Daily Reading: Jeremiah 31 'Christmas; an end to exile'

Some things fit with Christmas don’t they? Turkey, snow, mulled wine, mince pies, crackers, nativity plays and so on. They are part of what Christmas is all about, so much so that they would seem out of place at any other time of the year.

Christmas has a certain feel to it, certain emotions attached to it; joy, peace, love, welcome, friendliness and so on. So I wonder if you thought our reading was a bit out of place this morning? Normally at Christmas we read about angels, shepherds and stables. But a verse about weeping and mourning and then the story about Herod executing all the boy toddlers in Bethlehem, that doesn’t fit with Christmas does it? It seems as out of place as snow or a Christmas meal in June.

We live in what some have termed the airbrushed society. It’s not just pictures of models or celebrities that are airbrushed, we do it with all sorts of things death is airbrushed out if sight, the homeless or destitute are similarly often airbrushed out of view, we do it with our retelling of history too. It’s fascinating that in our retelling of the facts around Jesus birth, we often airbrush this part of the story out too, treating it just like any other wrinkle or blemish.

But if you look at Matthew’s account of the nativity you’ll see he puts this front and centre. He starts with Jesus family tree, then records the angel speaking to reassure pre-wedding jitters Joseph, and the rest of the nativity story is compressed into two verse(1:24-25). And then his focus is on the Magi’s visit (eighteen months or so later), Herod’s murderous attempt to secure his dynasty and Jesus flight to Egypt and return to Nazareth. No long journey, donkey, shepherds, heavenly choir, or Gabriel visiting Mary.

And what’s even stranger is that Matthew says Herod’s actions and the mothers mourning fulfil Jeremiah the prophet’s words written hundreds of years before. One of the things that Matthew is keen for us to understand is that Jesus birth isn’t just another birth. It isn’t just a royal birth, like this year will see when Kate gives birth to the next heir to the throne, with all the excitement that attends that. Jesus birth of is of a different order, a different magnitude, altogether because this baby, Jesus, has been promised for thousands of years. He is the fulfilment of not just a short term plan but of God Father, Son and Spirits eternal plan. There has never been and will never be a more important birth.

I want to think about what Matthew is telling us under two simple headings: 1. Finding our Story, 2. Finding our Saviour

Finding our Story

I love Christmas morning, when the children open their presents and unwrap everything all over the bed or floor, or several floors. But when it comes to tidying up have you noticed something? It’s almost impossible to get things back in their box, there just seems to have been too much packed in the box and you find yourself struggling to stuff it back in. An Old Testament quotation is a bit like that. Matthew isn’t just referring to the verse but to the whole chapter around it. Turn back to Jeremiah 31 (p750).

(15)Is an island of sorrow in the midst of a sea of joy. But we want to focus on the sorrow first and then we’ll move onto the joy. In the verse the prophet is speaking about the mums in Israel, that’s who Rachel stands for, weeping because they have lost their children. Israel were at war with Babylon and some of their sons died in battle while others were taken captive into exile to live in Babylon. Now I’m told some mums weep on their children’s first day at school, their first day at secondary school, and definitely when they leave them at university for the first time, and in some cases every subsequent time. There is something innate that makes a mother sad at being parted from her children. But here it’s even worse; they are carried off miles away into exile by a hostile enemy never to be seen again. You can understand why the prophet says the mums will refuse to be comforted.

It is a tragedy, a foreign king taking God’s people into exile and some dying at his hand. Being taken away from God’s kingdom, having relationships fractured and destroyed.

That idea of exile and the mourning that comes with it is one of the Bible’s big themes. It becomes a repeated pattern. In fact the bible says that exile is the big story not just of Israel or the bible but of our lives as humanity and as individuals. It is our story:

We are made to know God and enjoy him forever as our loving heavenly father who we trust.

But we choose exile from God because we doubt he loves us and wants what is best for us and instead choose to find meaning in other things. We spend our lives pouring different things into our life trying to recapture what we were made for, trying to fill up the empty space.

But in deciding to live life apart from God, we choose exile. Just like Israel did by deciding to love everything other than God. They reject the loving living relationship with God that is theirs because they doubt his love and think they can find satisfaction elsewhere. But it leads to exile and weeping. It’s the same for us if we choose to reject the offer of relationship with God, God will ultimate respect that decision, he gives us what we want, exile. We will get an eternity without knowing and enjoying God and all his love and goodness.

