MERRY CHRISTMAS
I promised a couple of days ago to write a Christmas
greeting on my blog on Christmas Day.
What I have to day about Christmas has probably already
been said before, well at least some of it, but if that is the case then I will
say it again. Christmas, to me, holds
mixed feelings in my mind. I am not one
who likes going all out on buying presents just because it is Christmas, but
want to remember what Christmas is suppose to be all about. Now we know that Jesus Christ was probably not
born on the 25th of December, but we do know that He was born, and
probably born in the winter months, and I do not know exactly know how the 25th
of December came about as the day we celebrate Christmas. I suppose a little digging on the internet
would answer that question, but I probably will not do that. Like I say the important thing is that Jesus
Christ was born into the world and the first prophecy of Him coming into the
world goes all the way back to the book of Genesis, and right after Adam and Eve
sinned we read “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between
your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise
him on the heel."” God is speaking
of Satan in this passage and also He is saying that there will be war between
Satan and the offspring of the woman. “I’m
declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He’ll
wound your head, you’ll wound his heel." (Message)” We see in the NASB
that God speaks of the “seed of the woman,” and this is the only time we see
this in the Word of God. The seed comes
through the man, but there were three differences in the Scriptures when this
did not happen that way. First God
created Adam out of the earth, and then God created woman out of Adam’s rib,
and then we read that Mary became pregnant through the Holy Spirit and this is
where we get the seed of the woman as involved in the birth of Jesus Christ.
Now as we read through the Old Testament we see how the
Lord narrows down the line in which the Messiah would come from. In the book of Matthew we see the bloodline
of Jesus through Joseph, and in Luke’s gospel we see the bloodline of Jesus
through Mary. Both Joseph and Mary were
descendants of David, but Mary came through the line of Nathan while Joseph
came through Solomon. Luke’s line of
Jesus goes all the way back to God, while Matthew’s line only goes back to
Abraham. One of the kings of Judah,
Jeconiah had a curse against him and so his line could not be in the line of
the Messiah to be King. As I said Mary
came through the line of Nathan, Luke 3:31 “the son of Melea, the son of Menna,
the son of Mattatha, the
son of Nathan, the son of David,.” Joseph also came from the line of David and
even though Jeconiah was in his line this did not permit Jesus from being the
Messiah for He was not born of Joseph but of the Holy Spirit and Mary.
Now as far as the place where Jesus was born and who was
there when He was born, it is not like the nativity scenes we see in people’s
yards or in their houses. I read a
historic novel a few years ago and the author incorporated into the birth of
Jesus a place called Midgal Eder and this place is mentioned in the book of
Micah 4:8 where we read “8 "As for you, tower of the flock, Hill of the
daughter of Zion, To you it will come-Even the former dominion will come, The
kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.”
The words “tower of the flock” in the Hebrew is Midgal Eder, and this
place was near Bethlehem on the way to Jerusalem and is where the lambs were born
who would go to the temple and used for sacrifices. There was a cave there and many believe that
Jesus was born in that cave where these sacrificial lambs were born. When you think about this it all makes
perfect sense. Now as far as who was
there we know that Joseph, Mary, Jesus and later on the shepherds came, but as
far as the wise men they did not come and see Jesus until he was near two years
old. They probably came from what was
once Babylon and they probably got their information from Daniel who prophesied
in his book of the time when the Messiah would die and so they would know when
it would be near time for Him to be born and looked for Him following a
star. They first came to see Herod and
asked him where the Messiah would be born and then went to find Him, giving
gifts to Him and were then told in a dream not to go back to tell Herod. Herod then had all male boys from the age of
two years old and younger killed as was prophesied by Jeremiah.
Okay so the story of Jesus’ birth is probably much
different than what we use to celebrate it in our world today as I tried to
bring out, but the point of all of this is that God was in control of all the
things which would bring His Son into the world to fulfill what His plans were
for Him to accomplish, and He accomplished all of them, and we can praise the
Lord on this Christmas Day that He did accomplish all of them. Jesus told His mother while in the temple
that He came to do His Father’s will and at the end of His life, while hanging
on a cross He said “It is finished.”
What was finished was His becoming sin for us so that we could receive
His righteousness and have it credited to our account so that when the Father
looks at those who have received this free gift of salvation He will see Jesus Christ
and not our sinfulness.
The all time very best gift a person can receive on
Christmas Day or any other day is to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord,
to confess that they are a sinner in need of a Savior and find out that Jesus
paid it all, and receive Him as Savior and Lord.
Merry Christmas to all!
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