Hope for Humpty Dumpty

A Series on Advent

Leviticus 25:8-12; Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 4:14-19

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2025%3A8-12%2CIsaiah%2061%3A1-3%2CLuke%204%3A14-21&version=NIV;NLT

 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

This famous English poem is about a character who apparently is quite clumsy. As a result, he is broken beyond repair. It’s hard to relate to Humpty Dumpty on a personal level. But, as a metaphor to real life, because of our sinful nature, we are all broken beyond repair.

 

The nation of Israel was certainly not exempt from this. Even though they were God’s chosen people and He made a covenant with them to lead them to the Promised Land, they failed time and time again. They were truly a broken people. They were a Humpty Dumpty nation that only God could put back together again.

 

Therefore, in Leviticus, God gave them a routine that would bring them hope. The Year of Jubilee, and the preceding Sabbath Years, were to be a vision of hope that would regularly remind His people that He would always be with them. It was to be a cycle of life that would help the people to realign themselves with the kingdom of God.

 

Unfortunately, the people of Israel did not take kindly to realigning their lives. As a result, they were sent into exile. As indentured servants and slaves in Babylonia,

Isaiah reminded them about the Year of Jubilee. It was a promise to return to their homeland; a promise of hope; of the Messiah that was to come.

 

Into this historical setting, Jesus went to the town where he had grown up – Nazareth. And on the Sabbath, he read from Isaiah in the synagogue.

 

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”                    NIV

 

By quoting Isaiah, Jesus was reminding them of the Year of Jubilee. Following his reading he sat down, and with all eyes on him, pronounced that he was the fulfillment of this promise; that he was the Messiah; that he would heal the brokenhearted; that he would put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

 

 

COMMENT:

Hope is the theme of the first week of Advent; four weeks of preparation; four weeks for us to be reminded of the historical setting of the birth of Christ; of the coming of the Messiah; of God with us; of hope for a broken people.

 

The Year of Jubilee, found in Leviticus 25, came once every 50 years. At that time, slaves were freed, debts were canceled and ancestral property was returned to the original family. By referring to these verses, Isaiah predicted primarily the liberation of Israel from the Babylonian exile; but Jesus proclaimed liberation from sin and all its consequences.

  

There is hope for all of us who are broken. Click on the link below to listen to the song by Matthew West called Broken Things.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdUu6ZsdVfM