Have you ever stopped and thought; what should God do about that?

Imagine for a minute that one of my children at 18 turns round and says, Dad I wish you were dead. I want what you give me what’s mine, I want your stuff but not relationship with you. How should I react? What should I do?

Can you discipline someone into having relationship with you? No.

What would love do? Love would lead me to be broken hearted but say ok. But it would also lead me to be always waiting ready for the phone call or the knock on the door, arms and heart open ready to forgive and welcome back my child. I would hope that the experience of a broken relationship, what they miss, would make them want eventually to reconcile when they came to their senses and I’d be ready to do that, because I love them.

God is the same – a loving father who hears, and is broken hearted by our rejection of him but never gives up loving us and waiting to welcome us home, to end the exile. In fact he uses the exile with Israel to show them what they are missing. It’s the same with us the brokenness of the world around us that search for meaning and fulfilment we feel is God in love calling us to realise what we are missing and turn back to him. And he goes further than just waiting passively.

2. Finding our Saviour

Look at (3)we see God’s character there “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness...” God hasn’t given up on Israel or us if we are far from him. But we, just like Israel, can’t get back ourselves. So God acts, did you see that here, God loved, God draws, God builds, God brings them back, God gathers, God delivers, God redeems, God turns mourning into comfort. Look at v16 God says stop weeping, why? Because God responds to repentance, to their recognition that they are missing him and were wrong to try to live life without God, by ending exile, by bringing Israel back. God stands ready, willing and able to bring back.

And this goes even further, God promises an end to exile forever. Look at(33-34), God will make a new covenant, a covenant whereby everyone will know God, he does so in Jesus, who doesn’t just come as a baby but lives forgiving and bringing people back to God, who dies to pay the price to seal those reconciled relationships, and makes a new covenant, a new relationship between us and God where we are viewed by God as his perfect children.

As Matthew quotes this verse he has this whole chapter waiting to jump out of the box. Jesus the baby born in Bethlehem is the one who comes to end exile forever, who comes to enable us to know God. Because God is not just waiting for us to turn back to him but God in Jesus shows his love by coming to find exiles and end exile and enable us to know God.

Jesus is called “Immanuel” God with us, God in love made man to seek and lovingly bring us back to God, to restore a broken relationship with God.

This weeping is the last weeping for exile, Jesus is the Exile Ender. From now on in Jesus everyone can know God by trusting in Jesus. He comes to secure our forgiveness for rejecting God but also to save us for relationship with God.

Do you want to know God? Do you want an end to life without God? Matthew says you can through trusting in Jesus. That God is not distant and cold and unloving. That he is not waiting for you to pull your socks up and work your way back to him, no he comes to find us in Jesus, to end our exile from him, to repair the broken relationship and bring reconciliation. That is brilliant news. It is joyful news, it’s why Christmas is such good news. The exile is ended, we don’t need to live life fearful of God, apart from God, seeking to fill the God shaped whole in our lives. We can know God ourselves.

That ought to make Christmas the most joyful time of the year, our exile is ended if we turn and trust in Jesus.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 40v1-5 'Christmas: Promised messenger'

Imagine that on every single channel on the radio and TV there is a news flash. There is the black door with the gold Number 10 and stood in front of it is the Prime Minister, with the cabinet behind him.

He steps to the microphones; “Thank you for coming this afternoon, my government and I have an important announcement regarding our future as a country. For too long we have been trying sticking plaster solutions to the problems we face, rushing from temporary solution to temporary solution both at home and abroad, both in foreign and in economic policy. We have relied on our allies, our intelligence, our reasoning, our past, but it has become increasingly apparent that we can do so no longer. As a government we have decided we cannot solve these problems, no government can, no alliance or deal can.

And so this morning we ask you the people of Britain to join with us in prayer. Not a vague prayer to a God we do not know, but a prayer to the almighty God of heaven. We ask you to join with us in confessing and asking forgiveness for our stubborn foolish determination to trust in everything but him and cry out to him to save us because he is our only hope.”

How would you react? What would the headlines be the next day in the newspapers, on the news channels and so on?

That is the call Isaiah makes to Judah’s King, Hezekiah. Judah is in crisis economically and militarily. It is the small child stuck between the two posturing playground bullies of Assyria and Egypt. What should Judah do? What should the king do?

