December 27, 2009: The Birth of Jesus
The text for this lesson is Luke 2:1–20.
Key Points
- A Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord.
- Law: Because of my sin, I fear God as the shepherds did.
- Gospel: God’s Son, Jesus, takes away my fear and offers me true peace.
December 20, 2009 – The Birth of John
The text for this lesson is Luke 1:57–80.
Key Points
- Zechariah spoke God’s Word announcing that John would give people knowledge of salvation in the forgiveness of sins. God speaks through His Holy Word to give me knowledge of salvation and forgiveness through Jesus, His Son.
- Law: God wants me to listen and obey Him, following His ways.
- Gospel: God looks at me through the obedience of Christ and is pleased.
December 13, 2009: The Birth of Jesus Foretold
The text for this lesson is Luke 1:26–38.
Key Points
- God favored Mary because of Christ, choosing her to be the mother of the Savior. God favors me because of Christ, choosing me to be His child.
- Law: Like Mary, I deserve nothing from God because of my sinfulness. God grants me unmerited grace and favor because of His Son. God must punish sin.
- Gospel: In His mercy, God sends His Son to take my punishment upon Himself. Because of my sin, I was separated from God. Because of God’s grace and favor, the Lord is with me. On my own, I am sinful and not blessed. Christ blesses me with His presence, just as He did Mary and Elizabeth.
December 6, 2009: The Birth of John Foretold
The text for this lesson is Luke 1:5–25.
Key Points
- God in His mercy promised to send John to prepare sinful people for the coming of the Lord.
- Law: God in His Word calls us to repentance, declaring us righteous because of Jesus. Law/Gospel Points Zechariah and Elizabeth were ordinary people, sinful just as I am. I need to repent and return to the Lord.
- Gospel: I, like them, stand righteous before God in spite of my sin, being justified by Christ, the Righteous One. God forgives me for Jesus’ sake, drawing me to Him through His Word and Sacraments.
November 22, 2009: Daniel in the Lions’ Den
The text for this lesson is Daniel 6.
Key Points
- He, Jesus, who saved Daniel, would Himself be given over to the satanic lion to save the world.
- Law: In the world, evil is called good, and those who seek to do good suffer and are brought down by sinners who hate anything good.
- Gospel: In Christ, I am blessed when I suffer for His name. He is with me, granting me His comfort and strength and preserving me for salvation in Him.
Context
Daniel was among the youths from Jerusalem whom King Nebuchadnezzar exiled to Babylon in 605 BC to be trained in the “literature and language of the Chaldeans” (Daniel 1:4). When Daniel interpreted the king’s dream, the king was so impressed that he made Daniel “ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men” (2:48). When the Babylonians lost their top spot on the world’s totem pole, ousted by the Persians, Daniel kept his high political position. He was part of King Darius’s threeman cabinet, as we might call it, in charge of the 120 regional governors of Persia, called satraps. When Daniel “became distinguished above all the other presidents and satraps” (6:3), his political peers became bitter and envious. They began to plot how they might rid themselves of this foreigner, “one of the exiles from Judah” (6:13), as they contemptuously referred to him.
November 15, 2009: The Three Men in the Fiery Furnace
The text for this lesson is Daniel 3.
Key Points
- Just as Jesus was with and saved the three men in the fiery furnace, so our Savior is with us and saves us in His Word and Sacraments, sustaining us when we suffer for His name.
- Law: In sin, I choose what makes the world, my flesh, and the devil happy and try to avoid the suffering or trouble that sometimes comes my way because of my faith in God.
- Gospel: He who once walked unharmed with the three faithful men in the fiery furnace was incinerated by fiery wrath for my sins to make me a citizen of heaven.
Context
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was the most powerful man in the world in his day (late seventh and early sixth centuries BC). It’s no surprise that such power went to his head, as this story illustrates (see also Daniel 4). When Nebuchadnezzar began his takeover of Jerusalem, he took the best and brightest of the citizens as POWs to Babylon. Among such captives were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When they risked punishment by sticking with kosher foods only, God rewarded their fidelity (Daniel 1). All four, though Israelites, rose to prominence in this Gentile court.
November 8, 2009: Hezekiah Prays
The text for this lesson is 2 Kings 18—19.
Key Points
- Just as Hezekiah prayed in faith to God and was delivered, so Jesus, our mediator and advocate with the Father, intercedes for and with us, granting us deliverance from sin, death, and the devil.
