Treasure Jesus (Day 2 Devotions)

Gold Rush VBS Day 2: Treasure Jesus

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

Imagine your young daughter comes to you one day after finishing her chores and making the daily bread. She says, “Dear parents, as you know, our people have been promised a savior for hundreds of years. Even from the beginning, Yahweh has promised that He would send one to save His people from their sins. Today, an angel told me I would bear the Promised One! Mom, Dad—our savior is coming! And it’s true what our prophet Isaiah said over 700 years ago—I have known no man, yet I am with child.”

Would you think she was crazy? Would you call to mind all the promises from the Law and the Prophets you’ve been taught since your childhood, mulling over each one, waiting to see if more than this one spoken by Isaiah would come to pass through your daughter and her child? Would you tick each one off your mental checklist?

He was the child of a woman (Genesis 3:15). Check.

Micah said He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Check.

Solomon said kings would worship Him (Psalm 72:10–11). Check.

Hosea said He would be called out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1). Check.

Is it really possible that one child could fulfill all these promises? Was your daughter telling the truth those many months ago? Could this child, whose name means “The Lord saves,” really be the Promised One?

Those shepherds who came to visit the baby, wanting to see the Savior that had been born to us, Christ the Lord—did they really know what they were talking about? This is our Savior? . . . This is our Savior!

As you read the passages revealing the events surrounding the birth of Christ for the umpteenth time, meditate on the events that set His birth apart from all others—the fulfillment of prophecy, the worship of shepherds and kings, the lowly manger cradling the King of Kings. As you share the good news of the Creator who stepped into history as a baby, make sure your children know that this was no ordinary baby. This is Immanuel, God with us.

May we pray as the Puritans did:

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,

and enlarge my mind;

Let me hear good tidings of great joy, and hearing,

believe, rejoice, praise, adore,

My conscience bathed in an ocean of repose, my

eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;

Place me with ox, ass, camel, goat, to look with them

upon my redeemer’s face,

And in him account myself delivered from sin;

Let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my

heart, embrace him with undying faith, exulting that

he is mine and I am his.

In him thou hast given me so much that heaven can

give no more.

—Arthur Bennet, The Valley of Vision (The Banner of Truth Trust: 2005), p. 16.