DAILY DEVOTIONAL – December 11, 2020
“Over My Head (Advent 2020)”
Prayer: Jesus, You reign from on high as our Eternal King who first came lower than all; being born beneath the same stars upon which we gaze (the stars You made), but dying under the weight of the cross we could never carry ourselves. Through this time in Your Word, refocus our hearts and minds above as we wait for Your final Advent. Amen.
Devotion – “Over My Head”
Our church, the Lutheran Church, takes its namesake from the 16th century monk, priest, and leader of the Reformation of the church, Martin Luther. Luther’s words and writing are certainly not equal to or able to be compared to Scripture in any way. However, what did make Luther’s words and writing so influential and powerful was his relentless focus, faith, and humble servitude to the Word of God. In a time when the church had set many other things, like tradition, and many other opinions of mortal men over the authority of Scripture, Luther preached and wrote to defend and proclaim only the authority of God’s Word. There is no doubt that God blessed Luther with incredible boldness and theological insight for the purpose of restoring the truth of salvation by God’s grace alone through faith in what God had done in and through His only Son Jesus Christ alone, and by the authority of Scripture alone. Luther’s words certainly are not infallible, however, his words along with those many faithful contemporaries of his who defended and rediscovered the Gospel of Jesus Christ did reform and restore the heart of faithful, orthodox, Christian teaching as we believe and confess today.
For these last weeks in December, I thought I would share with you some excerpts from Luther’s sermons and writings based on the Scriptures as they relate to the Advent and Christmas season, and then share some of my own personal thoughts and reflections. I hope you enjoy and are blessed by our time together.
Luther wrote extensively on the book of Isaiah. Our devotional text for today is focused on:
Scripture: Isaiah 11:1-5
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
Here is some of what Luther had to say regarding this prophecy of the coming Messiah, of which this prophecy of Isaiah pertains to.
The coming Messiah would be a “branch” that would shoot forth from the “stump” of Jesse. Jesse was the father of Israel’s King David; the most renowned king of Israel who was the king chosen by God from whose lineage the Messiah would come to be born. Isaiah was writing of a vision that God gave him of a time when judgement would come upon the house of Israel, and the great towering tree of Israel that God had planted in the earth would be reduced to a stump because of their idolatry and unfaithfulness to the Lord. From that stump, God would bring forth a sprout, a shoot, a small branch, the True King of Jesse’s line whom God promised would come and who would walk before the Lord as all of us were intended to do, yet have failed to do; walking, “in the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord,” and with “righteousness as the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.”
As Isaiah makes clear and as Luther beautifully elaborates on, although this promised Messiah would be a king on earth, because He would be a human king, He would not be a king of the earth. Though Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the son of Joseph who was a son of David, was in fact a man, He was also God in the flesh. Though Jesus was a king, Jesus made clear to Pilate as He stood trial for your sins and my sins, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” – John 18:36. This Messiah would rule the hearts and minds of all men, not with force, or power, or political influence, but with the Truth of God, with the very Spirit of God, because Jesus was and proved to be the very Son of God Himself through His death and resurrection from the dead.
As you and I now wait faithfully and patiently for our Lord’s final return this Advent season, by looking back on His faithful first coming in a humble manger, we must remember that though our King rules heaven and earth, He is also not a King of the earth. Our King is absolutely here with us, Immanuel, and He no doubt rules in all sovereignty over all the kingdoms of the earth, but He does not do so as a king of this earth or for the sake of this earth that He will ultimate come to judge and destroy because of sin. The Risen King Jesus rules over all now, mysteriously and unseen, for the sake of the unseen Kingdom of God and for the sake of all the faithful whom He will bring into that Kingdom on the last day. It is this invisible yet ever present rule of our True King that Isaiah has in mind when he later writes in chapter 55,
“6Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Remember that as you remember our Lord’s first coming, and live in all hopefulness, prayer, and preparation to meet Him face to face in His final coming. His ways, His rule, His thoughts, and His actions are high above ours. As Isaiah exhorted us, may we come before the Lord this Advent in humble repentance of our thoughts and expectations we put on God, receive His promised compassion and forgiveness given in the cross of Christ, and live each day not as a citizen of this world, but as citizens of heaven only in this world until that Day when our King above comes to take with Him.
Thanks for joining me for another time of devotion in God’s Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today, and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
