The Birth of Christ

Our Christmas study continues to look at the condition of the world as seen in the condition of Israel at the time

When God sent His Son

Scribes and Pharisees:

The Pharisees, in contrast to the Sadducees, accepted the whole of the T’nach, (the Law, the Writings and the Prophets); and added other regulations which they sought to impose on the population.  These other laws and regulations were called the ‘tradition of the elders’; and revolved around the practical application of the T’nach.  The Pharisees worked hand in hand with the interpreters of these traditions, the Scribes, but Jesus condemned both Scribes and Pharisees for hypocrisy.  They pretended spirituality, they pretended integrity, they pretended they were following the light of the Word of God, but Jesus said, they were, like the Sadducees, corrupt, extortioners, exploiting the people, devouring widows’ houses.  Described as blind leaders of the blind, they were a generation of vipers.

Historically, these ‘rulers of Israel’, (Sadducean priests and Pharisaic elders and lawyers), met in the house of polished stones in the Temple compound, but at the time of the ministry of the Messiah they were meeting in the end chamber of the royal porch, located on the southern wall of the Temple mount.

Satan

The population itself was largely in a state of unbelief, and ripe for the activities of the Adversary.  When Jesus began His ministry, one of His first tasks was as a medical missionary to the demon possessed. This condition revealed itself in many ways, with some deaf, some blind, some mute, some paralysed, some lunatic and some spastic. Many in Israel had been ‘bound by Satan’ for a considerable period.  Lightfoot expresses it in his exercitations on Matthew 10: ‘When I consider with myself that numberless number of demoniacs which the evangelists mention, the like to which no history affords, and the Old Testament produces hardly one or two examples, I cannot but suspect …that the Jewish people, now arriving to the very top of that impiety, now also arrived to the very top of those curses which are recited in Leviticus chapter 26 and Deuteronomy chapter 28’.  Then there were those who, while not possessed, were oppressed of the devil. Luke refers to it when he reported, ‘Jesus of Nazareth … went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.’ It appears that Jesus first had to cleanse the nation of demonic activity before they could have the freedom to consider His claims of office. Jesus likened the nation to a man possessed of an unclean demon.

The Birth of the Saviour

Into such a world and at such a time the Son of God came, born of a virgin in David’s town of Bethlehem, of the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and David

We magnify the grace and condescension of God in this great act of mercy. “Christ Jesus, who,   being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.” (Phil. 2:5–7)

Christ, by highest heaven adored;

Christ, the everlasting Lord;

Late in time behold him come,

Offspring of the Virgin’s womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

Hail the incarnate Deity,

Pleased as man with man to dwell;

Jesus, our Emmanuel!

More Next Time