Praise the Lord for this brand new
year full of our Lord's promises. One of the British newspapers reported last
week that the year 2014 has been a good year. According to the paper despite
some of the tragedies and terrors around the globe It has been a good year. I
was watching the History Channel the other day and some of the Scholars were
sharing that all major events are taking place in the middle East have been prophesied in the books of the Bible including Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel.
The Hymn reminds me, "This is My Father's World". Our Lord is in control. He
is in charge. The Lord is on the move. Our Lord is the Lord of history.
History is His story. One of the very practical matters that is very mundane
is that oil prices are falling. The gas price at the pump is coming down. We
praise the Lord for His goodness and grace. His love never fails. His mercy
never ends.
Praise the Lord for the way He
orchestrated the Christmas story, the Christmas event. He included a young
pauper, and a peasant teenager, Mary, to be the virgin mother of our Lord. He
included Joseph, a young adult. He included elderly Zachariah and Elizabeth.
He included the boy John the Baptist. He included the shepherds. He included
the Gentile Kings... astrologers... the Magi. He also included the single
people who were elderly like Simeon and Anna.
In Luke 2:25, 38 it becomes clear
that both were looking and hoping for God to do something. Verse 25 says Simeon
was "looking for the consolation of Israel." Verse 38 says Anna spoke of the
child "to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem."
Simeon and Anna saw the coming of Christ as
good news rather than bad news because they were looking and longing and waiting
for God to break into history again and bring consolation and redemption. In
the back of Luke's mind may have been an ancient prophecy from the mouth of
Isaiah which says: "Break forth, shout joyfully together, you waste places of
Jerusalem. For the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem"
(Isaiah
52:9).
In the coming of Christ, this
prophecy was fulfilled. The Lord has consoled his people—that's what Simeon was
looking for; and the Lord has redeemed Jerusalem—that's what Anna was looking
for. Consolation speaks to those longings for healing and restoration from all
of the past losses and miseries of life.
In the course of several years a
man, a committed Christian, saw three of his children die. When one of them
died, he said:
"I was sitting there, torn by grief. Someone called and talked of God's dealings, of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly. He said things I knew were true. I was unmoved, except to wish he'd go away. He finally did. Another came and sat beside me. He didn't talk. He didn't ask me leading questions. He just sat beside me for an hour and more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, and left. I was moved. I was comforted. I hated to see him go."
That's comfort. . . consolation.
It's that kind of comfort Jesus would bring to the hurting. Redemption speaks
to our need to be delivered from powers that hold us in bondage. It could be
the power of sin. It could be the power of death. It could be the power of
Satan.
In another sense, we can see this
same truth in relation to Christ's second coming. We look forward to a day when
our consolation and redemption will be completed at the second coming of
Christ. The good news is that Christ has come
and he will come again, and no one is able to bring you consolation and
redemption like Jesus Christ.
In Christ,
Brown
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