Precious Advent Names 2

From Adam onwards men knew of the promised Savior, but fewer and fewer believed the promise.  A devastating worldwide flood and the subsequent dispersion of man over the face of the earth did little to deter man’s desire to be god.  The promise was again pushed to the back burner of men’s desire and idolatry, with many false saviors, became the norm.  Then God spoke to one man, Abram.  God said to Abram, “Follow Me,” and Abram did.  God also gave Abram a renewal of the promised Savior, but this time He made it more specific.  The promised Savior was to come from Abram’s seed. 

Matthew begins his account of the genealogy with this specific promise in mind.  “Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob.”  Matthew began with Abraham and traced the promises God made to his son Isaac and grandson Jacob as well.  Jesus had a heritage of promise.  It had to come through the bloodline of specific people.  Matthew chronicles those precious names.  From Jacob’s twelve sons the promised ruler was to come through Judah.  Thus salvation was to come from the line of Judah or the Jews.  This is what Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4.  “Salvation is of the Jews”. 

This continuity of promise gives us all the assurance that God is true.  He is able to see the end from the beginning.  He is able to bring life from the dead, as He did with the birth of Isaac from Sarah’s dead womb.  He is able to bring victory from ashes, as He did in restoring Judah to the land after their Babylonian captivity.  He is able to control kings as He did with Caesar who commanded the world to be taxed so that Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem where God said the Savior would be born.   That God is able is the clear message we find in the precious names of Advent.  Over a period of 2000 years against all the forces that Satan and sin could throw against His promise, He was able to complete all that He had said in every detail He had promised.  This is Advent hope.

The faithful children of Israel were still looking and longing for the promise to come and the joy that would attend it.  We, too, should be looking for the completion of the promise of His second advent and the joy that will attend that.  This song by Charles Wesley can be an expression of the hope of both Advents of Christ. 

 “Come, Thou long expected Jesus born to set Thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in Thee. Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth Thou art; dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.”

 

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