Posts Tagged ‘ Birth of Jesus ’
Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord.
Luke 2:11, CSB
God told the Prophets that God would come to save His people, and He came. No one expected Him to become a human, but He was born, lived, and suffered like us and for us to show His love for us and that He is worthy to be our King.
And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior”
Luke 1:46-47, CSB
God told the Prophets God was coming to save His people, and Mary also worshiped her Son. We can know Jesus is God with us and worthy of our worship, for He was born to die for our sins.
14 years ago, I wrote a series of Christmas devotional thoughts. For my church for 2023, I edited those and made a short, 6-day devotional booklet. I recently saw the need for a couple of edits, so I did that.
I am once again putting it here for your downloading pleasure.
It is a simple, fun yet still serious look at how some people responded to Christ’s birth 2000 years ago with some added application for today.
I pray you enjoy and are blessed by it.
Merry Christmas!
When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Matthew 2:10-11, ESV
God showed His love through Jesus, our God made flesh, worshipped by commoners and kings alike. Let us love the One who loved us enough to come as a baby to grow up to take on our punishment.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Galatians 4:4-5, ESV
God has shown His love through Jesus, coming at just the right time as a human so that He could redeem us through His life, death, and resurrection. He has adopted us through Christ and sealed us with His Spirit.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Luke 2:13-14, ESV
God’s love is shown in Jesus, the glory of God contained in a baby, the One who would bring us peace with God through His life, death, and resurrection.
During a recent daily reading plan, I read a passage that made me stop and make an unexpected connection between the Old Testament and the Birth Story of Jesus. Amazingly, an online friend of mine, SlimJim over at Veritas Domain (Domain for Truth), made the same connection. Thankfully for me, he did a lot of the hard work of study, so go read his take on this.
As for my take, here is …
I suggest reading all 21 verses of Obadiah before continuing.
It should be pointed out that there are no direct references to Obadiah anywhere in the New Testament.
The book of Obadiah is the prophecy that because of Edom’s treachery toward Israel, specifically not only not helping Israel and Judah but even aiding other people – most importantly Babylon – in attacking God’s people, Edom now faces impending destruction, and that Israel will be restored and glorified.
As Genesis 25 told us, Edom was the other name of Esau, Jacob’s brother, and they were in contention from the womb and forward. Genesis 28 also tells us that Esau married the daughter of Ishmael, his uncle through Hagar. This shows a two-fold animosity toward the people of Israel, descendants of the two brothers who did not receive the Abrahamic promises.
Edom lived in the area southeast of the Dead Sea, and they were later called in Greek the Idumeans (we can see the similar sounds to catch the same name) with an area that then extended west toward the Mediterranean Sea. We learn from Josephus’ Antiquities, primarily in Book 14, chapters 7-8, that Herod the Great has Greek, Jewish, and Edomite heritage.
Herod played up his Jewishness by his ordering construction of great buildings, most especially expanding the Temple to the biggest yet! He also played favorites with Roman Empire, showing his allegiances lied outside of worship to God.
Well, he continued the historical trend of sibling rivalry. As we see in Matthew 2, he was scared of someone becoming king over him, so he connived and made a decree to kill all of the Jewish boys in and around Bethlehem.
An Edomite was ruling over Judah and attempting to keep Jews under his control, just like Esau did centuries earlier with Jacob, and just like Esau’s descendants for centuries in between.
And this king is trying to kill the True King by slaughtering all the local boys, just like the king of Egypt 1,400 years earlier.
After they were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up! Take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. For Herod is about to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and escaped to Egypt. He stayed there until Herod’s death, so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled: Out of Egypt I called my Son.
Matthew 2:13-18, CSB
Then Herod, when he realized that he had been outwitted by the wise men, flew into a rage. He gave orders to massacre all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, in keeping with the time he had learned from the wise men. Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:
A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children;
and she refused to be consoled,
because they are no more.
And we see further fulfillment of v. 10,
You will be covered with shame
Obadiah 10, CSB
and destroyed forever
because of violence done to your brother Jacob.
You see, in another 40 or so years, his grandson Agrippa kills James the brother of John and tried to imprison Peter (Acts 12:1-19). After Peter is released by an angel, Agrippa leaves Jerusalem for Caesarea, and here he accepts worship from the people.
On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.
Acts 12:21-23, CSB
We see Herod’s house, leadership of Edom, being wiped out, just as promised.
The very next verse shows the Christmas promise, as well:
But the word of God increased and multiplied.
Acts 12:24, CSB
So, Obadiah can be considered a Christmas prophecy. You heard it here first (and from SlimJim, I guess.)
More importantly, we see how all of Scripture is connected.
We see that God is sovereign over history.
We see that God knew what was going to happen from eternity past.
We see that God keeps His promises of restoration as well as wrath.
So, we can trust Him and celebrate His redemptive work through the Son who dwelt among men, our Emmanuel, who now dwells in all believers by the Holy Spirit to the glory of the Father.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”
Luke 2:9-10, ESV
The love of God is found in Christ and seeing that the first pronouncement of His coming going to dirty shepherds. All are welcome to the God who became part of His creation to save it.
And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
Luke 2:7, ESV
God showed His love by sending Jesus to become human like us, and He knew need and loss like the rest of us. We have a God who understands what wr go through, because of His love.
“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:21, ESV
God’s love is shown in Jesus becoming a human, through childbirth, to save us from our sins.
a simple man of God 