“Lord, now you are letting your servantdepart in peace,
according to your word;
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation
31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
The birth of Jesus unleased the fury of hell intensifying the spiritual warfare that has existed since the garden. Revelation 12: A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
Time does not permit a thorough exegesis of the text as I have done on other occasions, so let me hit the high points. The sign belongs to heaven because everything is under heaven’s supervision and direction. Many just assume the woman is Mary, but that is too narrow. While Mary is included, she is not the queen of heaven, rather that designation belongs to the Church.
The OT faithful carried around in them the hope of the sufferings and promise of Messiah. This is seen in specific women in living color, beginning with Eve. Sarah’s barrenness is no obstacle for God. Nor is Leah’s dishonor by Jacob.
Throughout the OT we see the Serpent of old, the Devil, seeking to wipe out the promise of God by destroying the line that would eventually bring forth the Christ as promised back in Genesis 3. So, it is the church, who like her husband has had war made against her by His and our enemy. The child is obviously the culmination of the promise, Jesus who is the Christ. But the point is the enmity, the hatred that this generates.
The efforts to destroy the promise, to destroy Christ and how that promise is preserved in the shadow of the Dragon’s waiting and then at the end, the continued hatred and hostility of evil toward any and all who keep the Word of the Lord and follow Him faithfully.
What do you see…really see…when you read about the wickedness of Herod killing all the male babies two years and younger? A psychotic, narcissistic evil man bent on wickedness? Yes, there is that. But do you see the Dragon? Do you see Satan behind it all? Of course, you do. Destroy the child, destroy God’s promise…no redemption for man…God’s mercy, grace and love are thwarted.
But the child is protected, and ascends to the right hand of the Father. The Lord wants us to understand that with the promise of Messiah has come spiritual warfare that has had drastic implications to the faithful on the earth.
Verse 17 speaks specifically about us…about you and me, your children and mine. The only way the Dragon will stop pursuing you and your children…the only way the minions under his sway, the culture that we live in, will stop and give us, give the church, any reprieve…Is if we have so compromised our faith that we are no threat to him whatsoever. Your adversary does not have two horns and a long red tail. In fact, he has 10 horns and great power. He pours out his river of lies to engulf you, to drown you in the world.
He tantalizes you with the pleasures of this world and its many distractions and causes the halls of man’s power to be turned against the church. He will persecute you and if not that, then offer religious substitutes, some of which will smack of the truth, leading you even if it be ever so slightly at first, away from the truth that you might fix your eyes on anything but the Lamb of God.
Look around you…surely you can see it! You can see the warfare raging…you can see the casualties. Christian people, whole churches chasing after the same things that the world seeks.
We see Christians coveting political and social power, folks seeking a name, seeking to stand out, having cultural ambitions instead of covenantal ambitions; Using biblical language to posture themselves as being truly spiritual and of course…loving.
The culture learned long ago that it could not stop Christians from celebrating the incarnation…Christmas is here to stay…so instead they co-opted it. At first kept the religious aspects in Xmas but added cultural flavor. This continued, this dilution of the real message…Herod and his atrocities skipped over quite readily…until we have what we have now. You can celebrate…but you can’t say Merry Christmas…but Happy Holidays.
No manger scenes in public places…Christmas with no Christ. In Psalm 50 the Lord asks the wicked: “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? You hate discipline and you cast my words behind you!”
And yet at no time more than Christmas do we listen to God-hating pagans tipping the hat at God and singing, “Veiled in flesh the God-head see, hail the incarnate deity, born as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel…” And they have no idea what they are singing and would deny its truth if you explained it to them. Christmas is about warfare and only the fool will not see it.
Prayer: Father, keep me from being apathetic toward You and Your might works of mercy and grace for the salvation of the world. Help me to see the wonder of all that You have done and continue to do. I willingly give myself to Your kind and gracious work of helping me to see myself clearly that I may cling to You more tightly. In Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: Noel Nouvelet