Hezekiah’s advisors keep telling him to make politically astute deals. But Isaiah says ‘Trust God not men’ And the king flits between the two, he’s a bit like us sometimes trusting God and standing for him, but at other times giving in to the pressure of those around him and trusting men and alliances not God. In ch37 he trusts God and the city is miraculously saved, but in ch39 he forgets God and trusts in alliances, and God warns Judah they face exile. They will be defeated in battle, the city ruined and the people carried far away to serve a foreign king.

Can you imagine how Judah felt? Exile. What about God’s promises? What about the promises to Abraham of a place, people, protection, and God’s big plan to bless all nations? This is the end of everything! There was a real danger that Israel would despair. How can you trust God when it seems hopeless? How can you trust God when it looks like his promises have failed?

That’s what this chapter addresses, how to have hope in despair, and it is hope founded on understanding who God is. God’s promises haven’t failed because he sends Judah into exile, in fact he is being faithful to them.

I want you to imagine you have been told not to do something. What happens if you do it and get caught? You get punished? Why? Is it that your parents are mean? No, it’s that they want you to learn what to do and what not to do, they want you to be safe and live life at its best. Discipline is the result of love. And good parents keep their word – break the rule face punishment.

God as he sends Israel into exile is lovingly punishing them because he wants them to realise trusting and worshipping anything other than him is wrong and dangerous, he wants to save them from an even greater danger. But there is hope because he says he is not done with Judah yet! (1-2)He speaks comfort to them; that is what these verses are, an encouragement. And look at what he calls them – what does he calls Judah? “my people”. And (2)the comfort is that Israel’s sins have been paid for, she has received double. Now that doesn’t mean she has been punished twice as much as she deserves, but she has been punished the exact double, the mirror image, of her sins, in other words God is satisfied. Here is comfort people can come back to God with their sin paid for.

But how? God can’t just sweep sin under the carpet, or put it in the bottom of the cupboard. And exile doesn’t atone for sin, only a perfect offering can do that. So how?

Israel knew that they couldn’t deal with sin, they knew that all the sacrifices in the world couldn’t stop them sinning or make them right with God. All through the bible there had been hints at a bigger, grander, bolder plan; God’s plan to bless all nations, a serpent crusher, a ruler who would be the lion of Judah, the exile ender, the shepherd king. Now (3)we get another piece of the puzzle – a voice - would come and tell them to get ready for something that had never happened before.

Look at (3)whose coming does the voice get them ready for? It is the ‘LORD’, Yahweh, God himself will come to his people. God isn’t just going to speak through a prophet, he isn’t just sending a message through his messenger. This messenger comes to get people ready for God himself to come.

Can you imagine the excitement if the Queen was coming to church next Sunday? People would come and get us ready, tell us how to stand, where to line up, how to bow and curtsey, what to say and so on.

Well this ‘voice’ comes to get people ready for God to come and live among them!

But if you were an Israelite God’s coming would be both exciting and scary, because of sin, sin kept on being a problem and God hates sin. It’s why Israel go into exile, because God is holy and Israel isn’t. The bible tells us we have the same problem, sin is in our hearts, and it always separates us from God, it breaks our relationship with him and leaves us facing his right anger and judgement. We need to be ready if we are ever to meet God, but how do you get ready to meet God? The great news is God acts, God loves, God comes down to deal with just that problem.

I wonder if you’ve seen ‘The Voice’; 4 judges listen to people sing and then decide if they want them or not. The twist is the judges can’t see the contestants they can only hear their voice and they can only choose so many on their team. They listen carefully for the next voice, is this the voice that will win the competition, sell records and so on.

By Matthew’s time Israel have been waiting to hear the voice for nearly eight hundred years. Turn to Matthew 3, after the nativity, the magi, the escape to Egypt and the return, Matthew fast forwards a 30 years and records these events:

“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
Prepare the way for the Lord,
Make straight oaths for him.”

The voice is here says Matthew. The one who comes to get people ready for God’s coming is here. And the crowds flock to see John, they have been waiting hundreds of years for the voice to come because they know it means the Messiah is coming next. God himself is coming and sin will be dealt with.

How does he get them ready? He tells them to repent – to stop trusting and living for themselves, to stop running from God, and trying to find meaning in life themselves and instead to ask God’s forgiveness and run to him for meaning and joy. People listen to him and turn to God, they look for the Messiah to come.

And (13)”Then Jesus came from Galilee” and John identifies him as the one, the Messiah, God come, and so does God at Jesus’ baptism. John has called people to repent but he can’t pay for their sin, he can’t atone for it, he points them to one who is coming to do that for them. Jesus comes to seek the lost and wandering, to show people a tantalising glimpse of the kingdom, and to bring people into the kingdom by dying in their place and rising again having conquered sin.

