Christmas is a reminder of a lot more than giving presents to friends and relatives.
Even though there are so many gimmicks and games in Christmas today, we still have many believers who have not fallen for Satan’s lies as the Scrooge of Christmas.
ISA 7:14 "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
This was a promise that God was going to provide a solution from the curse of sin.
There is no Grinch here, this is the greatest gift God could ever give you during this Christmas Holiday which is having all of our sins dealt with by our Lord.
Satan had a special agenda as far as the seed of the woman was concerned especially since the seed of the woman being one of the titles of Jesus Christ.
This is the reason why there's always been so much hatred toward the Jews because Satan has promoted that hatred and prejudice in the human race.
The greatest objective of Satan from the flood to the point of the virgin birth was to kill the Jews, especially those in the Messianic line.
Upon hearing God's promises to Abraham regarding the Savior as his descendent, as the Scrooge of Christmas, Satan has been making made many attacks on Abraham's seed.
- The first attack occurred when Sarah found herself in the harem of an Egyptian king in GEN 12:10-20.
Once He knew that the Messiah was going to be a Hebrew, in Egypt, Satan motivated Pharaoh to destroy the Hebrew children.
- The second attack occurred when Pharaoh, Thutmose III, ordered the entire male line of Israel to be killed in EXO 1:8-20.
The Pharoah’s were like our presidents, Pharoah is their title, and then their names are given like Thutmose III.
This was the spiritual attack made by Satan as the scrooge of the true meaning of Christmas by attacking the line of the true humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thutmose III's son was known as Amenhotep IV attempted to destroy all Israel in EXO 14:13-20.
Here is the Scrooge of Christmas doing what he can to destroy the human line of the Messaiah.
After the line went from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Messianic line was attacked, the line of Christ was passed on through Judah, Jacob’s son.
Satan motivated the destruction of the tribe of Judah.
Within the tribe of Judah, God reveals that the Messiah would come from the house of David, so the house of David is singled out by Satan for destruction.
There was so many attacks made upon the tribe of Judah and David's family that almost everyone in the royal seed was killed.
At this point, the entire line of Christ was reduced to one person but the line of Christ had been preserved.
Satan, the Scrooge against Christ and the Royal line, was so close to destroying the line of Christ but Satan will learn that “close only counts in horseshoes.”
Hezekiah was childless when attacked by Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, Isa 36:1, 38:1, 39:7.
God preserved Hezekiah against death in the battle, again preserving the line of Christ.
Merry Christmas to all of you as you are seeing that another gift the Lord gives to us during this Christmas Holiday is the gift of faithfulness.
The first one had to be the gift of redemption because we all needed to be bought form the slave market of sin.
1CO 6:20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
- Redemption
b. Grace
c. Truth
d. Love
e. Mercy
f. Forgiveness
g. Faithfulness
What gifts to make sure we unwrap, open, and enjoy the many blessings of the faithfulness of God.
Then there was Hamon's plot to annihilate the Jews, as found in the book of Esther.
There was perhaps the greatest attack from the Scrooge of Christianity, the final attack on the virgin Mary when she was pregnant.
There was the dilemma of Joseph when he discovered Mary's pregnancy found in MAT 1:16-25.
Satan and his kingdom of darkness did everything they could to attack the virgin pregnancy.
Satan promoted jealousy, guilt, judging, anger, bitterness, condemnation, fear, any of the MAS and the SOT.
If Joseph was a legalist, he probably would have followed DEU 22:21 and had Mary stoned.
Instead Joseph had a marvelous, honorable attitude, for he was an aristocrat, descended from Solomon as MAT 1 states.
After the first Christmas, there was the decree of Herod to kill all children in Bethlehem, MAT 2:13-18.
Herod ordered every child in Bethlehem two years old and younger to be slaughtered.
God told Joseph in a dream to go to Egypt before that happened, so that Jesus Christ was spared.
Prior to the incarnation, Satan attacked the line of Jesus Christ in an attempt to frustrate the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union.
During the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, Satan made every attempt to frustrate our Lord getting to the cross.
JOH 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."
JOH 8:59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple.
The very treatment our Lord received in His seven trials was an attempt to kill Him before He could get to the cross.
He inspired people to say, "If you are the Christ, come down from the cross. Save Yourself and us."
