MERRY CHRISTMAS
I promised yesterday to write a Christmas greeting on my
blog on Christmas Day.
What I have today about Christmas has probably already
been said before, well at least some of it, but if that is the case then I will
say it again. Christmas, to me, holds
mixed feelings in my mind. I am not one
who likes going all out on buying presents just because it is Christmas, but
want to remember what Christmas is suppose to be all about. Now we know that Jesus Christ was probably
not born on the 25th of December, but we do know that He was born,
and probably born in the winter months, and I do not know exactly know how the
25th of December came about as the day we celebrate Christmas. I suppose a little digging on the internet
would answer that question, but I probably will not do that. Like I say the important thing is that Jesus
Christ was born into the world and the first prophecy of Him coming into the
world goes all the way back to the book of Genesis, and right after Adam and
Eve sinned we read “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And
between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall
bruise him on the heel."” God is
speaking of Satan in this passage and also He is saying that there will be war
between Satan and the offspring of the woman.
“I’m declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and
hers. He’ll wound your head, you’ll wound his heel." (Message)” We see in
the NASB that God speaks of the “seed of the woman,” and this is the only time
we see this in the Word of God. The seed
comes through the man, but there were three differences in the Scriptures when
this did not happen that way. First God
created Adam out of the earth, and then God created woman out of Adam’s rib,
and then we read that Mary became pregnant through the Holy Spirit and this is
where we get the seed of the woman as involved in the birth of Jesus Christ.
Now as we read through the Old Testament we see how the
Lord narrows down the line in which the Messiah would come from. In the book of Matthew we see the bloodline
of Jesus through Joseph, and in Luke’s gospel we see the bloodline of Jesus
through Mary. Both Joseph and Mary were
descendants of David, but Mary came through the line of Nathan while Joseph
came through Solomon. Luke’s line of
Jesus goes all the way back to God, while Matthew’s line only goes back to
Abraham. One of the kings of Judah,
Jeconiah had a curse against him and so his line could not be in the line of
the Messiah to be King. As I said Mary
came through the line of Nathan, Luke 3:31 “the son of Melea, the son of Menna,
the son of Mattatha, the
son of Nathan, the son of David,.”
Joseph also came from the line of David and even though Jeconiah was in
his line this did not permit Jesus from being the Messiah for He was not born
of Joseph but of the Holy Spirit and Mary.
Now
as far as the place where Jesus was born and who was there when He was born, it
is not like the nativity scenes we see in people’s yards or in their houses. I read a historic novel a few years ago and
the author incorporated into the birth of Jesus a place called Midgal Eder and
this place is mentioned in the book of Micah 4:8 where we read “8 "As for
you, tower of the flock, Hill of the daughter of Zion, To you it will come-Even
the former dominion will come, The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.” The words “tower of the flock” in the Hebrew
is Midgal Eder, and this place was near Bethlehem on the way to Jerusalem and
is where the lambs were born who would go to the temple and used for
sacrifices. There was a cave there and
many believe that Jesus was born in that cave where these sacrificial lambs
were born. When you think about this it
all makes perfect sense. Now as far as
who was there we know that Joseph, Mary, Jesus and later on the shepherds came,
but as far as the wise men they did not come and see Jesus until he was near
two years old. They probably came from
what was once Babylon and they probably got their information from Daniel who
prophesied in his book of the time when the Messiah would die and so they would
know when it would be near time for Him to be born and looked for Him following
a star. They first came to see Herod and
asked him where the Messiah would be born and then went to find Him, giving
gifts to Him and were then told in a dream not to go back to tell Herod. Herod then had all male boys from the age of
two years old and younger killed as was prophesied by Jeremiah.
Okay so the story of Jesus’ birth is probably much different
than what we use to celebrate it in our world today as I tried to bring out,
but the point of all of this is that God was in control of all the things which
would bring His Son into the world to fulfill what His plans were for Him to
accomplish, and He accomplished all of them, and we can praise the Lord on this
Christmas Day that He did accomplish all of them. Jesus told His mother while in the temple
that He came to do His Father’s will and at the end of His life, while hanging
on a cross He said “It is finished.”
What was finished was His becoming sin for us so that we could receive
His righteousness and have it credited to our account so that when the Father
looks at those who have received this free gift of salvation He will see Jesus
Christ and not our sinfulness.
