The Light to the Gentiles

The Advent of Jesus Christ: Son of Abraham

God chose one man in all the world to bless and to use to create a “great nation.” His descendents would grow and prosper and enjoy a unique relationship with the Almighty.

But the blessings of God would not be confined to this one family. God told Abraham, “through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed” (Gen 22:18). God’s intention was that Abraham’s Seed would be a “light for revelation to the Gentiles” (Luke 2:32) as well because

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Is 49:6).

God’s plan was not to choose one people among all others but to make Himself a new people that “will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:29). On that day there will be “a great multitude … from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb” (Rev 7:9).

In this season we celebrate more than the birth of a baby. We celebrate a hope shared. The hope of the Messiah was not that He would save the Jews but that He would make a new Israel and that those who were excluded from the first covenant could be part of the second. Now we can celebrate that we are “no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household” (Eph 2:19).