21 Nov December 19th Daily Devotion

 GOD PROMISED A SAVIOR

A PROMISE MADE – A PROMISE KEPT

Isaiah 7:14  “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign.  Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”

Matthew 1:18  “The Birth of Jesus Christ:  Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”

Eight centuries before what Matthew records in chapter 1:18, Isaiah was inspired by the Holy Spirt to write a prophecy of the virgin Mary’s miraculous conception of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.  God promised Adam and Eve He would send a Savior.  Over the centuries thereafter He repeated that promise.  Isaiah 7:14 is one of those promises.  And, God kept His promise.

Many promises have been made to you over your lifetime.  That is true no matter what your age.  Many of those promises have been kept. But, many of them have not.  God made the most important promise ever made, the promise of sending His Son to take away the sins of the world.

Through the pen of Isaiah God gave a peak into how He would bring that promise to fruition.  A virgin would conceive and give birth to the Savior He promised.  Matthew says Mary was a virgin.  Matthew says God caused her to become pregnant with His Son Jesus.  God’s Spirit caused her to conceive.  Thus, Jesus was, unlike all other human beings, truly human but without sin.

In order to save the world from sin Jesus had to be Himself holy, without sin.  Without sin, He then could take your sins and the sins of all of humanity as His own, become the substitute for all of mankind on Calvary’s cross and pay the penalty for sin, namely His death on the cross.

God promised a Savior. . . Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit conceived and gave birth to the Savior God promised!

Prayer: Lord, You keep Your promises.  Thanks and praise to You for Your Spirit causing the conception in the womb of the virgin Mary.  Amen.

Savior of the nations, come, Virgin’s Son,

make here Your home!

Marvel now, O heav’n and earth,

That the Lord chose such a birth.

Not by human flesh and blood,

By the Spirit of our God,

Was the Word of God made flesh—

Woman’s offspring, pure and fresh.

(LSB 332, verses 1 & 2)