The First Noel

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  --Isaiah 9:6-7

There are quite a few analogies regarding the difference between knowledge and wisdom.  The most over-used one is this: knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.  Here are some others.  Intelligence is knowing that an alligator has 80 teeth; wisdom is knowing not to confirm that with a live specimen.  Intelligence is knowing your wife is wrong; wisdom is deciding not to argue with her.  Knowledge is knowing that nowhere in the Bible does it say that angels can sing; wisdom is not bringing up this argument during the Christmas season.

Anyone who has heard Handel's Messiah (especially the Hallelujah Chorus) leaves with visions of angelic choirs singing to the unsuspecting shepherds on the hillside near Bethlehem.  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men." (Luke 2:14).  Indeed, it may be considered pedantic to point out that these words were spoken by the angels, not sung,  because the last word in Luke 2:13 is "saying", not "singing."  And while the Bible does not specifically say that angels don't or can't sing, none of the scriptural texts related to angelic communication have any mention of song when the angels spoke them.  

Many of the words recorded in Scripture that were uttered by angels are beautiful enough, or hold enough significance to humans, that some humans have put them to melody.  This is never more evident than in this, the Christmas season.

While it may warm our hearts to think of a choir of angels singing over the Christ-child, it probably never happened.  There is evidence, however, that God Himself sings.  Zephaniah 3:17 says, "The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing."

In Chad Bird's book of devotions Unveiling Mercy, he writes this entry for December 25:

One of the most unforgettable scenes in C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew is when Aslan begins to sing Narnia into existence.  This resonates so deeply because, at one time or another, we've all been touched by the creative power of music.  Nothing seeps into our souls like song.  It moves, inspires, uplifts, stirs something ancient within us.  God may not have sung the words of Genesis 1, but He certainly fashioned within the heart of humanity deep recesses that can only be reached by music and singing.  So when Zephaniah says that the Lord our God, our Savior, will exult over us with rinnah,with "loud singing," with "cries of jubilation," it is hard to imagine a clearer picture of His passionate and creative love.  He has "taken away the judgments against" us (v. 15), rejoiced over us with gladness, quieted us by His love, and sung songs that re-create us anew.

As Mary held her newborn son who was her Savior, as she hummed softly so as not to wake him, I can imagine God singing these words over them: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone." (Isaiah 9:2).  Or maybe He sang these words: "May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!" (Psalm 72:17).

It says in Isaiah 62:5, "as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you."  Many times in the New Testament Jesus is referred to as the Bridegroom, and the Church is referred to as the bride.  In Matthew 9:15 Jesus was referring to Himself when He said, "The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast."  Revelation 19:7 says, "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready."  So the day will come when Jesus sings over us, His bride, His Church.  On the day of His birth, however, God sang over Him.  Not angels, not even just Mary, but God Himself.

Noel is a French word meaning "a Christmas carol".  According to the song, the first Noel (or Christmas carol) "the angels did say unto certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay."  In this sense, a Christmas carol can either be spoken or sung.  The first song celebrating the birth of Christ, the first Noel, was recited by a chorus of angels whose purpose was to glorify God and announce, "Born is the King of Israel."

Star of Bethlehem

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwell in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.  --Isaiah 9:2

 No Christmas tree is fully decorated until the star is carefully placed on the top-most point.  It is a tradition in many homes for the youngest person in the family to place the star on top of the tree, usually held up by the strong arms of the father so that she can reach it.  It is worthwhile to use this as a teaching moment, because the star is symbolic in a lot of ways, and its placement is steeped in tradition.

Most of us can recite the story by heart of how the wise men from the east were guided by a bright star until they found the Christ child.  This is more than just a sample of divine GPS.  The meaning goes much deeper.  As the Psalmist says, "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

You will recall that by the time Joseph and Mary were betrothed, there had been no direct word from God for some 400 years.  This period of spiritual darkness, which many call the "inter-testamental period," was ended with the sighting of an unusual celestial body.  This bright heavenly body, a source of light, was observed by people far away from Israel.  These Gentiles must have heard of Israel's God, must have read some sacred text brought to them by the diaspora, for when they reached Jerusalem, they knew enough to ask, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star when it rose [in the East] and have come to worship Him." (Matthew 2:2).

