Thinking on Christmas from Creation to the Cradle

Luke 24:44 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

As Jesus was speaking to his disciples prior to His ascension into heaven, He was pointing back to the Old Testament Scriptures that spoke concerning Him.  It is true that even though I may not be able to find Jesus Christ in every verse of the Bible, yet from every verse of the Bible I can get you to Jesus Christ.  As we think about Christmas today, and how the Bible focuses so much on what Christ would come to accomplish in His First Coming, as well as what He will accomplish in His second coming, I want to take these next several blogs and survey the whole Bible in light of Christmas and beyond.

From Creation through History we see Christ
As we start at Genesis we see Christ the creator.  The Gospel of John tells us that without Him nothing was made that was made (John 1:3).  Christ is the Origin of all things, Who along with the Father and Holy Spirit, as One God created the Heavens and the earth.  In Genesis He is Creator.  As you go through the rest of the Old Testament books, we discover Christ pictures or spoken of in the following ways:

In Genesis He is my Creator.  In Exodus, my Redeemer.  Leviticus, my Perfect sacrifice.  In Numbers, He is the God who leads me and in  Deuteronomy, the Living God.

From History to the Prophets we see Christ
 In Joshua He is the Captain of my Salvation.  Ruth tells me He is my Kinsman Redeemer.  In Samuel He is my Prophet and in Kings and Chronicles He is my Sovereign God.  In Ezra He is my Faithful Scribe and in Nehemiah He rebuilds what the enemy has torn down.  In Esther He is the God who is always on time. 

In Job He is the the midst of my suffering and in Psalms he is the Song of my salvation.  Proverbs tells me His is wisdom and Ecclesiates reveals Him to be the meaning of life.  Song of Of Solomon presents Him as my beloved Bridgegroom.  Isaiah, the prince of the prophets, shows Him to be Holy God.  Jeremiah shows Him to be the one who weeps and Lamenatations, the one who mouurns.  Ezekiel shows him to be the Glory of God and Daniel tells me His is the fourth man in the fiery furnace.

Hosea shows Him to be the Faithful spouse and Joel shows me the Holy Spirit whom He would send to help.  Amos communicates Him as the Plumbline of Truth and Obadiah reveals Him as Humility against my pride.  Jonah reveals Christ as the one who died, buried and rose again, the Great Foreign Missionary coming to seek and save the Lost.  Micah tells me there is no God like Him and Nahum reveals His way in the whirl wind and the clouds to be the dust of His feet.  

Habbakkuk understands Him to answer my prayers and Zephaniah tells me that He rejoices over me with singing and quiets me with His love.  Haggai unfolds Him as the treasure of all nations and Zechariah shows the purpose of His first and second comings - to provide salvation and bring forth His glory.  Malachi, that great last prophet, tells of the time up to His first coming, and that He will come again as the Sun of Righteousness with Healing in His wings.  

From the Prophets to the Cradle we are led to meet Christ
After Malachi, 400 years passes, with heaven closed and no word from God.  Israel was awaiting the arrival of their King, their Messiah.  Then we come to Matthew and we find out that the long awaited Messiah would be born in Bethlehem's cradle.  By the time Christ would die on the cross, 109 propecies would be fulfilled.  The shadow of the cross was never far from the cradle. 

The Scarlet Thread's purpose in Christmas

Exodus 26:1 “Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet material; you shall make them with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman.

The Scarlet Thread that would bring about Christmas
Yesterday we talked about how God would use Judah, Jacob's grandson, to be the ancestor from which the humanity of the Savior would come on that first Christmas.  The idea of a "scarlet thread of redemption" signals God's intention of using a particular bloodline to accomplish His plan of salvation by the sending of the Savior.

The Scarlet Thread appears once again
As time marched onward from Judah, over 250 years would pass until the days of Moses and the nation of Israel in the book of Exodus.  Most are familiar with the Exodus out of Egypt.  The reason why God redeemed the people of God out of Egypt was so that they could worship Him in the wilderness.  In order to make this goal a reality, God revealed to Moses instructions for the building of a mobile worship center called "The tabernacle".

Many details were revealed - one of which included the materials making up the construction.  The Bible says that in the coverings for this worship center (which was really a tent of sorts), there was to be woven into much of the fabric fine linen dyed red or "scarlet". 

