This month we celebrate the birth of Jesus in the little town of Bethlehem. This wonderful gift to us from God was prophesied in the Old Testament and those prophecies were fulfilled a little over two thousand years ago. In the Books of Micah and Isaiah we see just two of many of these prophecies:
Micah 5:2 “But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel;” AV
Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” AV
Scripture tells us before Christ’s birth that he would be born in Bethlehem and come from the line of David. This insignificant little town in Judah gave birth to King David and the “King of Kings”. Everything surrounding this wondrous event fits so beautifully together in Scripture authored from God in eternity past.
These two prophecies, both written approximately 700 years before Jesus’s birth, give us the facts that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, born of a virgin, and that He is God. Mary was a virgin so the birth of Jesus was not like we are born because we have inherited the sin nature that came into the world when Adam disobeyed in the Garden of Eden. Jesus was without sin since he had no earthly father and he was God himself given to us through what is called the incarnation where God became flesh to be sacrificed on the cross for our sins.
Emmanuel means “God With Us”, the authority of Scripture allows us to know without a doubt that Jesus was fully God and since he was born of a virgin that he was fully man. For Jesus to sacrifice himself for us He had to be one of us. God gave us His Only Begotten Son (one and only) so we would have eternal life. If we believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, died on a cross, and rose bodily in the tomb after three days, we can also have eternal life. All others that have ever lived have been sinners except Jesus. Adam and Eve, Abraham and Moses, David and Mary, you and I are sinners and need a Savior. The only intercessor with God the Father was born on that Christmas morn for our salvation through the free gift of grace given to us through Christ Jesus.
May all of you have a blessed Christmas and remember the “reason for the season.”
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