Wonder Of Advent #17

The Unfolding Story

Read: Matthew 1:22-23

All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet.

Matthew 1:22

THERE HAD BEEN PROPHETIC HINTS of the coming Messiah—so many of them, in fact, that sages and rabbis had compiled a pretty good description of who he would be. There was quite a bit of debate about this profile—don’t sages and rabbis always debate such things?—but they knew that he would come from Bethlehem, apparently in the time of the Romans. They knew he would look something like a victorious son of David but also, from Isaiah’s “suffering Servant” passages, something like the Old Testament Joseph (though some thought there might possibly be two Messiahs, since the latter image was hard to reconcile). They knew, too, that he would be a deliverer of Israel. Still, that leaves a lot of room for interpretation and a lot of guessing as to who the real deliverer might be. The prophetic hints had stirred up anticipation but had not resolved any questions.

That’s almost always how prophecy works. It stokes hope but leaves plenty of room for faith. Those who work out precise time lines with unbendable details miss the point: Prophetic words aren’t given so we can figure God out; they are given to help us recognize what God is doing when he does it or as we look back on it. Often prophecy has more than one fulfillment—an immediate and an ultimate, and perhaps a few in between. It is divine foreshadowing by a master Author.

Such was the case with Isaiah’s prophecy about the young woman who would conceive (Isaiah 7:14). It was given to King Ahaz as a sign about an imminent invasion, but it pointed to much more. A young woman conceiving is not remarkable; a virgin conceiving a child who would be called “God with us” certainly is. When the Gospel of Matthew emphasizes the fulfillment of Hebrew Scriptures again and again, it is recognizing the unfolding of the larger story. The prophetic hints were coming to pass.

Are such prophecies artificially superimposed on the Jesus story retrospectively, as some suggest? Or are they the foreshadowing of multiple seers who got a glimpse of the divine plan over the centuries? The details and fulfillments are too masterful, too laden with still-unfolding significance, too well orchestrated across time to be humanly devised. In Jesus, God was bringing the story line of the ages together. History has meaning, after all. The plot is being resolved. And we find our ultimate purpose by stepping into this story by faith.

Prayer

Lord, open my eyes to the deep mysteries of your unfolding plan across the ages. Let my heart and mind enter into the artistry and majesty of your work. Let me see the hints of your purposes coming to pass—in Jesus and in me. Amen.

REFLECTION

How do the prophecies of the coming Messiah—estimated to be in the hundreds, with some quite specific—authenticate the divine nature of the redemption story?

Further reading: Luke 24:25-27

Isaiah ’twas foretold it,

the Rose I have in mind;

with Mary we behold it,

the Virgin Mother kind.

“LO, HOW A ROSE E’ER BLOOMING,” GERMAN CAROL