Send Us a Man

After the Israelites had finished their forty years of wandering in the desert, Moses said to them,

¹⁵ “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶ just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. [Deut. 18.15-18, ESV]

 Moses was reminding them of the time forty years previously, when they arrived at the base of Mount Horeb/Sinai and God appeared on the top of the mountain as fire, smoke, and lightning, and spoke through thunder, and the Israelites were afraid. [Exod 19.16-20] Essentially what the Israelites were saying was that God was frightening, and would he please send them a man who was not frightening. So, God agreed and promised to send a man, and God would put his words in this prophet's mouth.

Fast forward some centuries to the end of the period of the judges, during the time of Samuel the prophet:

⁴ Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah ⁵ and said to him, “ ... Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations. ... ²⁰ that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”  [1 Sam 8.4-5, 20, ESV]

And Samuel prayed to the Lord. ⁷ And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. [1 Sam 8.6-7, ESV]

 Effectively what the elders were saying was that God was too remote, so they wanted a man sent to them, whom they could see and hear. So, Samuel first anointed Saul to be their king, and later he anointed David to be king. During David's reign, God said to David:

¹² When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. [2 Sam. 7.12-14]

 God promised to send a man, who would be his own son to reign forever on David's throne.

Twice God the Israelites spurned God's presence among them and his direct leadership, and twice God agreed to meet their expressed desires for a man instead. The Israelites did not know it, but God had already formulated a secret plan before the beginning of time to meet their expressed desires while meeting his own great desire to live among his people, and lead them directly. So a few hundred years later, God started sharing his secret plan with Isaiah:

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. [Isaiah 7.14, ESV]

Immanuel means "God with us". In that infant son, God would be present among his people. A few chapters later in the book of Isaiah, more information is given about this infant:

⁶ For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. [Isaiah 9.6-7, ESV]

The baby boy would be Mighty God himself, and the everlasting king of Israel. So in the fullness of time, the promised man--king and prophet--arrived, robed in swaddling clothes and enthroned in a manger. He arrived with an army of singing angels and was watched over by the shepherds of the Passover lambs.