We have been looking at the Old Testament Scriptures to limn out who it is that our Fathers were expecting when they were told of a seed to come (Genesis 3:15) who would deliver them from the fall and its consequences. We have noted that the description of that coming deliverer is the primary (though not sole) purpose of the Old Covenant Scriptures. The Scriptures were given in order to identify who this deliverer … this Messiah would be.
In the past two weeks, we have looked at those Scriptures and have sought to set forth a narrative that describes the one they were expecting. Thus far as through the Davidic Kingdom, we have seen that the coming deliverer would be a man of violence inasmuch as he is to be the serpent head-crusher. We have traced that theme through Moses over the serpentine Pharaoh, through the Hebrews treading the serpentine land of Canaan as they conquered, through David conquering the serpent armored Goliath. We could have seen this theme in Jael pegging Sisera and in the unnamed woman dropping a stone on the head of Israel’s persecutor “Abimelech.”
We have noted that this man of violence will come from a royal line from the tribe of Judah considering passages like Gen. 49:10 and Number 24:16-19, and then as even more narrowed down as from David’s Kingly line as we considered in II Samuel 7:8-17. Of course, this means the deliverer that was expected by our Fathers would be a King.
We have also learned along the way that this coming expected deliverer was to be a blessing to all the Nations. We noted that the Deliverer was not merely a Hebrew Deliverer but that He would be a champion for all the nations. We noted this theme not only from Genesis 12 but also from Psalm 2 and Psalm 110. We spoke here that this aspect points in the direction of an optimistic eschatology wherein the Nations to submit to the Deliverer.
We have also learned that the one they were expecting would be a Priest in the line of Melchizedek as we considered Genesis 14:20, and Psalm 110:4. We also noted the OT Sacrificial System in the Pentateuch that would serve as an anti-type of the kind of Priestly work the fulfillment deliverer would accomplish. The coming deliverer would speak to God for the people, which is the role of a Priest.
We also said they expected a Prophet. As a prophet, we noted that the coming deliverer would speak to the people for God, which is the role of the prophet. We considered passages like Deuteronomy 18:15-19 where Moses promised that a greater Prophet than He would come.
Combining these last three we emphasized that in looking for the Deliverer they would find someone who would combine the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King in one person. This was unheard of and not allowed in the Old Covenant and so this coming Deliverer would be sui generis.
We also noted that He would esteem God’s Law. We drew that aspect of the expected deliverer from the reality that each new King seated was responsible to write out God’s Law en toto in order that He would know God’s Law and esteem God’s Law. The deliverer was a law-keeper and it is not too much to say that they expected a deliverer who as the deliverer would be an embodiment of God’s Law.
He doesn’t bring a new law to replace God’s law but rather sustains God’s law as the Deliverer.
This is where we have arrived at so far when doing a flyby of the Old Covenant Scriptures. This flyby called by its proper name is “Biblical theology.” Using a Biblical theological approach as opposed to a Systematic theological approach we have surveyed the Scriptures. What we have done can’t really be done using a Systematic theological approach.
Briefly, this approach is the difference between understanding someone’s life by looking at it through time-lapse photography that reduces 85 years to 45 minutes vs. understanding someone’s life by having all the facts about their life and them putting those different facts in different piles according to how each fact proved that the person was kind, surly, generous, faithful, and diligent. With time-lapse photography, one can quickly see all the changes and how the beginning and the end are related one to another. You get it condensed all in one flyby. You have the opportunity to see how the whole story fits together from beginning to end. Both methodologies are absolutely necessary in order to understand who our blessed Deliverer and Redeemer is. Both methodologies can be abused and so ruinous. However, both methodologies in the hands of faithful men can be used to set forth the Christ in all His splendor and beauty.
Very well, then what do we say now as we go from the books of History texts that move us from the United Kingdom to the divided Kingdom? Where will we find the Messianic Hope… the hope of the coming deliverer in these books? What did they teach our Fathers about who to expect to come at the 1st advent?
