Rebecca Hagelin offers a
piece on Christmas at the Washington Times.
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
given:
“and the government shall be
upon his shoulder:
“and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counseller,
“The mighty God, The
everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
— Isaiah 9:6
The Jewish people must have
thought that Isaiah had gone mad.
Written some 700 years before
the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah lived at a time when his people were
desperate for a savior. Throughout history, Jews suffered tremendous persecution,
frequently enslaved and treated brutally. They constantly watched and waited
for the one who would come to conquer their enemies once and for all, as was
promised to their forefather Abraham so many years earlier.
They imagined their savior would
come as a mighty warrior-king who would trample their persecutors, establishing
his kingdom above all others. Most were certain their salvation would be
complete and final, won in battle through a fearless leader who the people
would adore, allowing them to finally live in everlasting peace and prosperity.
Then along comes Isaiah, a
great prophet, respected and even revered. But the prophet had a vision and
told the people that not only would their savior come as a tiny, helpless baby
born in poverty but that they also would view him as despicable. As Isaiah
wrote, recorded in Chapter 53, Verse 3:
“He is despised and rejected
of men; a man of sorrows,
“and acquainted with grief:
and we hid as it were our faces from him;
“he was despised, and we
esteemed him not.”
“Despised? Isaiah, you are a
fool,” they must have cried. “Our savior will be worshipped and adored!”
Isaiah always warned of the
consequences that came with disobeying God, and he was known as a bearer of bad
news. Just as the people refused to listen to his warnings, they missed the
hope and promise of the Christ child of whom he wrote.
After Isaiah died, the Jewish
people grew in number. Generations came and went, and Scripture was ignored or
twisted into teachings that were much more palatable. By the time Jesus was
born, very few were familiar with the ancient writings. Others became more
enamored with religious ritual than simple truth.
Such is the story of mankind,
including much of the Christian church. The need and quest for truth are
quickly eclipsed by our egos and desire to be in control: to be our own
arbitrators of truth and justice. So we ignore Scripture and replace it with
religiosity and man-made rules. We, in fact, imagine that we are not in need of
a savior at all.
Just as the Jewish people and
so many gentiles missed the true Jesus at the time of his life on earth,
America as a “Christian nation” misses Jesus today.
Although the Bible is the
best-selling book of all time, in most homes it sits covered in dust, long forgotten
on a crowded bookshelf or in a box placed in the attic long ago. And even
though our entire nation and much of the rest of the world still celebrate
“something” on Dec. 25, the vast majority of us cannot explain what that
something is.
Just like the Bible, we can’t
quite bring ourselves to throw out the holiday altogether. We sense somewhere
deep in our soul that there must be more to it. But preferring our own ideas of
justice and truth, we bury the meaning of Christmas in a mound of presents and tinsel
and vast commercialism, and now even simply refer to it as a “holiday.” We are
so good at allowing ourselves to be deceived that we’ve forgotten the meaning
and the origin of the word “holiday.”
A holiday is a “holy day,”
and the holy day we celebrate this week is called Christmas.
You can read the rest of
the piece via the below link:
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