This is not the first time that people outside of the Jewish faith had given testimony to the truth.  In Numbers 24, we see that the enemies of Israel hired a seer, a prophet named Balaam, to bring down curses upon the Jewish armies.  You may recall the story of Balaam's donkey, who saw the angel hidden from the eyes of Balaam, and spoke.   When Balaam's eyes were opened, God gave him words of blessing to speak over Israel, not cursing.  One of those words of blessing is found in Numbers 24:17 where it says, "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth."

Balaam foresaw the Son of God manifesting as a star some 1400 years before Jesus was born.   The star was seen by the Magi more than 900 miles away.  But the Jews were still in the dark. Isaiah 60:1-3 says, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will rise up on you, and his glory will be seen upon you.  And the nations shall come to your light, and Kings to the brightness of your rising."

Centuries before modern navigational systems, sailors would set out for distant lands with only the stars as their guide.  Their movements on the oceans did not stop when the sun went down.  They did not weigh anchor and wait for the dawn.  In the same way, people during the inter-testamental period did not lose hope.  They were still going about their daily lives, even in a period of spiritual darkness.  They relied on the ancient texts, the light that they were given.  2 Peter 1:19 says, "And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts."

We know that Jesus is that morning star.  Revelation 22:16 says, "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches.  I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."  2 Corinthians 4:6  says, "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."  This is the meaning of the star of Bethlehem, the star that we commemorate in our Christmas tree decorations.  

Next time you lift your child up to place the star on the top of your tree, remind her of it's significance.  If your tree is already trimmed, it may be worth straightening just to teach this lesson again.

There will be blood

 

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means God with us.  --Matthew 1: 22, 23

 I was not raised on a farm.  My parents both spent more time on a farm as they were growing up than I ever did.  I have been to a rodeo a few times.  I remember touring the barns in the stockyard, and my Dad warning me to watch where I stepped.  He didn't want me to have to clean the cow manure off my sneakers.  I also remember moving into a new house with my parents.  It was in a more rural area than some of the suburbs we had lived in before, and across the road was a dairy.  When the wind was just right, the smell was awful.

In our modern world, if we need milk or cream or cheese, we merely go to our local supermarket in the dairy aisle.  We do not give much thought to the dairy that the milk products all come from.  We do not think about the cows, or the people who milk them, so that we can pour some 2% over our breakfast cereal, or some half-and-half in our morning coffee.  Sure, we all have that part of our education where we once learned where milk comes from, but we don't talk about it.  We focus on the end product rather than the somewhat smelly process.

We do that when we think about Jesus, as well.  We don't read the gospel account of His life and think, "I wonder how often Jesus bathed, or what He did to control body odor?"  We don't watch the most recent episode of The Chosen and stop to consider where and how Jesus and the disciples went to the bathroom.  We follow the Christmas narrative, and it's almost like Jesus magically appeared in Mary's arms when she laid Him in a manger.

I think it is important for us to stop and think about these things once in awhile.  We know that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  We gloss over those words and forget that He was one of us.  He spent nine months in utero.  We read in Luke 2:6, "And it came to pass, while they were there, the days were fulfilled that she should be delivered."  We don't stop to think that her water broke, the labor pains were intense, and her firstborn Son had to be cleaned before "she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."  Yes, there was no room in the inn, and that's why He was laid in a manger, but before that, before He was wrapped in swaddling cloths, He was naked, covered in water and blood.  Was this a foreshadowing of the way He was to die, hanging naked on a cross, covered in blood?  When the soldier thrust a spear into His side and found water and blood separately coming from the wound, did His mother see it and recall His birth?

Too often we forget what it means to say, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us."  We know that God is spiritual in nature, but that Jesus "emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:7).  The One who made us in His image allowed Himself to put on mortal flesh.  "And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8).  We are glad that He did, for without this sacrifice we would all be lost.  I don't think we fully realize what a sacrifice it was for Him to put on flesh and blood in the first place.

