The Promise of a Messiah
Songs: O Come, O Come Immanuel / Jesus Loves Me
This week begins our Advent Celebration. As you begin your times of reading, sharing, and reflection, spend some time thinking about the reason that Jesus came to Earth. To understand this, we have to go all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. There we see the origin of the curse of sin and the separation from God that came as a result of sin. This sin nature and separation spread to all mankind; thus, a remedy was needed.
Even from the garden we began to hear the ringing of a promised one that would come and make things right (Genesis 3:15). The rest of the Bible shows the unfolding of this promised one; the great Messiah, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The verses we read this week should cause us to reflect on our need of this savior and what it must have been like to wait for his coming. Think about it. We look backwards at his coming, but the people in the Old Testament time were waiting for that day to arrive.
As you reflect on this week’s Bible passages, here are some suggested questions that might help you reflect on and talk about these things with your family and others.
1) Why did Jesus come to Earth anyway?
2) What do you think it would have been like to be waiting for the messiah’s arrival?
(Messiah means the promised and expected deliverer or the “promised oneâ€)
3) How do you think we view Jesus differently from the people of the Old Testament times? 4) How much darkness does it take to overcome light? How much light does it take to overcome darkness?
Bible Readings:
Sunday: The Creation of Man (Genesis 1:26-31)
Monday: The Fall of Man (Genesis 3:1-24)
Tuesday: The First Promise of Redemption (Genesis 3:15)
Wednesday: A Prophet Will Come (Deuteronomy 18:15-19)
Thursday: A Virgin with Child (Isaiah 7:10-14)
Friday: A Child Will be Born (Isaiah 9:2-6)
Saturday: A Righteous Judge (Isaiah 11:1-5)
Some of the questions and readings are adapted from Christ in Christmas: A Family Advent Celebration published by NavPress, © 1989.