Crying Out for a Savior
If we’re going to understand the world awaiting the birth of Jesus, we have to go all the way back to Egypt.
Exodus 2:23-25 (NIV)
During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
We have to go back to a quiet night around a fire where Hebrew slaves gather after a long day. As the sky goes dark and the food is passed around, the stories started flowing. These people didn’t have history books or the Bible, they had stories. These stories were shared by the older members of the family and told of the history of their people. They would gather around the fire and the stories would start.
Stories about the Creator and how he made the heavens and the earth.
Stories about a great flood that wiped out all the people of the world except for one family.
Most importantly, stories about their ancestor, Abraham, and a promise.
The promise that out there was a land just for them, where they could thrive and grow.
One day these slaves would become a great nation, the oppressed would become the powerful. So every night, Hebrew children would go to bed and dream about a Creator and a promise and they would cry out.
For 400 years they cried out.
And God heard their cry.
God heard their cry and he sent a deliverer. Moses was a man of two worlds, part Egyptian royalty, part Hebrew slave; a prince and a shepherd. He would reintroduce the Hebrews to their God and teach them how to follow him. He would lead them to the promised land, the land they’d dreamt of.
This was the story of the nation of Israel. They would turn away from God and, as a result, find themselves under the thumb of some foreign power, either in another nation or at home. Eventually they would cry out to God and he would send them a hero. Over and over again we see this pattern repeated in the Old Testament: Israel is conquered, the people cry out, and God hears their cries.
God was not content to do the work himself, but rather give the responsibility of hearing the cries of the oppressed to his people. He expected them to do the same for others that he was doing for them. He expected Israel to become his hands and feet. When they refused or forgot to do that, he let them know about it.
Isaiah 58:6-9 (NIV)
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
The world in our advent story is no different. Israel is once again subject to a foreign power, this time it’s the Roman Empire. Once again, the Israelites cried out to God to free them. Once again, God heard their cry, but this time things would be different.
This time, God had bigger things in mind. It wouldn’t be enough to free the Israelites from an earthly oppressor. It was time to fix a much deeper wound, a wound from the beginning. It was time to throw off the oppression of sin itself, not solely for one nation but for all mankind. This job would take more than a worldly hero. For a job this big, he would need someone special, someone more than a hero or a deliverer, he would send a savior. He would send his Son.
Like Moses, Jesus was a man of two worlds: Creator and creation; a king and a carpenter. Like Moses, Jesus would reintroduce the world to his Father. He would teach them a new way to live and follow God. Jesus, however, would not be content with leading his people to a new land, he would invite them into a different kind of Kingdom, free from the wounds that had separated them from their Creator for so long. Jesus would sacrifice himself so that anyone, anywhere could cry out and God would free them from the oppression of sin. Scripture removes any doubt as to why Jesus was sent in the book of John:
John 3:17 (NIV)
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Jesus was the culmination of centuries of God answering the cries of his people, the ultimate example of a pattern that still continues today. People still cry out and God still hears their cry. He’s also looking for people to answer those cries. It seems like too big a job but it’s one with a great history. The history of a shepherd becoming a deliverer, of God becoming man. God has used the great and the small. He’s unconcerned with who you are, only with who you’ll become.
Just as the weary world waited for a savior so many years ago, the world still waits for people to hear the cry of the oppressed.
Just as God prepared the world to receive its savior, he is still preparing people to answer those cries.
All it takes is the willingness to become something more.
Will you hear the cry of God’s people? What are you willing to become to answer that cry?
Becoming generous
weekly family activity - the weary world
Each week of this Advent season your family has an opportunity to grow in its generosity.
This week, gather your family together and think of the neighbors around your home. How might they be weary right now? Write a few words of peace and encouragement for them as they enter into the Christmas season. Finally, leave these notes on your neighbors’ porches.
To follow along with this study, mark your calendars for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in these weeks leading up to Christmas. Each post will be hosted here. If what you’re learning is meaningful to you, click one of the share buttons at the top of these posts to invite more people on this journey of becoming.
We also invite you to spend Sunday mornings with us to hear what the pastors have to share with us during this season. Services start at 9:30 and 11:15am each week. See you there!
Weekly Reading - Dec 2-6
Monday Isaiah 9:2-7
Tuesday John 1:1-19
Wednesday Mark 1:1-3
Thursday Isaiah 40:1-11
Friday Luke 1:5-25