Jesus Across Time



With the holiday season comes the ancient custom of observing Advent. This is a time of preparation for the birth of the Messiah. Because of this remembrance, the devotional blog will take on a different look until after Christmas. For the season, we will take a break from 2 Kings and instead ponder the readings that will be read during the coming Sunday. I pray God bless this season for you with deep meditation and an ever growing fascination with the Newborn King!

Prayer: Dear Awesome God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thank You for bringing me to this time of devotion, prayer, study, and closeness with You. Please Holy Spirit, fill my heart and mind with inspiration, insight, and a deepening love for You. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Read: Hebrews 1:1–6

Think about It: In 1875, Scotsman Robert Burns wrote a poem about the nest of a mouse he had turned up with a plow. From that poem we get the following line, "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley", paraphrased in English as "The best-laid plans of mice and men, often go awry". In the poem, Burns speaks to the mouse about the sadness he feels over disrupting her nest and thus her plans for a nice warm winter. While we're not mice, we can certainly relate to the circumstance when our plans are spoiled.
     And here is where we are very different from God. Not one of His plans has ever "gone awry". When you follow that train of thought you eventually wind up at the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. The natural question is "didn't God's plans fall apart in that moment?" Not even close. Did God know that Adam and Eve were going to blow it? Did He stand in His heaven, slap His palm against His forehead and declare, "Wow, I didn't see that coming?" Absolutely not! The Father created us even though He already knew we were going to sin. His love demanded that He have an object for that Love and thus we were created. Even as He created us He also set into place the plan for our salvation through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. The Apostle Paul speaks of that plan as well in Romans 5:6-8.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
 
     All of the Old Testament points to Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah; all of the New Testament points to the saving work of Jesus of Nazareth, the One who will return for us at the end of time. Paul points to the fact that God's timing was completely perfect. Jesus was set into time before the world began and He fulfilled the work of salvation when everything was perfect. Now, we wait for His triumphant return. While Jesus is the immortal, eternal God, His work spans all of time, past, present, and future.

Prayer: Father God, I stand amazed at the fact that Your plans were born before the earth existed. You knew that Your created children would fail and yet You acted in love anyway, sending Jesus when the time was perfect so that we might be saved from our sin. I marvel at the beauty and depth of Your plan. Thank You for following through with Your promises, for in them, I am saved. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen

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