A Welcome Visit

     Some visitors are rather intrusive. They are like your relatives at Christmas who remind you of Proverbs 25:17, “Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house—too much of you, and he will hate you. “     

     Other visitors are tolerated. You don’t enjoy them much, but you can get through it with God’s help. And, you usually feel good that you endured it. It’s something like kissing your sister.

     But some visitors refresh you. They are very welcome, and you come away as a better person. You are glad to roll out the red carpet for them because they stimulate you and leave you never the same.

     When Jesus visited earth his visit was received in all three of these ways. Zechariah (John’s the Baptist’s Father) was never the same as a result of the Son of God’s visit. You remember the plot: Luke’s orderly account begins with a priest’s encounter with an angel. The encounter left him silent until his son was born. When he was able to speak his first words they were about God’s visit to earth. Only later did he talk about his own son.

     In the coming of Jesus Christ, God visited the world and left it never the same. For that visit, from Zechariah’s perspective, was:

 
I.    A Spiritual Visit.  The language is political: horn, David’s reign, deliverance from enemies, preparation for a king’s visit, and peace. But the meaning of the language is spiritual: redemption, salvation, forgiveness, mercy, remembered covenant, service to God, and light for those in darkness.

II.    A Long-Awaited Visit:  One thing that makes Christmas to be Christmas is the sense of anticipation. Only Easter could rival that sense of the giving of new fife. In a sense this is the last prophecy before the coming of the Messiah. We should notice the longing that is in it. It is similar to Simeon’s response (Luke 2:28-32).

III.    An Effectual Visit:  Some visits happen and leave you with a first-class yawn. But this visit makes an actual difference. John the Baptist’s whole life is wrapped up in this prophecy. Listen: Our service, holiness, righteousness, moral excellence, and peace are at stake.

Conclusion:  Jesus got upset because the Jews didn’t recognize their visitor (Luke 19:44). There are few things as embarrassing as being in the presence of greatness and not knowing it. Will Christmas catch us unaware of what God is doing in the world? Will you respond like scrooge, complaining about this visit? Will you respond like the Jews, nonchalant? That’s the question we all must answer in this New Year of 2014. The very existence of our families and our nation is at stake.

Yesterday, Today & Forever

     Yesterday “You shall not go out with haste, … for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard” (Isaiah 52:12).
 

     Security from Yesterday. “… God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.

     Security for Tomorrow. “… the Lord will go before you … .” This is a gracious revelation—that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

     Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste … .” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

     Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.

Oh Beautiful Star of Bethlehem

     From the Book of Matthew 2:2 we read: “Saying where is He who is born King of the Jews?  For we have seen HIS STAR in the East, and are come to Worship Him.”

THE KING OF THE JEWS

     The question, “Saying, where is He who is born King of the Jews?” proclaims the certitude of the knowledge of these “wise men.” In that they did not ask “whether there is?” but “where is?” They showed no sign of doubt.

THE STAR

     The phrase, “For we have seen His Star in the east,” probably would have been better translated, “We, dwelling in the east, saw His Star.” 

     This Passage, with Verses 9 & 10, seems to make it clear that the star did not precede them in their journey to Jerusalem, as is popularly supposed, but upon seeing it in the “east,” they knew it was “His Star.”

     Many questions beg to be asked concerning that statement, of which are few definitive answers:

·       What was the star they saw in the heavens? Astronomy can suggest nothing which satisfies all these conditions, and therefore, the appearance must have been strictly miraculous.

·       About 1,600 years before, Balaam had prophesied, “…there shall come a Star out of Jacob…” a Prophecy with which these wise men may very well have been acquainted (Num. 24:15-19). And yet, this Prophecy alone would have given them precious little information!

·       How did they know it was “His Star”? They were emphatic in their statement to Herod and could have only achieved the knowledge through Revelation from God, which they, no doubt, had received.

No doubt, they had hungrily studied the Prophecies of Daniel and had been convinced of this coming King.

From these brief statements, there is every evidence that they knew Who He was and what He was, at least up to a point!

WORSHIP

     The phrase, “And are come to worship Him,” does not necessarily mean the acceptance of Him as God, but rather as Lord and King.

     However, for these “wise men” to come without delay, especially, a journey of several hundred miles, requiring several weeks, would not have been undertaken without something powerful happening to them far greater than the ordinary.

     Having tabulated Daniel’s Prophecies, and knowing this was the approximate time for the Birth of this King, quite possibly, they had accepted Daniel’s God and had sought Him earnestly pertaining to these all-important events, and consequently, experienced a Revelation from the Lord of some magnitude. Little else could explain their attention, haste, and knowledge.