COLLEEN TINKER
Podcasting through the book of Daniel with Nikki Stevenson has deepened my amazement this Christmas. Having just finished working through the intimidating 70-week prophecy, I’m left with an astonished awe that God specifically revealed to Daniel when He would send the Messiah.
God sent Daniel the big picture of when the Messiah would come—but He also included the startling news that the Messiah would not immediately set up His kingdom as all Israel expected He would. The Messiah would be cut off and would apparently be left with nothing—a scenario that the Jews had not expected. This loss of life and apparently of inheritance as well, though, would not be the Messiah’s final state.
The Redeemer would ultimately defeat Israel’s foes and utterly destroy the evil ruler who would one day make Israel desolate. There would ultimately be victory—and it would not be a human victory.
The Messiah would come—and be cut off—and ultimately destroy the destroyer!
Who Was the Remnant?
Oddly, thinking about this prophecy in Daniel led me to ponder the idea of the “remnant”.
“God has always had a remnant,” people say. Indeed, in my past I believed I was part of the “remnant church of Bible prophecy”. In fact, as an Adventist I believed I was part of God’s remnant partly because Israel failed to live up to its assignment to obey God. In other words, in spite of having Daniel’s and others’ prophecies, Israel missed the Messiah and forfeited their special status.
Now, as a Christian, I realize that as an Adventist I definitely was NOT part of “God’s remnant church”. God’s remnant, in fact, has to believe God and His word; it can’t be a self-styled group that assigns itself the title of “remnant”.
Now I have to revisit the idea that God has always had a remnant. If that is true, who were the remnant when Daniel’s prophecy of the Messiah came to fruition?
Not quite 500 years had passed after Daniel’s vision when Gabriel—the same angel who told Daniel about the time the Messiah would come—appeared in the temple while Zachariah was serving his appointed time as a priest.
“Do not be afraid,” Gabriel said to the terrified priest. “Your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John.” Furthermore, this son would prepare the way for the Messiah!
Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth had lived most of their lives with the shame of childlessness. Now, meeting Gabriel who brought the first message from God in 400 years, Zechariah learns that God has heard their prayers. Not only would they have a son, but he would be the fulfillment of prophecy!
This news could only mean one thing: God was about to keep the promise made to Daniel centuries before.
Zechariah and Elizabeth believed Gabriel because they believed God. It’s hard to imagine the welter of reactions the couple experienced over the next nine months as Elizabeth miraculously conceived beyond her child-bearing years and Zechariah lived—mute—until the birth of John their son.
Had the older couple any doubts about God’s promise or Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the story Mary told confirmed to them that God was finally sending the Redeemer He had promised Israel, and He was coming at exactly the right time.
Then they had a visitor. Six months later their young relative Mary, who was engaged to a man descended from David, showed up at their house. Had the older couple any doubts about God’s promise or Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the story Mary told confirmed to them that God was finally sending the Redeemer He had promised Israel, and He was coming at exactly the right time.
Mary had also received a visit from Gabriel—and her news was even more astonishing than Zechariah’s. Mary was to bear God’s Son. She, a virgin, would conceive a son when the Holy Spirit would come upon her. She was to name Him Jesus, and He would be “called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.” This Son would “reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
Mary’s fiancé, Joseph, was understandably distraught. He didn’t want to publicly embarrass Mary, so he planned to divorce her quietly—but then he had an angelic visitor in a dream.
“Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Mt. 1:20–21).
With those words, the life of the Galilean carpenter changed. Jospeh, a God-fearing man, believed the angel—but how could he be a father to the Son of God? The scandal of Mary’s pregnancy would follow them all their lives—yet he knew that God had chosen him to care for her and for her Son.
The Bible doesn’t reveal who else in their communities, if anyone, understood and believed that God was finally fulfilling the prophecy of Daniel 9:25, but we do know that God gave the world the story of these four believing Jews who trusted Him. Furthermore, they were part of the remnant of Israel who were waiting for the Messiah when He finally came.
In fact, God gave Mary and Elizabeth—and us—one more astonishing confirmation of Jesus’ identity. When Mary entered Zachariah’s and Elizabeth’s house three months after her visit from Gabriel, Elizabeth was six months pregnant.
When Mary greeted Elizabeth, her baby “leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Lk. 1:41).
The unborn John, whom Gabriel had said would be filled in the womb with the Holy Spirit (Lk. 1:15), recognized the Son of God who was a three-month-old fetus in Mary’s womb! Unborn baby John leaped for joy in the presence of unborn baby Jesus. The prophet of the Messiah recognized his Lord before either of them was born!
Hundreds of years after the last prophet had spoken in Israel, God fulfilled His promises, and these two couples— Zachariah and Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary—believed God and trusted Him to accomplish His will through them.
Waiting For the Consolation of Israel
The birth of Jesus, recorded in Luke 2, was apparently ignored by almost everyone. In spite of the prophecies, Israel was not expecting a Son. God, however, brought those who would see and believe.
