Christmas Eve
December 24, 2023
The message this afternoon was Pastor Patrick reading the Christmas Story, mostly from Micah, Isaiah, Luke, and Matthew.Let's focus our attention this week on the Old Testament prophecies about the birth of Jesus and the new Testament references to those prophecies when written...
You might say it's a "What DID the Torah Say?" essay...
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Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
Matthew 1:22-23, "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel' (which means 'God with us')."
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Micah 5:2, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans[a] of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."
Matthew 2:5, "And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judæa: for thus it is written by the prophet."
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A number of OT texts use the word branch (netzer) from which comes the word Nazareth. Some of the prophets spoke of the Messiah as the Branch. See Isaiah 11:1, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15, and Zechariah 3:8 and 6:12.
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Jesus would enter Jerusalem on a donkey. See Zechariah 9:9, "Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
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Psalm 72:10, "May the kings of Tarshish and of distant shores bring tribute to him. May the kings of Sheba and Seba present him gifts."
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Isaiah 9:6, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." From this have come many religious musical pieces, one of the most notable being "For Unto us a Child is Born" from Handel's Messiah. Hear it from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
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Hosea 11:1, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son." This is in reference to Mary, Joseph fleeing with Jesus to Egypt when Joseph is instructed to do so. Some years later, Joseph is told to return to Nazareth.
Matthew 2:13-15, "When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. 'Get up,' he said, 'take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.' So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'"
Matthew 2:19-23, "After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead.' So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene."
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Jeremiah 31:15, "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." This is in reference to the babies 2 years of age and under being slaughtered in and around Bethlehem by order of Herod. Ramah is where Jacob's wife Sarah was buried near Bethlehem after dying in childbirth of Benjamin.
Matthew 2:17-18, "Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 'A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." This is in direct reference to Herod's slaughter of the babies of Bethlehem.
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Bonus
Fourth Sunday of Advent - Peace
This year, the 4th Sunday of Advent also happens to be Christmas Eve. That is why all four candles plus the Christ Candle (white) are lit in the above picture.
For our purposes, Peace is the theme for the fourth Sunday of Advent.
The Biblical Hebrew word for peace is shalome (שָׁלוֹם). It may well be the most well-known Hebrew word amongst non-Hebrew speaking people. This is probably because it's used as a greeting and a parting goodbye. It's also added to certain events, such as the common greeting "Shabbat Shalom" on the Jewish Sabbath.
Both shalome and our word peace relative to Advent is much bigger than merely "no fighting." It speaks of a sense of well-being in the big picture. It includes thoughts like: safe, sound, healthy, perfect, complete, wholeness, health, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, fullness, rest, harmony, secure, satisfied, and calm. I would say it includes an element of faith - faith that all will ultimately be made right by God.
The word shalome is translated as "peace" over 200 times on the Old Testament.
Shalom peace is only available through God and the Prince of Peace.
"Men of Shalom" are trusted/trustworthy people.
For a rather thorough study of the word shalom, click here.
We talked about Peace at our Family Dinner last Saturday (16 people!) during which we celebrated the 4th Sunday of Advent and read the Christmas stories from Luke and Matthew. We also had a crazy-fun Christmas Trivia game. Christmas trivia is very easy to find on the internet, just search on "Christmas trivia free" and the like. I gathered up hundreds of questions/answers in no time.
Bonus2
Christmas Movie Wisdom
It's no secret that the whole family is addicted to Christmas movies. All kinds, and yes, including Die Hard. Lynn and I took an interesting turn this year focusing on Christmas movies we hadn't seen before (or at least didn't remember seeing). And as always, these had fresh perspectives and new wisdom embedded in them.
Dear Santa is one such movie. There are lots of lessons, but the one I want to mention came from a homeless person who wouldn't go into the soup kitchen. He tells our heroine that "every decision is a gamble. Some change your life, some good some bad." Noone has a crystal ball. Your best shot is to know good from evil and proceed accordingly.
The above movie got me to thinking about who determines outcomes. An honest review of human history suggests that God does not often intervene to drive things in the right direction or even set things right after the fact. So to whom do we look? Ourselves! As Jim Carrey remarks at the end of Bruce Almighty: "Be the miracle!" Yes, YOU be the miracle. Who else? (I know, it's not a Christmas movie, but a Christmas movie made me think about it.)
The earlier-mentioned Dear Santa movie drives home this point as well. A young women struggling to get beyond an opulent lifestyle gets a letter meant for Santa but is literally blown into her face. It's from a little girl asking Santa for a new mother and wife for her dad. You can imagine where the story goes! This one is "Be the Santa!"
Do not miss the point that parents and other gift givers are the real Santas, and real people do God's handiwork.
Another movie that teaches a lesson about lost opportunities is Dear Secret Santa. And there's a little bit of sci-fi to it as well which certainly scratches one of my itches.
Let's close with The Santa Clause 2. (This series we watch EVERY year.) As Lucy points out to her older brother, Charlie (paraphrased), "It's NOT a hard question!" when Charlie suggests that reconciling with his dad is "a really hard question." It's simple, Lucy continues, "He's your Daddy and you love him!" Charlie's got to recognize the real situation and be the miracle.
Another great line from The Santa Clause movies is "Seeing isn't believing, believing is seeing." This was true way back when the Israelites were seeing miracle after miracle, big ones (e.g. throughout the Exodus) and "little" ones every day (e.g. manna). And yet they often complained, lost faith, even wanted to go back to Egypt. It's also true today when miracles haven't been as obvious for some time now. Witnessing a miracle, even if recognized as one, doesn't last. It's the "what have you done for me lately" syndrome. But when you have real faith, you see miracles all the time.
See the miracles. Be the miracles.