What the Scarlet Thread points to
Why was it that God wanted His worship center to have scarlet thread in its design?  because Scarlet thread would remind the people of God for the need of blood-bought salvation.  The scarlet thread, picturing redemption, also pointed the the price of redemption - blood.  The Jews would bring sacrifices for their sins, and the priests would represent them.  The whole worship system in the Old testament pointed to the time when the ulitmate sacrifice would be made by Jesus Christ on the cross.

Why the babe in the manger was born
Matthew 1:21 reveals why Jesus was called "Jesus": He shall be called Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins".  Jesus literally means: "The Lord saves".  Christ alone fulfilled the intentions of God's redemptive plan.  He alone completed the long line of the scarlet thread of redemption.  This is the chief purpose and meaning behind Christmas. 

The Scarlet Thread of Redemption

Genesis 38:28 Moreover, it took place while she was giving birth, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.”

The Scarlet Thread
In my Bible I have a red piece of yarn that I call "the scarlet thread".  The reason I have this yarn in my Bible is to remind me of the redemptive plan of God that took place in bringing the Savior to the world.  In several places in the Old Testament we find remarkable events and people that constituted the bloodline that God would use to bring about Christ's humanity.

Mankind is broken before God
In Genesis 38 we meet one of Jacob's sons - Judah.  Now Judah was a man who lived by his desires and by the moment.  Unlike his father Jacob, we never see Judah exhibit any major quantum leaps in the walk of faith.  In this chapter, we see hypocrisy, treachery, lies, immorality, intrigue, injustice and betrayal.  Judah's spiritual life was littered with the trash of the sin nature he inherited from his father going all the way back to Adam. (1 Peter 1:18)  Judah is a small picture of humanity in need of a Savior.  Little did he know that God was going to use his rebellion and unsavory decisions to Sovereignly work forth the bloodline of redemption.

The bloodline issuing from Judah to Christ
God's hand was upon and in history as He was preparing the way for the arrival of His Son on that first Christmas night.  When we compare the birth records of Jesus in Matthew and Luke, we discover some remarkable features:

-From Adam to Noah is ten generations
-From Shem, Noah's Son, to Abraham is ten generations
-From Judah, Abraham's great-grandson to King David of Israel is ten generations
-Judah and his wife Tamar here in Genesis 38 appear in Christ's geneaology in Matthew
-King David was of the tribe of Judah, which came from Judah the man here in Genesis 38
-The second major prophecy about Christmas was about Judah in Genesis 49:10

The Scarlet thread of redemption signals the hand of God in salvation
At the end of Genesis 38, after a series of shocking events, Tamar, Judah's daughter-in-law, has twins by Judah.  The twisted set of events in this chapter underscore the falleness of man in need of a Savior.  As the twins are being born, the first one pops its hand out and the midwife ties on its wrist a scarlet thread.  Suddenly it goes back in and the little brother forces his way ahead and becomes the first born!  Just like grandfather Jacob - who steals the blessing from his older brother Esau, and just like great-grandfather Isaac whom God chose over the older brother Ishamael, God once again is working to remind man that He is charge. 

Only One who is both God and man could fix what man had broken before God
God was not and could not be twarted in bringing about that first Christmas.  God came through a broken humanity to redeem all who by grace through faith would believe on Him. (John 1:12-13).  A man, Adam, had broken things with God - thus God's justice demanded that man is responsible to fix what was broken.  Likewise, God and God alone could provide salvation - however God is too Holy to just right out forgive sinful man.  God took upon Himself humanity in order to satisfy both conditions. 

That little scarlet thread shows us that God's plan was continuing onward.  God was going to accomplish what He set out to do - to bring the Savior into the world. 

Why the Beloved Son was born

Genesis 37:18 When they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death.

Matthew 26:4 they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him.

Why did Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God, enter into time through a virgin's womb, develop his humanity for 9 months and begin his human life in a manger on that first Christmas night?  As we look at the accounts of Joseph and Jesus, the plots for both required that someone plot their death. 

A deadly plot against a beloved son
Joseph, the son who had been born to take away reproach, would be sent by his father to be rejected by his brothers.  He was now being plotted to die.  The brothers had enough.  They had went 20 miles North of where their father thought they were.  In Genesis 37:18 the beloved Son, sent by his father Israel, is sent on a mission to find the lost brothers.  Once he approached them, and once they saw him, they plotted against him to put him to death. 

