It is a very busy week, so I am cheating.
For the congregation I prepared an Advent devotional book:
Advent Devotion Book
The daily devotions, probably for this week will come from that printed source. Those who have the printed source, sorry for the duplication.
Genesis 49:10 – The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from his descendants, until the coming of the one to whom it belongs, the one whom all nations will honor.
Deuteronomy 18:15 – Moses continued, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.”
Judah, before receiving the scepter, had the promise of an eternal throne with honor for all nations. Moses in his final words to the nation he had led out of Egypt and through the desert promises a great prophet. The people of Israel gathered at the base of Mt. Sinai were fearful of their lives. The fire and clouds and lightening and the great voice of God they heard spoke to them of death. At that mount of the covenant, they knew that those words meant death. Israel knew they could not keep them. And the Lord agreed. Encounters with the hidden God always mean death. The great why questions are rarely answered. Why? Who am I to talk back to the potter? Or the Lord’s answers to Job from a whirlwind – Why? Where were you when I laid the foundation of the world? Direct encounters with God mean death. But the Lord agreed and promised to raise up a prophet from among Israel – a human prophet. Also a divine prophet as this promised one would have the very words of God.
Jesus came to us as the revealed God. In Jesus we see the Father. We see his love for his daughters and sons on the cross. We see his salvation in the resurrection. We await His final revelation. The Hidden God in that cloud and fire kills. The revealed God in Jesus saves. Jesus’ prophetic message – I am the way the truth and the life – is what we must hear.