- Law: My sin makes me proud; thinking I can be self-sufficient and don’t need God, I avoid Him.
- Gospel: My heavenly Father is always ready to hear me and my cries for help, giving me His Son for my salvation.
Context
In the late eighth century, Assyria was the world power of the ancient Near East. Led by Sennacherib, their armies went on a blitzkrieg across various lands. Ruling Judah was Hezekiah, a top-notch king. Along with Josiah, he was one of the two Israelite rulers after David who received not a word of criticism from the biblical writer (see 18:1–8). Though he initially caved in to Assyrian pres-sure, paying them tribute (vv. 13–16), Hezekiah later refused to bow to their demands. As the story in 2 Kings 18–19 recounts, Sennacherib would pay dearly for his mocking of the true God. Assyrian records echo the biblical account of his demise, that he was slain by his own sons as he knelt praying before a god who could not save (19:37).
November 1, 2009: Jonah
The text for this lesson is the book of Jonah.
Key Points
- Just as Jonah was swallowed up in the belly of the fish for three days, so Jesus, in His crucifixion, was baptized into the sea of death, drowned in our depravities, devoured by the grave, and spewed forth alive again after three days and nights that He might save us, the Assyrians, the Ninevites, and Jonah.
- Law: In my sin, I judge and condemn others. I am unforgiving because I am blind to my own sin and guilt.
- Gospel: God, who sees my sin, is rich in mercy and forgives me for Jesus’ sake.
Context
The Assyrians were the forerunners of the world’s Hitlers, Mussolinis, and their ilk. Icyblooded, tyrannical people were they, infamous for such crimes as impaling conquered peoples on tall poles. And, as if to boast to their posterity, they chiseled stones with pictures of such brutality! They were easy to hate, in other words. Jonah’s lack of love for them would have been shared by very many of his countrymen. Nineveh’s repentance and faith following Jonah’s preaching would not last forever. About a century later (around 650 BC), Nahum lambasted Nineveh for its evil ways, but his message went unheeded. This led to the city’s destruction by God, through the Babylonians, in 612 BC.
October 25, 2009: Naaman and Elisha
Key Points
- The Word of God spoken by the prophet was in and with the water of the Jordan to restore the flesh of Naaman; the Word of God spoken by the pastor is in and with the water of the baptismal font to cleanse us of our sin and restore us as children of the heavenly Father.
- Law: Sin and its effects slowly kill me, both in body and soul.
- Gospel: Jesus saves me, both in body and in soul. He cleanses me from sin and at the resurrection will heal my body and make it perfect, so it will be like His.
Context
Elisha, successor to Elijah, lived in the mid-to-late ninth century BC. His ministry was concentrated mainly in the Northern Kingdom during the reigns of four Israelite kings: Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Jehoash. There was bad blood aplenty between Israel and Syria—Naaman’s home turf—dating back to Solomon’s day and beyond (e.g., 1 Kings 11:23–25). In fact, the king before whom Naaman appears, Jehoram, lost his own father, Ahab, to the Syrians just a few years before (1 Kings 22:29–40).
Note that some English translations render “Syria” as “Aram” (e.g., NIV), but both names refer to the same country, located north and east of Israel. The Hebrew word usually translated as “leprosy” actually encompassed a variety of skin disorders. So whether Naaman actually had what we call leprosy (technically known as Hansen’s disease) cannot be proven. Either way, his skin disease was serious enough to prompt him to undertake a long and potentially dangerous journey.
October 18, 2009: Elijah Is Taken to Heaven
The text for this lesson is 2 Kings 2:1–15.
Key Points
- Enoch and Elijah were taken into heaven alive. Jesus, who is our Enoch and our great Elijah, ascended alive into heaven for us and our salvation.
- Law: Death overtakes me because I am permeated by sin and am subject to its penalty.
- Gospel: In the death of Jesus is the death of death itself, and I will be raised up with Christ and seated with Him in heaven.
Context
It’s time for the baton—or rather the mantle—of Elijah to pass to his vicar, Elisha. Cleaving to his master’s side, Elisha follows him on a somewhat circuitous route that ends east of the Jordan. In this same region centuries before, the baton had been passed from Moses to Joshua. Now it would go from Elijah to Elisha—same song, second verse. It is here, too, that the latter-day Elijah, that is, John the Baptist, would bow out so that the Elisha-like Jesus could move forward with His ministry— same song, final verse.