The deadly plot against the beloved son - some remarkable parallels
As we saw in the opening verses of today's blog, Jesus Christ was also plotted to die.  In the plot of both sons, the name of the betrayer is identical.  In the Hebrew language of the Old Testament in Genesis 37:26, we read that it was Judah, one of the twelve brothers, who would suggest selling Joseph for silver. 

In Matthew 26:14, the Greek of the New Testament identifies a man by that same name, Judas.  Like Old Testament Judah, Judas was one of a group of twelve men.  Like Old Testament Judah, Judas Iscariot was looking for a good opportunity to betray the Beloved Son.  In both cases the timing was right.  In the case of Joseph, he was plotted to die and ended up living.  In the case of Jesus, he was plotted to die, was crucified, and then lived again.

Why the plot to die is essential to the meaning of Christmas
Like Joseph, Jesus was sold for a slaves price, weighed out in silver.  On and on the parallels go.  Are these accidents of history?  Hardly.  Rather these are marks of the mind of God behind both incidents.  Both incidents required a Sovereign God orchestrating event to where the beloved son would be plotted to die.  That plot is essential if Christmas is going to have any meaning and purpose.  A beloved Son, born to be rejected, would be plotted to die for the sins of the people. 

The Beloved Son Sent and Rejected

Genesis 37:3-4 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a varicolored tunic. 4His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms.

John 1:11  He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

A beloved son of the father 
We read twice that Joseph was loved more than all of his brethren by his father.  This fact clearly caused animosity to arise against Joseph.  Then to add insult to injury, Joseph began to share a series of dreams that he had about himself and his family - dreams the depicted the family bowing down to him.  To hear that they were going to bow down to their youngest brother was just too much to bear. What was annoyance with a little brother quickly snowballed into outright hatred. 

A beloved son sent by the father to his brothers
Jacob, who is also called Israel, sends his beloeved son Joseph to check on his brothers who are supposed to be shepherding their father's flocks.  Since Joseph had a special relationship with his father, the Bible tells us that Jacob (israel) had made him a coat of many colors.  When Israel was ready to send his son, he called for him to get ready.  In Genesis 37:13, we see the sending off, and Joseph simply and voluntarily expressing his willingness to do the father's bidding. (Genesis 37:13).

God the Son, Eternally beloved by God the Father, was sent on that first Christmas
The Son loved the father, and did not go out of compulsion, but out of a willing love.  John 3:16 tells us familiar words regarding the Eternal Son doing His Father's will: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him will not perish, but have everlasting life."

Just as Joseph was sent to his brothers, who would ultimately reject him, Christ experienced the same exact thing.  In John 1:11 we read: "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him."  To further compound the level of rejection, we read in John 1:5 that the whole of humanity was in opposition to the One being sent to them. 

Thank the Lord for Christmas
Praise be to God for His grace.  Though God knew that the world and Jewish nation would reject Christ, He and the Son still followed through with the original plan of Christmas.  Saving grace was purchased and as a result, we read these words in John 1:12-13: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."

Thus the logic of John follows the logic of Genesis 37: The Father sent His beloved Son to those who would reject and betray him.  Once again the awe of Christmas is inseperable from the agony of Calvary.  What seemed to be a mission frought with danger and risk would be accomplished and victorious.  Why?  Because the babe in the manger would prove to be the Beloved Son who would overcome death, hell and the grave. 

Christmas is all about the beloved Son

Genesis 37:3-4 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. 4And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

Christmas is all about the Beloved Son
Jacob, whose name had been changed by God to "Israel", who is one of the patriarchs in Genesis, became the father of twelve sons, the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel.  Of those sons, none was more dear to him than Joseph.  Now Joseph is a fascinating character in that no other Old Testament character pictures Christ in so many ways like he.  When we think about Christmas and Christ's coming to earth, Joseph points us to Him, since like Christ he was the beloved Son of the Father. In today's Christmas thought, we want to consider how Joseph's life as a beloved son points us to the first coming of The Beloved Son.

The Beloved Son is born to take away shame
Joseph's life begins in Genesis 30:22-24, wherein his mother Rachael, barren for many years, finally conceives and gives birth to him.  Rachael interpreted the birth of her son as being the son who would take away her shame or "reproach".  She had been barren, unable to have children.  For years she bore that stigma of shame among her family and friends.  But now that was all gone, thanks to the birth of Joseph. 

