Advent Devotion (Day 22) - They Looked for God

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. . – Matthew 2:11

Wise men, adults of incredible mental capability, men with enough power and position that they could meet with King Herod himself. Were they disappointed to not find the "King of the Jews" at Herod's palace?

What were they expecting when they entered that house? They knew they were looking for a young child but they must have wondered...would he somehow be mighty, dazzling, super human, a powerful presence? We don't know what they thought but we do know that they found normalcy...a young toddler with his mother, surrounded by the signs of a poor life, learning to walk, learning to talk. They had begun their journey looking for the king in a palace but found him in a humble home.

So what did they do? Many might have turned right around and left. This was not a king by the world's definition. This was not what they had travelled to see. This was not the king of their hopes, dreams and expectation. But they didn't leave. Instead, they did what God wants each of us to do when we meet with a situation that does not live up to our expectations...they looked for God.

They looked for God in the humble home. They looked for God amongst the poverty. They looked for God despite their possible disappointment. They looked for God in the face of a child.

And when they found God, they bowed down and worshipped Him. They bowed down out of obedience, out of a realization that God had a bigger plan than their own, out of love for a God who would come to earth through such humble means. They recognized that their ways were not God's ways, their thoughts were not God's thoughts.

May we be like those wise men. May we seek Jesus with all our hearts, look for God in the situations that do not meet our expectations and give Him all that we are, all that we have. That is how we will see God.

Christmas Devotion (Day 20) - Joseph's Choices

Read Matthew 1:18-24

Matthew 1:19-20 - And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’
Joseph was a righteous man who suddenly was faced with a problem he did not know how to solve. The law of the land stated he was completely justified in having Mary killed when he discovered she was pregnant. He knew he was not the father of the baby, so to him this only meant that she had been unfaithful to him.

But Joseph was a righteous man, and he must have loved Mary already because he did not want to kill her or even have her shamed before all the people of the town. As he was thinking about how else he could take care of his problem, he fell asleep. The Angel Gabriel came to visit him in his dream and told him who this baby really was – the promised Messiah. He even gave Joseph the assignment of naming this baby. The name “Jesus” is the same name as “Joshua” in the Old Testament, and “Joshua” means “savior.” 

We continue with Joseph in our next lesson.

*How have you been willing to listen to God for a different way of working through a difficult situation?

Advent Devotion (Day 21) - Worship or Destroy?

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written."
Matthew 2:3-5

The wise men left their country and followed the star but not to Bethlehem at first. Instead they went to Jerusalem, the home of King Herod of the Jews. It seemed logical to them that if this "King of the Jews" had been born then of course, King Herod and the Jews in Jerusalem would know where the baby was to be found. They would soon find out this was not the case at all.

This King Herod was known as Herod the Great. Herod was indeed great; in some ways great as a ruler, builder and administrator; in other ways great in politics and cruelty.

“He was wealthy, politically gifted, intensely loyal, an excellent administrator, and clever enough to remain in the good graces of successive Roman emperors. His famine relief was superb and his building projects (including the Jewish temple, begun 20 B.C.) were admired even by his foes. But he loved power, inflicted incredibly heavy taxes on the people, and resented the fact that many Jews considered him a usurper. In his last years, suffering an illness that compounded his paranoia, he turned to cruelty and in fits of rage and jealousy killed close associates, including a wife and his sons.” (Carson)

Psalm 19 says the heavens declare the glory of God. The writer, David, had spent many nights under the stars as he kept his father’s sheep. And from this Psalm it is clear he too knew the stories in the stars. This was before writing was widespread, so the common people used other things instead of written words to remember the Bible they had learned. Jewish history today tells us the constellations of stars were stories of each of the Tribes of Israel and the blessings Jacob had given each. So the remembering of the prophecy of the star rising in the house of Judah would have been something the people of Israel would have been able to watch in their night skies.

But the leaders of Israel, including King Herod, had not been paying attention to the skies; they were caught by surprise when the wise men came to ask where their King was to be born. They, like the religious leaders thirty years later, were focused not on God and His coming but on themselves and their hold on power. King Herod was disturbed because this baby born could threaten his power as king. And, like the Jewish leaders that would follow, King Herod tried to stop the plans of God by trying to kill Jesus.

I am struck with how not much has changed in our day and age. So many in this world are not seeking to know God, but instead are seeking power. When they feel threatened by Christians, followers of the Messiah, they react with anger and violence. One just has to look at Syria right now, and what ISIS has done to the Christian population there, to know this is true. In fact, in the last century more Christians have been killed for their faith than all of the previous centuries combined. The spirit of "King Herod" that would destroy Jesus Christ instead of worship Him is still alive and well in our world.

Christmas Devotion (Day 19) - Simeon and Anna

Read Luke 2:22-38

Luke 2:26 - It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

There were two people named in this story of Christmas who had been paying attention to God’s promises. We do not read about them until after Jesus was eight days old and brought to the temple for the sacrifice to be made for every first-born child.

Simeon was already an old man, but as we read in our verse above, he had received a promise from God that he would not die until he had seen the promised Messiah. Can you imagine receiving such a promise from God? We know he must have come to the temple nearly each day, but on the day when Jesus was brought there by Joseph and Mary, he had been urged to come by the Holy Spirit.

Another person was there as well, though the Bible does not say she was expecting the Messiah. However, when Anna saw this little family come through the gates, she also recognized Jesus as the promised Messiah.

To be able to recognize Him, they must have been looking for Him, expecting Him to come. Jesus has made another promise to those of us living today – the promise that He will return and take us to Himself (John 14:1-6). We are given many signs to look for in prophecy, including Jesus’ own words in Matthew 24 and 25.

*What signs from prophecy do you see today that cause you to be expectantly watching for His coming?

Advent Devotion (Day 20) - Come to Worship

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
– Matthew 2:1-2

"On the eastern side of the Arabian desert...a cloister of Magi preserved the traditions of the Babylonian and Persian astrologers. As they looked into the western sky, high above the horizon, a new light triggered a memory...Daniel's calculations...a king! But not just any king. The King of the Jews. A King who would eventually rule the world...They travelled more than three months to see the new King and when they found Him, they did something extraordinary. They fell down on their faces and worshipped!" taken from A Bethlehem Christmas by Charles R. Swindoll

How did the Wise Men know what to look for in the stars, and how did they know to come to Israel? Though we are not told this in the Bible, we do know Daniel was leader of the wise men and astronomers for most of his life in Babylon. It is now more than 400 years later, and the men who had heard these things from Daniel have long since died. But they passed the information on to those who came after them.

There are many different suggestions for the natural origin of this remarkable star. Some say it was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn; some, other planetary conjunctions; others suggest a supernova; and some think of comets or a specifically created unique star or sign.

Whatever it was, it is significant that God met them in their own medium: He guided the astronomers by a star. This was also in fulfillment of Numbers 24:17: A Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out of Israel. This was widely regarded by ancient Jewish scholars as a Messianic prediction.

Foreigners, learned scholars, wise, intelligent men. Eager to find the one, true King. So sure of Daniel's ancient prophecies, confirmed by "a star in the east," that they embark on a perilous journey for many months to a distant and foreign land. And they did not go out of curiosity. Their reason for going is clear...we "have come to worship Him."