Isaiah 42:1  Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

The Hebrew word for delight comes with the connotation of understanding and acceptance. God can understand and accept your offerings; when they are done the right way, with the right heart, God delights in them and accepts them. Parents can also delight in their children; that is, approve of them, accept them, understand them, and delight in them. Proverbs 3:12 is a good example; "The Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in."

In the Bible, Jesus is the ultimate Servant of the Lord, the Son in whom the Father delights. So when Matthew tells us about Jesus, Matthew says the preaching and healing ministry of Jesus is intended to fulfill Isaiah 42.

God accepts, approves of, is pleased with, delights in, thinks well of this Jesus, the Chosen Servant and Beloved Son on whom God has placed the Spirit, so that Jesus can proclaim God's righteousness to the nations. But it doesn't stop there.

As a baptized follower of Jesus, you live out your life in the present, fallen world not under the weight of your sin and shame, but under a verdict of delight. God accepts you. God approves of you. God is pleased with, delights in, and thinsk well of us.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

Psalm 119:14  In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.

In other words, knowing God's ways is like winning the lottery! Or at least, like the feeling you get when you win the lottery; or the feeling you get when you are offered the job you really wanted, or when you have your bid accepted on the house of your dreams, or when your crush says yes to a date - and you jump up and spin around in joy, and you start singing and laughing!

The Psalmist says, "Knowing your way, God - your testimonies, commans, blessings, promises - when I know from your Word what you are up to in my life, it's like striking it rich! I delight in your way as much as I would in all riches! The net worth of the world's richest person is about $154 billion. Knowing Jesus is priceless!!!
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Zephaniah 3:17  The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.

I love that image. God's delight in you is so overwhelming, that the Mighty Warrior finds himself singing for joy! His is a multifaceted emotional response that gets expressed in very physical ways. Notice that we are dealing with "great delight" in this context. As Justin Rossow puts it: "we're actually getting a Hebraic 'buy one, get one free' deal, where you double down on vocabulary words to express the strength of the concept."

This is a joyful delight so strong that even the Mighty Warrior has to jump up, spin around, and start singing!

That's what God thinks of you!
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Matthew 1:1  The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

When most readers today see that the New Testament opens with a genealogy, they yawn. Not so for Matthew's original readers. This was an epic revelation. Jesus, son of Mary, is a direct descendant of David and Abraham. The patriarch, who promised a descendant through whom the entire world would be blessed; David, who was promised a son who would sit on his throne forever; Jesus is that descendent and that son. Every branch of the family tree of the old covenant has led to the baby in Mary's arms.

His birth proclaims the faithfulness of God. Many centuries before, he had made the promise. His people waited and waited. But they didn't wait forever. The Christ Child is the embodiment of all the Father's promises. He is the Yes to everything God wants us to have. In his tiny baby body, no more than a few pounds, is the immeasurable weight of the Lord's love for us.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Luke 1:35  And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy - the Son of God."

The Greek verb for "overshadow" also describes how the cloud of God's glory "overshadowed" the disciples at Jesus' transfiguration (Luke 9:34). When the Old Testament was translated into Greek, the same verb was used when the cloud of glory overshadowed or settled on the tabernacle (Numbers 9:15). Mary's womb will be like a temporary tabernacle. The "power of the Most High will overshadow" her as it filled God's sanctuary in days of old. Mary's bulging belly will be a short term Holy of holies in which God will grow.

The same Lord who used her body as a temple, makes our bodies his temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). He also puts us into his body, the church, as a living temple (Ephesians 2:21). Christmas is the celebration of God's union with humanity - a union deeper and more intimate than we can ever fathom.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Exodus 1:15-16  The the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, "When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live."

The Pharaoh, like all tyrants, feared any threat to his power. But he is fooled, because the shrewd midwives are blessed by God to save the newborn sons of Israel. And his evil, infanticidal decree becomes Egypt's own downfall as a baby named Moses floats down the Nile and is adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. This same Moses will later drown the Egyptian armies in the Red Sea.

When Jesus is born, another tyrant, Herod, will seek to kill our Lord, for he sees him as a threat to his power. And, as before, the Father will use this evil decree for the salvation of his people. He will send Jesus into Egypt to begin his ministry of restoring humanity. Unlike tyrants, Christ employs his unlimited power in loving sacrifice for humanity.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Genesis 16:8  And the angel of the Lord said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai."

Hagar had good reason to run away. She didn't ask for her body to be forced into baby-making slavery by Darai and Abram. She seems to have been a bit uppity when she got pregnant, yes, but that was no cause for Sarai to treat her cruelly. So when the Lord's messenger asked Hagar, "Where are you going?" she admitted she was running away.

We might not like the fact that God sent her back - back to her sufferings - but sometimes that's where the Lord, in His wisdom, does guide us. Back under the cross. Back under responsibility. He sustained Hagar as he will sustain us. The Lord of mercy, who was once a weak and vulnerable baby, is ever near the weak and vulnerable now. In joy or suffering, he guides us by his mercy.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,