Blessings Everlasting
We have come to the final day in the year 2024. However you plan to spend this last day of a year which God and God alone has given to you, will you always remember who you are? Will you know and live the fact that you are swaddled in the Circle of Warmth of our Lord’s Comfort, Courage, Correction and Consolation? Never ever forget, put aside or doubt that you carry His Advent Words, Works and Ways in you.
Having touched on our Lord’s Advent Words and His Advent Works we’ve agreed that God still continues to work out His blessings in us. We have also accepted that His blessings do flow freely and unsparingly. Now we turn to His Ways.
Advent Ways – Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
The ways of God are never the ways of humans. We are reminded of this in Isaiah 55: 9. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Think of it! Of all the towns and places around, big, important cities like Jerusalem, and towns such as Bethsaida, God chose the smallest and most insignificant place to be the birthplace of Messiah. But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel. Micah 5: 2a. God still delights in using the smallest and even the least from which and through which He does His mighty works.
When we hear the name, David, we tend to automatically think of David, as Israel’s great and mighty king. We think of his conquests, his wisdom and the great successes he had over Israel’s enemies. On several occasions in the Bible, we are informed of this. The LORD gave David victory wherever he went. 2 Samuel 8: 6b. However, we tend to forget who David was, when he was chosen by God.
It is true that God sent Samuel, his servant, to the small town of Bethlehem to a man called Jesse, to choose a king for Israel. Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king. 1 Samuel 16: 1b. Right here, in this exercise, God shows, in bright, clear colours that His ways are totally outside the box of human thinking and working.
Think of it! Jesse has eight handsome, strong sons. Seven of these sons, along with father Jesse, have been consecrated by Samuel, to share in a time of sacrificing to God. Even Samuel, when he saw Jesse’s first son, was ready to anoint him as the chosen king, but God said no.
I’m told that the number seven is the perfect number, the Biblical number, the holy number. Be that as it may, what we see before us is God: -
Going outside of the box of the completeness of numbers, the number of seven, to choose a number eight.
Bypassing the first, the top, to go all the way to the last, the bottom, to choose His leader.
Leaving the whole contingent of consecrated sons, those at worship with His servant Samuel, to pick the eighth son who is not one of the consecrated party. He’s not even with them, at worship.
Looking with favour, not on the consecrated sons of Jesse who are with him, worshipping with Samuel, but on the son of Jesse who is outside in the field or pasture, working, tending sheep.
Rejecting all outward perfections according to humans - height, handsomeness, strength, complexion and order of birth even – but He sees inwardly. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16: 7b.
If your faith will free you to see the Way God works, then you will come to realise that it is not beyond Messiah, Saviour Jesus, to go as, Far as the curse is found, to save the most despicable, degenerate, wicked, murderous soul. What is this curse? It is the curse of the law, which is sin. In Galatians 3: 9 – 10, we are told this. So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything in the Book of the Law. Then we are swaddled with this Good News, which covers us all over - within and without - wrapping us in inescapable love. Know that in deed and in fact, Saviour Jesus saves, far as the curse is found. Listen to Galatians 3: 13– 14. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole. He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. What response can we make right here and now, but, AMEN!
As 2025, the New Year, ready and about to be born in all freshness and newness, waits for the final toll of the bell, which signifies the passing of the year 2024, may each heart, by faith, feed fully and only on this truth. If it has been our Heavenly Father’s Sovereign Will that you enter into this New Year of 2025, as a living body, then you must place implicit faith and trust in His Words, His Works and His Ways, to keep you, hold you and lead you through everything that lies ahead, the known and the unknown.
A Joyous and Victorious New Year 2025, to you and your household.
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