Even though Rachael would live to have one more child, Benjamin, the Bible tells us that her second birth would be painful, ending in her death in pain and sorrow of child birth.  (Please compare Genesis 35:16-22)

The sorrow surrounding Christ's birth
In the Christmas story, during the time following Christ's birth, King Herod of Jerusalem had issued a decree to kill all the Jewish baby boys two years and under.  In Matthew 2:18 we read a quotation from Jeremiah 31:15 concerning a prophecy of that event: "A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning.  Rachael weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they were no more."  Just as Joseph's mother Rachael died in sorrow giving birth to a child, that event would prophetically point the the days following Christ's birth.  That event would prompt the family of Jesus to flee to Egypt until Herod's death.

Why God the Son came - to remove the shame of sin
The parallel above serves to give a backdrop to the main purpose of the birth of Christ - to take away the sins of those whom He would call and convict to believe on Him.  Just as Rachael had spoken of Joseph as being the son who had been born to "take away her reproach", Christ is described as the Savior who would take away the sins of His people.  When the angel announced to Mary that she would bear forth the Savior, the following words were spoken to her in Matthew 1:21 - "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."

Truly the miracle of the Bible is how in all of its details, it points us to the Christ of the cradle, who would grow to be the Christ of Calvary, who died and rose to be the King of glory. 

Seven men tell the story of Christmas

The Book of Genesis unfolds the reason for Christmas through seven men
Yesterday we considered how God's eternal purposes for Christmas and the sending of the Eternal Son were first spoken of in the book of Genesis.  We saw God's first couple, Adam and Eve, being granted the Covenant of Grace to redeem them from their tyranny against God in Genesis 3.  Since they had broken God's original covenant with them - the Covenant of works - we discovered that only God could rescue man from His fallen condition.  Adam and and wife were hiding and running away from God.  Adam was that original man who had through his rebellion brought forth sin and misery upon the whole human race. Thankfully God's plan for Christmas would go beyond Adam.  (please compare Romans 5:11-21)

The Bible's uses of symmetry - God's fingerprint for preparing for Christmas
From Adam we go forward to Genesis 5, where we see 10 generations listed - depicting for us the human bloodline that God would use to bring about the "seed" promise first spoken of to Eve in Genesis 3:15.  The tenth man in that listing is a every familiar one - Noah.  In Jesus' genaeology of Luke 3:36b-38, as Luke unfolds for us the events leading up to and following Jesus birth, we see 10 generations stretching from Noah back to Adam- truly a remarkable example of God's preparation for that first Christmas. 

From Noah we see God issuing forth earth's second catastrophe, the flood.  Following the flood the Bible introduces us to the third major man involved in the continuation of God's plan for Christmas - Shem.  Shem was one of Noah's three Sons, and his entire bloodline is detailed in Genesis 10-11.  During his days the third great catastrophe, the tower of Babel, would occur.  Shem's bloodline also mentions ten generations.  In the tenth man of his bloodline we are introduced to another familiar figure - Abram (whose name would be changed by God to Abraham). If we turn back to Luke's genaeology of Jesus bloodline once again, we see in Luke 3:34b-36a another 10 generations stretching from Abraham back to Shem. 

Thus in all from Adam to Abraham would represent a span of over 2000 years period of time.  Likewise from Abraham to Christ's birth on that first Christmas would be more than 2000 years of time.  Of these first 20 generations listed in both Genesis and Luke, we see our first four major patriarchs: Adam, Noah, Shem and Abraham.  Understand these numbers are no accident nor coincidence.  God's hand was working in history to bring about His purpose of accomplishing the entry of His son into humanity on that first Christmas.

How God specified his intentions for bringing about that first Christmas
So with these four men: Adam, Noah, Shem and Abram - we see God specifiying more clearly who and what He is going to us in bringing about the redeemer who would be born on Christmas.  From Abraham would come the promised son - Isaac.  From Isaac and his wife Rebekka would come forth Jacob - the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. 

Six men are reckoned so far in God's plotline for setting up His plan of salvation in history.  Symmetry and numbering are signs of Divine Majesty at work in the otherwise mess of humanity.  The seventh main figure we will note in Genesis is born in Genesis 30 and revealed most fully in Genesis 37-50 - Joseph.  Seven is God's number of fulness.  It means that all that God has planned is coming to fruition.  Joseph, more than the other six prior men - most fully pictures for us the focus of the Christmas story - the Lord Jesus Christ. 

In tomorrow's blog we will look closer at Joseph, as we continue thinking on the true meaning of Christmas.