The United Kingdom refers to the life and times of Israel before they became two different Kingdoms – Judah & Israel as a result of King Rehoboam splitting the Kingdom by his tax policy. Prior to that time, the Hebrews had been united under Saul, David, and Solomon. These Kings were riddled with sin, though they remained God’s anointed man. Their sin demonstrated that they were not the ultimate Deliverer promised in Genesis 3 and built on. With the coming of the split between the two Kingdoms, we learn that the Northern Kingdom (Israel) started by Jeroboam by way of idolatry never has a righteous King. The Southern Kingdom (Judah) has a mixed bag of Kings – some who were followed in the way of their Father David and some who were evil (I Kings 12). The Kings in Judah and Israel reveal to us the Deliverer is yet to come. The promise is yet unfulfilled.
When we look at the Prophets of this era we see Elijah, Elisha, and Jonah as prophets to the Northern Kingdom. In these Prophets, we learn that the coming Prophet will be fierce, faithful, and unrelenting in his role Prophet. We learn particularly from Elijah that the coming deliverer will have a forerunner to prepare the way of the Lord. So, the Deliverer will not arrive w/o an Elijah like personage serving as herald to his coming. We learn this directly from a later Prophet to the Southern Kingdom,
Malachi 4
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
6 And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
At this point, we are getting more and more specific details. We know that John The Baptist was this coming Elijah prophesied by later textual hints;
Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather girdle around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. (Matthew 3:4)
Matthew does not record this by way of accident. This description ties John the Baptist as the Forerunner Elijah prophesied because you see the prophet Elijah wore similar clothing that set him apart from everyone else. In 2 Kings 1:8 Elijah is described the same way,
They answered him, “He wore a garment of haircloth, with a girdle of leather about his loins.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”
And our Lord says it explicitly in Matthew 11.
14 And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.
If Elijah pictures the forerunner John the Baptist then it is natural to understand that Elishah, who came after Elijah gives us insight into the Deliverer because as Elisha manifested even greater power in the Spirit than his predecessor so the coming Deliverer will manifest greater power in the Spirit than John the Baptist. I believe this points to the reality of the miracles that the Messiah would make known. The Deliverer once He arrives reaches for the prophet Jonah as promissory in his ministry of the coming Messiah. Jonah in that Whale’s belly spoke of the fact that the coming Deliverer would be three days dead and buried only to see the resurrection.
Matthew 12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Here now there is this almost contradiction that we spoke of last week. This coming Deliverer, who is to be a man of violence, who is a King triumphing over His enemies while delivering His people is also to know humiliation. Death, burial, and resurrection is combined with Triumph, exaltation and victory.
The coming Deliverer is a seeming contradiction. How can he be both at the same time? Well, in the life of the Deliverer we learn that indeed both are true. He comes as the seed of King David – Himself a King – and worshiped by Kings and yet even in His lowly and mean birth we see anticipated the coming humiliation.
As we turn to the prophets of the Southern Kingdom – Judah – we find brought out the ministry of the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah who each have something to add to the description of the expected coming deliverer.
These three have in common the proclamation that Judah would go into Exile becoming captives in Babylon. (Jer. 25:8-11; Micah 3:12, Is. 3:1-26, 5:13-17).
Jeremiah turns to the Kingly theme again speaking of the coming Deliverer who would be the seed of David who would reign as the “righteous Branch.” Jeremiah also tells us that this expected Deliverer will gather the scattered flock of Israel and restore righteousness and justice in the land.
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
The idea of a “branch of righteousness,” in the context of Jeremiah’s prophecy teaches that the expected Deliverer will come at a time when Israel’s fortunes are at low ebb. The stump is dead but a Branch of righteousness springs forth bringing forth a Son of David when it seemed unlikely. This informed those with ears to hear that the Deliverer would come when least expected. And that is exactly what comes to pass.
Micah likewise speaks of Israel’s restoration, and the coming righteous rule of the Messiah (Micah 4). However, Micah gets really specific tell us that the Deliverer who will be the bread come down from Heaven will be born in the House of Bread – Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From [a]everlasting.”
But notice another door that is opened here concerning the coming Deliverer. Micah tells us of the coming Deliverer that Israel awaits that there is something more here than a mere man. His goings forth are from of old… indeed from everlasting. Here we have hinted that the coming Deliverer will not only be very man of man but also something more… something that must include an ancient standing. Divinity is hinted at. It will be hinted at again before we get out of the Prophets.
