Midian

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Read: Isaiah 9:1-7 and Judges 7-8
Memorize: Isaiah 9:3-4

Verse 4 in Isaiah 9 references  "as on the day of Midian," and it is easy to scroll over this phrase without any thought. Just another hard to pronounce town in a series of hard to pronounce towns- that doesn't mean much. An obscure reference to things that don't bear any weight...but is that true? Do we read these passages as we should- do we look towards Christmas, towards Matthew with the announcement, towards the New Testament....through the lens of the Old or have we separated them completely?

Understanding the promises of God, as fulfilled in and through and because of Christ's coming cannot start after the page break. It can't start after the 400 years of silence that those who called out on the name of the Lord sat in while they awaited a Savior, and it can't start on cherry picked verses on social media reels. It must start in Genesis and carry through to Revelation. To be awed by the promises of God, it is helpful to see them more clearly. For one day, we shall see Him face to face!

Gideon defeats Midian...yet then we see in Chapter 8 he falls into the same idols of his father. Even after His powerful victory and seeing God go before him, idolatry lays close at hand. We talked yesterday of burden, and is this same thought not true. Though God offers us victories through Christ we too, fall back into idolatry and burden time and time again. Often we build people up in scripture as demi-gods. Humans with superior faith and circumstances- and really they are mere mortals, just like us, that God uses despite ourselves and our sins and miseries- and uses us to display His glorious power. 

Today, may we look to God and not ourselves, may we be hungry for all of His word that we may see promises made...and promises kept. May we see the mighty hand of God laying down His precious Son in a manger and may we cling closely to the promises of redemption offered through the full counsel of God.

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