Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord

I've been a Christ follower most of my life and sometimes, in the busyness of the holiday season, it's easy to get caught up and forget what Christmas is really about.  My mentor, Karen, says that every year she asks the Lord to show her something new during the Christmas season.  So I did that this year.  And He showed me something.

During the Christmas Eve service at our church, Pastor talked about the Christmas story.  It's found in the book of Luke:

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^{Luke 2:8-20:
8} In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; ¹¹ for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,  ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”  ¹⁵ When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”( O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!)

 ¹⁶ So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. ¹⁸ And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.


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I've heard and read this story hundreds ot time.  But I really started trying to put myself in the shepherds' place.  I imagined myself in the dark of the night in the fields, among the sheep, and then suddenly an angel in the light appearing and proclaiming the Messiah's birth.  Then the sky lit up with a multitude of heavenly host - all praising and worshipping God. 

At church, we sang "O come all ye Faithful".  I've sung this uncounted times, yet, this time, I really listened and read the words.  The song suddenly made sense to me in connection with the Christmas story.  This Christmas carol was written about the Christmas story in Luke.  Why had I never realized this before?

O come, all ye faithful

Verse 1:
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant	Call to the shepherds to see the baby Jesus.  But also a call to us – God’s faithful people
Come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.	Come to Bethlehem
Come and behold Him, born the King of angels	Come see Jesus was born
Verse 2:
True God of true God, Light from Light Eternal,	All descriptions of Who Jesus Is.  He is God!
Lo, he shuns not the Virgin's womb;
Son of the Father, begotten, not created;
Verse 3:
Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation;	Luke 2:13 – how the heavenly host appeared and started praising God
Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!
Glory to God, all glory in the highest;
Verse 4:
See how the shepherds, summoned to His cradle,	Luke 2:15 – the shepherds went to see the baby Jesus.
Leaving their flocks, draw nigh to gaze;
We too will thither bend our joyful footsteps;	We, too, now, must humble ourselves before Jesus
Verse 5
Child, for us sinners poor and in the manger,	God Himself came to us , made flesh, who would eventually die for us, so we would live forever with God in heaven
We would embrace Thee, with love and awe;
Who would not love Thee, loving us so dearly?
Verse 6
Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning;	Praise and adoration to Jesus, who was with God from before the beginning of creation
Jesus, to Thee be glory given;
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.
Chorus:
O come, let us adore Him…..	Did you know that “adore” is nowhere in the Bible?  Yet it means to express reverence and homage.  To worship Him.
Christ the Lord.	Jesus Christ – the Messiah – God made manifest

 So we come to Bethlehem, not in a physical sense, but in a mental, spiritual sense.  We put ourselves in the Christmas story.  We reflect on the miracle of Christmas - that God Himself, creator, ruler, Alpha, Omega, no beginning or no end,  would love us so much that He would send Himself down in human form, sinless, to be a sacrifice for our sins, so that we could live forever with Him in heaven.

Have you accepted Christ as your Savior?  Do you accept the miracle of Christmas?

400 years of silence

Here's Precept's verse of the week - Malachi 3:1:

I remember the first time I learned about the 400 years of silence between Malachi and Matthew. And how interesting that was.   How in that 400 years, God was setting everything up to prepare the way for Jesus.  

When we studied the book of John, Kay Arthur did a video introduction to the book. She talked about the 400 years of silence. God did not communicate to His people through a prophet during this time, but God was not inactive.   She said that during this 400 years, God was doing a work to prepare the way for His Son.

1)  The Roman Roads

Pax Romana -  The Roman empire brought civil and military peace between all the nationalities that were in the empire.  Because of this peace, the Romans were able to build thousands and thousands of miles of roads.  This peace lasted from 27 bc to 180 ad.

In fact, Paul, who wrote many of our New Testament books, was a Roman citizen.  And that citizenship protected him from the Jews.  Acts 23 records one such incidence.

Here's a map from (https://www.vox.com/world/2018/6/19/17469176/roman-empire-maps-history-explained) that shows how large the Roman Empire was.  It was roughly the area of the current United States, with the Mediterranean Sea in the middle of it.

Because of this peace and ability to travel long distances quickly and in relative safety, this set the stage for when the Gospel would be spread from Jerusalem throughout the Roman Empire. 

 

2)  Koine Greek

During the time of Alexander the Great, about 336-323 bc, his Greek Empire took the Greek language throughout his Empire.  The Greek language transformed into Koine Greek during this time and it became the standard language of commerce and government.  By the time of Jesus, the whole Old Testament had been translated from Hebrew into Koine Greek (this is the translation known as the Septuagint).    So that God had a universal book for the whole world - that they might know The Truth and The Gospel.

3)  Highway through Palestine

Palestine was the crossroads of the Roman Empire.   There was a highway (I believe it was the Kings Highway) that ran from Egypt, around the Mediterranean Sea and up the side of the Mediterranean to Syria.  This highway went right through Palestine.   It was one of the more important roads in the Roman Empire for commerce and military purposes.  This road was so very important so that the Word could be brought to the entire world.

In Galatians 4:4-5, Paul writes " But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under ^[e]the Law, ⁵ so that He might redeem those who were under ^[f]the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."  This fullness of time seems to refer to this 400 years of silence that preceded the birth of Jesus.  God was getting ready for the single most important and significant person of all time on this Earth - the birth of His Son, Jesus Christ.