Week One, Wednesday – December 6th
On that day it will be said: “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!”
Isaiah 25:9, NAB
As an avid fiction reader, I love a good dose of foreshadowing. That delicious moment comes, late in the story, when I see the pieces begin to fit together. I smile over how the author hinted along the way at what is coming to fruition now. It is a moment of true discovery, of “A-ha! That’s why the author did that earlier!”
Undoubtedly, this is the same reason one of my favorite things about the scriptures is the foreshadowing of the Old Testament being fulfilled by events in the New Testament. There are countless a-ha moments to enjoy.
In Isaiah 25:6-10, we hear of a day to come on the mountain of the Lord when God will satisfy His people with a great feast. Then, lo and behold, where do we find ourselves in the Gospel story in Matthew 15? Walking with Jesus up the mountain beside the Sea of Galilee.
He is followed by a great crowd of people. People wanting to hear his words and people in need of His healing. Jesus spends the day ministering to them, curing the ill and the broken. Already, there on the mountain with Jesus and His miracles, I can imagine cries of joy that echo Isaiah’s prophecy: “Behold our God! This is the Lord for whom we looked!”
Jesus wants His followers to be left with no doubt, so the story doesn’t end here. He knows the cracks the devil can make in the people’s faith. He knows the erosion that sin will inflict on their certainty. He also knows the prophecies of old.
Jesus sees their physical hunger, so He prepares a feast on that mountain. From a meager seven loaves of bread and a few fish, Jesus provides so much that thousands of people “all ate and were satisfied” (Matthew 15:37). God being a God of abundance, Jesus doesn’t even limit the feast to what would satisfy. He gave more, “seven baskets full,” and I expect many in the crowd understood then that the provision and satisfaction the Lord gives would not run out.
In a place much deeper than my reading preferences, I am roused to excitement by Jesus’s fulfillment of the Old Testament foreshadowing. What a feast He continues to provide for me and every person who draws near to Him! In God’s word preserved and proclaimed for all ages; in His church being the hands and feet of the savior until He returns; in His body and blood, broken and poured out and given “to the disciples, who in turn [give] them to the crowds” (Matthew 15:36); His provisions never run out along my way to the mountain of the Lord.
With every Advent season, I prepare to celebrate the day that Jesus arrived and began an entirely new era of fulfillment of God’s plans. When I open my Bible, gaze upon the cross, or kneel before the tabernacle and altar, I pray that my heart responds, “This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!”
Carrie In Writing 