But just flick back to Isaiah 40:5 Jesus doesn’t just come for Israelites, Jesus isn’t just their hope, he is the hope of the nations. He comes to save all nations from sin, to make us God’s people in God’s place, under his protection, enjoying and awaiting his plan.

Isaiah says know God and trust God. Only God can deal with our biggest need, our biggest problem. Only God in Jesus comes to solve the problem of sin, “he was pierced for our transgressions... the punishment that bought us peace was on him...”

As you look back on this last year who have you trusted? If we are honest we have to say how like Hezekiah and Judah we are – we switch from trusting God to trusting ourselves, from faith to trusting in our intelligence, or ability to provide for ourselves. God lovingly calls us again this morning to know him, to enjoy his rule, to experience his comfort, to trust him. Our loving Father waits, calling us to return to him, and he has done everything possible to enable us to return to him. He calls us to recognise how utterly ridiculous it is not to trust him with our lives when we see him in all his power and in his love, a love so for us that sometimes he disciplines us to show us our danger and bring us back to reliance on him.

As we look forward to this year I don’t want to make you panic but I do want you to be aware you and I have no idea where we will be twelve months from now. Our sense of being in control is an illusion, our idea of being able to determine our future is a sham. We have no idea what the next year holds, you only have to look back on the past year to realise that. But we don’t need to panic, shut down, stockpile food, or find a nice corner to sit and rock in. Because we know the God who promises us he is our comfort, who comes in Jesus to make us right with him and enable us to live enjoying and knowing him. Our reality is defined by God in love becoming man to bring us back to God, not our ability, or intelligence or circumstance. We know the God who is the Alpha and Omega who knows the beginning, the middle and the end and he is for us and will one day come back for us.

Trusting God in Jesus is not just a one off decision, it is a day by day, moment by moment reality that keeps a grip on the sovereignty of God and his love and grace shown us in God the Son and the present experience of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Trusting God is not vague but is seen in the way we make decisions, the way we view and use our possessions, the way we give away money generously, the way we love others, the grace we extend to people when they fail, the way we cling to God in crisis, in grief, in insecurity, and praise and thank him when we experience blessing, both the everyday and the extraordinary.

God is our hope. It is seen in our praying, our living, our loving, our repenting, our confessing, our relying. Because we realise God is for us, his plans for us are bigger and better than anything we can imagine or accomplish and we trust him secure in Christ and filled with the Spirit.  Sit and read Isaiah 40:27-31 and then turn it into prayer.

Daily Reading: Genesis 49 'Christmas: promise ruler'

We saw yesterday how the first ever Christmas Card was God’s promise that a serpent crusher would come to defeat Satan and sin. Now here in Genesis 49 we have a second Christmas Card, a second promise, and it’s the promise of a coming king in the line of Judah. And alongside the promise of a coming King a glimpse of the nature of his kingdom.

There is a lot of imagery in this prophecy about Judah. But first comes the surprise, it is a surprise that this amazing blessing is given to Judah at all. After all he is not the firstborn, that’s Reuben, or Jacob’s favourite that’s Joseph. And Judah has a patchy record, in ch37-38 he is a jealous plotter, sexually immoral, and leaves the family of promise to live as a Canaanite. But he is so changed by experiencing God’s grace that he later offers himself in place of Benjamin when the brothers return to Egypt.

Judah doesn’t deserve the blessings given to him, but Judah is a trophy of God’s grace, he recognises his sin, repents and is changed by the grace of God. Judah is just as bad as Simeon, Reuben or Levi but he is changed by God’s grace. He listens to God’s warning(ch38) recognises his sin, repents and is changed. God doesn’t bless the good God blesses those who have received grace.

Judah and the tribe that will come from him will be prominent in Israel, a warrior tribe, and (9)with the image of a lion sat eating his kill who no-one dares disturb we see not just that Judah is powerful but the image of the lion also hold the promise of kingship. That implicit promise is made explicit in(10).

“The sceptre will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of nations be his.”

This isn’t a vague promise, this is a promise about a line of kings and specifically a coming individual, one day a king will come from Judah’s line and the obedience of the nations will be his. It is a deliberate echo of the covenant with Abraham that through him all nations will be blessed. A great king will come from Judah’s line.

