Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Here's a warning, up front.  These next few posts are going to be provocative.

I don't seek controversy or "vain arguments", which the Bible tells us to avoid (Titus 3:9).  Because the Bible is an extremely complex, supernatural book, there is ample room for differences of opinion about interpretations.
Generally, I was "raised" with a very Western frame of reference for interpreting biblical events, a framework also influenced by church decisions made in the 4th century.  These factors can lead to erroneous assumptions, such as the date on which Jesus was born.  Most of us were taught in church that December 25th is Jesus' birthday.  We never had cause to question this date. 
This post, and those following, are written to cause you to consider whether or not that date is correct.  I present this information merely as a topic of interest, not to "convert" you to this position.  We, after all, live in a very different culture than that of 4 B.C.  It is a wonderful thing to celebrate Jesus' birth, any and every day of the year.

In reality, the actual calendar date of Jesus' birth is not overly important in the overall scheme of things.  It is not a major theological issue.  However, in my study of how culture operated in the first century A.D., and just prior, I've encountered some fascinating theories about this topic. 

In order to establish the date of Jesus' birth, we must look at what the Bible says.  It gives clear clues as to when Jesus was born.  The problem becomes our lack of understanding of Levitical practice and of Judaism in general.  These impede our understanding.  No detail given in the Bible is insignificant, though we may "read past" some phrases that seem so.

One such detail is found in Luke 1:5 - -

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah, and whose wife Elizabeth was a daughter of Aaron.

(Berean Study Bible version)

Of the many times I've read this verse, I've skipped right over the underlined portion.  "What does it even mean anyway?  What difference does it make anyhow?"
In 1 Chronicles 24, we see that King David divided the priestly, Levitical families up into 24 "courses" or "service divisions".  Each family was assigned two weeks each calendar year to serve in the Temple - - one week in the first half, and one week in the second half.  These two weeks of service were in addition to those of the three "mandatory" festivals - - the ones where all the Jewish males had to come to Jerusalem for the religious events. Those three were Unleavened Bread (which includes Passover), Shavuot (the Christian term is Pentecost) and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles).  During those three festivals, all of the priests served in the Temple, due to the many festival-related tasks needing doing.

In 1 Chronicles 24:10, the course of Abijah (each course or division was named for its ancestral family head) was listed as the eighth course.  Every year, the first division/course served the first week of Abib (Aviv) and so on, allowing for the "exception" weeks mentioned above.  That being the case, the Abijah group served the 10th week the first half of the year, which is when Zechariah would have been in the Holy of Holies encountering the angel.  (How do we know this event did not occur in the second half of the year, during Zechariah's week of service?  That will be explained in a later post about the "wise men"; hang on.)

In Leviticus 12:5 and 15:19 and 15:25, we learn that there were certain times priests were prohibited from having sexual relations with their wives.  Therefore, if two additional weeks are factored in, and allowing for a normal 40-week pregnancy, the birth of John the Baptist would have occurred at the Feast of Unleavened Bread (and Passover).1 
Traditionally, the Jewish people have looked for the appearance of Elijah at the Passover feast.  This expectation is so strong and widely held, the fifth cup of wine poured at the Passover feast is called "Elijah's cup", and is left untouched.  At one point in the meal the door to the home is held open, so that Elijah can enter and join the feast. This belief, that Elijah will return to herald the advent of the Messiah, is established from Malachi 3:1. 

1“Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple—the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight—see, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts.

You may recall the words of John the Baptist, recorded in John 1:23.  His words echoed these words of Malachi, who had been hearkening back to Isaiah 40:3.  John the Baptist apparently saw himself as the Elijah who was to come, who would prepare the way for the advent of Messiah.
Twice in the gospels, Jesus referred to John the Baptist as having fulfilled that role, as being the "Elijah" of their day.  (See Mark 9:11-12 and Matthew 17:10-11.)