Mary gave birth in a crowded Bethlehem which was overflowing with out-of-towners coming to register for the census. She and Joseph had no place to lay the baby except in a food trough for animals, and alone together they experienced this singular moment—the birth of the incarnate God the Son. And then God sent the shepherds.
A “multitude of the heavenly host praising God” suddenly appeared to some shepherds who were tending their sheep in the Bethlehem night. Unaware that the promise of the ages had come to pass, they believed the angels.
These unwashed shepherds “came in a hurry” and found Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. Imagine their astonishment when they saw baby. They believed He was God’s Son—and yet He was lying in a feeding trough—the same kind of trough from which sheep might eat. That night the shepherds met their true Shepherd, and they were the first to worship Him!
Eight days later, Mary and Jospeh took him “up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord” (Lk. 2:22). While there, Mary and Joseph met another man who had been waiting for the Messiah’s birth.
God had revealed to Simeon that he would not die before he would see the Messiah, and this old man was waiting for the comfort which God had promised the Messiah would bring to Israel when He came.
Simeon “was righteous and devout”, and he was watching for the Messiah. (See Lk. 2:25). God had revealed to Simeon that he would not die before he would see the Messiah, and this old man was waiting for the comfort which God had promised the Messiah would bring to Israel when He came.
When Mary and Joseph brought baby Jesus into the temple for the ceremony of dedication, Simeon took the baby in his arms and “blessed God” and said, “My eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, A Light of revelation to the gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel” (Lk. 2:30–32).
Simeon had a personal word for Mary, though, and he told her that her child was “appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed” (Lk. 2:34). Furthermore, he said that a sword would pierce even her own soul “to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
In other words, Simeon prophesied that Jesus would not only fulfill Israel’s promises, but He would also bring light to the gentiles. Even further, he told Mary that her Son would suffer for the salvation of many, and Mary herself would be pierced through her own soul with grief as she watched her Son.
A True Prophetess
Before Joseph and Mary left the temple, however, there was one more witness of Jesus who had been waiting for the Messiah.
Anna was 84 years old. She was from the tribe of Asher and had been married to her husband for seven years before he died, and this bereft woman had spent the rest of her life in the temple, “serving night and day with fastings and prayers” (Lk. 2:47).
Mary and Joseph had just received Simeon’s blessing, and “at that very moment, [Anna] came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Lk. 2:38).
This unknown woman and the inconspicuous Simeon had, at that moment, been given an eternal word from God which would verify to all people that Jesus was the Messiah God had promised through His prophets.
In all of Israel, we know six people by name who were waiting for the Messiah and believed God when He came: Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Jospeh, Simeon, and Anna.
In all of Israel, we know six people by name who were waiting for the Messiah and believed God when He came: Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Jospeh, Simeon, and Anna. In addition, we know that God revealed His Son to unnamed shepherds who came straight from the fields and worshiped their Savior.
The wise men also came some months later from the east to worship the baby King, but they were not part of Israel’s remnant. They were gentiles who had read the Jewish prophecies probably in the writings of Daniel, and they had believed. They foreshadowed the grafting of the gentiles into the new covenant blessings in Jesus’ blood.
The glaring sadness, though, is that in all the nation of Israel, these few unremarkable people are the only ones who recognized the Lord when He came. Certainly the priests and scribes knew the prophecies. They knew Daniel’s 70-weeks, and they knew the other prophets’ revelations of the coming Savior. Yet when Jesus came, He didn’t look as they expected He would look, and they simply didn’t “see” Him.
The Advent Remnant
These three men and the three women who recognized Jesus were the believing remnant who knew God’s 400 years of silence were over.
It’s hard to believe that after so much suffering and hope, the nation still missed their Messiah when He appeared.
Today we know that this same Messiah will appear again. Furthermore, just as God’s promises to send the Redeemer were fulfilled exactly on time, so His return will be on time. Paul said to the Athenians,
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30–31).
The Messiah came and completed what He came to do. He died for our sins according to Scripture; He was buried, and He was raised on the third day according to Scripture (1 Corinthians 15:3,4), and He will return—this time to judge and rule over the earth and to gather His body to Himself.
Today, however, we know that many are not expecting Him. Just as most of Israel knew He would come but missed Him the first time, so many will also miss His coming to rule and reign. Yet Paul tells us in Romans 11 that there is a remnant of Israel who will believe in Jesus.
This Christmas we who believe are not called a remnant, but we are the born again body of Christ. We celebrate the night God the Son came to us in human flesh to save us from our sin.
Just as Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, Simeon, and Anna were a “first advent remnant”, so we who truly believe are distinct from those who are Christians in name only. We who thought we were part of a supposed “remnant church of Bible prophecy” can redeem that mistaken identity by identifying not with an organization but with the Messiah Himself through belief in His finished work.
This weekend as we celebrate God’s fulfillment of His promises to send the Messiah to the world, we can praise Him with joy knowing that His second advent is close. Jesus came the first time, and He is coming back. When we see Him we will know Him, and we will always be with Him!
Merry Christmas!
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