But who is it? The big question is; where is he? Especially as Saul becomes Israel’s first king and he is from Benjamin. But then 1 Samuel 16 Samuel anoints David, in the line of Judah from Bethlehem in Judah. David becomes king after Saul’s death and Judah is the first tribe to proclaim him king. And David goes on to become a great king, the greatest king Israel ever had. But the promise is not complete, it’s only partially fulfilled in David. David is praised by the tribes, he does rule all 12, he does win battles and there are other nations which come to bring him tribute just as God promised in Genesis 49. But in 2 Samuel 7 God makes clear that the promise is not totally fulfilled in David, “I will raise up your offspring to succeed you...and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

David is like the trailer. When you go to see a film you sit through snippets of upcoming releases. They don’t show you everything, but you catch glimpses of what the film will be like, often the best bits but you don’t experience the full thing, it is meant to increase your appetite, your anticipation of that film, to make you want to see it. David acts like a trailer for the rule of God’s greater king in the line of Judah.

And God keeps both the promise to David and the one to Judah, the sceptre doesn’t depart Judah’s line. After David and Solomon as the kingdom splits into two; Judah and Israel, a descendant of David always rules on the throne of Judah the sceptre doesn’t depart, whereas in Israel there is no dynasty, no one line of kings. God keeps his promise, even as Judah are taken into exile David’s line continues, and two of David and Judah’s descendants are prominent figures in the return from exile to rebuild Jerusalem.

But the question remains where is God’s king, where is the lion of Judah? Matthew as a gospel is concerned about the coming of the king and his kingdom when the exile finally ends, and it opens with a genealogy that answers that question. If you are were a Jew anticipating the coming of the Messiah this genealogy is dynamite. You are waiting for a king in David’s line, the lion of Judah, who will fulfil the promises to Abraham reiterated to Judah about the nations.

“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the Son of David, the Son of Abraham...” That is dynamite. Look at(2), Jesus is in the line of Judah, and Abraham, and David. And this genealogy is very carefully crafted so that it falls into 3 blocks of how many? 14. Why? In Jewish writing each consonant was prescribed a number: D was 4, V was 6, DVD = 14. Again Matthew is using a Jewish way of emphasising that Jesus is the Son of David, that he is the Messiah – God’s promised King bringing about God’s kingdom.

Everything about this opening genealogy announces that the king has come. Matthew records that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judah, the town of David, and that the Magi came to worship a king.

It’s as if Matthew is shouting at the top of his lungs THE KING HAS COME! God keeps his promises, no matter what has tried to derail them. God keeps his promises not despite the sinful actions of people as if he is constantly engineering a new path round obstacles but amazingly even through those sinful actions.

God is sovereign, he reigns, he keeps his promises, and his king has come. That ought to thrill our hearts as we think about Christmas. All Israel’s sin and failings, all the opposition of evil kings, enemies, people like Athaliah who try to wipe out David’s line, all of it comes to nothing because God reigns and rules and he will send his king. Christmas ought to remind us again, give us confidence again, fill our hearts with joy again because our God keeps his promises. And not on the basis of our behaviour or our deserving them but on the basis of his grace.

The prophecy doesn’t just promise that a king will come but gives an appetising snapshot of his kingdom. (8)It’s a kingdom where enemies will be defeated, where the king is praised(8), where the nations come and bow the knee in obedience(10), and where there is prosperity and abundance(11).

Again much of this we see partially fulfilled in David, like a trailer for Jesus rule. The Philistines are defeated, he brings safety, security, prosperity, and Israel enjoy the blessings of being God’s people living under God’s king, the nations come and bring tribute.

David’s reign is Israel’s golden era and every subsequent king is compared to David. But David’s reigns is not forever, nor is Solomon’s and increasingly as you read on you find yourself asking where is the lion of Judah? If David is the trailer where’s the real thing?

As the angel speaks to Mary her words are loaded with significance “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Judah for ever; his kingdom will never end.”

The King is here. It is little wonder that Luke’s Christmas narrative is shot through with joy, celebration and people bursting into spontaneous exuberant praise of God. The embryonic John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth’s womb, Elizabeth bursts into praise, Mary breaks into song, Zechariah praises God, the shepherds are told tidings of great joy and having seen Jesus return glorifying and praising God. Simeon and Anna praise God and give thanks.

