:: in.a.mirror.dimly ::

When God brings his salvation it is sometimes very hard to miss. In fact, he gives us plenty of signs because he knows there is a good chance we could miss it.

What would you think if you were a Jew living in Israel and you heard about:

1. An angel appearing to an old man with a barren wife.
2. The old man and his barren wife consequently conceiving a child.

That is soooo Abraham and Sarah. It would have practically screamed covenant fulfillment to the people who chatted about these events in the hill country of Judea afterward. It would have also built a lot of anticipation for the Messiah, especially when John the Baptist came on the scene.

Think about it. While living in Hebron God appeared to Abraham, possibly in the form of an angel, and promised that he’d have a son within a year’s time. Sure enough he and Sarai conceived Isaac, the child who would fulfill God’s promise.

I pick up a couple of key lessons about God’s salvation from these parallel stories:

• God wants there to be no mistake that salvation comes from him alone. Man brings little to the equation.
• God makes the coming of his salvation abundantly clear.
• We can still miss it. Partly because of what we think God’s salvation should look like and other times because we think we should have a larger role to play.

God wants to bring salvation and deliverance, but he’ll do it in his own way and with his own power. We don’t bring much to his work. It’s up to him.

However, we can look with expectation that God is not only able to act for our deliverance, but will also make it so clear that we can’t miss it when he does.