Come, Let Us Adore Him: An Advent Reading Plan by Paul David TrippSample

All the promises of the prophets were carried on the shoulders of the One born in Bethlehem, and he fulfilled them all.

Maybe you’ve endured one of those awkward moments when important visitors, friends you haven’t seen for a while, or distant relatives show up unannounced. It’s good to see them, but you would’ve enjoyed the luxury of being prepared for their coming. Well, Jesus didn’t show up on earth unannounced. A whole company of prophets spoke a myriad of prophecies that not
only pointed to the surety of his coming, but also made specific promises about what his coming would produce.

Micah prophesied that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem in Mic. 5:2. Isaiah prophesied something that was both very specific and unthinkable, that Jesus would be born of a virgin in Isaiah 7:14. 

Genesis 22:18 tells us that Jesus would be born as a descendant of Abraham and as such would be the ultimate fulfillment of God’s covenant promises: The Old Testament also foretells that Jesus would be called out of Egypt. Jeremiah tells us that Jesus will be born in the middle of the worst kind of human suffering. 

These prophecies remind us that the coming of Jesus is the result of the unstoppable zeal of a God of glorious redeeming grace. God wouldn’t leave his world in its evil-scarred condition of brokenness. These, and many other prophecies, remind us that the great author of history’s plot determined that the overarching theme of his story would not be judgment, but grace. Only the divine Son of God would be up to the task of living a perfectly righteous life in the middle of sin and suffering, dying an acceptable death that would satisfy his Father’s holy requirements, and rise out of the tomb of his death as the author of eternal life for all who place their trust in him.

But here’s what you need to understand today. The surety of these past prophecies and the specificity of how Jesus fulfilled them is also your guaranteed future hope. The story
that the prophets of old pointed to has not yet come to its final conclusion. This means that today, in your life and mine, God is still working his unstoppable plot, and he will not relent or
rest until all that the prophets predicted is fully realized in the lives of every one of his children.