The Foretold Messiah - Advent Devotional Day 14

Scripture
“The Scriptures say that the Messiah will come from the family of King David. Doesn't this mean that he will be born in David's hometown of Bethlehem?” - John 7:42

Reflection
“Mom, how tall is God?”

[Gosh, I love kids’ questions.]

“Well, God is everywhere, so it’s hard to say exactly how tall he is, but he’s really big,” I responded to my 5 year-old, thinking that answer would suffice.

“But what about Jesus? He was a human, so how tall was he? Was he everywhere like God? I thought he was God. Was he a giant human?”

Oh boy. The questions kept coming. And I wasn’t sure I’d had enough coffee yet to explain the hypostatic union to a preschooler.

Questions about who Jesus is aren’t new. And they’ll probably continue into eternity.

Whether it’s a 5 year-old wanting to know how a probably 5’5ish man could also be God

…or a deconstructing twenty something trying to sort out Jesus’ role in the atonement

…or a 1st century Jew questioning how a Galilean could be the Messiah

many of us have questions about Jesus because who exactly Jesus is does remain something of a beautiful mystery.

The men in our passage today were arguing about one such question:

“Can the Messiah come from Galilee? The Scriptures say that the Messiah will come from the family of King David. Doesn't this mean that he will be born in David's hometown of Bethlehem?” John 7:42

Whoever asked this question was right. The prophets had foretold that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, the town of David:

Bethlehem Ephrath, you are one of the smallest towns in the nation of Judah. But the LORD will choose one of your people to rule the nation--someone whose family goes back to ancient times. Micah 5:2

Like a branch that sprouts from a stump, someone from David's family will someday be king. Isaiah 11:1

Someday I will appoint an honest king from the family of David, a king who will be wise and rule with justice. Jeremiah 23:5

So while I don’t have the time or knowledge to perfectly explain many of the mysteries of Jesus, I can answer this question.

Yes, Jesus was from Galilee. And, yes, it had been prophesied that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. But what the person asking this question likely didn’t know was that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Roughly 30 years before, a very pregnant Mary and her fiance traveled a long distance to Bethlehem to register in the census. And in the town of Bethlehem, in a stable, Jesus was born and laid in a manger. Of the line of David and with the prophesied birthplace, Jesus fit the description of the foretold Messiah.

And so, John 7:42, though short and simple, serves as a reminder of the faithfulness of God. It reminds us that God kept his promises and did what he said he would.

There remain many questions about who Jesus is. And while they may not have as straightforward an answer as this one, they are all worth asking and exploring. Jesus is worth getting to know.

Prayer
Lord, thank you for your word and the knowledge it gives us about you and your son, Jesus. Help us to continue to explore who Jesus is in this beautiful advent season. Reveal yourself to us, we pray. Amen.