December 3
“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,” Genesis 22:18.
In yesterday’s devotion, we heard that God promised to send a Savior after Adam and Eve had sinned. The Savior would be the Seed of a woman, a virgin’s Son. This meant that the Savior would also be a true man. Many years passed by before God gave the promise specifically to one who would be an ancestor of the Savior. The one whom God had chosen was Abram. (Later, God changed his name to Abraham – meaning, ‘father of a multitude’). To Abraham, God said, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” The promise of God to bless all nations through a descendant of Abraham was given before Abraham and Sarah had any children.
When God called Abraham to leave his home country and begin a journey to the land of Canaan, He said to him, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing . . . And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed,” Genesis 12:2-3. The promise to Abraham was repeated to his son, Isaac. God said to Isaac, “I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,” Genesis 26:3-4. The promise to Abraham was further repeated in a dream to his grandson, Jacob: “In you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed,” Genesis 28:14.
What makes all these statements so important? They give to you and me the assurance that God keeps His promises. God cannot and does not lie, as many people do daily!
Indeed, God’s promise to send a Savior was fulfilled when God sent His Son to be born of the Virgin Mary on the first Christmas Eve. When we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating the birthday of Jesus, God’s Son and our Savior. It was all according to God’s plan from eternity. In his Epistle to the Galatians, the apostle Paul wrote of the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a Redeemer: “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’” Galatians 4:4-6.
As we in spirit prepare to journey to Bethlehem, this is a special time to journey with joy and to share with others the Good News of God’s great love for sinners, one and all! We rejoice because we believe that Jesus suffered and died to pay the price to take our sins away, and He rose from the grave to conquer death and the devil. We are moved to rejoice because we know and believe that God has forgiven us for Jesus’ sake. The gate of heaven is open. The Lord Jesus, the Seed of the virgin and the promised Seed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, stands with outstretched arms to invite and welcome us into the halls of heaven.
With the hymn writer, we pray and sing:
Now are the days fulfilled, God’s Son is manifested,
Now His great majesty, in human flesh is vested.
Behold the mighty God, by whom all wrath is stilled,
The woman’s promised Seed — Now are the days fulfilled.
Now are the days fulfilled, the child of God rejoices;
No bondage of the Law, no curses that it voices,
Can fill our hearts with fear; on Christ our hope we build.
Behold the Prince of Peace — Now are the days fulfilled. Amen.