Do you remember the happy, joy filled atmosphere of the Queens Jubilee, that sense of celebrating her rule and reign? Multiply that by thousands of years spent waiting anticipating the coming of the king and you begin to get a sense of the joy that surrounds this kings coming. And the glimpses of the kingdom continue, demons recognise his rule and authority and are defeated, the Gentiles come and bow at Jesus feet both recognising, putting their faith in and obeying him, and in John’s gospel we see him turn water into wine, a lavish quantity of the best possible wine, before he then multiplies bread and brings satisfaction.

We enjoy Christmas, the fun, the joy, the food, all as a gift from God our Father, the celebration points us to God’s goodness and the nature of his kingdom. A kingdom not of bah humbug, but of joy, plenty, security, welcome. We ought to celebrate all that as a blessing from God and a reminder of what Jesus promises to bring.

Christmas declares to us what God’s kingdom is like. It is not a place overseen by a cosmic killjoy, but a place of plenty, security, safety, relationship, and enjoying life under his loving good rule. And we enjoy living in that kingdom now, we know it is not fully here, but we live under God’s loving fatherly care, and that is our security.

What are you excitedly anticipating about Christmas? What’s the bit you love? Is it the furtive secret wrapping, is it the look on faces as people open their gifts, the bright shining excitement in the eyes, the moment when the Christmas pudding is all aflame, or the when the meal is finished and you sit back relaxed and full?

For Israel they excitedly anticipate the coming of the king. But what about us? Jesus has come so what do we anticipate?

Turn to Revelation 5:5. John in his vision is distraught because no-one can open the seal on the scroll, until “Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” After the scroll is opened we see with John into heaven and there is a multitude from all nations praising God and bowing down to the lion who is the lamb, the obedience of the nations, and they live in a kingdom of provision and security, where enemies have been defeated. And the book ends with the King returning, his kingdom complete and his people sharing in his reign.

And what is John’s conclusion having seen all that, having seen the promise that the King will return, the offspring of David, the lion of Judah who is a lamb (22:16-17), John cries out “Come, Lord Jesus.” It’s as if his appetite has been whetted, his hunger and passion stirred and he can’t wait, he anticipates living life eternally enjoying the king’s rule.

We are always anticipating the next big thing, straight after Christmas Easter eggs come out, then it’s time to think about summer holidays, and so on. Always moving on to the next big thing. But what about our anticipation of Christ’s return? We live as his people under his rule now, but don’t you feel its frustrations? As around us people live for everything but God, as we battle with sin, as the world lives in the midst of its fallen-ness and brokenness. Doesn’t it make us want to shout out come Lord Jesus!

We as God’s people ought to live life with a sense of holy discontent. Not moaning and grumbling but aware that this world will not fulfil all our dreams, our hearts desires. We live not disheartened because we know this world can never satisfy us. We live in the now and not yet of the kingdom of God. We are part of his kingdom now, a kingdom where we enjoy living under his gracious rule, where our security doesn’t come from our job prospects, or family situation, or circumstance, but from knowing God. A kingdom where grace is our security and God’s unbreakable never giving up promise our certainty. We live enjoying all the good things God has blessed us with now but never letting them distract us from God the giver. But discontent because the world around us does not recognise Jesus our Saviour King or God our loving gracious Father. Discontent because its rebellion wounds us and causes us to live longing for the day when the obedience of nations will be his.

Genesis 49 lifts our eyes and says look for the coming of the king, at Christmas we remember with joy his coming and all that he has secured but it also ought to stir in us an anticipation of his coming again.

God has not forgotten his promises he will keep them. The King has come and we are his people and he will return. Christmas doesn’t whisper those truths quietly it confidently shouts them from the rooftops and calls us to live in the light of his coming whilst living looking forward to his return.

Daily Reading: Genesis 3 'Christmas; the serpent crusher comes'

Happy Christmas.  

What is Christmas all about? I wonder how you would answer that question. For the next few days I'm going to look at Christmas through Old Testament eyes, to get a sense of the building expectation and excitement through the Old Testament as they anticipate the promise being fulfilled. To see it for the pivotal moment in history and in God’s gracious plan of salvation which it is. So that we don’t treat it as just another Christmas, or as a time to survive a series of endurance challenges, or a set of chores to do before we collapse in an exhausted heap the day after Boxing Day. But so that we rejoice in Christmas and in all its significance and joy.

