O Come Thou Dayspring from on High
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But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
For merely 400 years of silence that could be cut with a knife and now with the rising and appearance of the dayspring, a new era in redemptive history has come.
The power of God for the salvation of His people has now been realized, no more living in shadows and promises. The one who is promised a hand in marriage, knows the promise of her love and that promise is not yet fully realized, but the day that he comes to call for her to make her his own those promises that were once principle will now become reality, she shall experience the promise and what it means to be married.
Salvation Experienced.
Salvation Experienced.
promise vs 78//72,73
prophet vs 76//70
The prophets spoke with one prophetic voice and now the greatest prophet in history has arrived, one who comes the spirit of Elijah, one who would make the pathway straight.
salvation vs 77//71,74
for Zechariah the enemy was political but the real enemy the great enemy is sin and death.
visit vs 78//68
serving vs 79//74,75
There is a clear parallel between the promises spoken and given to the promises experienced.
Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
How did Abraham see the salvation of the Lord you might ask? He laid hold of it by faith. It is my personal understanding that Abraham actually did see the pre-incarnate Christ who visited him in the form of an angel. It is called in theological terms a Christophany.
Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1 Luke 1:67–80: The Prophecy and Song of Praise Uttered by Zacharias
They looked forward to redemption as a thing hoped for, but not yet seen,—and their only warrant for their hope was God’s covenanted word. Their faith may well put us to shame.
Regardless how did He apprehend or lay hold of the these promises??? By faith He had eyes to see the promises of God.
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
The Light Emerges.
The Light Emerges.
I want you to see and keep in mind in all of this, that the source and fountain of our salvation, belongs to the mercy of God. If He did not show compassion and if his mercies were not tender towards us we would never experience His salvation. Infact we would experience only judgement and wrath and the curse. So keep in mind that though we do experience this salvation it is not of our own doing.
There is a story of a young man named John Jones who was exploring a popular cave in Utah called the Nutty Putty cave. He was exploring a part of the cave known as the birth canal that had a narrow tunnel that opened up to a place where you could turn around and head back up. He headed down head first a tunnel that he though was the birth canal but turned out to be a dead end. He found himself pinned upside down in a hole 10 inches by 18 inches unable to more or back his way out. Rescuers tried all sort of things to rescue him pulleys and ropes, but were finally unable to free him.
The same is true for us we must remember that if we are to be rescued then it must come from the hand of God reaching deep into the darkest cave to pull us out and rescue us. I don’t know if you have ever been inside of a cave before. When I was younger we took a field trip into one of the largest caves in Indiana called Mammoth cave. It was a bit bigger than 10 by 18. There was huge room that we as group entered and at one point our guide had us all turn off our lights. It is the darkest blackness that a person can experience on earth.
This is where the mercy of the Lord finds us in verse 78.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
The picture here is clear. When people get stuck in caves and dark places there is a panic that washes over them. And such are we spiritually speaking morally bankrupt, with out a flashlight, powerless, panic-stricken, and surrounded by enemies on every side.
And then there was light. And our hearts that had all but melted like wax finally begin to take courage because we see the light, our salvation has come.
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
Rejoice for the dayspring from on high has come. The word means the rising sun from the east.
We have to know where our salvation come, the watchmen does not set his sights to the west but to the east.
We can hear the voice of the Lord who visits us, but this time its not like the promise of a future deliverance, but deliverance itself. The guys who were with John in that cave gave him hope, hold on we are going to get help. Help has come, our rescuer has arrived.
Abraham saw in shadows and types there was light but it was the faint light of the moon, but now the horn of our salvation has come. Abraham experienced the promise of forgiveness, we experience the actuality of it.
The blood of goats and bulls did not remove the sins of the Israelites, but covered over and put God’s wrath aside for a time, but it had to be revisited every year, but now our we rejoice that our salvation has come, we have experienced the forgiveness of sin.
The Light becomes our Escort.
The Light becomes our Escort.
The purpose of the Lord’s visitation is 2 fold, 1. to bring salvation that is deliverance from sin and death. The barrier making peace possible has been removed through Christ. John is the one who has gone before to prepare the path. To clear the way, so that God’s people can worship and serve Him with out fear.
the US military’s combat engineers use the Buffalo.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Our salvation is secured by promise revealed, experience and yet to be fully realized. God does not save us merely to
God rescued the people of Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians so that they could serve and worship him on the mountain.
We live in the space between the lightening and the thunder. Light travels faster than sound. We see the light of God and his salvation, and we know that the thunder of His 2nd return is not far off.
