout the Old Testament there are many references to the ONE who would come. I am fascinated by the ongoing faith of the prophets of Israel. Time after time they ‘saw’ and ‘heard’ God promise He would send a savior. None of them knew when or where the savior would emerge. They did not know how He would come. But still...they believed.
The reason I am fascinated is the timeline. Every Old Testament prophet died without being able to see the ONE who would come. Malachi was the last Old Testament Prophet in Israel. (https://www.jewishideas.org/article/end-prophecy-malachis-position-spiritual-development-israel).
The time of the prophets ended around 450 years before Jesus was born (https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2017/07/updated-chart-of-israels-and-judahs-kings-and-prophets/).
There were approximately 400 years between the age of the Old Testament prophets, known as the Inter-testament years, and the birth of Jesus. That means...no prophecies. Every prophecy about the ONE coming was not fulfilled for hundreds of years. According to Acts 2:24-26, Psalm 2 was written by David who lived 1035-970 B.C. (https://www.ancient.eu/King_David/). Isaiah lived around 700 B.C. They both knew that ONE would come but they didn’t know when.
Isaiah saw and heard:
Isaiah 40:3 (NKJV)
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God.”
In the Gospel of Mark we read:
Mark 1:11 (NKJV) “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in the Prophets:
“Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You.”
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.’ ”
Luke also quoted the words the prophet Isaiah spoke of in Isaiah 40:3...prepare the way of the Lord. Mark also heard the words of Isaiah. We have to remember they didn’t have a handy dandy pocket full edition of scripture to carry around and read throughout the day. The Torah was kept in the Synagogues. However, for students (boys only) the primary manner of studying the Torah was by oral tradition. There were no copies of the scriptures available in homes.
John 1:23 clearly tells us John the Baptist (Jesus’ cousin) was the announcing the birth of the ONE. In John 3:30 (NKJV) John made it clear “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John was not the ONE. Jesus was the ONE King David spoke about.
In Psalm 2, King David announced a SON would come, God’s BEGOTTEN SON for the nations through the ends of the earth.
Psalm 2:6-8 (NKJV) says:
“Yet I have set My King
On My holy hill of Zion.”
“I will declare the decree:
The Lord has said to Me,
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.”
Pieces of the truth were given to various prophets through the ages. I can’t imagine how any one person could have imagined that God literally meant that part of Him, His son in the flesh, would come to earth. An even crazier idea was that the SON would come as a baby. NO ONE could have understood the concept that the ONE coming would be born of a virgin...that the conception of the SON would have been made possible by the Holy Spirit planting the seed in a young girl who had never been with a man. Those concepts would have been inconceivable.
Yet they trusted God.
A thousand years before Jesus came, David told us in Psalm 2:12 (NKJV) that Jesus was the ONE God wanted us to trust when David wrote, “Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.”
That meant the prophets who trusted in the words God spoke to them. That also means you who trust in Jesus! You are blessed!
In Luke 3:22 (NKJV) we read, “And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”
The ONE was promised. A baby was born.
The Spirit in the form of a dove appeared and a voice from heaven announced this was the ONE.
This was THE one all of the prophets promised would come.
I don’t know about you, but I feel overwhelmingly blessed that I live in a time and place where I can read about all the events that happened. Not only do I have more than one handy dandy pocket edition of scripture, I have several translations in English, several scriptures written in Greek, and several different Hebrew Bibles. Plus, we have the benefit of technology and the internet.
We get to SEE the Big Picture, read the history, and (in my place), GEEK out on scripture. When people ask me what I ‘do’, I tell them I am a Spiritual Director/Blog Writer. Then they ask me what I write about. I tell them every day when I go to work in my private office, I ‘get’ to pray, listen, study, and write about scripture. I tell them I get to tell others how very much God loves them! I tell them I have the greatest job on the planet, and I AM blessed!
So...Today’s Spiritual Practice is: this ONE was sent for YOU
We often don’t fully embrace the miracle God did for US when He sent the Messiah. God promised He would send the ONE and He fulfilled that promise. He fulfilled it for YOU. Embrace that promise today. Be grateful that God sent His son for YOU.
BE Blessed by the ONE, Deborah
acrazyjourney.com
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