I'm getting rather far afield here, but the most cogent point is that John the Baptist was born at Passover.
Then.....
Luke 1:26-33 tells us that Gabriel visited Mary in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, which on the Jewish calendar would have been toward the end of the month of Kislev or the beginning of Tevet (December, on the Roman calendar).  This is the time of the more recent feast of Chanukah (Hanukkah), which runs Chislev 25 through Tevet 3.  If you count from there through the nine months of a normal pregnancy you arrive at . . . Sukkot, Feast of Tabernacles.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

John 1:14 (King James 2000)

The Greek word translated "dwelt" here is eskēnōsen .  I have heard my pastor translate that word as "pitched His tent".  Biblehub.com3 translates it as: "to dwell as in a tent, encamp; have my tabernacle".  The Apostle John used a Sukkot reference (building a sukkah, or tabernacle) here because Jesus was born during Sukkot, perhaps?

Sources:

1    Good, J. (1998). Rosh HaShanah and the Messianic Kingdom to come: an interpretation of the Feast of Trumpets based upon ancient sources. Nederland, TX: Hatikva

2    https://reformjudaism.org/passover-mystery-fifth-cup

3    https://biblehub.com/interlinear/john/1-14.htm

Advent Day Two: The Weary World Rejoices

"Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!"1

Being a Baptist, the start of Advent nearly blew by me.  I'm glad I did not entirely miss it.  A few years ago I participated in a wonderful event organized by my friend, Julie, where we made a "Jesse tree".  It is an Advent tree, so-named by Ann Voskamp, who wrote a fabulous series of Advent meditations back then to accompany each of the tree ornaments.  Anyway, I ended up giving the book of meditations, the tree, along with its ornaments to my niece, who has two small children.  At the time I made it, my two sons were practically grown.  In a panic, around 8:00 last night, I messaged her..."Don't forget to get out your Jesse tree tonight and start your Advent devos with the boys!"  She is a Baptist too....

Well, in conjunction with all that I realized that my current state of "undecoration" could not be allowed to stand.  It was "now or never".  I began to reflect that it is important to prepare for special guests.  What do we do?  We fluff up our homes so as to make things their most presentable and pleasant, yes?  In about 21 days, we will celebrate the most special guest of all, arriving in the manger.  "The Word became human and made His home among us..." John 1:14 NLT.
Was my house ready for His arrival?  No.  Unacceptable.

So, from around 8:00 last night until 1:00 this morning I "got to it", as we say in the South.  The Sirius XM Christmas music went on, and up from the basement came the boxes of decor.  My younger son had brought the main tree up a couple of days before, where it had been standing in the living room corner - - a bedraggled, silent condemnation of my neglect.

We have 6 trees in our house.  One is a white, ceramic tree with blue lights, made for me decades ago by my maternal grandmother, who "did ceramics" in her basement for years.  Two are easy-peasy table-top trees, because I simply throw a plastic bag over them and stash them in a closet after the season.  Those are the ones in our boys' bedroom (and former bedroom).  In our bedroom we have a UGA-themed tree.  Hubster has collected UGA Christmas ornaments for years.  The little, white pre-lit tree provides a perfect showcase for all that red and black.  And, Hubster can enjoy it all day from his recliner.  Then, there is the main tree, in the living room.  It is a formal tree, done up in the living room colors.  Finally, there is my favorite tree of all - - the tabletop tree in the basement.  It contains the homemade ornaments, the "year" ornaments (one for most of the past 24 years), the ornaments from the schools where I was principal, the picture-ornaments of the boys, etc.  It has colored lights and just radiates joy.  Of all our trees, it is the most real.

On Facebook this morning, a mother of 6 posted a picture of her tree and recalled the carol, "O Holy Night.", whose lyrics are at the top of this post.  I sang that out loud as I put up Ma's colorful nativity set last night.  How precious the memories of making that set under her supervision in her basement!  She was such a patient teacher!  One of the phrases from the carol is "A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices".  By the time my mama-friend got her tree up and her six children in bed, she was weary, but rejoicing.  By 1:00 this morning, so was I.  I was not "done" with the decorating, but I was "done" for the evening, you know what I mean?