The all time very best gift a person can receive on
Christmas Day or any other day is to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord,
to confess that they are a sinner in need of a Savior and find out that Jesus
paid it all, and receive Him as Savior and Lord.
Merry Christmas to all!
I,
Jacob Howard, wrote Dr. Charlie Dyer, who is the speaker on the Land and the Book Radio, a question about
Migdal-Eder, mentioned in Micah 4:8. This was Dr. Dyer’s response.
Jacob,
Thank
you for your e-mail, and thanks as well for your kind words! Denny and I both
appreciate the privilege God has given us to serve Him in this way. You have
encouraged us both!
As
far as Midgal Eder is concerned, there is no universal identification of
the site. But I do believe it was a real site. The best thing I’ve read on the
subject is from Alfred Edersheim’s The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.
(You can find his complete work online at Google Books.) I’ll include his
quotation here, and then I’ll follow it with a few observations. (I’ll also
highlight the key point he makes in the quote.)
But
as we pass from the sacred gloom of the cave [i.e., he was just talking about
the birth of Jesus in a cave] out into the night, its sky all aglow with starry
brightness, its loneliness is peopled, and its silence made vocal from heaven.
There is nothing now to conceal, but much to reveal, though the manner of it
would seem strangely incongruous to Jewish thinking. And yet Jewish tradition
may here prove both illustrative and helpful. That the Messiah was to be born
in Bethlehem, was a settled conviction. Equally so was the belief, that He was
to be revealed from Migdal Eder, “the tower of the flock.” This
Migdal Eder was not the watchtower for the ordinary flocks which
pastured on the barren sheep ground beyond Bethlehem, but lay close to the
town, on the road to Jerusalem. A passage in the Mishnah leads to the
conclusion, that the flocks, which pastured there, were destined for
Temple-sacrifices, and, accordingly, that the shepherds, who watched over them,
were not ordinary shepherds. The latter were under the ban of Rabbinism, on
account of their necessary isolation from religious ordinances, and their
manner of life, which rendered strict legal observance unlikely, if not
absolutely impossible. The same Mishnaic passage also leads us to infer, that
these flocks lay out all the year round, since they are spoken of as in the
fields thirty days before the Passover—that is, in the month of February, when
in Palestine the average rainfall is nearly greatest. Thus, Jewish tradition in
some dim manner apprehended the first revelation of the Messiah from that
Migdal Eder, where shepherds watched the Temple-flocks all the year round.
Of the deep symbolic significance of such a coincidence, it is needless to
speak.
—Alfred
Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, pp. 186-87
If
Edersheim is correct (and I believe he is), the location for
Migdal Eder would be north of Bethlehem and near the old road from
Bethlehem to Jerusalem. (That road is the old “Hebron road” one drives on
between Jerusalem and Bethlehem today!) I believe this puts the location
somewhere between the Jewish kibbutz of Ramat Rachel and Bethlehem,
probably just to the west of Har Homa. There used to be an actual
sheepfold in this area where I would take our groups but, sadly, it has been
covered over by the modern road that now goes to Har Homa.
A
key point here. Edersheim indicates that Migdal Eder was an actual spot,
but he is not saying it was a town or village. Rather, the name means
“watchtower of the flock” which seems to identify it as a specific pasture area
for sheep. And the sheep that grazed here were those specifically destined for
Temple sacrifice. In that sense the shepherds keeping watch over the temple
sacrifices were the ones to whom God announced the birth of the ultimate
“sacrificial lamb.”
I’m
attaching a screen shot from Google Earth that might be of help in identifying
the location for Midgal Eder. Note that Ramat Rachel is at the top of
the picture and Bethlehem is at the bottom. The road running along the left
side of the picture is the old Hebron Road, and
Homat Shemu’el/Har Homa is just to the right of center in the
picture. Based on Edersheim’s description, I would place
Migdal Eder almost in the center of the picture…north of Bethlehem,
just to the west of Har Homa, and east of the road from Bethlehem to
Jerusalem. Since the word means “tower of the flock” it is likely a high spot
in this area where sheep would graze. The hills right around (or right at)
Har Homa are probably the best possible location.
I
hope this is helpful!
Charlie
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