CHRISTMAS LIGHTS IN THE CITY OF JERUSALEM! |
“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’” (Matthew 2:1-6 ESV)
The above passage is familiar to all who know the full Christmas story! As we look at this amazing event - the Birth of the Savior (and He was actually born closer to the Feast of Tabernacles around September 30 rather than December 25), we are discovering different nuggets and jewels from the Kingdom of God!
We found out that the Shepherds were the First Pastors (READ THAT STORY BY CLICKING HERE). That would be the Shepherds of Bethlehem who watched their flocks by night.
We found out that the prophesy of the PLACE of His birth (which is quoted above) was specifically spoken of by the Old Testament prophet Micah, many hundreds of years ago! In fact that same prophesy is quoted above in Matthew 2 (in red)!
But what I wish us to take a look at is the following verse which has been troubling me for three days now: ".....When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”....(Matthew 2:3-6 ESV)
To be more specific, let us look at this part here "....the chief priests and scribes of the people....told him (Herod)....for so it was written by the prophet"!!!
These priests - scribes and pharisees - KNEW THE MESSIAH WAS GOING TO BE BORN IN BETHELEM.
These priests - scribes and pharisees - KNEW THE ENTIRE SCRIPTURES (BECAUSE THEY STUDIED BOTH THE HEBREW SCROLLS AND THE SEPTUAGINT) SPOKE OF THE COMING MESSIAH, YESHUA THE KING, ALL THROUGH THE HAFTARAH OR THE BOOKS OF THE PROPHETS.
These priests - scribes and pharisees - KNEW THE WORD OF GOD, BECAUSE THEY LONGED FOR THE MESSIAH TO RESCUE THEM FROM ROME.
These priests - scribes and pharisees - KNEW ALL OF THIS.....AND DID NOTHING WHEN THE LORD SENT THE MEN FROM THE EAST TO INQUIRE!
THEY DID NOTHING!! NOTHING!! This is the church today! God could send the wisest prophets, missionaries, prayer warriors...and more. He could, would and does send warning after warning after warning to us to take heed, repent and get things right with Him as a country and personally. He even takes His Hands off and lets certain catastrophic events happen - yet we do NOTHING...ABSOLUTELY NOTHING....just like this religious people who could rattle off the written word....then go back to their comfortable surroundings! They went back to sleep....we are sleeping today! We are no different than those people!
You know the old story about the flood and the man who waited at the top of the house for God to rescue him, from the waters rising all around him. You remember that a boat came...and the man refused help. He said "I'm waiting for God to rescue me!" Then a helicopter dropped a ladder down and the man refused to go up into the safety of the chopper. He said "I'm waiting for God to rescue'" Well, the man drowned and stood before God where he complained to God "where were you while I was waiting on the roof and the flood was rising all around me. Why didn't You rescue me, God"
Finally God had enough and said "I sent you a boat and a helicopter and you refused them!!!"
Things happen to us because we refuse to recognize, read and react to the signs all around us. As America and its church sink further into the morass of its own making, we have only ourselves to blame.
We have ignored the news and whereabouts of the Messiah, when He was and IS always within reach.
We have ignored and refused the prompting of the Holy Spirit daily in the church and in most, even in their own lives.
We have ignored and refused to bend the knee to the Lord and Savior and instead turned to sinful and morally bankrupt world systems to rescue us from all kinds of stupid cliffs....when we should be more concerned about rescuing as many as possible from the coming judgment!
This Christmas season, let us resolve to NOT be like these priests - scribes and pharisees - who not just knew where the Savior is, and refused to go to Him for ALL America's problems! Let us go to Him NOW and seek forgiveness; hope; compassion and His Eternal Love, Peace and Joy - the true message of Christmas!
2 comments:
Western Christianity in general is pretty drowsy, I'd say. I don't believe this is WHY Newtown happened, but if the effect of it is to wake Christians up, that'd be an awesome effect of a terrible tragedy.
P.S. Man, you use a lot of exclamation points. :)
That's funny you mentioned exclamation points, sister! :) My publisher last year got me (in a nice way) for too many of them in the manuscript for DANGER ZONE (my book)!
By the way, I agree with you about Western Christianity being a drowsy state! You have quite some intense comments on your blog!! I pray many of those who are angry at God will re-examine their statements, concerning our Father!!! (oops, sorry 4 the !!!)
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