A Prayer for All Mankind

Have you ever prayed for something or someone with tears in your eyes and a broken heart?

Today we celebrate with joy the first Advent of Christ. But we still long for His second and final return.

Like the Israelites of old, we sing:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here,

Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

How did we get Here?

We have to know the past

To understand the present

And have hope in the Future

Eden

Was were Adam and Eve met with God every day

It was their home

It was a Sanctuary

The Fall

Genesis 3:6

Adam and Eve chose to disobey God

And in doing so they rejected Him

The Separation

Genesis 3:23 (NASB95)

23 Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.

God’s Love and Justice go hand in hand

Humanity could not remain in God’s presence

But God wanted to be present in humanity.

God Moves In

Exodus 25:8 NASB95

8 “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them.

In it was the presence of God or the Shekinah

No one could see it but the high priest and only once a year

The sanctuary was at the center of the camp

Because God must be in the center of our lives.

It was great but Sadly it wasn’t enough

God Evicted

Judges 2:10 NASB95

10 All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.

God did send Judges and then prophets and even gave them Kings, as they desired.

But Israel rejected God over and over

So he allowed them to be taken captive to a strange land

Israel’s Captivity

So like the 1984 song by Chicago says,

“You don’t know what you have until is gone”

The Israelites found that a little to late

Listen to these verses in Psalm 137

Psalm 137:1-6

(NASB95)

1 By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat down and wept,

When we remembered Zion.

2 Upon the willows in the midst of it

We hung our harps.

3 For there our captors demanded of us songs,

And our tormentors mirth, saying,

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

4 How can we sing the Lord’s song

In a foreign land?

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

May my right hand forget her skill.

6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth

If I do not remember you,

If I do not exalt Jerusalem

Above my chief joy.

You don’t know what you have until is gone.

But God wasn’t gone!

The Great Rescuer

Even before they went into captivity God already had a plan

Listen to the prophet Isaiah

Isaiah 7:14 NASB95

14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

Emmanuel = God with us

John 1:14 (NASB95)

14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The word translated “dwelt” expresses the idea of living in a tent.

Some have translated as he tabernacled among us.

So God created humanity for community

Eden was their first sanctuary where they inhabited in God’s presence.

Then, after the fall, God had them build him a house, a tent, a sanctuary so He can be among them.

After they reject and forget about Him

He sends his own Son to dwell among them.

Rejected Again

John 1:11–13 NASB95

11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Jesus came to the Israelites and as a nation they rejected him.

But as many as received Him, he adopted them!

Why did Jesus Come?

All the celebrations are great

Tomorrow we will wake up to exchange gifts

As we should

But we must understand why he came

Or else all of this is for nothing

Matthew 20:28 NASB95

28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”