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The sixteenth day of Christmas

by | Dec 17, 2014 | Uncategorized

As we move through the Christmas story and almost come to the final ending, it would be good for us to do some thinking and pondering on all that has taken place.
Remember as I have said before, nothing is by accident and nothing without a reason.
Although I still struggle with Herod and his horrible actions.
Matthew 2: 13
After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.
“Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother.” the angel said, 
“Stay there until I tell you to return because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death.
This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:
“I called my son out of Egypt.”
*Returning to the verse from yesterday in chapter 2 vs 16
“Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the stars first appearance.”
The fourteenth group of people were are learning about are the soldiers.
The soldiers were ordered to go house to house and kill all the little boys, who might have been the age of the Messiah.
Who Herod wanted to remove.
Can you imagine for a moment with me what that might have felt like for them?
To be a soldier who was given an order to kill infants.
My husband made the comment, what if they were parents too?
What if these were people you knew, even friends of yours?
How did it happen and how could they continue, as they forcibly removed children from their families, and then witness the anguish of parents reaching for their babies?
The soldiers had a very difficult horrific order give to them by Herod.
They didn’t have a choice.
We never talk about the soldiers and what they might have experienced during that horrible time.
In fact this is not a part of the Christmas story we like to talk about.
It is horrible, ugly, sad and deeply disturbing.
The word tells us in the book of Jeremiah 31:15
“A cry was heard in Ramah – weeping and great mourning.
Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted,
for they are dead.”
We cannot imagine the horror and deep intense sorrow,
it is beyond my capacity to think on or process.
Matthew 2:19
When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,
“Get up! the angel said, “Take the child  and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.” So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galillee. 
So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth.
This fulfilled what the prophets had said: 
“He will be called a Nazarene.”
The birth of Jesus changed many lives.
We often sing of the nice and the comfortable, but we must not forget the sorrow too.
On the sixteenth day of Christmas we learn about the fourteenth group of people.
The story is filled with deep sadness and overwhelming grief.
I wonder if that is the reason why Jesus is called ‘the prince of Peace.’
Even now, the world needs peace and a hope that can only come from above, when we sing, “Oh little town of Bethlehem”, we will know there was more to the story.
But we will also know, on the night Jesus was born, that Oh Holy Night, a Savior was born and our souls found our hope forever.

The fifteenth day of Christmas

by | Dec 16, 2014 | Uncategorized

On the fifteenth day of Christmas we hear of the thirteenth person of the Christmas story.
The thirteenth person of the Christmas story is Herod.
He is someone we don’t hear much about very often other than in the Christmas story.
I suppose there is a reason God allowed him to be a part of the story but I struggle with his decision making and his power.
Matthew 2:16
Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wisemen’s report 
of the stars first appearance. 
Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 
A cry was heard in Ramah —
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeps for her children,
refusing to be comforted,
for they are dead. (Jeremiah 31:15)
On the fifteenth day of Christmas we learn of a terrible decision maker Herod.
Who caused much anguish of heart and much turmoil in the country.
I cannot find words to convey my horror and sorrow.
There was a reason I guess, but I do not understand it.
I cannot even imagine this terror.
More to come tomorrow… on the sixteenth day of Christmas.

The fourteenth day of Christmas

by | Dec 15, 2014 | Uncategorized

On this fourteenth day of Christmas we learn more of the Christmas story.
Luke 2:1-12
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. 
About the same time some wise men (*or magi or astrologers or astronomer’s) from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 
“Where is the newborn King of the Jews? we saw his star as it rose
 (*or star in the east) and we have come to worship him.”
King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem.
He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, 
“Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, for this is what the prophet wrote:
‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you and who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.”
Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. Then he told them, 
“Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. 
And when you find him, come back and tell me so I can go and worship him, too!”
After this interview the wisemen went their way. 
And the star in the east guided them to Bethlehem.
It went a head of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with great joy! 
They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary 
and bowed down and worshiped him.
Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts
of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route,
for God had warned them in a dream to not return to Herod.
The twelfth group of people in the Christmas story were the wisemen.
They were well known in the region and most likely, they were very aware of the stars and which ones would shine and form constellations, which as an astrologer they would also know
the grouping of stars at the time of someones birth.
It was symbolic to see a star in the sky.
On this night, the night when Jesus was born they saw a special kind of brilliance.
It was a star out of the ordinary and it rose and and became brighter until it arrived at the place where Mary and Joseph and Jesus was staying.
It was a home, a house, not an inn with a stable.
The baby was nearing age two now because most likely it took them months to find him.
(Remembering there were no GPS devices back then).
The star led them to the house where Mary and Joseph were with the baby. Studies have said they were in a home, as it took months to find the baby and when they found him he was near the age of two.
There gifts were symbolic of royalty, of death, and of priesthood.
This was no accident. The gifts were chosen for a reason.
On the fourteenth day we learn of the twelfth group of people.
God continues to use the ordinary. The least expected.
As we move through the Christmas story we soon realize it is not just
about a little baby born in a manger, in the town of Bethlehem.
It is so much more.
So much ordained and planned as the story continues.

The thirteenth day of Christmas

by | Dec 13, 2014 | Uncategorized

On the thirteenth day of Christmas we learn of the eleventh person of the Christmas story.
The prophecy of Anna.
Luke 2:36-40
Anna, a prophet was also there in the temple.
She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher,
and she was very old.
Her husband died when she had been married only seven years.
Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four.
She never left the temple but stayed there day and night, 
worshipping God with fasting and prayer.
She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph,
and she began praising God.
She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.
I am not sure if we have ever heard of her before other
than in this scene in the temple.
She was a prophet and she understood and knew that
Simeon would know without a shadow of doubt who
was the one to come to rescue and save the people.
She saw the excitement in Simeon and his worship of
the baby and then at that moment, it was clear to her,
this is the one they had been waiting for.
He is here. The Messiah.The chosen one.
I would imagine she had to have been very in tune to the prayers and
petitions of those in the temple, since she had lived there
for so many years.
I would also think that because of her excitement upon seeing this child, she confirmed one more time to Mary and Joseph that this baby, their baby, was the chosen one.
The Messiah who they had been waiting for.
On the thirteenth day of Christmas we read about
Anna and the hope that was fulfilled for her along with Simeon.
Before they died they both were blessed to see the
Savior who had been sent by God.
Luke 2:39 
When Jesus parents did all the requirements of the law
of the Lord, they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee.