The Path Has Been Prepared

The following is the first of three reflections that were given at the Hillsboro UMC Christmas Eve service on 12/24/2008.

It sometimes seems like God takes forever to fulfill His promises, doesn’t it?  As we read the Old Testament, we see promises that take centuries to fulfill.  God calls Abram to leave his homeland and promises that his descendants will live in the Promised Land.  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, 400 years of slavery and 40 years in the desert pass by before Joshua finally leads the Israelites into the Promised Land.  Once they are in the Promised Land, the Israelites start several cycles that found them falling away from God, getting into trouble with various peoples in the region, returning to God and being freed from oppression.

  

They eventually desire a king, and God gives them a monarchy beginning with Saul.  David and Solomon follow, but after Solomon the nation falls apart and breaks into Israel in the north and Judah in the south.  After repeatedly being warned by the prophets, starting as early as 760 B.C. with Amos, Israel becomes the first to fall into God’s judgment.  The mighty Assyrian empire sweeps in and conquers the northern kingdom by 722 B.C.  Eventually, Judah is conquered and exiled to Babylon in 586 B.C.  It didn’t take a whole lot of time for God to work in these instances, but it was still several decades.  The Messiah is mentioned most heavily in Isaiah, whose ministry was from about 760-700 B.C; however, the Messiah doesn’t appear until the first century, over 700 years after he is first discussed by the prophets.  Jesus talks about his return in the early first century, and here we sit, nearly 2000 years later, awaiting this event.  God takes his time, but God is faithful.

When the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, he told Zechariah that his waiting was over.  After many, many years of waiting, Zechariah was going to be a father.  But Zechariah’s child was not going to be just any child.  He was one who was spoken of long ago, by promises that the Lord had yet to fulfill.  Malachi 4:5-6 says, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”  Gabriel says to Zechariah that his son will “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children” (v. 17).  It is no coincidence that Gabriel uses the same words that are found in Malachi.  The time had finally come for God to fulfill the promises he made centuries before through the prophet.

When John was born there was some debate as to what the boy would be called.  Elizabeth knew of Zechariah’s message from the Lord and insisted that he be named John.  The neighbors and relatives were insisting that he be called Zechariah, after his father, who had been unable to speak since he was visited by Gabriel in the Temple.  However, Zechariah wrote on a tablet that his name would be John, and he was able to speak once again.  Immediately he began praising God and the people knew that there was going to be something different about this child.

John’s ministry was one of preparation.  He was the one who was to prepare the hearts of the people of Israel.  We’ve seen earlier this month how John fulfilled the role of Elijah that is found in Malachi, and how he was the voice crying out in the desert from Isaiah 40.  It was time.  God’s promises were finally  being realized right in front of their eyes.  And John knew what his role was.  His role was to point others to Jesus so that they may encounter the Lamb of God, as he puts it in John 1.  Hearts had been turned, the people have been prepared.  The time for God to fulfill His promises had finally come.