Also, as the scrooge of Christmas, Satan used evil people to scream and yell at the Lord while He was on the cross.
- When He was on the cross, we read about His response to the criminals or the thieves on the cross by saying Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing..
- There was a second test from the scrooge of Christmas concerning how He handled the natural responsibilities with His family; JOH 19:17-27.
- The third saying had to deal with our Lord’s relationship with His God and Father, MAT 27:46.
MAT 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
- When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the human spirit; JOH 19:30.
JOH 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit.
- Jesus said unto the positive thief on the cross, Verily I say unto You, Today you shall be with me in paradise. – Luke 23:39-43.
- After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said I thirst. – John 19:28.
JOH 19:28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I am thirsty."
- And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the human spirit; LUK 23:46.
Since the cross, resurrection, ascension, and session of Jesus Christ, Satan has only one way to win, and that is…….
By frustrating the fulfillment of the four unconditional covenants made to Israel, i.e., the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New Covenants.
Yet these will all be fulfilled in the Millennium.
All these covenants have in common the necessity of Jews being alive, and therefore all antisemitism is Satanically-inspired.
The Tribulation will demonstrate all the ways in which Satan tries to destroy the Jews, REV 6-19.
The Jew will be preserved by the grace of God which is why antisemitism is Satanic in every form.
Antisemitism’s purpose is to frustrate the plan of God which centers around Israel, both spiritual and natural.
Antisemitism reaches its peak in Rev 12, in the middle of the Tribulation.
At this time Bethlehem was a very busy and poor place.
The next day was filled with noise and the activity began earlier than usual in the village.
Vendors were positioning themselves on the corners of the most heavily traveled avenues in Bethlehem.
Store owners were unlocking the doors to their shops.
The owner of the inn had awakened earlier than most in the town.
Did anyone mention the arrival of the young couple the night before?
Did anyone ask about their welfare?
Did anyone comment on the pregnancy of the girl who was on the donkey the night before?
Because we are told in JOH 1:11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
The city was rejoicing and prospering and celebrating so who had time to care about the condition of the couple who arrived the night before with the woman pregnant?
There was too much to do to imagine that the impossible or a miracle had occurred......God had entered the world as a baby.
As HEB 10:5 says "Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, But a body Thou hast prepared for Me;"
And that is why in 2CO 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
If someone by chance had come upon the sheep's stable on the outskirts of Bethlehem that morning, what a bizarre scene they would behold.
The stench of urine, manure and sheep reeks sharply in the air.
The ground is hard, the hay is scarce.
Cobwebs cling to the ceiling and mice are on the floor.
Off to one side sits a group of shepherds
sitting silently on the floor, perhaps even perplexed and in awe, no doubt in amazement.
Their night watch had been interrupted by an explosion of light from heaven and a symphony of angels telling them to the stable.
He leans against the wall of the stable and feels his eyes grow heavy.
After all, he needed a special visitation from an angel to tell him to still marry Mary because she had become pregnant not by a man but by the Holy Spirit.
What's important is that the baby is fine and that Mary is safe.
MAT 1:21 "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins."
In fact, in LUK 1:47 she said about her Son, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
If Mary was immaculate and never sinned like they teach then why would she call God her Savior?
At this point in history, the human being who best understands who God is and what he is doing is a teenage girl in a smelly stable.
She remembers the words of the angel in LUK 1:33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end."
He is still a helpless baby who is absolutely dependent upon Mary for his well-being.
Think of it, here is the Majesty in the midst of the mundane.
ISA 53:2 He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
Here is Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat.
Here is Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.
He would say in MAT 8:20 "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."
This baby who had oversees the universe didn't have a normal place to be born.
His golden throne room had been abandoned in favor of a dirty sheep pen.
Worshiping angels had been replaced with kind but confused shepherds.
The merchants are unaware that God has visited His people and their planet.
The innkeeper would never believe that he had just sent God into the cold.
The people would scoff at anyone who told them the Messiah lay in the arms of a teenager in a filthy dirty stable.
But like I said, sometimes it takes some disaster or difficult situation to remind us that God has visited His people.
Those who missed the Majesty's arrival that night didn't miss it because of evil acts or malice; they missed it because they were simply too busy and weren't looking.
Tomorrow, and for the rest of the year, live your life as though every day is Christmas and a time to celebrate the fact that God has visited His people.