Advent | December 4 FOR GOD’S LITTLE PEOPLE (Luke 2:1-5)

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that all the world should be registered. This was the
first registration when Quirinius was governor of
Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own
town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from
the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David,
which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the
house and lineage of David, to be registered with
Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. —Luke 2:1–5

Have you ever thought what an amazing thing it is that
God ordained beforehand that the Messiah be born in
Bethlehem (as the prophecy in Micah 5 shows); and that
he so ordained things that when the time came, the Messiah’s
mother and legal father were living in Nazareth; and
that in order to fulfill his word and bring two little people
to Bethlehem that first Christmas, God put it in the heart
of Caesar Augustus that all the Roman world should be
enrolled each in his own town?

Have you ever felt, like me, little and insignificant in a
world of seven billion people, where all the news is of big
political and economic and social movements and of outstanding
people with lots of power and prestige?

If you have, don’t let that make you disheartened or
unhappy. For it is implicit in Scripture that all the mammoth
political forces and all the giant industrial complexes,
without their even knowing it, are being guided
by God, not for their own sake but for the sake of God’s
little people—the little Mary and the little Joseph who
have to be got from Nazareth to Bethlehem. God wields
an empire to bless his children.

Do not think, because you experience adversity, that
the hand of the Lord is shortened. It is not our prosperity
but our holiness that he seeks with all his heart. And to
that end, he rules the whole world. As Proverbs 21:1 says,
“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the
Lord; he turns it wherever he will.”

He is a big God for little people, and we have great
cause to rejoice that, unbeknownst to them, all the kings
and presidents and premiers and chancellors of the world
follow the sovereign decrees of our Father in heaven, that
we, the children, might be conformed to the image of his
Son, Jesus Christ.

© Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Good News of Great Joy

Advent | December 3 THE LONG-AWAITED VISITATION (Luke 1:68-71)

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited
and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of
salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as
he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
that we should be saved from our enemies and from
the hand of all who hate us…” —Luke 1:68–71

Notice two remarkable things from these words of Zechariah
in Luke 1.

First, nine months earlier, Zechariah could not believe
his wife would have a child. Now, filled with the Holy
Spirit, he is so confident of God’s redeeming work in the
coming Messiah that he puts it in the past tense. For the
mind of faith, a promised act of God is as good as done.
Zechariah has learned to take God at his word and so has
a remarkable assurance: “God has visited and redeemed!”

Second, the coming of Jesus the Messiah is a visitation
of God to our world: “The God of Israel has visited and
redeemed.” For centuries, the Jewish people had languished
under the conviction that God had withdrawn:
the spirit of prophecy had ceased, Israel had fallen into the
hands of Rome. And all the godly in Israel were awaiting
the visitation of God. Luke tells us in 2:25 that the devout
Simeon was “looking for the consolation of Israel.” And
in Luke 2:38 the prayerful Anna was “looking for the
redemption of Jerusalem.”

These were days of great expectation. Now the longawaited
visitation of God was about to happen—indeed,
he was about to come in a way no one expected.

© Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Good News of Great Joy

Advent | December 2 MARY’S MAGNIFICENT GOD (Luke 1:46-55)

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me
blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” —Luke 1:46–55

Mary sees clearly a most remarkable thing about God: He is
about to change the course of all human history. The most
important three decades in all of time are about to begin.

And where is God? Occupying himself with two
obscure, humble women—one old and barren (Elizabeth),
one young and virginal (Mary). And Mary is so moved by
this vision of God, the lover of the lowly, that she breaks
out in song — a song that has come to be known as “the
Magnificat” (Luke 1:46–55).

Mary and Elizabeth are wonderful heroines in Luke’s
account. He loves the faith of these women. The thing that
impresses him most, it appears, and the thing he wants to
impress on Theophilus, his noble reader, is the lowliness
and cheerful humility of Elizabeth and Mary.

Elizabeth says,“Why is this granted to me that the
mother of my Lord would come to me?” (Luke 1:43). And
Mary says, “He has looked on the humble estate of his servant”
(Luke 1:48).

The only people whose soul can truly magnify the
Lord are people like Elizabeth and Mary—people who
acknowledge their lowly estate and are overwhelmed by
the condescension of the magnificent God.

© Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Good News of Great Joy