July
30, 2003
HOPE
FOR THE HOPELESS
"And
she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus,
for He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew
1:21, NKJV).
The name
Jesus generally is considered to mean "Jehovah is salvation".
Hebrews 2:10 refers to Jesus as the "captain of their
salvation." The people of Israel looked forward to the
coming of a Messiah. Moses wrote about Him, "And the
Lord said to me:-- I will raise up for them a Prophet like
you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His
mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.
And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which
He speaks in My name, I will require it of him" (Deuteronomy
18:17-19). Jesus said, "If you
believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.
But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe
My words?" (John 5:46).
Daniel
wrote about the Messiah, "From the going forth of the
command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince,
there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks" (Daniel
9:25). Daniel's prophecy even foretold the exact time when
the Messiah would be born. Taking the day for a year principal
of prophetic time, the birth of Jesus accurately fulfilled
the time prophecy. Micah foretold the birthplace of the Messiah
(see Micah 5:2).
"He
will save His people from their sins." Zechariah referred
to the salvation He provides, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter
of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King
is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and
riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey" (Zechariah
9:9). See Matthew 21:1-11 for the literal fulfillment of Zechariah's
prophecy.
"For
whatever things were written before were written for our learning,
that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures
might have hope... There shall be a root of Jesse; and He
who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles
shall hope" (Romans 15:4, 12). Jesus is the hope of our
salvation and not only is there hope in Him, there is rest
and trust and peace..
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