“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited his people.” – Luke 1:68 (ESV)
I’m writing this on the fourth Sunday of advent; the Sunday when the Christian anticipation of the birth of Jesus reaches its apex.
Yet when we read the above passage, it says that YAHWEH is the God of Israel, and he is visiting his people, again meaning Israel.
So, are we speaking about a geographic location or of a people in general? We are indeed speaking of a specific group of people who YAHWEH has claimed for himself.
Why then are Christians choosing this passage to reflect on the birth of our lord Jesus? After all, we’re not the ancient Israelites? We’re not the direct descendants of Abraham, the progenitor of the Israelites, so how are we YAHWEH’S people?
Because we YAHWEH’S chosen people. We ARE the children of Abraham, not by flesh, but through his faith in the promise of a savior for all mankind; the faith which all true faithful Christians share.
We are the new Israel, protected not from physical death by the blood of a spotless lamb smeared on the door frame, but from spiritual death by the blood of the Holy Lamb God, shed on the cross, to take away the sins of world.
Just as the Hebrews were called out of Egypt and led through the desert to the promised land by Moses, we are led out from the ways of the world and into the promised land of eternal glory by the the Lord Himself.
And it all started in Bethlehem, the most forgotten little hamlet in all Israel; in the stable belonging to an inn because there were no more rooms available, during a time of great cruelty and oppression, where a teen-aged mother gave birth to a boy, the Word of YAWEH, who dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
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