Christmas is such a magical time of the year. Elves on the shelves, presents, family gatherings, ribbons, all the lights, decorated trees, and shopping tend to capture our imagination and time. For several months we become consumed with the magic of Christmas and all the other not so important things that accompany this season. With all the distractions of Christmas, we tend to give Jesus one or two days during December when we get together at a Christmas Eve service with our families, and then celebrate Christmas day by reading the Christmas story from Luke 2. You will certainly experience challenges, weariness, disagreements, and heartache this season, but I want to challenge you to give Jesus every day in December. You are about to embark on the 31 Days of December: A Promise and Hope. Carve out some time in your schedule to read through this each day.
I hope it will encourage you.
In Genesis 17:19, God gives us a glimpse into His promise and hope for us and the world. He told Abraham, “Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.” This everlasting covenant is everlasting. This means that it never ends. We see where this covenant travels through Isaac, Jacob, and eventually Judah.
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples (Genesis 49:17).”
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land (Jeremiah 23:5).” This righteous branch is Christ.
Revelation 5:5 tells us that, “Christ is Lion from the tribe of Judah.”
Scripture gives us great promise and hope through the prophecy of the coming of Christ. It is a thread that weaves its way through the stories of the Bible. Let’s take a look at one of those stories.
Israel and Judah were neighboring countries. Israel was in the north and Judah was in the south. The Southern Kingdom of Judah was a sitting duck and awaiting an impeding invasion from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Israel’s King Pekah and Syrian’s King Rezin were both ready to pounce and overthrow Judah’s King Ahaz. At any time, the takeover could happen. There is no doubt that Ahaz was distraught, scared, and uncertain about his reign. Primarily, this is because Ahaz was very evil and definitely not a friend of God.
2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, 3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree (2 Kings 16:2-4).
Every morning when Ahaz woke up and looked through his window, the future of Judah looked more and more grave. So, King Ahaz looked around and began to wonder if Judah would cease to exist as a nation? Would Judah be captured, renamed, and lost in the early chapters of history? As a result of this current turmoil, God sent Isaiah to King Ahaz to bring him great news and encourage him. And by the way, isn’t that just like God? When we are often discouraged the most, God wants to provide the greatest hope for us. Think about it. In our most difficult times, God sends us great news. The only problem is that we often choose not to listen to that good news. Ahaz was confronted with a decision. Should he trust God or man? He chose poorly.
Hence, Isaiah enters the story with these words,
4 Tell Ahaz, ‘Be careful. Be calm and don’t worry. Don’t let those two men, Rezin and Pekah son of Remaliah, scare you. Don’t be afraid of their anger or Aram’s anger, because they are like two barely burning sticks that are ready to go out. 5 They have made plans against you, saying, 6 “Let’s fight against Judah and tear it apart. We will divide the land for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel the new king of Judah.” 7 But I, the Lord God, say,
“ ‘Their plan will not succeed;
it will not happen,
8 because Aram is led by the city of Damascus,
and Damascus is led by its weak king, Rezin.
Within sixty-five years Israel will no longer be a nation.
9 Israel is led by the city of Samaria,
and Samaria is led by its weak king, the son of Remaliah.
If your faith is not strong,
you will not have strength enough to last (Isaiah 7:4-9).
Here is the great news! Israel and Syria would not invade Judah. It was a promise from God. God would be with the people of Judah, and He would not allow their enemies to harm them. God was with them. While the promise and hope was great news, Ahaz wanted no part of it. It is amazing how gracious and patient God was to give Ahaz another chance to show his faith in God. Isaiah told Ahaz that he needed to have strong faith to endure, and that they would not be captured. Isaiah then commanded Ahaz to ask for a sign, but Ahaz did not. He would not. Why? Ahaz had no relationship with God and did not see any reason for any signs or testing God. Again, Ahaz feared man more than God. Do you see a common thread?
Great news is often missed because we are blind to God’s blessing in the middle of our fear and discouragement. Don’t miss the great news here. Ahaz sought a political solution to his spiritual problem. Do we ever do that? Do we ever seek our own solutions to our spiritual problems? Do we ever run to secular or politically correct solutions for our spiritual problems? When we do that, we really mess things up. Why? It is because our problems and issues are only solved with spiritual solutions. Ahaz revealed his abundance of fear and lack of faith. Maybe we’re more like Ahaz than we want to admit. This lack of faith and abundance of fear would eventually come back to haunt Ahaz as Assyria eventually demanded annual payments like the mafia. Ahaz even gave Assyria things stolen from God’s temple to make those payments. Ahaz chose to make those annual payments to Assyria so they would provide protection to Judah. Not unlike many in history, King Ahaz feared man more than God.
Even though Ahaz was bull-headed and hardened to anything spiritual, Isaiah still spoke the promise and hope for the house of David. This hope and promise was like none other in the history of creation. It was simply that God would send us a sign through the virgin birth.
“Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”
This sign was a miraculous sign. God did not tell us that a young woman would conceive, but that a virgin would conceive. This is important because just a young woman conceiving would not necessarily be a miraculous sign. There are many young women who conceive. But the significance of the virgin birth is that there never has been anything like this…..ever. How would this happen? Let’s look at Matthew to see how this prophecy about Christ would be fulfilled.
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus (Matthew 1:18-25).
This passage in Matthew is really a fulfillment of the prophecy given in Genesis 3:15, where we read that the “seed” of the woman would ultimately destroy Satan. The Bible is a uniquely remarkable book.
So, what’s the good news? The good news from Isaiah is that Jesus would inhabit the throne of David and there will be no end to His kingdom. The good news of Christmas is that God stepped out of heaven to be the Savior of the world through the virgin birth. Adrian Rogers puts it this way, “(Christ was an) earthly child of a heavenly father and a heavenly child of an earthly mother.”
Things to consider….
It is better to place our faith in God than in man
Ahaz chose to place his faith in the leaders of Assyria than in God. This continued to contribute to his disdain for God and ultimate downfall.
Always seek spiritual answers to our problems
When we choose secular answers to spiritual issues, we get what we get……and it is often messy.
God is faithful to His promises
The everlasting (forever) covenant God promised in Genesis 17:19 was affirmed in Isaiah 7:14 and validated in Matthew 1:18-25.
God’s Great News is Through the Virgin Birth
The virgin birth was simply necessary because if Jesus were not born of a virgin, He would have been a descendent of Adam. This would pose a huge problem. “In Adam all of us die. In the same way, in Christ all of us will be made alive again (1 Corinthians 15:22).” The virgin birth was necessary for our salvation.
This is great news! God, through Christ, entered the world as a sinless Savior to seek and save those who are lost. That is the great news of Christmas.
What is keeping you from hearing the good news this season? Let me encourage you to slow down and cherish the time you have with the Lord and your family this year. Choose to hear the great news!