A Devotional for Your Family from ‘The Biggest Story Advent’

The Snake Crusher Is on His Way

There are many stories in the world about kings and dragons and damsels in distress. They’re all true—in a way. All those stories tell us something about good and evil and our need to be rescued. But only one rescue story is true inside and out, all the way down from heaven to earth (and back again).

This is the story about that story, the Biggest Story. In this story, we are the damsel in distress, God’s Son is our king, and the dragon . . . well, he is a dragon.

Sort of. The dragon isn’t an actual fire-breathing, flying, swooping, sneezing, sneaking dragon (though he is sneaky, and he will end up in a lake of fire). The dragon is actually the devil, and he first showed up in the world as a snake.

The slithering snake tricked Adam and Eve into eating the fruit that God told them not to eat. And that was how everything good in the world started to come undone.

But it was also the start of God’s promise to make everything new. No sooner had that ancient serpent done his foul deed than God promised to send a Snake Crusher to step on his head. It would take some waiting, but eventually, one day, many days and centuries later, the woman would be rescued, the dragon would be slayed, and the King would come.

But it was also the start of God’s promise to make everything new. The snake may have been up to no good, but God was up to lots of good. And no sooner had that ancient serpent done his foul deed than God promised to send a Snake Crusher to step on his head.

It would take some waiting, but eventually, one day, many days and centuries later, the woman would be rescued, the dragon would be slayed, and the King would come.

God With Us

About seven hundred years before the Snake Crusher came to earth, the prophet Isaiah spoke about a sign. Not a speed limit sign, or a stop sign, or the sign that marks out the boys’ bathroom from the girls’ bathroom. Those are all important signs (especially the last one!). This was a different kind of sign. More like a miracle.

God promised that a young woman would give birth to a son. That may not sound like such a big deal. After all, women get pregnant and have babies all the time.

But this woman was going to be a virgin. This means she had never been married when she got pregnant, and she had no earthly way to be pregnant. But “no earthly way” is not the same as “no heavenly way.” The power of the Most High would overshadow the young woman. The woman (you might have guessed her name would be Mary) would have a baby inside her when there was no human way a baby should have been inside her. With God all things are possible.

But that’s not all that was amazing about this sign. For this boy was to be called Immanuel, meaning “God with us.” Not just someone like God, or close to God, or sent from God, but God himself. God as a helpless baby, born of a virgin, come to earth to save us from our sins. That’s a sign we won’t want to forget.

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Gentle and Lowly

The prophet Isaiah had a lot to say about the coming Deliverer. As much as anyone in the Old Testament, God gave Isaiah a picture of what the Messiah would look like.

And the picture he saw—or, really, that he heard—was full of titles and images and promises. The one God’s people were waiting for was the Lord’s servant. He was also the Chosen One in whom the Lord delights. And he was the one blessed with the Spirit to bring forth justice to the nations.

We’ve heard some of those promises already. But now Isaiah says something else. The Deliverer is not just a mighty, Spirit-empowered, sword-carrying King. He is also gentle and lowly in heart. This doesn’t mean the Messiah is weak. It means he is strong enough to care for those in need and loving enough to suffer for the sake of his people.

The Snake Crusher is also a sin bearer and a people carer. He can stomp on the head of the devil. But he is also tender and kind—so tender that he will not snap a bent-over plant and so kind that he will not snuff out a barely lit candle. The Messiah loves his people with all the softness and hardness they need.

And he loves us to the end.

The Deliverer is not just a mighty, Spirit-empowered, sword-carrying King. He is also gentle and lowly in heart.

Head, Hands, and Feet

When God’s Son came into the world, he didn’t arrive with bells and whistles and a parade. True, the angels knew who he was. And they worshiped. The demons knew who he was. And they trembled. But human beings? Most of them found the promises of God to be more confusing than fractions. The Deliverer who showed up didn’t look like the Deliverer they were expecting. He certainly didn’t seem to be God come to earth.

At least not at first.

Although God’s Deliverer is the never-created-Son of God, he entered our world as a tiny baby. So, when all his friends and relatives got to know the Promised One, they had no idea who he really was. Even though he was greater than every created thing, he showed up among us as someone even lower than the angels. He was a true man.

But not just a man. God promised that, though his Son was cast down, someday he would be lifted up. And for those who have eyes to see, we can behold the glory in his head, his hands, and his feet: his head because he was crowned with glory and honor, his hands because he was given authority over all that God had made, and his feet because everything was put underneath him.

In other words, the promised child would be both a man and the Man that all men and women had been waiting for.

This article is adapted from The Biggest Story Advent: 25 Lift-the-Flap Devotions for Families by Kevin DeYoung.

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