Monday, December 13, 2021

What if Christmas never happened?


I expect that all of us have seen the "old" Christmas video (wow, do I feel ancient....it was shown on television for the first time in 1966, which would make me how many years old.....oh, never mind!) of the Grinch who wanted to "steal" Christmas so that it wouldn't happen. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" became quite famous. 

But did you know he was not the first Grinch?

Satan is the first Grinch, and he has tried to stop Christmas from the very beginning. And he tries to steal its true meaning, today.

(Now, let me say at the outset that I'm not trying to say the date we celebrate, December 25, is the absolute certain date that Christ was born so many years ago. In fact, I will easily say that it might not be! But I'm going to let the scholars debate that, OK?

Because to me, it's not nearly as important what date it happened. The truly important thing is that it DID happen! I hear some heads nodding, so I will go back to my post.)

Since the first promise in the Garden of Eden, Satan has known about God's plan. He has known about the Messiah Who would come.

"And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15, NIV)

Since that time, Satan has tried to stop Jesus' birth. He corrupted the entire world, and all the people in it; it would need to be destroyed! But Satan wasn't counting on the fact that there was a righteous man still there . . . 

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. (Genesis 6:9b)

After that, Satan tried time and again to get rid of the children of Israel. For hundreds of years he tried to subjugate them, to destroy them, to stop that line that led to the Babe of Bethlehem. Remember the book of Esther? That was just one of Satan's plots. It didn't work. 

Now we see Joseph and Mary traveling carefully to the town of his ancestors. Making their way on the dusty road to a stable. The scholars tell us it was probably a cave. Dirty. Dusty from hay and straw. Animals and manure. Satan probably was rubbing his hands in glee that perhaps Mary might have complications, or the Baby might catch sick because of the surroundings. 

Disappointment for Satan. Christ is born. But maybe he can still stop God's plan! The wise men come to Herod and ask for directions so that they can worship the newborn King. After all, Herod should know what's happening in his region, right?

In Herod's evil mind, this was a threat to his rule. He told the wise men to let him know when they found the Child. But Herod had no plans to worship. His plans were far worse. After he realized that the wise men were not going to let him know where to look (God warned them to go home by a different route), awful, evil Herod the tyrant ordered all of the babies two years or younger to be killed.

Murdered. The soldiers marched through the tiny town looking for babies and killing them. They followed the orders of a ruthless, fearful king. Mothers clung desperately to their little boys. Fathers were struck down when they tried to save their sons. 

Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
    weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”(Matthew 2:17-18)

Jesus, the Savior, escaped the sword by the providential care of God. 

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.  (Matthew 2:13-15a)

What if Satan had succeeded? What if Jesus Christ had never been born? We'll study this week......

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