I think Genesis 3 is potentially the bleakest chapter in the Bible, in fact not just in the Bible but in the whole of history, partly because of the sense of overwhelming loss. In his grace, glory and goodness God has given Adam and Eve and their children a brilliant world. As it is described in Genesis 1 and 2 it is the holiday destination of our dreams, except this isn’t just a holiday destination it’s everyday life and it is even better than we can imagine.

God has given them a world of beauty and bounty. They are free to eat from every tree and plant in the whole world, except one. God has lovingly given them each other as perfect companions. Adam and Eve don’t have a honeymoon period, their marital life is one long honeymoon. They never argue, selfishly insist on their own way, or mis-communicate. There is nothing they keep from one another, they never resort to manipulation, coercion or emotional blackmail. They simply serve and enjoy one another. There is total intimacy, total unity, total respect, and perfect communication. And they enjoy all that against a backdrop of a world in which there is no threat, no death, no insecurity, no boredom. A world so good, just like its maker, that even work is fulfilling, fruitful and enjoyable not occasionally but every day.

And all of that, every blessing they enjoy are just the side effects of the greatest treasure of all. Adam and Eve are made to live enjoying and knowing God. They are made in his image, equal but different and yet united in living for God’s glory. They are made to relate, to love, to enjoy one another and God Father, Son and Spirit.

That is why this chapter is perhaps the bleakest in the bible, because in Genesis 3 we see destruction on the scale of a nuclear war. It’s as if a nuclear bomb has gone off where the irradiating effects of sin damage everything, including forever warping mans DNA so that sin is passed on as a genetic defect to future generations, yet bizarrely still leaving things standing, though now twisted and decaying.

When Adam and Eve choose the fruit they reject God, they decide God doesn’t love them, that he is restrictive, that this God who has given them everything to enjoy, who created them to share in his joy was really holding them back.

If you look at an old stone arch you will notice in the middle of the arch there is a stone. It is called the keystone and it is crucial to the whole structure of the arch, remove it and the arch collapses. That is the world in Genesis 1 and 2, God’s word is the keystone to creation, it is what brought it into being and what sustains it. But Adam and Eve pull it out, as they decide they know better than their loving God, that they can make a better world, a better life, find more fulfilment, more enjoyment without God.

And the consequences are devastating, a perfect marriage now marred by secrecy, manipulation, one-up-man-ship and blame shifting. The world now subject to decay, rebellion and death, work now a hardship and a struggle. And above all their relationship with God decimated, now they run and hide when God appears, and are driven out of God’s presence because of their sin.

Genesis 3 is bleak. But it makes sense of our world, our society, our relationships, our hearts better than any other explanation. The world is broken, our hearts are broken, we search for meaning, for significance, for something to fill us up because we are missing the very thing we were made for – to know and enjoy God.

Perhaps you wonder; if God exists, why would he make a world so broken? Maybe those are questions our friends and family ask around us. Genesis 3 shows us the answer, God didn’t make a world like this we did when we rejected him, but if it finished there, there would be no hope.

Look at 3:15 God curses the Serpent who we are told elsewhere is the devil and says:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
I’m sure you’ve seen images and heard stories of rescue teams digging through the rubble after an earthquake and finding a survivor. Such a discovered rekindles hope.

The great news is that amidst the rubble and remains of the perfect creation in Genesis 3 lies God’s promise, and because it is God who says these words it is a promise you can hold on to. God is not done with his creation yet, God is not done with mankind yet. God is not giving up and simply leaving the world and us to our own devices, left forever wondering what is missing, continually trying to pour something else into our lives to fill up the emptiness. God promises that there is hope amidst the hopelessness and that hope centres round a person, an offspring, one of Adam and Eve’s descendants.

Here is the first ever Christmas card, a promise of hope, that one day someone will be born who will crush evil.  That figure of the serpent crusher, one who will be born as a man but who will destroy Satan, who will defeat the enemy of God and his kingdom. That becomes the big hope and is the question as each succeeding generation in the Bible is born; is this ‘the serpent crusher’?

In Genesis 3:15 we see the declaration of war between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the devil. That isn’t just talking about man’s fear of snakes, but about the battle that rages throughout history between those who follow and love God and those who don’t. Just glance at ch4 and we see the battle commence as Abel who loves God is murdered by Cain who is mastered or ruled by sin, but the hope of an offspring remains in Seth. And that battle rages throughout the Old Testament as the world waits for the birth of the serpent crusher who will defeat sin and Satan.

Offspring becomes a key term in the promises to Abraham (Gen 15) an offspring through whom God will bless all nations, and then offspring features again in the covenant God makes with David as he promises an offspring whose everlasting kingdom God will establish.

