Gail's Blog

 

The Christmas Story

The story of Jesus begins at the very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 1:1, when God creates the heavens and the earth. He fills the earth with light and plants and animals, and it is all good. Some say He ruined His world in Genesis 1:26, when He made man, because even then, God knew man would mess up His wonderful world. But that shows a misunderstanding of the nature of God. God cannot ruin what He made because He is all-powerful and can and does make just what He wants. So even knowing full well what man would do, God did not make a mistake in making him.

And man did hurt the world God made. Man chose to disobey God and that brought sin into the world. God shows man his sin, then He makes a tremendous promise in Genesis 3:15. He curses the serpent who tempted Eve, then he declares that Eve will have an offspring who will crush the serpent. This descendant is none other than Jesus, whom God will send to defeat death and evil.

Many details about the birth of Jesus are given long before they happen, because God does not want His people unaware of what He is doing. Isaiah tells the people that “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Matthew quotes that in his gospel account (Matthew 1:23). The prophet also made sure everyone would know that Jesus would be born like a regular child, even though He would bear the Names of God and “the government will be on his shoulders” (Isaiah 9:6). He also mentions camels coming and gold and incense proclaiming the “praise of the Lord” (Isaiah 60:6).

Isaiah prophecies about where Jesus will minister when He gets to be an adult (Isaiah 9:1), which confirms Jacob’s foresights in Genesis 49:13 and21 (just after Jacob mentions the scepter that “will not depart from Judah, ” another reference to Jesus in verse 10). But it is another prophet who says where Jesus will be born. There are at least two towns by the name of Bethlehem, so Micah specifies that it will be Bethlehem Ephrathah which will be blessed with the Savior’s advent. Although perhaps blessing is not the best word, because the small city will become a place of horror as king Herod has the baby boys killed to try to eliminate his rival, as predicted in Jeremiah 31:15.

A strange prophet, one who is not a Jew, gives another detail of Jesus’ birth. When the Jewish people are newly formed, coming out of Egypt (as would Jesus Himself, referenced in Hosea in 11:1), a neighboring king is very afraid of what God has done to protect His people. This king of Moab, called Balak, calls the prophet Balaam to put a curse of the Israelites. Balaam cannot do so, though, but says only good things. Among the oracles he pronounces come a vision of a star which will be seen from Judah,  a ruler (scepter) who will crush Moab and Edom, who are distant relatives of Israel (Numbers 24:17-19).

We know the story of Jesus’ birth as recorded in Matthew and Luke (most of you can probably recite portions from memory) – His coming to earth is the most amazing story ever to be told! Unless you consider what He did when He was here! That’s even more astonishing! He lived fully as human and God, experiencing all of life without sinning. Then He willingly allowed Himself to be arrested by those who hated Him and “humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8) – the most cruel and inhuman form of death possible (but described by King David in Psalm 22 and Isaiah in chapter 53 years before even being invented!).

The life of Jesus on earth, which happened “when the time had fully come” (Galatians 4:4), when the Pax Romana had the world civilized, with a common language, communication systems in place, an extensive roadwork to spread messages throughout, becomes the pivot point of all history – so far. But the story isn’t over yet. It will end – as we know it – with the last verse of the Bible, just as it began with the first. “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen” (Revelation 22:21). It starts and ends with grace – God’s Gift at Christmas and forever!