God’s wondrous plan (Isa 29:11-14)

As we read the gospels’ account of Jesus’ birth, our familiarity with the story may have blunted our amazement at the incomprehensible, even shocking nature of such a revelation. God in human flesh? Isn’t this blasphemy? A holy God associated in such elemental ways with a world so mired in sin – how can this be? The Creator who stands outside of creation is now becoming, in some ways, a part of it? No wonder that this seemed foolishness to some, a stumbling block to others! In fact, it is clear from the gospels that few had an inkling of what God was doing at Jesus’ birth: a group of shepherds (Luke 2:15-16), some wise men who travelled from afar (Matt 2:7, 11), the close family (Matt 1:20-21; Luke 1:30-33), a righteous man and a prophetess in the temple (Luke 2:21-38). These earth-shattering events passed most Israelites by.

We should not be too harsh on Jesus’ contemporaries, though, because we may likewise have only a surface appreciation of what God has done for us in the incarnation. The problem is not new, and Isaiah reflects on just such inability to understand God’s wisdom. The prophet compares the issue to the inaccessibility of the message when a book is sealed or because an illiterate person cannot read it (Isa 29:11-12). Those who have travelled to another country with a different language (and even a different script) than theirs know the feeling of bewilderment when they cannot make out any meaning from the symbols. We may also recognise this feeling of an inaccessible message when we read our Bible, but the words seem dead on the page: we cannot relate them to our lives. At the centre of the problem is a relationship where one pays lip-service to God with a heart that is far from Him (Isa 29:13). Even if we have a genuine relationship with the Lord, we can slip into such behaviour when we say the right things, but we don’t fully mean the words. The more we focus on ourselves without reference to God, the more our vision becomes blurred. In contrast, God’s wisdom involves radical self-giving that goes against our ‘natural’ inclination. No wonder it makes no sense to our sinful human nature (Isa 29:14).

What, then, is the significance of God’s wondrous plan to send His own Son in the flesh? While the cross is central to His mission, it is worth lingering a little on Jesus’ birth. At a time when the fear of Covid infection keeps many from meeting in person for Christmas, we may come to appreciate the incarnation in a new way. God was not afraid to send His Son into this sin-infested world even though the sins of others would eventually kill Him. Jesus became a vulnerable child who had to grow and mature, be tempted like us (though without sin) and experience a limited human life. He is therefore a compassionate High Priest who knows our weaknesses because He has lived among us (Heb 2:17-18; 4:15-16).

The fact that Jesus descended to our level also helps us to know the heart of God better. Jesus cried over the judgment that would come on His wayward people (Luke 19:41), felt compassion for the crowds who were like sheep without a shepherd (Matt 9:36), stretched out healing hands to those who sought Him out. Moreover, God’s Son in His humanity demonstrated how to live a godly life and be truly human, as God had intended, through the enabling of the Holy Spirit (see my post on this here). When we are saved and receive that same Spirit, we are to follow in His footsteps relying on and walking by the Spirit in order to become more fully what the Lord designed us to be. As we come to Christmas, it is a good time to seek the Lord again so that our eyes may be opened afresh to what God has done for us. As Proverbs puts it, let us trust in the Lord and acknowledge (or literally ‘to know’) Him in everything that we do, rather than lean on our own understanding (Prov 3:5-6).

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