What a profound and powerful message to kick off the opening pages of the New Testament! After four hundred years of prophetic silence, many of God's waiting people may have wondered whether He had forgotten His promises and deserted them. But then Jesus Himself arrived with an offer of the kingdom, based on one condition--faith. Faith in a Messiah who met very few people's expectations. Faith in a kingdom that advanced through peace rather than war. Faith in a God who cared not only for His people, Israel, but for the whole world.For anybody who feels like God forgets His people, Matthew speaks loudly in the silence. Though God may not show up exactly the way we're expecting or through the means we think He should, God does show up. Matthew's Gospel not only reveals that Jesus is the King, Israel's long-awaited Messiah, but it also reminds us that Jesus is our Immanuel--"God with us"--now resurrected and ascended, yet with us still, even to the end of the age.

Get ready to meet your King! --Chuck Swindoll.