A family was out vacationing at the lake one summer. Dad had been puttering out by the boat house. Two of his sons, a 12-year old and a 3-year old were down playing along the dock. The 12 year old was supposed to be watching his little brother, but he got distracted. The 3 year old, little Billy, thought that would be a good time to check out the shiny aluminum fishing boat tied up at the end of the dock. So he went to the dock and put one foot on the boat, and one foot on the dock. He lost his balance and fell into the water, which was about 5 or 6 ft deep.
The splash alerted the 12-yr old who let out a piercing scream. Dad came running from the boat house, jumped into the water, swam down, but unable to see anything, came up for air. Sick with panic, he went right back down into this murky water, and began to feel everywhere around the bottom. He couldn’t feel anything. Finally, on his way up, he felt little Billy's arms locked in a death grip on one of the posts of the dock, about 4 ft under water. Prying the boy's fingers loose, they burst up together thru the surface to fill their lungs with life giving air.
Finally when the adrenaline had stopped surging, and nerves had calmed down a little bit, the Father asked his son, “What on earth were you doing down there hanging onto the post so far under the water? And little Billy’s answer was a classic, laced with the wisdom only a toddler could give. He said, "I was just waiting for you dad. Just waiting for you."
Friends, at the beginning of this Advent season we are remembering when the God of the universe left the glory and the splendor of heaven, a place where there was no pain and no sickness, no accidents, no hurt, and no death.
And He plunged into this dark, murky world on a rescue mission, a rescue mission for all of us who are drowning, a rescue mission for all of us who are barely hanging on, a rescue mission for all of us who are lost in the darkness.
Once things had been perfect. All two of the humans on earth walked with God on a daily basis. Then they decided to go their own way in disobedience to the one command they had been given. And, on that very day the Lord gave the very first glimpse of the Savior He would send so that the chasm, wider than the Grand Canyon, could be bridged and we could be brought into intimate fellowship with God once again.
Here, God is pronouncing judgment on the evil one and proclaiming the very first prophecy regarding the coming Savior of the world.
Genesis 3:15 AMP
“And I will put enmity (contempt, hostility) between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel.”
Just nine verses after the first sin was committed the Lord is putting a plan into motion to save us all from sin. And He offers us the first hint.
The Messiah will be a child of a woman, the evil one will try to inflict injury on Him but He will crush the head of the evil one!
Do you ever wonder why God did not send Jesus right then and there?
Perhaps He just wanted to prove to us that we could not save ourselves!
So, He waited and we waited for Him.
The Flood
Abraham is selected
Egypt
Moses
The Exodus
Wandering in the wilderness
Entering the Promised Land
The time of the Judges
The time of the Kings
The time of exile
And, all the while the prophets are saying, “He is coming, the Messiah is coming.” But, they did not know when or exactly how. Let’s take a look at one of the prophecies.
And, at this point, the nation of Israel, in fact the whole human race was just like little three year old Billy, waiting to be saved from death.
Daniel - a captive from Judah - (Read Daniel 2 enough times so that you can tell the story of the dream and the danger to Daniel well.)
You may well ask, what does this have to do with Advent?
Let’s take a look at a couple verses from Daniel 2
Daniel 2:34, 44-45
“As you watched, a rock was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. It struck the feet of iron and clay, smashing them to bits. The whole statue was crushed into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold.
“During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.
“That is the meaning of the rock cut from the mountain, though not by human hands, that crushed to pieces the statue of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold.
“The great God was showing the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its meaning is certain.”
(Repeat the last verse with emphasis)
AND … the great God is showing us a glimpse of what will happen in the future.
Explain -
Head of gold - Babylon
Chest of silver - the Medo/Persian Empire
Belly and thighs of bronze - the Greeks
Legs of iron - Rome
Feet of Iron and Clay - from the breakup of the Roman Empire until the return of Christ.
Daniel 2:34a
“While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands.”
In those days there was only one way to cut a rock out of a mountain and that was by humans using hand tools.
There were no giant jackhammers mounted on the front of tractors.
There was no dynamite
There were no huge, powered stone cutting machines
Just humans with hand tools.
But, not this stone, this stone kind of cut itself out of the mountain.
So, what was this stone that crushed all of the kingdoms, the stone not cut by human hands?
What was this stone that was part of a prophecy but would not come until four mighty nations had risen and fallen.
Many of us who are older remember at least studying the glory days of the British Empire.
The height of its power was in 1920's, when the British Empire covered almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area, with population of over 458 million which was over 20% of the world's population of the time. It was often said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire" because its span across the globe ensured that the Sun was always shining on at least one of its numerous territories.
From sheer political point of view, the Empire was the strongest from about 1850's to 1910's; during the time, a mouse in Timbuktu couldn't eat cheese without permission of or approval from the British authorities.
People living in the midst of the age of the power of Great Britain must have thought it would last forever!
People living in the beginning of the Babylonian empire must have thought it would last forever. And, here’s Daniel, an exile from Judah receiving this prophecy from God about the rise and fall of four world dominating empires before this would take place.
Did Daniel even realize that this prophecy was about the coming Messiah?
If he did, did he wonder how long it would be before it would all take place?
Did he feel like little 3 year old Billy holding onto the pier, four feet under water and waiting for his dad to rescue him?
And, what was this “rock was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands.”?
Now, we have the blessing of being born when we have the New Testament Scriptures to study and compare to the Old Testament Scriptures.
For instance, in …
1 Peter 2:6
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.”
Now, we can clearly see that this is an act of God but what does this mean, “but not by human hands”?
In today’s world just as it was then there was only one way for a human to be conceived and born. You may argue this point that physical contact is no longer necessary but participation by a man and a woman is required no matter how we have managed to mess it up.
But, here we have Christ, the cornerstone, conceived and born not by the means which God Himself put into place at creation but by the power of the Holy Spirit Himself!
Did Daniel understand that he was being given a prophecy about the coming Messiah?
1 Peter 1:10-11
“Even the prophets, who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, carefully researched and investigated this salvation.
“They tried to find out what era or specific time the Spirit of the Messiah in them kept referring to when He predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.”
“Carefully researched, investigated, tried to find out …” And … they waited!
Do you want to know how desperate they were to have the arrival of their Messiah, our Messiah?
Isaiah 64:1a
“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down …”
Can’t you just hear the longing in that cry? When, oh Lord, when?
Waiting seems to be a big part of Christmas!
What do people say on December 26th? Only 364 days until Christmas!
We think that waiting for Christmas is hard? Think about Israel waiting and waiting and waiting.
We live in a time when we have witnessed in the Bible the unfolding of many of these prophecies. There are many prophecies yet to be fulfilled at the return of Christ.
But, what we celebrate today is the amazing, miraculous first part of this prophecy.
“A stone, not cut by human hands …”
Isaiah 7:14
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and will call Him Immanuel.”
Matthew 1:20b-25
“Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’
“She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.
“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call Him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).
“When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a Son. And he gave Him the name Jesus.”
Jesus, the Rock that was cut from the mountain without human hands, is growing into an everlasting Kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered.
You are either a part of that kingdom or you are not. What was once hidden, even to the prophets, has now been revealed in Jesus the Messiah.
And, this is where everything gets turned on its head! Israel waited and waited and waited for Christ to come, for His advent, for His arrival. That was accomplished over 2,000 years ago.
Now, Jesus is waiting for your arrival. If you have not come to Jesus for salvation you are just like little Billy, four feet underwater holding onto something that will eventually end your life instead of letting go and letting Jesus save you.
