Messianic Expectations
Listen in as Michael highlights the first expectations for Messiah starting in Genesis 3 in Part 1 of “Messianic Expectations”.
The Messiah’s going to come to deliver them from slavery, both literal and metaphorical slavery. For 400 years, Israel will sojourn in slavery in Egypt, and the cry will become so great that God will finally act. Pharaoh had issued a decree to kill all children that were two years and younger. It was an ethnic cleansing. God spares one Hebrew. Pharaoh’s daughter just happens to be out bathing in the Nile, when she spots Moses in a basket and decides to care for him.
In the life of Moses, we see Israel again and again. Moses means to lift out of the water. When we think of Exodus, we are reminded repeatedly of slavery. Not only literal slavery, but slavery to sin and idolatry. We must be redeemed from our slavery to sin; those shackles must break so that we’re no longer seen as sinners condemned to death, but set apart so we can worship God the way He intended.
Over one and a half million people came across the red sea. And they’re given the law of God by Moses. So the intercession of the God man, Jesus Christ, writes the words on a stone with Moses on the Mount. He gives those stones to Moses to take to the people the law of God.
The law was the provision for them. It was not there to save them. It showed them their sin and provided guardrails to live by. In a theocratic world where God is their King and Sovereign, their religious system, theology, and social work were all one thing. The law came to deliver them from slavery, and ironically, the law shows them how deep into slavery they are.
The people wanted to be like other nations. God would say, Oh that I would be their King. Oh that they would see Me as their King. They chose Saul as their king. Despite his looks and stature, he failed miserably. Then God gives them a king, David. This little boy is anointed the next king of Israel because God chooses based on the heart, not the outward appearance.
And of course, David fails many times, but David is a man after God’s own heart. Even in his failure, God loved him, because when he sinned he repented. God wants a person who will own and admit their sin and repent and ask for forgiveness, which He graciously gives.
2 Samuel 7:11-16 says, “I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. When your days are finished and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendants after you, who will come from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and with strokes of sons of mankind, but My favor shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”
And from now on, David’s lineage all the way to Jesus is referred to as ‘son of David’. They knew the king would come to the lineage of David. The layers are not just about Solomon, it’s about God’s Son, who will be the Eternal King. When we read, ‘when he commits iniquity, I will correct him.’ We know that Jesus did not sin, but rather became sin for us. He would also experience the beating, torment, and ultimately crucifixion, as alluded to in this passage.
We’re expecting someone to solve our problem, not just to make life better. We need to return to what we were intended for: worshiping Him in spirit and truth. We’ve got to defeat Satan and the temptations that surround us. Then God will deliver from sin those who trust in the Messiah.
The dynasty is what’s important not to miss in this passage. Twice in the last verse, God’s house and kingdom are mentioned. Jesus Christ’s throne is eternal. It has always existed and it will always exist. The Psalms told the ancients a few things about the Messiah to come. He would be killed, He’ll celebrate the marriage of this eternal throne with his people, and He is the judge who judges righteously.
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Listen in as Michael highlights the first expectations for Messiah starting in Genesis 3 in Part 1 of “Messianic Expectations”.