The Zeal of the Lord: Part 1

Long ago the month of December was chosen as the month in which people of faith in God would prepare to celebrate the fulfillment of the coming of God with us, as foretold by the prophets years before. We can read in the Bible from the book of Isaiah:9 that: “A son would be born & given to us & all authority would rest on His shoulders & He would be named: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”. It was foretold at that time that: “His authority would grow continually & there would be endless peace for the throne of David & his kingdom, for He would establish & uphold it with justice & with righteousness from that time onward & forevermore”. The prophet proclaimed the coming of this Holy child saying; “The zeal of the Lord of hosts would do this.”

We read that God’s people of faith embraced the words of hope as spoken from the prophets of God as they awaited the coming of this promised child of God to be born. They believed that God would be faithful to His promises. Though they had no idea how or when this Holy child would come to them, they believed & lived in a spirt of hope that God’s righteousness & justice would one day be given & the goodness of God would live on forever.

And then years later we read in the Gospel of Luke chapter 2 that in God’s time: “An angel of God appeared to a young women named Mary proclaiming that a baby was to be born & He would be named Jesus. The angel foretold that this baby would be great & would be the Son of the Most High, & the Lord God would give Him the throne of his ancestor David. He would reign over the house of Jacob & of His kingdom there would be no end.”

We read that at first hearing of this from the angel, Mary questioned it. She & all the others had heard of the prophets foretelling of the coming of the Son of the most high, however they had been waiting & hoping for many years, yet injustice & lack of righteousness still prevailed & though many prophets had continued to foretell of this coming Messiah, the promised Holy Son of God had not appeared yet. And so, we read that Mary asked the angel saying: “How could this be?” doubting the faith she had lived by based on the prophets foretelling given from God. We read that the angel responded to her questioning by saying that: “The Holy Spirit would overshadow her, therefore the child to be born would be Holy & called the child of God, for nothing is impossible with God.” We can only imagine what Mary must of felt at that moment. It was such a tremendous proclamation; the Holy child that the prophets had foretold would be coming, was actually coming & she was to bring Him forth, a fully human & yet fully Divine child of God, who would bring justice & righteousness & His kingdom would never end. How was this possible? Could this really happen? She had to wonder, yet, it had been promised & so we read that standing on her faith, she paused & then speaking from her faith spoke to God saying: “Here I am, a servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to Your word.”

PRAISE GOD!!!!!

~Posted by Rev Kathryn Bindig, MDiv. MS; Pastoral Care Minister with assistance from Rich Muscatello; Director of Business Development & Strategy