22 December 2010

Psalm 72; Isaiah 28.9-22; Revelation 21.9-21; Luke 1.26-38

“For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the LORD will speak to this people…” The Lord announces that He will speak to His own through others. The Good News, the teaching of the ways of the Lord, will come from outsiders. The Lord says that His covenant people will not hear His words, they have turned away to lies and will not heed His voice. Like Adam listening to the voice of his wife, so have these people been allured by the voice of another to call them away from Him. There will be no refuge from His judgment and it will be a judgment of righteousness and justice and these will be firmly established. We are those who have heard the word of the Lord, who have received Jesus as not only our Messiah but Israel’s Messiah and it will be us in the church who are the people of strange lips and a foreign tongue that will speak the word of the Lord to His people.

It would be hard to imagine what this young woman was thinking during this conversation. An angel has appeared and referred to her as “favored one” and her reaction is to try to discern what this greeting might mean and all she is told is that she has found favor with the Lord and that she will conceive and bring forth Messiah. If she was troubled at the greeting she was certainly confused by what she was promised and yet her simple question was to ponder how this could be since she hadn’t been with a man. Mary knew enough biology to know how things work. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and overshadow you is the complete explanation from the angel. Today we might respond with something like, well there you go and roll our eyes but Mary just says, ok, I am the Lord’s servant and if that is what He wants then that is the way it shall be. Are we ready for God to give us such an answer and say trust me, you can’t understand but I have it?

The city of God is shown to John. We should not make too much of the numbers here except to note that 12 is common to nearly all the measures and multiples of 12 are common as well, twelve being a Hebrew number that represents perfection and unity with God. He is the unifying principle of the new city, He is its architect and its light. The gates bear the names of the initial twelve tribes of God’s people and the foundation stones bear the names of the twelve apostles (whose name is on the 12^th stone, Matthias or Paul?). The beauty of the city is indescribable. We will see the unity of God’s people, old and new covenant, under the headship of Jesus, it will be a glorious reunion!

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and Amen!