Leviticus 17:11 says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life."  In context, God was telling His people about animal sacrifices.  He gave particular instructions on the handling of the blood of the sacrifice: they were not to drink it, as did their pagan neighbors.  The blood was not to be poured out in sacrifice to false gods.  "Rather," says Chad Bird in his book Your God is Too Glorious, "blood was God's sole property to be used by His people only in ways He Himself had ordained."

Notice four truths in verse 11: (1) Life was not some invisible force but a tangible element: "The life of the flesh is in the blood."  (2) This liquid life was God's gift: "I have given it to you."  (3) He located this life at a specific place: "on the altar."  And (4) He gave it for a specific reason: "to make atonement for your souls."  All of this is God' gift.  He give the life, He gives the altar, He gives the atonement.  Sinners don't slice open their own veins to pay for their wrongdoing.  Self-atonement is as impossible as self-birth or self-resurrection.  A substitute must pay the price.  The blood of another must be shed.  And when it touches God's altar, the sacrificial blood cover's God's people as a free gift to them.  --Chad Bird Your God is Too Glorious 162

This is what we see at Christmas.  "The Lord's ultimate stamp of approval on creation [is] His own corporality in Bethlehem.  The Creator become creature.  Is it such a great leap from God dwelling in the holy of holies to the God tabernacling in Mary's womb?  From a tented Emmanuel to an embodied Emmanuel?  The whole Old Testament prepares us for the Word becoming flesh." (Bird, 163)

Because the Son of God irrevocably united Himself not just with His creation but with our very bodies, His acquaintance with our sufferings is not merely academic.  He doesn't know our pains like one knows a chemistry formula.  He knows what it's like to be one of us like Adam knew his wife.  Intimately.  Experientially.  As one flesh.  Knowing that encompasses the brain, the skin, the bowels, and the heart.  God knows what it means to be loved and hated.  Caressed and slapped.  To fear for your life, be rejected by your family, mocked and laughed at.  He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses because His muscles have been sore, His heart broken, His skin sweating blood (Heb. 4:15).  He understands temptations because the devil's siren songs have reached His ears.  --Bird, 164

The Bible doesn't shy away from human emotions or even human bodily functions.  In 1 Samuel 20, Saul was yelling at his son Jonathan, angry with him that he had befriended David.  In verse 30 he called Jonathan a "son of a whore." (The Living Bible uses the more modern phrase "S.O.B.")  Six times in the Old Testament (1 Samuel 25:22; 25:34; 1 Kings 14:10; 16:11; 21:21; 2 Kings 9:8) men swore to annihilate their enemies using the colloquial phrase, "[I will kill] all who pee against the wall." (The King James version uses the literal translation "pisseth against the wall." Later, more modern version dial back the rhetoric, not wanting to offend, saying "every man among you."  The Hebrew text, however, actually uses the term for urination.)

We prefer to sanitize the scriptures, especially in public reading behind a pulpit, so as not to offend.  We must not forget that the Bible addresses the whole person.  We can't gloss over the blood and water involved in the birth process and focus on a creche void of humanity.  God came down.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  When we understand this, we can better realize the true sacrifice that God provided for us.  A spirit cannot shed blood, but blood was necessary to cover sin.  

When He addressed the woman at the well, Jesus said, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."  Unlike Pilate, who would later ask, "What is truth?", the woman said she was looking forward to the Messiah, who will "tell us all things."  Jesus was being esoteric when speaking of truth, but the woman at the well got it; she understood.  That's when Jesus revealed Himself to her, say, "I who speak to you am He."  Jesus bridged the gap between the spiritual and the physical, because He came as a flesh and blood man.  Someone who speaks our language, but more than that knows what it is like to be us because He became one of us.  He bled like us.  He would bleed for us.  Let's not jump to the end without appreciating the smelly process, that began in a stable filled with manure.

