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 close to 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 total 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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