Whoever this Deliverer is going to be he is going to be an extraordinary individual.
We turn to Isaiah now and in Isaiah, we get an information overload as to who this Deliverer is going to be.
Isaiah in chapters 1-5 opens with God’s promised Judgment on Israel for its wickedness. Ch. 8:1-8; 10:5; 13:1-22 finds God promising to use the nations as His instruments of justice but a Messiah is promised who will deliver them. As such Isaiah is chock full of information on the promised Deliverer.
In Is. 7 King Ahaz of Judah is told by God to ask for a sign that Ahaz’s enemies will not yet prevail against him. Ahaz refuses to ask so God gives Ahaz a sign anyway. The prediction given was not just to Ahaz, but to the house of David (Isa. 7:2, 13). The threat in Isaiah 7 was not only to Ahaz. The house of David had been unfaithful to the Lord and it is to them that this prophetic promise of a sign is given.
“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. He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken” (Isaiah 7:14-16).
This prophecy gets very specific about the expected coming deliverer. This passage is hotly disputed between Biblical Christians and Liberals. Liberals will insist that the word “Virgin” here should be translated “maiden,” while Biblical Christian hold for the word “virgin.” We will argue in just a bit that the word is elastic enough to have both meanings.
We learn here that the realized fulfillment of this prophecy tells us that the Deliverer will be born of a virgin and He shall call His name Emmanuel. Emmanuel literally means “God with us.”
Now the prophecy of Micah gets colored in and we see here that the one Micah spoke of as His going forth are from old … from everlasting is God Himself. Connecting these ideas we can say here that the Saints should have been expecting on that first Advent one who was born of a virgin who was both very man of very man and very God of very God.
Calvin chimes in here maintaining that the Issainic name “Emmanuel” cannot be applied to anyone who is not God. No one else in the Old Testament bears this name. For these reasons, the prophecy must be interpreted only of that One to whom these conditions apply, namely, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Virgin, and the Mighty God.
And so Matthew quotes
23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
This is not to say that the prophecy doesn’t have a short term fulfillment. Doubtless, it was one of those prophecies that has both a short term and a long term fulfillment. The sign has a double intent. The first was to King Ahaz to inform him that his two enemy kings who were warring against him would be overcome before the child would cease being a child. When we look at vs. 22 we learn that ‘curds and honey,’ are the food of prosperity. This hints that Ahaz’s enemies will not put the city into starvation mode. In the short term fulfillment the child’s birth need not have been supernatural since the word translated as virgin can also mean “maiden.” So, the near fulfillment emphasizes that a maiden will conceive but the emphasis is on the fact that the child will eat the food of prosperity meaning that the siege would not be successful. However, the far-away fulfillment emphasizes the virginity preceding the birth as emphasized in Matthew’s usage of the text.
Allow me to interject here that this virginity of Mary is a hill to die on. Years ago, when arriving I had someone assigned to me to be a mentor whose role was to grease the rails so that I could be admitted to the good ole boy ministers clubhouse. It wasn’t long before that relationship broke down on this very issue. This chap wanted to insist that the virginity of Mary was a myth. I was having none of it. The virginity of Mary is there to demonstrate that the pregnancy of Mary was God’s supernatural work giving her a son who was very God of very God. If Mary was pregnant of Joseph or any other mortal man that would be the end of Jesus Divinity and it being the end of Jesus divinity it would be the end of Jesus the Deliverer being able to die for the sins of His people since He would have had to die for His own sin nature. The Gospel of Jesus Christ does not hang solely on the virginity of Mary but without the virginity of Mary, there is no Gospel. No salvation. No hope.
We will pick up here in Isaiah @ the Christmas Eve service. Notice that as the progress of Redemption unfolds we get more and more information about who this Messiah will be. We have added this week a great deal of information and all that information from the old covenant Scriptures point us to Jesus as the promised Deliverer. Jesus is our Deliverer to be the one who reverses the consequences of the fall … who is our Prophet, Priest, and King… who is very man of very man and very God of very God.
Jesus is why Christmas can be Merry.
