Advent Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries of Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "Everything Is New" for Sunday, January 1, 2017

Advent Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries of Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "Everything Is New" for Sunday, January 1, 2017

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And at the end of eight days ... He was circumcised ...(Luke 2:21). 
New Year's Day was always an exciting new beginning. If the old year had brought us pain and misery, we could rejoice that it was over, gone, behind us. And in the dawning of a new day, there was the hope the New Year would be so much better.
This day was also a new beginning for the Baby Jesus. Jesus is eight days old, and it is now time to circumcise Him, according to the Law of the Lord. This ceremony made Jesus a member of God's people Israel. It also bound Him under the Law, obligating Him to keep that Law perfectly. As our Substitute, Jesus perfectly obeyed God's Law, so His perfection, holiness and righteousness might be ours, covering our failings, our flaws, and our sins.
But His circumcision carries with it the reminder that Jesus will not simply cover our sin, He will remove it from us -- forever. On this eighth day of His young life, Jesus first sheds His blood for us, but it will certainly not be the last time He does this. On a dark day some 30 years into the future, Jesus will shed His blood and die on the cross to satisfy God's wrath against our sins.
The symbolism of His circumcision and our Baptism both remind us of God's work, cutting off our sinful nature or drowning it. In Baptism God makes us new creatures, so we can stand before Him spotless and pure through Jesus Christ.
What a way to start a New Year!
THE PRAYER: Lord Jesus, in Your circumcision Your blood was first shed as our Substitute. Cut the sin from our hearts, that we may enter this New Year in Your holiness and purity. Amen.
Today's Bible in a Year Reading: Genesis 1-3; Matthew 1
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So there was evening, and there was morning, one day.

6 God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the water; let it divide the water from the water.” 7 God made the dome and divided the water under the dome from the water above the dome; that is how it was, 8 and God called the dome Sky. So there was evening, and there was morning, a second day.

9 God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let dry land appear,” and that is how it was. 10 God called the dry land Earth, the gathering together of the water he called Seas, and God saw that it was good.

11 God said, “Let the earth put forth grass, seed-producing plants, and fruit trees, each yielding its own kind of seed-bearing fruit, on the earth”; and that is how it was. 12 The earth brought forth grass, plants each yielding its own kind of seed, and trees each producing its own kind of seed-bearing fruit; and God saw that it was good. 13 So there was evening, and there was morning, a third day.

(A: ii) 14 God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to divide the day from the night; let them be for signs, seasons, days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth”; and that is how it was. 16 God made the two great lights — the larger light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night — and the stars. 17 God put them in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 So there was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.

20 God said, “Let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open dome of the sky.” 21 God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that creeps, so that the water swarmed with all kinds of them, and there was every kind of winged bird; and God saw that it was good. 22 Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, multiply and fill the water of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 So there was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day.

(A: iii) 24 God said, “Let the earth bring forth each kind of living creature — each kind of livestock, crawling animal and wild beast”; and that is how it was. 25 God made each kind of wild beast, each kind of livestock and every kind of animal that crawls along the ground; and God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in the likeness of ourselves; and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the animals, and over all the earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the earth.”

27 So God created humankind in his own image;

in the image of God he created him:

male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them: God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Here! Throughout the whole earth I am giving you as food every seed-bearing plant and every tree with seed-bearing fruit. 30 And to every wild animal, bird in the air and creature crawling on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I am giving as food every kind of green plant.” And that is how it was. 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So there was evening, and there was morning, a sixth day.

2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them. 2 On the seventh day God was finished with his work which he had made, so he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 God blessed the seventh day and separated it as holy; because on that day God rested from all his work which he had created, so that it itself could produce.

(A: iv, S: ii) 4 Here is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created. On the day when Adonai, God, made earth and heaven, 5 there was as yet no wild bush on the earth, and no wild plant had as yet sprung up; for Adonai, God, had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no one to cultivate the ground. 6 Rather, a mist went up from the earth which watered the entire surface of the ground.

7 Then Adonai, God, formed a person [Genesis 2:7 Hebrew: adam] from the dust of the ground [Genesis 2:7 Hebrew: adamah] and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, so that he became a living being. 8 Adonai, God, planted a garden toward the east, in ‘Eden, and there he put the person whom he had formed. 9 Out of the ground Adonai, God, caused to grow every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river went out of ‘Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided into four streams. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it winds throughout the land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there. 13 The name of the second river is Gichon; it winds throughout the land of Kush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it is the one that flows toward the east of Ashur. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 Adonai, God, took the person and put him in the garden of ‘Eden to cultivate and care for it. 16 Adonai, God, gave the person this order: “You may freely eat from every tree in the garden 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You are not to eat from it, because on the day that you eat from it, it will become certain that you will die.”

18 Adonai, God, said, “It isn’t good that the person should be alone. I will make for him a companion suitable for helping him.” 19 So from the ground Adonai, God, formed every wild animal and every bird that flies in the air, and he brought them to the person to see what he would call them. Whatever the person would call each living creature, that was to be its name. (S: iii) 20 So the person gave names to all the livestock, to the birds in the air and to every wild animal. But for Adam there was not found a companion suitable for helping him.

