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CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
THE SON OUT OF
INTO THE LAND OF HIS LOVE, AND HIS OFFERING:
FROM THIS WORLD TO THE KINGDOM OF HIS OFFER
SETTING THE SCENE
OUT OF EGYPT
In Matthew 2:13-18, we see the amazing fact that God having brought Israel, like a national son to Him, out of Egypt in the days of the Exodus, and having said in Hosea 11:1 that OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON, was not content to let it rest there. It was a signal. The name 'Son' was far too precious and instructive to be limited to what failed; indeed, it must secure its rightful occupant for its depiction.
If
Where
was one to be found, to be IN
This is the 'DEFAULT' AND FAULTLESS SON on whom all must fall back! It is He contrasted in glory with the incapacitated Israel the nation, in its failure. Displaced Israel in this, yields to One who is the Son indeed, who deserves the name, with which He is illimitably honoured (Isaiah 9:7) by His Father.
Why then, if Israel the nation, that inadequate ‘son’ were to fail, and it was to be a case of the mode of reconciliation of God and man (as shown in Hosea 13:14, Isaiah 7,9,52-53), which GOD HIMSELF would perform, becoming IN HIMSELF the plague of death: then the SON OF GOD to whom the name could aptly and adequately be applied, to do this would have to come out of Egypt. Thus the Effective One, the Son who really counted, the One symbolised in the Passover of the Lamb, which sealed the Egyptian deliverance, and continued thereafter, would so move. Then would preliminary symbol turn into historical fact.
This he did.
So, like the Passover people, would their personal Saviour move to the site appointed for the Temple, where all symbols coalesced (cf. SMR p. 823).
How in history was it organised ? Herod’s bloodthirsty temperament, himself evidently a sort of pre-Gentile Age Saddam Hussein, who had one son killed shortly before his death and engaged in massive evils, was the stimulus. God warned Joseph to remove himself and family to Egypt while Herod as we now know, engaged in the Massacre of the Innocents, rather like some of the Arab work in Moslem jihad, indiscriminate against children, today as it was then. In fact, in Revelation 12, we see in symbolic dress, Satan waiting to swallow up Christ, death in his heart, but he fails because of the transcendent, ascendant power of God, to break the celestial circuit of Christ, heaven to earth, earth to heaven AFTER His triumphant breaching of death in resurrection and sin's guilt in sacrifice (Hosea 13:14 one of the great summary statements of the plan of salvation). All was fulfilled with lordly grandeur and glorious humility alike, for nothing can obliterate the majesty of the Lord.
SO now do nations seek to swallow up the residual Israel, indeed as a nation unbelieving, but appointed to a different destiny, as recipient of divine promises, unconditional and to the honour of the very name of God (Galloping Events Ch. 4, SMR Appendix A), who acts in His own time, when all is ready, now as then! (cf. Micah 7, Deuteronomy 32).
The attempts on the word and will of God never succeed, though at times all seems so lost that only a miracle could deliver, so teaching the people of the Lord to wait on Him ONLY (Palm 56:11, 4:8, 62:2,5-6). Thus are they enabled jointly to fulfil His work, by life or death, and to testify of His power.
PRECISION, PROPHECY AND PERFORMANCE
This divine plan Joseph followed, a wisdom which all the Lord's
people should seek to emulate. Staying in Egypt until God directed His Son's return,
Joseph was obedient. Avoiding another Herod in Judea, he went
to the more northern region and settled in Nazareth,
or sprout city,
with overtones of Isaiah 11:1, where the Messiah is to be called ‘SPROUT’, as
most seem to render it, the root nzr, a word found
in Nazareth’s name. The same letters are in the term 'sprout' used in Isaiah
11:1’s reference to the coming Messiah.
Matthew
notes these two fulfillments of God’s word, concerning Egypt and Nazareth, in 2:15 and 2:23, just as he shows
for Christ Jesus our Lord, the word of God performed in Matthew 2:6, where
Bethlehem is exposed by the prophet Micah (5:1-3), as the Jewish base for the
birth of the One to
come. As Micah declared, the Messiah was to be stricken by man, but remained Judge of Israel for
all that, One whose “goings have been from
everlasting”
In
the very next chapter, at 3:2, Matthew notes John the Baptist fulfilling
Isaiah’s forecast from Isaiah 40, the one who as a voice crying in the wilderness, was to prepare the way of the Lord. Indeed, in
PRECISION AND THE PRINCE
How
rich is the Biblical heritage, as well it might be, for here was the most
important event in the history of the universe, the birth to become the power
and the manifestation of the glory of God, leading to the atonement at Calvary
and the resurrection duly fulfilling God’s undertaking personally to disrupt
death, as found in Hosea where the Son comes from Egypt and pardon from the God
of salvation by His own atonement.
But
why might it well be so surrounded with predictions ?