There's lots to make us weary during the Advent season, most of it not at all central to the coming of the Savior.  But, there's one thing no human being needs to be weary about and that is the sin that separates him or her from a holy God.  Suffering under the load of your own sin not only makes a person weary, it makes for a dreary exhausted life.  And, because He HAS come, toting that heavy load is completely unnecessary!  He HAS come, the fact of which we celebrate every December.  He shouldered the load of your sin, bearing His Father's utter condemnation while hanging in agony on a cross, so that you can (by accepting Him as your Lord and Savior) lay your weary burden of sin down, so that you can walk away from it with the very essence of Jesus Christ living inside you (His Holy Spirit).  He did this because in His eyes, humankind was worth such suffering and sacrifice.  Your soul was and is worth it.  "The soul felt its worth."  If you've never taken Him up on that life-changing offer, I beg you to do so today.2

Do you see it?  "Yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!"  The dark night of sin has forever been banished.  As we wait in our celebration of His coming, let's rejoice in the beauty of this truth . . . as we enjoy the visual feast of Christmas lights and decor!

Sources:

1     https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/o_holy_night.htm

2     http://resplendentdaughter.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-main-thing.html

The Complete Package

On Fire!

On Fire! An almost-daily, expository, Christian, devotional blog, featuring a 10-minute read and, in early posts, also a 5-10 minute video synopsis.

I blogged recently about a "burning bush" in my neighborhood, a Japanese maple which, as I walked toward it at sunset, appeared to be on fire.  You can read that blog post at the link above if you choose, as it relates to today's post. This morning, I was continuing to study John 1:14, because this is Tozer's 3rd day on that particular verse (a fact which both causes me spiritual consternation but also is a healthy spiritual discipline for this ADD girl).  

Continuing to meditate on and study that magnificent verse I came upon these lines from MacLaren's Exposition (which I found at the Biblehub.com website):

"What must be the kindred and likeness between Godhood and manhood when into the frail vehicle of our humanity that wondrous treasure can be poured; when the fire of God can burn in the bush of our human nature, and that nature not be consumed? So it has been. ‘In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily".  (Emphasis mine)

The image of that  neighborhood "burning bush" returned to my mind, and I found that the image and the thought of Moses kneeling in worship, shoes off, at the burning bush of Exodus 3 helped me to better understand the Incarnation.  I was reminded of that burning bush of Moses' in the way of a "type" of the Messiah to come, Jesus Christ.  Moses marveled at how the bush itself, though paltry in comparison to the fire that fully indwelt it, remained an unharmed bush!

In the Day 3 meditation, Tozer focuses on the two words used to describe Jesus Christ in John 1:14.  As the Old Testament bush was "full" of God on that day, so Jesus Christ, in His human body, contained ALL the fullness of God!  He was, and is, the "complete package", all of God.  In his inspired attempt to describe the indescribable, John described Jesus as being full of grace and truth.

Why was He full of grace?  Because in His interactions with all of His creation, God acts with grace.  He IS grace, one of the components of His divine nature.  And, because the fallen creatures to which He came were in such desperate need of nothing more!  That is the starting point of Christian theological truth...that we are thoroughly lost apart from Jesus Christ and in no way capable of cleaning ourselves up to reach God's perfect, holy standard.

And so, He poured Himself into the vessel of a human zygote, embryo, fetus, newborn, infant.  Baby Jesus, Infant King of Kings.  Even as a youngling, earthly shepherds and kings bowed before Him.  The Divine shone forth through His baby flesh to discerning spirit eyes, even then.

How have you benefitted from Jesus Christ's magnanimous grace, that bottomless pit of goodness?

Even the lost and unbelieving benefit to some extent, whether they are conscious of it and give credit where due, or not.  Physical life is a grace.  That it continues from day-to-day is yet another gift of grace.  Another day to find Him or to serve Him is still another...Surely, if you are honest, you don't believe that you have somehow "earned" such blessings, as a result of your own inherent goodness?  As Tozer says, "Let us remember this: everything God does is by grace, for no man, no creature, no being deserves anything.  Salvation is by grace, the creation is by grace - - - all that God does is by grace and every human being has received of His fullness."