21 Then God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the person; and while he was sleeping, he took one of his ribs and closed up the place from which he took it with flesh. 22 The rib which Adonai, God, had taken from the person, he made a woman-person; and he brought her to the man-person. 23 The man-person said, “At last! This is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. She is to be called Woman [Genesis 2:23 Hebrew: ishah], because she was taken out of Man [Genesis 2:23 Hebrew: ish].” 24 This is why a man is to leave his father and mother and stick with his wife, and they are to be one flesh.

25 They were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.

3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any wild animal which Adonai, God, had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You are not to eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden, 3 but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, ‘You are neither to eat from it nor touch it, or you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “It is not true that you will surely die; 5 because God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it had a pleasing appearance and that the tree was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her; and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together to make themselves loincloths.

8 They heard the voice of Adonai, God, walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, so the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Adonai, God, among the trees in the garden. 9 Adonai, God, called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I ordered you not to eat?” 12 The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me — she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Adonai, God, said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me, so I ate.”

14 Adonai, God, said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all livestock and wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and eat dust as long as you live. 15 I will put animosity between you and the woman, and between your descendant and her descendant; he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”

16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pain in childbirth. You will bring forth children in pain. Your desire will be toward your husband, but he will rule over you.”

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to what your wife said and ate from the tree about which I gave you the order, ‘You are not to eat from it,’ the ground is cursed on your account; you will work hard to eat from it as long as you live. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat field plants. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your forehead till you return to the ground — for you were taken out of it: you are dust, and you will return to dust.”

20 The man called his wife Havah [life], because she was the mother of all living.

21 Adonai, God, made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

(A: v, S: iv) 22 Adonai, God, said, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, to prevent his putting out his hand and taking also from the tree of life, eating, and living forever — ” 23 therefore Adonai, God, sent him out of the garden of ‘Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 So he drove the man out, and he placed at the east of the garden of ‘Eden the k’ruvim and a flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

Matthew 1:1 This is the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah, son of David, son of Avraham:

2 Avraham was the father of Yitz’chak,

Yitz’chak was the father of Ya‘akov,

Ya‘akov was the father of Y’hudah and his brothers,

3 Y’hudah was the father of Peretz and Zerach (their mother was Tamar),

Peretz was the father of Hetzron,

Hetzron was the father of Ram,

4 Ram was the father of ‘Amminadav,

‘Amminadav was the father of Nachshon,

Nachshon was the father of Salmon,

5 Salmon was the father of Bo‘az (his mother was Rachav),

Bo‘az was the father of ‘Oved (his mother was Rut),

‘Oved was the father of Yishai,

6 Yishai was the father of David the king.

David was the father of Shlomo (his mother was the wife of Uriyah),

7 Shlomo was the father of Rechav‘am,

Rechav‘am was the father of Aviyah,

Aviyah was the father of Asa,

8 Asa was the father of Y’hoshafat,

Y’hoshafat was the father of Yoram,

Yoram was the father of ‘Uziyahu,

9 ‘Uziyahu was the father of Yotam,

Yotam was the father of Achaz,

Achaz was the father of Hizkiyahu,

10 Hizkiyahu was the father of M’nasheh,

M’nasheh was the father of Amon,

Amon was the father of Yoshiyahu,

11 Yoshiyahu was the father of Y’khanyahu and his brothers

    at the time of the Exile to Bavel.

12 After the Babylonian Exile, Y’khanyahu was the father of Sh’altiel,

Sh’altiel was the father of Z’rubavel,

13 Z’rubavel was the father of Avihud,

Avihud was the father of Elyakim,

Elyakim was the father of ‘Azur,

14 ‘Azur was the father of Tzadok,

Tzadok was the father of Yakhin,

Yakhin was the father of El’ichud,

15 El’ichud was the father of El‘azar,

El‘azar was the father of Mattan,

Mattan was the father of Ya‘akov,

16 Ya‘akov was the father of Yosef the husband of Miryam,

    from whom was born the Yeshua who was called the Messiah.

17 Thus there were fourteen generations from Avraham to David,

fourteen generations from David to the Babylonian Exile,

and fourteen generations from the Babylonian Exile to the Messiah.

18 Here is how the birth of Yeshua the Messiah took place. When his mother Miryam was engaged to Yosef, before they were married, she was found to be pregnant from the Ruach HaKodesh. 19 Her husband-to-be, Yosef, was a man who did what was right; so he made plans to break the engagement quietly, rather than put her to public shame. 20 But while he was thinking about this, an angel of Adonai appeared to him in a dream and said, “Yosef, son of David, do not be afraid to take Miryam home with you as your wife; for what has been conceived in her is from the Ruach HaKodesh. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, [which means ‘Adonai saves,’] because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this happened in order to fulfill what Adonai had said through the prophet,

23 “The virgin will conceive and bear a son,

and they will call him ‘Immanu El.”[Matthew 1:23 Isaiah 7:14]

(The name means, “God is with us.”)

24 When Yosef awoke he did what the angel of Adonai had told him to do — he took Miryam home to be his wife, 25 but he did not have sexual relations with her until she had given birth to a son, and he named him Yeshua.

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