I have recently been musing at the marvelous reality and implications of God visiting His creation in the person of Jesus Christ. The Word of God demonstrates clearly that the first advent of the Messiah was not only promised long ago, but very necessary to bring salvation to sinful humanity.
In the early pages of the Bible, we find the first prophecy of a redeemer for mankind. After the creation of Adam and Eve, sin entered the world and mankind became spiritually dead and separated from God. But Jehovah, the Giver of life, being merciful and unfathomably gracious, had already made provision to redeem mankind and offer salvation from sin. Speaking to the serpent in Genesis 3:15 (NASB), God says:
‘And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.’
In this verse from Genesis, God had already made two prophetic promises. Firstly, One would come to wage war to the serpent and ultimately have victory over him. Secondly, the victorious One would come from the seed of a woman, suggesting the Saviour would be born of a virgin woman. The promise of a Saviour would be reiterated a little later in Genesis 22:8 (NASB), when Abraham reassured his son Isaac as they ascended Mount Moriah saying: “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.“
As we survey the Biblical history that followed all through the Old Testament, we see many examples of mankind left to their own devices and operating without God. The Book of Judges sums it up in its last verse saying that ‘In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.‘ (Judges 21:25 NASB)
As we fast-forward to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, which conclude the Biblical history of the Old Testament, we are again confronted with the humbling reality that our default behaviour since mankind’s fall has been to live independently from God. But even our best efforts at doing what is right still fall short before a Holy God. Without the spiritual life of God in us, it is impossible to live as God intended us to live.
Time and time again, we see the people of Israel wandering away from God, bluntly disregarding the message of repentance repeatedly sent by the LORD through the prophets. By the time God brings the people of Israel back from Babylon, where they were exiled for 70 years according to God’s prophetic judgement, we see the same pattern of disobedience and rebellion against God’s commandments yet again in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
By: Sony Falardeau
