The Person: The Nearness of a Savior

As the curtain falls...

On the Law

Deuteronomy 34:7–12 CSB

Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not left him. The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end. Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. No prophet has arisen again in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. He was unparalleled for all the signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do against the land of Egypt—to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land— and for all the mighty acts of power and terrifying deeds that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

Moses is the GREATEST in all of the OT, even more-so than the prophets and even king David. Yet still, he is not the one Israel hopes for.

On the Prophets

Malachi 4:5–6 CSB

Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

While positioned in different sections of the Christian Bible and the TANAK, Malachi still ends the prophetic portions of both. After this, there are 400 years of silence. BUT, God breaks this silence and fulfills this prophecy when JTB steps on the scene before God gives His final Word (logos!), Jesus!

On the Writings

2 Chronicles 36:17–21 CSB

So he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their fit young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young men or young women, elderly or aged; he handed them all over to him. He took everything to Babylon—all the articles of God’s temple, large and small, the treasures of the Lord’s temple, and the treasures of the king and his officials. Then the Chaldeans burned God’s temple. They tore down Jerusalem’s wall, burned all its palaces, and destroyed all its valuable articles. He deported those who escaped from the sword to Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the rise of the Persian kingdom. This fulfilled the word of the Lord through Jeremiah, and the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation until seventy years were fulfilled.

A few things that are significant at this point:

The fall of Jerusalem mentioned above ends a recollection of the wicked kings that followed Josiah. And, I was heartbroken to read that Josiah was slain in battle because of his disobedience to the Lord. After that, they’re all taken into exile. So, the king, the throne, the line…exiled as the Jewish OT ends with this resounding gong of judgment on all sin. And, yes, there is the proclamation of hope offered by Cyrus at the end, but we’re left staring into the dark abyss of judgment with only a candle’s flickering flame of hope set against it.

While Cyrus commissions the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and rebuild a temple, the closing of the canonical context suggests that the second temple was not the true temple.

The Passover, attached to the royal line as Josiah leads the people to celebrate it, go with the royal line into exile. So, the royal line, the temple, and the passover all find themselves exiled at the end of the writings. And, BTW, this is the end of the Bible Jesus would have read.

This is the end of the TANAK. And, I think there is theology here that is so useful in helping us understand what happens next in the story. Throughout the Advent season we’ve bounced back and forth between the darkness and the light. We talked about the problem: sin and its devastating effects on creation. Yet, there was a glimmer of hope, the promise of the seed in the midst of judgment. Then Mike took the ball and traced this idea of promise. He essentially preached the whole Bible in one sitting…pretty amazing! Throughout salvation history, there was mercy and grace and the hope and expectation of a coming savior. Yet over and over again Scripture seems to simply remind us of who IS NOT the Savior. Even this morning, as each portion of the Jewish OT ends, there’s hope but there’s also judgment, shortcoming, and the nagging truth that the seed had not yet come.

Yearning.

Longing.

Hoping.

Waiting.

Failure.

Not yet.

Brokenness.

Exile.

Silence.

Until...

As The Light Shines...

The Son of Adam, Abraham, and the Greater Moses

Matt.1:1 “An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:” Luke 3:38 “...son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.” Both of these genealogies are ripe with theological truth. The Matthew passage traces Jesus’ genealogy back to Abraham, meaning that He’s the promised Son from the promised line. The blessing of YHWH intended through Abraham’s seed is here! But Luke’s record goes even farther, tracing Jesus’ line back to Adam and then ultimately God. At the beginning of the Advent Season, we looked at “The Problem.” Sin entered the world. That’s recorded for us in Gen.3. It’s against this dark backdrop that the hope of the gospel shines brightest, and it’s against this backdrop that the first promise of hope was given — Gen.3:15 “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” Throughout the history of man, throughout salvation history, this promise is the soil from which all other promises spring, and Luke takes us all the way back to it, back to the beginning…this is the seed, the offspring, the One all of history has waited for.

And then remember how the Law ended? With the death of Moses the Magnificent. Guess what we find out about this Jesus — John 1:16-18 “Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.” There are two things that are AMAZING here:

The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus. John isn’t giving a contrast between the law and grace and truth. One’s not evil while the other is good. Ultimately both issue forth from God. They’re actually markers of different points or revelations in the course of salvation history. But, here’s where things get good! First, Gal.3:11 “Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith.” But the natural question that Paul anticipates comes a few verses later: Gal.3:19 “Why, then, was the law given? It was added for the sake of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise was made would come.” So then, Gal.3:21 “Is the law therefore contrary to God’s promises? Absolutely not! For if the law had been granted with the ability to give life, then righteousness would certainly be on the basis of the law.” And here is why the law is good but grace and truth are better: the law could not give life. But can Jesus? I mean I’m making the argument that Jesus is better, that grace and truth is greater, so can Jesus give life? So glad you asked. We find that answer in the beginning of John’s gospel. Matthew traces Jesus back to Abraham, and Luke traces Jesus back to Adam and then to God. But John, oh, he’s my favorite gospel…he traces Jesus back to before time, back to before creation. John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” As you keep reading, John makes this statement: Jn.1:3-5 “All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.” The echoes of Genesis are all over this. First, “In the beginning God...” and “In the beginning was the Word” who “…was God.” Second, the first thing God creates in Gen. 1 is light. Ultimately that act of creation leads to the culmination on the sixth day, Gen.1:26-27 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.” Light that leads to physical life. But in John, notice what happens… John 1:4 “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” Further, the physical family came in Gen.1:28 “God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”” But the spiritual family came from Christ — John 1:12-13 “But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.” The law that came through Moses could not give life, but Jesus, the greater Moses, brought grace and truth and with it, LIFE!

