January 10 - A Better Man

Read: Genesis 2 and Luke 3:23-38

Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. (Luke 3:23, 38 NIV)

Have you ever heard someone use the phrase "better man"? Like, "Oh, he's a better man than me for that." They usually mean that the person they are referring to is of a higher moral aptitude for having achieved something which they themselves could not. In contrasting the first man Adam with the Son of Man Jesus such is the case.

Adam and Eve were placed in the middle of paradise. Eden was a beautiful garden the likes of which we cannot even begin to properly imagine. They had everything they needed, and all that they could ever really want. Yet when the devil came into the story he was able to trick and deceive them into sin by making them think God has somehow held back from them.

Jesus faced the same scenario in his life. He was tempted by the devil to believe that there is something to be gained beyond that which God has provided. His choice was not to believe the lie. He was and is the better man. He is the better Adam. The only man to ever make the right choice every time.

January 8 - The King

Read: 1 Samuel 16

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7 ESV)

Samuel the Prophet was told by God to visit the house of Jesse and anoint a king to replace Saul who had began to live in disobedience. When the old prophet showed up he was struck by the appearance and presence of Jesse's eldest sons. However, God passed all of Jesse's sons up until Jesse reluctantly introduced his youngest boy David. Immediately God showed Samuel that David was the one meant to be king.

From that point in the story of the Jews an epic tale unfolded. The house of David arose and took a huge role in the historic shaping of the Jewish people, but it wouldn't end with just the Jews. For eventually Jesus would be born a descendant of David. Just as David, the youngest shepherd son of Jesse, was an unlikely candidate for the crown of Israel, Jesus was born into a lowly earthly family.

Often we make judgements about people based on a plethora of preconditioned variables. God looks at none of that. He sees straight into the heart of a man. Jesus was pure in heart and great in faith, though poor of wealth and small in all of the trappings society uses to measure worth and success. We follow a faith established on the person and work of God who came to live as a homeless traveling preacher. When you think about it that way it makes our methods for measuring the success of life seem oh so meager in comparison.

January 7 - Redeemer

Read: Ruth 1 and 4

But Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16 ESV)

Then the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord , who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! (Ruth 4:14 ESV)

A famine had struck the land of the Jews during the period of time called the Time of the Judges. Naomi travelled to the land of Moab where disaster struck her family. Her husband and sons all died leaving her with two daughters-in-law, one of which left soon after. Eventually the famine ended and Naomi set her sights on her homeland, traveling in the company of her daughter-in-law Ruth, who had refused to abandon her. Upon reaching her homeland she changed her name to Mara, which meant "bitter."

There was a custom in those days called the Kinsman Redeemer. The Redeemer would intervene on behalf of the family in the case of tragedy. Naomi's redeemer was a man named Boaz. Boaz, as redeemer purchased Naomi's late husband's inheritance, also gaining Ruth as his wife. Boaz is what theologians call a "type" of Christ. His actions as Kinsman Redeemer were prophetic foreshadowing of the Great Redeemer to be born out of Boaz's own lineage.

Jesus stepped into history in the midst of tragedy. Circumstance, sin, and suffering have done their part to derail mankind, often of our own volition. Jesus came to secure our eternal inheritance, to rescue us from the foreign wanderings of our own failures, and to make us his bride. Boaz was a beacon of hope to Ruth and Naomi. Jesus is the Hope of the World.

January 4 - Promised Son

Read: Genesis 21 and 22

I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year. The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and The Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. (Genesis 17:16, 21; 21:1 ESV)

He said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, My father! And he said, Here am I, my son. He said, Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went both of them together. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord , because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:2, 7, 8, 15-18 ESV)

God demonstrated his love for Abraham by promising him a son; but then—in what seems to be a strange twist—God asks Abraham to take his son to a mountaintop and sacrifice him. Abraham was an old man by the time Isaac was born. His wife Sarah had already passed her natural season for child birth. Abraham follows the heart of God in faith. Isaac himself willingly complies with the will of his father.

All of this points ahead to Jesus. God, loved his creation so much that He sent a promised son, His only begotten son. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, willingly complied with the Father. Whereas Isaac was spared upon the mountain by divine intervention, Jesus was not. Instead Jesus became our divine intervention to spare us from the fate of eternal damnation.

Sometimes it is hard to hold on to the promises we feel that God has put in our heart. God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our flaws, frustrations, and failures. He himself intervened for us for a promised deliverance. Whatever you feel God has promised you in your heart, hold on to it. Hold true to it. Do not waiver. Show the faith of Abraham and Isaac. Jesus is worth it.