Precious Promises: The Coming of the King

Continuing our Precious Promises series, we look at another Old Testament prophecy about the birth of Jesus, this time in Isaiah 9:2-7. One of the key themes running through the Old Testament is the need that God’s People have for a king, and throughout Israel's history there are many kings who fail to meet this need. The Old Testament is spent anticipating the arrival of this Messiah, this anointed one. When will he arrive? How will he arrive? What sort of entrance would be fitting for this mighty lion king who is not just a ruler but the Messiah, God himself come to save his people from their sins and deliver them from the kingdom of darkness into the domain of light?

When the long-awaited, desperately needed king comes, however, he does not arrive how we would expect. He arrives as an infant in a manger, unheralded and unguarded. Yet this was not plan B and neither was the cross that followed it. That is the kind of King that Jesus was, and it is the kind of King that Jesus still is. The manger was not plan B, the cross was not plan B, and your life is not plan B. Jesus is a king of unrivaled power, yet bends his ear to hear what is on your heart. This is the king who so often speaks in the quiet, in the stillness of our hearts.