An Advent Devotional

Guest essay by Ronald Kirk

Contrary to the Scriptures’ broad portrayal of Christ’s coming dominion, most Christmas advent devotionals focus strictly upon what we like to call spiritual matters. These typically focus on Christ’s coming as our personal Savior. Oh, yes! Christ did come to save us from our individual sins. But the Bible claims Jesus came to do much more! He came to bring a down payment of the blessings of eternity to earth as we allow Him to work in us. Indeed, Paul says that God will “punish all disobedience when [our] obedience is fulfilled” (2 Corinthians 10:6*).

What promises did the Christ’s heralds of coming make to us?

Isaiah in Chapter 9, the passage commonly understood as prophetic of Jesus, says:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined (v. 2).

We know that Christ is our light, and brings us out of the shadow of death….But also:

You have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian (v. 4)

We well know the passage that says, “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given (v. 6). Yet, Isaiah also says:

And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. (v. 6-7)

Hmm. God promises to the Son the rule of the throne of David for judgment and justice. The government is on His shoulder. Psalm 110 says Jesus reigns at the right hand of the Father in the midst of His enemies, through His volunteers until His enemies are made His footstool. The Apostle Paul says in the context of Psalm 110 that the last enemy is death (1 Corinthians 15:25-26).

Then there is the Virgin Mary, pregnant with the Lord Jesus when she visits her cousin Elizabeth. Often called the Magnificat, Mary here exults:

My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever (Luke 1:46-55).

Mary enlarges the meaning of God and His Person in her heart and being. Why? She recognizes Him as her Savior, how He embraces her however lowly she is. But she does not end there.

Rather, she places great emphasis on the mercy of God to men in the earth: He has shown mercy from generation to generation. From age to age, God has used His strength to scatter His enemies, those who harm His people. He debases the arrogant and powerful rulers, and elevates the lowly.

Zacharias prophesies likewise in verses 68 through 79.

Think of this. Essentially, God replaces kings, and by extension the elite ruling class, with ordinary people such as Mary. Now this cannot be a common peasant revolution, for in such as the French Revolution, one tyrant from the base classes merely replaces another from the aristocracy. Such are all alike. Well, if one ruling class does not replace another, then what replaces the ruling class? A self-restrained, self-governing people do—a Christian republic of true representatives providing justice under the rule of covenantal law—the rules of community association we call a constitution.

Mary says the hungry eat. Most of the poor in the world are so because of theft or slavishness, and these are related. Envious sin takes from those who are productive either in socialistic civil orders or by common theft. Also, slavishness of character purposely makes itself dependent on the ruling class, even in the face of debasement or slaughter, because it is better to be taken care of through enslavement than to trust God to provide. The rich, ruling elite eats well. The peasants suffer. Mary sees the promise of Christ as overturning this evil civil order.

Mary’s musings are not about heaven, but justice, judgment and equity in the earthly life. God inspired her to exalt her God, and she knew the Baby in her womb—the One to be known as Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace in the earth, and the government would be upon His shoulder.

If there is justice in the world, then Jesus will rule through His people, His extensive church, the body of Christ, as in Psalm 110. His kingdom is an internal one expressed externally. In other words, God’s promises as recited by Mary cannot happen in a coercive Kingdom, even with Christ ruling, unless only slavish conformance is the goal. Such cannot be. Jesus confounded even His followers with the fact that His kingdom is from above and works through His people.

What Christians and prospective Christians should then understand is that when we truncate God’s Word, minimizing the comprehensive nature of life in Christ, we neutralize and negate the promise of Christ’s work in the earth—which anticipates and prepares for eternity. It should be both/and.

When we realize God’s purposes for us as His ambassadors, His royal priesthood, then we will devote our lives to prepare for Christ to use us in this life, in everything we do, including learning the wisdom and skills necessary to govern nations. Fortunately, the same principles that govern nations are the same ones that govern homes. The point is that we must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ in all things. Then we will once more see the promises of the Advent, from the Old Testament and New, come to life before us. The Lord of Hosts is ready to punish all disobedience when our own obedience is fulfilled.

In this light, please read Isaiah 11 once more. Then, let us exult, like Mary, in our Savior come, ruling and reigning at the right hand of the Father.

*All Scripture quotes from The New King James Version, Thomas Nelson © 1982.

Ron is the author of Thy Will Be Done: When All Nations Call God Blessed from Nordskog Publishing.

© 2013

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