But with every new generation the question remains ‘is this the serpent crusher?’ Will he defeat Satan? And at every stage the answer comes back no, as Abraham, Isaac, David, Solomon all sin and fail. Where is the serpent crusher?

Turn to Luke 3, we see this genealogy and it is deliberately placed alongside Jesus baptism. God the Father declares Jesus to be his Son, and he is filled and anointed by God the Spirit to engage on the mission God the Father has given him. Great you think, as you read, let’s get on with the mission. But then Luke stops and puts in a genealogy, I think we are meant to ask why? It isn’t just ‘a really bad bit of writing which a good editor would have noticed and made a footnote’, God inspired it to be there.

I think the clue is v23 and 38. Jesus “was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph.” This is Jesus legal line of descent, though Luke emphasises that Joseph isn’t his father. Jesus is God’s Son, a fact emphasised with the final clause of the chapter “the Son of God”. Exactly what God has called him as the Spirit descends and heaven opens.

Luke goes back past David, past Abraham to Adam, why? Because Luke wants us to understand that yes, Jesus is in the line of Abraham and David, he is their offspring, but vitally that in Jesus God the Son becomes a man. In fact he is the Son of God as no one has been since Adam, and he is descended from Adam, Adam’s offspring.

The serpent crusher is here. And that is born out in Jesus words and actions as he faces down Satan in the wilderness, as he drives out evil spirits, as he heals sickness, as he forgives sin. This is the serpent crusher. But supremely it is seen in Jesus death.

Hebrews 2:14 “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

At the moment when Satan thinks he has won, Jesus death, the tables are turned; God the Son willingly offers himself to God the Father as a sacrifice through God the Spirit in our place. And in so doing wins the victory, crushing Satan’s head once for all. It is no wonder that the angels sing out joy to the world at his birth. There can be no greater news, no more exciting message than that the serpent crusher has come at last, he lives his life crushing Satan, undoing the effects of the fall, showing what a world in relationship with God looks, like, filling up the ‘knowing and enjoying God hole’ in people’s lives that they have poured all sorts of other things into in unsuccessfully to fill it.

How do you feel about Christmas? Can we be bah humbug about the news that the world was waiting to hear from the very moment of the fall? About news which our world, our families, our friends, our colleagues still need to hear?

We will treat it as just another day if we believe we can engineer a return to Genesis 1 and 2 ourselves. But history tells us we can’t – communism, capitalism, feudalism, monarchy all tried and all failed. Science was the great hope and it has bought us phenomenal advances but it has also brought great destruction, it has developed wind farms, medicines, MRI scanners, and so on but has also produced the nuclear bomb, weaponised nerve agents and chemicals. All our technological advancements, all our sociological theories and experiments have not made us any more content, any more loving, any less lonely, or any less able to fill that hole in our lives.

Christmas cries out to us God has done what we could and can never do. Christmas is about hope amid hopelessness, it is about joy given to the joyless, love to the unlovely. The serpent crusher has come, death and Satan are defeated by Jesus who calls us to know him.

Who enables us to once again know God and to look forward to the day when we will enjoy him forever in a world without the marks of ruin, with the damage to our DNA undone, the curse removed. But you might say if Jesus coming has defeated sin and Satan why do we still see sins effects around us and in us?

It’s a great question. Christmas isn’t just a day when we look back it’s also a day when we look forward. Christ has come he has defeated death and sin and Satan, and he will come again. In the mean time we still live in the war zone, Satan is defeated but he wants to take as many with him as he can and so he lashes out. But even in his lashing out people see the brokenness of the world and look for answers. Seeing sin even in our hearts drives us back to Christ, and seeing sin in the world and knowing we have the joyful news to share drives us to tell others.

As those who have hope, who enjoy relationship with God Father, Son and Spirit, who have heard, responded to and live by this joyful news, Christmas has real meaning. It explains our broken world, but gloriously causes us to marvel at the love and grace of God, even as it causes us to look forward. And that ought to fill our hearts with joy so that Christmas positively bursts with it, so that our Christmas celebration is distinctive, because it is celebrating the most significant coming in history.

Are you ready for Christmas? Not the presents, not the trimmings, not the food, are you ready for the opportunity to remember, to praise, to give glory to God, to witness to the world, about the most significant coming in history? What will it look like for you to celebrate the coming of the Serpent Crusher?