Article for December 22, 2024
Micah 5:2 2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.
O little town of Bethlehem, you bring us a savior from the smallest of the Israelite regions. Humbled in every way our Savior comes as a frail baby and is laid in a feeding trough for barn animals as if this is His throned bed. This child holds the ministry of Melchizedek from ancient times from the land of peace, Salom (which means peace).
Now we speak of this child as one grown into His rightful place. This child is God crucified yet He lives and promises to return. When He returns many will be taken to Him and what is left will be the thousand years of peace. The evil one will be contained in the bottomless pit only to see daylight once more before its pending eternal doom.
Jesus Christ, whom we celebrate His birth, will come to rule the nations and the nations will bow down to Him. Judgement has been made; we have God’s word that makes His judgement known. But the final sentence is what we wait for, the bane of the unbeliever.
Christ is coming again, let us celebrate His birth as it is our rebirth. Christ is coming to collect those who know His true meaning. What is the true meaning of our Lord? It is life in abundance with Him as loyal worshipping followers who know and feel the love our God.
Hebrews 10:5–6 5When Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
After a time, mankind forgets and makes light of what God set in place for us. God gave His law and ceremony, His ways and government. But mankind in its sinful nature made what God commanded nothing more than a ritual.
We too have done the same, we have made our worship a ritual. We also have tried to make our worship more about us than about God. We try to entertain and make our worship about feeling good and say we do it to honor God.
Truth is we all need to get back to God’s way before Christ appears again. Not for the sake of works’ righteousness, but for the sake of showing God our love for Him because He loves us. Note that God’s love is eternal.
Hebrews 10:7–8 7Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” 8When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law),
There was a time When the Law of God meant something. Follow the Law of life and the Law of worship and live for God. God’s law condemned sin and called for confinement, punishment, or death. Sin in itself calls for the death of the sinner.
The Law was a deterrent to the people of Israel that faded as life got easier. Life was hard in the nomad life of those wandering the desert, and maybe that made following the law much more important. Not that Israel did not break the law, but that they held the Law of God with much respect. Note, the respect of God’s law dwindles even more today.
Certainly, the law followed and stayed with Israel as they took over their promised land. But now life is becoming too easy for some and too hard for others. It seems that the law is made to favor those who rule and is used against those who do not.
Worship fell into the hands of those who sought power and those who feared losing that power. Life was law, and atonement became a commodity to be sold.
Micah 5:4–5a 4And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. 5And he shall be their peace.
A Shepherd was born, a King of peace came into the world of law. No longer were the people of Israel just taught that law governed their future, but repentance and forgiveness would reign from this new King and forward. This Shepherd was different, He did not strike with malice towards the sinner but embraced us with His love and teachings with grace and mercy.
This Shepherd King would fight the battle against sin. Though it looked like He had lost, we will see He had won. For sin could not hold the one who had no sin, and death could not keep the one who would be resurrected. This Shepherd King was different because He fought for the sinner, He fought for you and me.
Hebrews 10:9–10 9then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. 10And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
The will of God fulfilled by His Crucified Son was to save His creation of mankind. That He could sympathize and empathize with everyone. It is very much like the commercial JesUS gets us.
Amen.
Written by Pastor Curtis A. May
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