But wait, there’s more! Notice what the Scripture says in John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.” John’s hinting in not-so-subtle words that Jesus is better. The whole thing is recalling this little episode in Exodus 33, where God speaks to Moses and assures him that the Promised Land will belong to Israel. As the narrative progresses, we find out that Ex.33:11 “The Lord would speak with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend...” So that settles it, right? Not so fast my friend, because a few short verses later, Ex.33:18 “Then Moses said, “Please, let me see your glory.”” And what does God tell him? Ex.33:19-20 “He said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name ‘the Lord’ before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” But he added, “You cannot see my face, for humans cannot see me and live.”” and Ex.33:23 “Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back, but my face will not be seen.”” And finally, the last bit of the surpassing greatness of Christ is revealed. Moses couldn’t see God, because “humans cannot see” God “and live,” even though he pleaded to see God’s glory. But here is Jesus, and John says Jn.1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Who’s glory? The Word’s glory. And who is the Word? The One who was with God and who was God! And while not even Moses the Magnificent could see God…Jesus is Himself God who reveals God to us…and we have now at last beheld His glory!

Jesus is the Son of Abraham, and He’s the Son of Adam — the Seed of the Woman, and He’s the Greater Moses as well. The promises were made, and even after the dark days of the death of Moses, One is Greater than Moses has come!

The hope of the prophets

The forerunner comes. Remember back at the close of the prophetic books? Remember what Malachi had to say? Mal. 4:5-6 “Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”” This Malachi would be the voice of one crying in the desert. Check out what we see in Jn.1:6-8 “There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light.” This John is elsewhere described in Mark 1:6 “John wore a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey,” clear reminders of Elijah and his ministry. So the final prophecy among the prophets is that Elijah would return. This is the final word given before 400 years of silence, and against the dark backdrop of sin, this single shard of shining light continued to pierce the darkness until born to Zechariah and Elizabeth is this baby boy preparing the way for the Lord!

But even more than that, consider just a few of the prophecies made about Jesus:

Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.” Luke1:30-3 “Then the angel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.”” Luke 1:34 “Mary asked the angel, “How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?””

Micah 5:2 “Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; one will come from you to be ruler over Israel for me. His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times.” Matt.2:1 “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem,”

Hosea 11:1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Matt.2:13 “After they were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up! Take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. For Herod is about to search for the child to kill him.””

Num. 24:17 “I see him, but not now; I perceive him, but not near. A star will come from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will smash the forehead of Moab and strike down all the Shethites.” Mt.2:2 “saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.””

The King coming out of exile

Let’s settle in on Matt.1 for a moment. Remember when the Hebrew OT closes with the book of 2 Chron., everything is exiled. The only thing that gives hope is the commission of Cyrus. Really, we’re left with the question at the close of each section of the OT: what will happen.

Four hundred years later, when the silence of God is broken, when the Spirit of God again stirs man to write salvation history, this is what Matthew writes: Mt.1:1 “An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:” Here comes the king, coming out of exile, for the Son of David has been born! And guess what He’s going to bring with Him — the Temple and the Passover!

As The Lord Comes...

John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Here’s perhaps the most astounding thing about our God. In theological circles there’s this term called transcendence. It means that God is far above and beyond us. It’s another way of describing His holiness. When we confess that God is holy, holy, holy, we confess He is transcendent — far above, God alone, dwelling in unapproachable light. But then there’s this phrase right there at the beginning of verse 14…He became flesh “and dwelt among us.” If you want the fancy term, it’s called immanence. What it means is that God came near.

He’s not uninvolved.

He’s been through every thing we have, yet He did not fail.

He is a great High Priest who can sympathize with us.

Maybe this passage expresses the nearness of God better than any other:

Psalm 23 CSB

A psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life; he leads me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

I’m not sure where you’re at today, but here is the hope we cling to this Advent Season: God became flesh and dwelt among us. The sin that entered the world through Adam, that left the world broken in darkness and sin, at last the flickering candle light of hope has shone into the darkness as an incomparable beacon of assurance…of promise fulfilled…of grace realized, a lighthouse drawing us into the safe harbor of Christ our Savior. It reminds us that we are not left hopeless. The God who promises is also faithful and powerful to keep His promises. And in this we take hope…refuge…solace…relief…comfort…joy…peace, and most of all, salvation, salvation in a God who did not leave us on our own or leave us hopeless to suffer sin’s demise, but a God who came and dwelt among us and offers us life eternal if we will repent and believe.