Notice how Zechariah’s vision of what God is about to do on the First Advent was completely shaped by building the community of God in this world:<\/p>\n
\n67<\/a> <\/span>His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68<\/a> <\/span>“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.
69<\/a> <\/span>He has raised up a horn <\/a>of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70<\/a> <\/span>(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71<\/a> <\/span>salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us- 72<\/a> <\/span>to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73<\/a> <\/span>the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74<\/a> <\/span>to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75<\/a> <\/span>in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nZechariah sees God about to do a marvelous work: <\/p>\n
* redeeming God’s people
* through the horn of salvation
* which means “salvation from our enemies” and “from the hand of all who hate us”
* which means mercy to our fathers and the Abrahamic covenant people
* which means rescue from the hand of our enemies
* so God’s people, Israel, could serve\/worship in holiness and righteousness.<\/p>\nGood grief: everywhere it’s the rescue and redemption of Israel, God’s people. Christmas is about God’s people being liberated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Notice how Zechariah’s vision of what God is about to do on the First Advent was completely shaped by building the community of God in this world: 67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.69 He…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent"],"yoast_head":"\n
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