It is because the Christ is the ONLY WAY home, the ONLY ATONEMENT made, the
ONLY breach of the stern judgment of death and the assignments hereafter, the
ONLY conductor who never leads to hell, the ONLY prize without price, who pays
for all, and loves His own, even all who come to Him (Hebrews 7:25).
It is in this season that enormous emphasis, as a symbol of a fact, is placed on the BIRTH of this Mighty God into the form of man on earth (Isaiah 9:6), this prince of peace. For how many centuries have men ignored His word, disdained His wisdom, mocked or worse, misused His cross, fouled the streams of water and washed their dirt into the delight of the way of God, even using some churches as pollutants! But now we recall what it is all about! Soon we shall recall it more vividly when He returns, an event that is “near” (cf. Luke 21:24ff.).
Let us then consider.
"For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end. And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And He said to them, It is enough.
"And He came out, and went, as He was accustomed, to the mount of Olives; and His disciples also followed him. And when He was at the place, He said unto them, Pray that you do not enter into temptation.
"And He was withdrawn from them about a
stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if You be willing,
remove this cup from me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done. And
there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in an
agony He prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling down to the ground."
Such was the suffering part of it, which indeed had an end, before the glory which should follow, death unable to hold Him (Acts 2:24-31, Luke 24:40-43, John 20:27ff., Matthew 28:10). Now resurrected from a death which was unable to hold Him, just as flesh from the first in His birth into this earth, was unable to prevent Him, He continued His universal mission to men, to as many as receive Him.
Just as Simeon showed from Isaiah, when the babe
appeared in the Temple (Luke 2:29ff.),
what He was to be is what He is, for He came
– to BE the light of salvation to the Gentiles,
Himself both that salvation and that light
(Isaiah 42:6, 49:6, 9:2, 6-7, John
8:12, 9:4 cf. Comfort Ye, My People Ch. 7),
personal focus and object of faith, God as man,
effectual and final Saviour in the unending Kingdom of God,
who neither gives His glory to another,
nor names ANY OTHER SAVIOUR BUT HIMSELF (Isaiah 42:8, 43:10-11) ...
-- to REVEAL the thoughts of many
hearts,
while a sword would pierce through Mary’s soul and Jesus’ side.
Truth has no options for play, it is mercy which draws kindly to its side;
truth does not lie, does not falter, neither wavers nor wanders:
what the heart is, it is, and the only comfort is all comfort, in
the revelation of the truth which by mercy balms, in grace purges.
THIS is the One whose praise is often heard in the world,
whose life far more seldom lived; as if one disdained the ocean
and insisted on a muddy pool. He lived, borne a babe, and He grew.
The young plant was beautiful, and narrowly avoided uprooting
time an again (cf. Luke 4), it proceeded until its timber of truth
produced the immovable building of the house of faith
in which all dwell, whom He so covers (Isaiah 4:5-6) -
”For over all the glory there will be a covering. And there will
be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge,
and for a shelter from storm and rain.”
Thus do we need to apply these things and consider ...
THE PATH OF PIETY
This covering is shown more fully in Isaiah 32:
“A man will be as a hiding
place from the wind,
And a cover from the tempest,
As rivers of water in a dry place,
As the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land.
The eyes of
those who see will not be dim,
And the ears of those who hear will listen.
Also the heart of the rash will
understand knowledge …”
The MAN, as whom the Lord came
(Philippians 2), had beginning as a babe,
And knows all the intimacies of our challenges,
the answers to our queries, in
peace…
Our task is to receive both Him and His words in simple faith,
and by His
Spirit, thus regenerated into reality (John 3),
now born of the Spirit and no
more confined to the generation of flesh (John 3:6),
to find the power for
living in the very presence
of our Father and our Redeemer (Ephesians
What comfort is in this company,
what cordiality is in this companionship,
what communion is with such a comrade,
not the proletariat, not the commissar, not the political theory, not the vagrancies of carnal dynamic, but the presence in peace of the Prince of peace,
whose peace passes all understanding,
whose love passes all heights and depths,
whose shield is better than iron,
whose life endless,
whose joy full of glory,
whose crown rights are double, as Creator and Saviour,
whose goodness and mercy are for evermore in endless scope,
just as they are NOW (Psalm 86:17), in current action (cf. Isaiah 64:5).
It is He who was in the beginning who endures with His
flock,
every one of them (Psalm 84:7,11, 17:15, 145:1, Romans 5:1-11, 9:29ff.,
John 10:9,27-28).
HE ? He has done all things well, always does, the
Lord of love and truth,
donor of eternal life starting in the faith of the new-born SPIRITUAL babe (I
John 1:1-4, 3:16, 6:50ff.) and knowing no term or limit to its continuance;
for each of His is sustained by the glory of God, whose word and work
(Philippians 1:6)
is imperishable (I Peter 1:5,23-25, John 4:14, Ephesians 1:11, I Thessalonians
5:23-24, II Timothy 1:9).
He who came as a babe to this furrowed world, insists that all likewise, not in flesh but in spirit, become spiritual babes, His condescension our obligation, and our obligation His gift of grace.