Advent: Nov. 29 // Hold on to Hope

Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign:
See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name
him Immanuel.
–Isaiah 7:14

While the first whispers of a Savior sent from God were uttered in Genesis 3, they were not the last. God continued to reveal more and more about who the Messiah would be, where He would come from, and what He was going to do as time went on. One of the main ways in which God did this was through His prophets. 

The prophets were people, both men and women, who were called by God to be His mouthpiece... to speak on His behalf to the people of Israel. God would give them something to share with the people, and they would relay that message. They didn’t speak on their own authority, they only told of what they heard or saw from God Himself. Their primary purpose was to speak these things of God and call Israel to repent and turn back to Him when they went astray, which happened over and over again. However, God also used them to speak of things that were to come. 

The predictions of the future that the prophets made on God’s behalf came in a variety of ways, and they predicted a multitude of things. Some of the prophecies concerned things happening soon, some the coming of the Messiah, and others the end times. When it comes to Jesus, there are over 300 prophecies or predictions of the future related to Him. And the crazy part is, they all have either come true or are set to happen in the future! 

The Israelites clung tightly to these prophecies. This begs the question: Why? The prophecy we find in Isaiah 7:14 comes over 700 years before Jesus! How could they hold onto hope for generations? It’s because the One who made the promises is faithful! When things were difficult in their present circumstance, or when they felt that they could wait no longer, they could look back on how the Lord had been faithful to them and their ancestors. And it’s that very faithfulness that led them to know they could hope in the Lord and not be let down.

So this Christmas season, as we turn our attention to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, let’s be encouraged as we are reminded that Jesus is proof of God’s faithfulness. And as He never changes (Malachi 3:6), we can know with certainty that our God is faithful still. It is in the immutable, faithful God that we have hope.

Hope // Hold on to Hope | Andrew Archer