What does it mean to put watchmen on the walls? They have a dual role, watching inside the
city and outside the city. They are to
keep watch over what goes on inside the city, detecting and decrying the
threats from within and to keep watch outside for threats coming from
without. We are to give the Lord no rest
until He establishes Jerusalem as a praise, but we are looking for the new
Jerusalem to come down from heaven and be established as the eternal city of
God. Our prayer is that His kingdom will
come and in this we should not weary ourselves in prayer but continually seek
it and ask Him to come. We are not only
to pray, however, we are to clear the highway leading to that kingdom of stones
and build it up to make it plain and passable for others, we have an active
role in preparing the way.
Jesus' coming was the fulfillment of the promise of the ages
but also the fulfillment of the promise to Mary and Joseph. They had to wait a much shorter time than
Abraham and Sarah! The Name of Jesus is
the Lord saves, exactly what he came to do and in fulfillment of the prophecy
of Isaiah that He would be their salvation.
Joseph here is told that His Name is also Immanuel, God with us, and so
it is true in a way no one could have imagined and even now cannot believe
without the work of the Holy Spirit to testify.
How could the God who created everything from nothing by commanding it
be born a child in manger and then dwell among us as a man?
How could He possibly call us brothers? He has done so and
then made us so by making a way for us to be adopted into God's family, God's
children. All this seems too good to be
true, that God came to earth, took on the form of a man, died on a cross for my
forgiveness and then incorporates me into His family as a child of the living
God so that I can live with Him forever.
Is it any wonder people don't believe it? It is the greatest truth of all time. He knows our difficulties and our pain in
this life and has overcome death for us, death that is the result of sin. We are now to work to prepare a people for
Him, bringing others into the family of God to share our inheritance and our
joy.
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