A PERFECT HOPE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when He knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—He will bring the king of Assyria.”

Isaiah 7:14-17

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I think I can be safe in saying that everyone in life desires some sense of hope. It’s the essence of what brings us peace and comfort, relief from the pressures this life can bring upon us.

Hope brings us anticipation that something is going to happen and make our life better in some way. Hope buoys us up in excitement and expectation. Hope is a sense of confidence and trust in someone or something that will make situations turn out for the best.

If you have hope, your spirit is lifted up as you wait in faith for things to change for the good. Lose it and you will sink into the depths of despair and worry and stress and fear, all emotions that are the anti-hope, all emotions that Satan would love to manifest in every man and woman.

Satan wants to steal away all our joy and optimism in life. And he succeeds unless people know that they have a perfect hope that can never been taken.

What is that perfect hope?   

Let’s look at today’s scripture from Isaiah, Chapter 7:

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when He knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—He will bring the king of Assyria.” vv. 14-17

Let me start at the end of this passage and work my way backwards. For earlier in this chapter, we read about how Ahaz and the Judeans were afraid due to attacks that were being waged against Jerusalem by the armies of Aram and the northern kingdom of Israel. You’ll recall that God intervened to dispel the fears of the Judeans, telling them that the Arameans and Israelites would not gain any victory over Judah and Jerusalem. In fact, those two groups would face their own demise sooner rather than later. That had to be quite a reassurance to the Judeans but as we see in this passage, they weren’t out of the woods, not by a long shot. For it wasn’t that God was withdrawing His judgment on His people for their willing sinfulness through false worship practices, He was just using another nation to do His judgment work. In this instance, that group would be the Assyrians who would be followed by the Babylonians who would finish the job.

Yes, there were bad days ahead for the people of God in the way of penalties they fully deserved due to their disobedience and disrespect toward God. But this didn’t mean that there wasn’t hope. For those who would be taken away to a foreign land were left with words that had to reassure them that there would be better days ahead after exile and those better days would be so because of a perfect hope God was going to send.

Look again at the words that brought so much promise to the Judeans and in turn to all of mankind – past, present, and future:

The Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when He knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right.  

The Lord, a Lord of justice in judgment, is also a Lord of redemption and forgiveness and hope, all given to mankind perfectly out of the deep love the Father has for His creation. No greater expression of that love can be found than in Jesus, His only Son who God sent to live among us and ultimately die to save us from our sins, defeating death and the grave before being resurrected in power to dwell with God in heaven. This set the stage for the perfect hope that everyone has in Jesus today. For in Him, anyone who believes and trusts He is Savior will be a victorious person, free from the penalty of death and entitled to have the perfect hope of eternal life. Death no longer becomes the end but rather stepping stone to life forever with God the Father and Jesus His Son.

This all began with a sign, a virgin named Mary who conceived by the Holy Spirit and gave birth to the One who would save the world, the One who even from His youngest days was righteousness personified because He carried a name that identified who He was, the name Immanuel or God with us. This is what puts the Christ into Christmas every year. It’s not about a tree and presents. It’s about the perfect hope that came to us in the form of a tiny baby born in a humble manger in Bethlehem, a baby who would grow up to bring us salvation.

Do you know Jesus? Have you embraced the perfect hope He brings?

If so, then every day becomes a day to rejoice and be glad in. For no matter what life brings, the best is still yet to come.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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