Sources:

Tozer, A.W. From Heaven. 2016. Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL.

Biblehub.com/commentaries/John/1-14.htm

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To Dwell Again

I was idly listening to a couple of entertainers on talk radio this afternoon as I drove home from church.  One of them was telling (true or not...) of a lady who had been a vegetarian for most of her life. Then, one day, she decided while at a coffee house, to try a turkey sandwich.  Now, she's enjoying BBQ!  She said that after one taste of that turkey sandwich, she just can't get enough!

That's the way it is for me with the study of the Word of God.  I have been severely deprived of my Bible study these past few days, due to a home/family project of large magnitude.  As a result, I am starving!

So, here we are, on the first Sunday of Advent which, this year, also happens to be the first day of Advent!  As a Baptist, we don't celebrate Advent the way the more "high church" denominations do; and, I think that's a shame, really.  So, since I love my particular denomination, I just choose to add Advent celebration on in my personal study.  Since beginning this blog, I have used two different Advent devotionals the past two Advents.  The first was from John Piper's "Solid Joys", and the last one was from Ann Voskamp's Advent study: "The Greatest Gift".  Both added a wonderful flavor to meditations on this sacred season.

This year, here in the blog (because in my personal devos) we will be hearing from A.W. Tozer, an early-to-mid-20th century theologian.  Not a Baptist, Tozer was a pastor in a denomination called the Christian and Missionary Alliance (the C&MA).  He wrote several books, including the famous "The Pursuit of God".

Today's Advent meditation concerns God's interactions with mankind, from the time of Adam and Eve until Jesus' birth.  In the Garden of Eden Genesis 3:8 tells us God walked through the Garden. Clearly, He regularly communed with Adam and Eve there freely, in their sinless states before The Fall. After their catastrophic, cataclysmic choice to believe Satan rather than God, everything changed.  God, for thousands of years, no longer "dwelt among", that is lived among, mankind.  It was not until the birth of Jesus our Savior that God once again was for a prolonged time "with us". "And His name shall be called Immanuel, 'God with us'." (Matthew 1:23)  The gospel writers were adamant about this point.  John too, in his gospel, drove the point home:  "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us..."(John 1:14)

In the intervening years, from The Fall to The Incarnation, God appeared to men from time to time. He manifested Himself as various natural phenomena, such as a recurring, guiding cloud or a column of fire (the Shekinah Glory.)  At other times, He took on the form of man briefly (appearing to Abraham and to Moses, to Gideon, Daniel, Jacob and others).

But, when He put on flesh and revealed Himself as The Son, He came to abide with us, to dwell with us forever.  The Son has declared the Father, the Scriptures say in John 1:18.  In the Person of God the Son, Jesus makes manifest all the fullness of God the Father, whom no man has actually seen. We would be unable to bear such radiant majesty and glory.  We so lack the capacity to absorb His greatness that to actually see the Father would utterly destroy us.

"And we beheld His glory...." (John 1:14b)

When the first century folks saw Jesus with their physical eyes, they were looking at God, though very few realized it.  When we 21st century people "see" Jesus with eyes of the spirit, it is being revealed to us then all there is for us humans to know of God.  Jesus gives us as much of God the Father as we can tolerate in our humanness. And, Jesus does this miracle now through the Third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.

Yes, today, when we embrace God through the Person of His Son, when we worship Him with the offering of our lives, we are given the Holy Spirit to dwell with us forever.  He seals us as God's own, never more to be separated.  Physical death cannot then separate us from the love of God.  In fact, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38). Nothing has that power. The Holy Spirit marks us permanently, like with a Sharpie permanent marker.  (If you've ever tried to get Sharpie ink off a surface or out of a fabric you can appreciate the analogy!) Even stronger, greater and more final than a Sharpie is the seal of the Holy Spirit on the soul of the believer in Jesus Christ.

He dwells with us who are His, and we will dwell with Him forever.