God is not human, that he should lie,
not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill? (Num 23:19)
Bam! Right out of the gate! What a verse! God keeps His promises, y’all! And when we think about Christmas, we have to think about promises.
Christmas is, after all, the fulfillment of a promise. Of course, we cherish time with family. We enjoy the time together with friends and the lights and parties. We’re grateful for the opportunity to express our love through the giving of gifts. Some of us even like eggnog and going to the mall. All of these are good things. But they aren’t the reason that we celebrate. These are all ways that we celebrate. We shouldn’t confuse the ways that we celebrate with the reason that we celebrate. The reason that we celebrate is that God kept His promise. He promised to send a Savior, the Messiah, the Christ.
In my post “Long Lay the World”, I mentioned that this promise was given from the very beginning. From the very fall of man in Genesis when Adam and Eve committed the first sin. God immediately began to foretell, to promise, that one would come to crush the head of Satan. There would be one who would come and defeat evil. One who would overcome our sin and return us to a right relationship with God.
It is natural, of course, when we read the words, “he will crush your head” (see Gen 3:15), that we begin to ask, who is “He” and “how will we know it is Him?” So, God made promises and He fulfilled promises. Each indicating the path to a clearer and clearer picture of who this Savior would be. Why? Isaiah puts it this way, “Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, `My idols did them; my wooden image and metal god ordained them’” (Isaiah 48:5). God wants us to know with certainty who the Savior, our Savior, is.
As I said before, there are over three hundred of these indicators about who this Savior would be in the Old Testament (see the link below). We refer to these indicators as prophecy and they are like a big neon sign with an arrow pointing to Jesus. In bright flashing lights we’d read “this is Him…this is Him…this is Him.” Unfortunately, not everyone sees these signs. Or, I’d say, more accurately, not everyone is willing to see the signs.
One specific promise indicated from the very beginning is that this Savior would be the “offspring” of the woman (again Gen 3:15). If we only look on the surface, we won’t see how unusual this reference is. Generally, Jewish tradition and genealogy did not place the emphasis of lineage on the mother. “Offspring”, also translated “seed”, was traced paternally to the father. And the reason seems simple enough: The “seed”, no biology lesson needed, comes from the father. What is the significance? This coming One is different. As Isaiah puts it, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isa 7:14)
Impossible, some say. Just a nice story. I don’t think so. If we believe that God created the world and said “’Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen 1:3) this simply isn’t that big a deal. The God who brought the universe into existence can unquestionably enable a woman to have a baby without intercourse in order to fulfill His promise. Unusual, yes. But not impossible. Not for the God of the universe.
When Gabriel gave Mary the news, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus” (Luk 1:31), she had questions. Wouldn’t you? Here’s the big one: “’How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’” (Luk 1:34) Seems like a logical question, again, no biology lesson needed. I think we can say that Mary’s question is not about if God can do it but, rather, how will God do it. After all, Gabriel, the angel of the Lord, is standing in front of her. She is asking, how will you make this happen, God? Is there a lesson for us there?
At Christmas, we celebrate God keeping His promise. He sent a Savior, Jesus, to be born of a virgin and provide a way back to Him. Just as He said He would. As we remember and celebrate, we can rest assured that God will continue to keep His promises. He will return. He is with us. He will answer our prayers. We can say with John, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 Jon 5:14-15).
“Does he promise and not fulfill?” Let’s not ask then, if God can do it but, rather, how will God do it?
(1) Prophecies concerning Jesus
David Foucar has a passion for teaching God’s word. His first book, “What Do I Say When Asked About Jesus?” is a conversational approach to helping people answer questions about Jesus. The book provides a layman’s perspective on personal evangelism and the basics of the Christian faith. Dave has been married for thirty-six years to the love of his life, Debbie. They have three daughters, two sons-in-law, and two granddaughters. To read more of David’s writing visit his Substack page.
Image by Wallpaer Flare
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