Be Prepared: Jehovah Is A Gracious Giver

Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.  --Isaiah 49:1

And now the LORD says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD,
and my God has become my strength—  Isaiah 49:5

For the first time in my adult life, all of the Christmas gifts I intend to give to my family and loved ones have been purchased, wrapped, and set under the tree by the first week in December.  I'll confess that usually I am a procrastinator, one of those last-minute shoppers desperately trying to find just the right gift up until Christmas Eve.  Oh, sure, there will be last minute additions, and impulse buys to fill the stockings between now and Christmas Day.  But I am confident that if Christmas were tomorrow, I would be prepared.

As your preparations for a Christmas celebration come into focus, I want to call your attention to the first Christmas season.  In the fullness of time God sent His Son, but in the weeks and months leading up to it, He was at work in the lives of one particular extended family.  In Luke's account we are introduced first to Zechariah the priest, who was married to Elizabeth, who was a cousin to Mary, who was the mother of Jesus.

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.  And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.  But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.  --Luke 1:5-7

A comparison can be made with Abraham in the Old Testament, who was married to Sarah.  They were also well advanced in years, but God had set them apart for a special gift.  Abraham, of course, was born before the Aaronic priesthood had been established, but he worshiped the one true God, and followed Him in righteous living.  By faith he heeded God's call and followed Him.

So, too, did Zechariah, whose name means "remembered of Jehovah."  And like Abraham, Zechariah was met with a messenger from God who promised a son in his old age.

[Now while he was serving as priest...] there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.  And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.  But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.  And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord."  --Luke 1:8, 11-15a

 The name John means "Jehovah is a gracious giver."  God had listened to the heart of this priest and his wife, who undoubtedly had prayed many years for a child.  I wonder, though, if the prayers for a child had been uttered with less frequency as the couple aged, or if they continued to pray for a child at all?  They may have been content in their situation, occasionally feeling nostalgic for what might have been, but grateful to God for what He had chosen to give them, as well as what He had chosen to withhold until now.

Let us remember that God works in His own time, and that it is never too late for a miracle.  We must stay faithful, remembering that He is and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).  We must keep the faith, as did Zechariah and Elizabeth.  The gift that was promised was not only for them, but for the entire nation of Israel.  Indeed, it was a gift to us all.

He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.  And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.  --Luke 1:15b-17

I want to point out a couple of things here.  First, the birth of John had been prophesied many years before.  Malachi 3:1 says, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts."  John was that messenger.  He would prepare the way of the Lord, "making straight in the desert a highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3).  Malachi 4:6 says, "And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

God has a purpose for our life, as well.  We may not have had our purpose laid out by prophets of old, but God does want us to be available for His use.  He has gifted us for His own purpose.  Paul said in Romans 12:6-8, "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness."

The second thing I want to point out from this passage is that just as God knew John before he was born, He also knew us by name.  You and I were foreknown by Him, and were called according to His purpose.  Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  Galatians 1:15 says, "But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace."

We are not accidents of biology.  We are not insignificant.  Out of 8 billion people on a small planet in an isolated solar system among millions of galaxies, God knows your name.  He knows your purpose.  He knows your desires.  Once we realize this, then we are obligated to bend our will to His, and to be used for His glory.  We can prepare ourselves for His service by being faithful.

The third thing I want to emphasize is that, like John, we must learn to say, "He must increase; I must decrease" (John 3:30).  Even though John was older, he was not more important than Jesus.  Even though John's ministry began first, his was not the final word.  Throughout Scripture God has shown that the first is not always the most in God's hierarchy.  Abraham's firstborn was Ishmael, but Isaac was the child of promise.  Esau was born first, but Jacob was the father of the Jewish nation.  Aaron was older, but Moses was the mouthpiece of God.  Saul was the first king of Israel, but David was a man after God's own heart.

Our purpose is not tied to our place in the pecking order.  Our birthright is not better than those who came before, or those who come after.  Our job is to be faithful to the One who calls us, to use our gifts for Him as best we can.

For those who follow the liturgical calendar, the first Sunday of Advent is the day of Hope; the second, the day of Preparation.  My prayer for you all during this Christmas season is not that you will prepare for giving unnecessary gifts, or that you would feast on a festive meal.  I pray that you will allow God to prepare you for His purpose, and that in His time He will use you for His glory.