The Joshua Victor Theory

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Last week we listened to the words of the prophet Zephaniah, who spoke about God’s joy and how He sings over His redeemed. Today, we rewind the clock even further, another 100-150 years at least, to the words of the prophet Micah, who anticipates the birth of the promised Savior. All the prophets “sang in harmony,” pointing to the Messiah or Christ, along with their various individual concerns. For most of them, the threat of surrounding superpowers like Assyria and Babylon, and the invasion of Israel loomed large. No less for Micah. Micah lived alongside Isaiah, the greatest of the writing prophets. Together, Micah and Isaiah gave great witness to the coming birth of the Savior. Some of Isaiah’s most famous prophecies are of the Virgin Birth (7:14), and the child born to be the Prince of Peace (9:6). This passage in Micah 5, echoes many words of Isaiah. God’s Old Testament people longed for a Savior, a Delive...

“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord... For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.” In just a few words, when Peter says to Jesus, at His Transfiguration: “It’s good Lord to be here” and offers to build dwellings for Jesus and the rest of them to stay there; Peter is echoing the thoughts of Psalm 84, our Introit. Like Peter marveling about the glory of being in Jesus’ presence, so the Psalm speaks of the delight of being together with God in His dwelling place, His courts; how his soul thirsts to stay with the living God forever. At the Transfiguration, when the Father speaks from the heavens, He does not answer Peter’s suggestion, but calls him to silence and to listen to Jesus. “ This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” As God’s courts and dwelling place are lovely to the people, so God’s Son Jesus is lovely to the Father. Dear to both God’s heart and ours, is Jesus...

Sermon Outline: ·          The conclusion of a conversation (begins vs. 9): “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him says the Holy One.” Isaiah 40:25-31—God is asking, Have you considered His greatness? The size and reach of the universe? We have the most meager and inadequate measurements to try to grasp it. Man has not instructed God in wisdom or understanding, as if we could teach Him anything—neither about justice or knowledge. Compared to God, we are utterly nothing—dust, a drop in the bucket, nothing and emptiness. God is incomparable to anything we might compare Him too, and the thought of comparing Him to idols and false gods is an utter insult and foolishness. He is the One who laid down the foundations of the earth and stretched out the heavens like a tent. Our existence is momentary in comparison. ·          Don’t like to think of ourselves this way, as dust and nothingnes...