IMMANUEL Kay Keith Peebles 12/22/17 17.49
The long awaited day had finally come. All of heaven was ecstatic! There was a flurry of excitement from the Throne Room of God to the outer regions of heaven. Before creation the Cherubim and Seraphim had heard the discussion between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as did the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. Before the Lord created Adam, He knew Adam would eventually fall into sin if he was given the free will to choose. The All-Knowing God, in His great wisdom, was already planning a way to redeem Adam’s descendants from their sinful nature.
The Son (pre-incarnate Jesus) asked His Father to allow Him to become flesh like man, to show Adam’s offspring the great love His Father had for the people. He told His Father He knew the people would love Him if they could see what His Father was truly like. They discussed the need for pure sinless blood to be shed for the redemption of mankind’s sin-filled souls. The Son volunteered to go and reveal to the people His Father’s character and His Kingdom. He also chose to lay down His sinless life for the whole world, in order to save those who would choose to believe in Him. Every heavenly being looked on in awe as the Godhead agreed that the Son of God would one day leave the glory and majesty of heaven to become the Son of man in order to save the people.
In God’s perfect timing, Adam and Eve were created and planted in the garden to abide in the perpetual, glorious presence of the Lord all their days. They were made in the image of God and clothed with His glory. They were created in the perfection of holiness and were completely without sin. In that sinless state, they and their descendants would have lived forever in the presence of the Lord.
They were given dominion over every living thing in the garden. Each plant bearing food was available for them to eat except one, the fruit from Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent (Satan), who had rebelled against the Lord and was cast down from heaven, beguiled the woman and the man. His cunning distortion of God’s commandment tempted them and as a result, they chose to eat the fruit from the one tree God had forbidden. His twisted words incited them to doubt the Word of the Lord as they entertained the lies of the serpent. He told them they would become equal to God if they ate from that tree. The lust of their eyes for the forbidden fruit and the pride in their hearts believing they could be equal to God motivated them to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Although the Lord had warned them death would enter their lives if they disobeyed, they rebelled against the Lord God which caused the breaking of fellowship with Him. What was once beautiful and glorious became ugly, dark and grim.
The hardness of their hearts caused by their sin kept them from accepting personal responsibility for their choice to reject God’s Word and authority. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent for their own actions. Consequently, they were cast out of the garden of God’s glory and they lived under the curse of disobedience and dishonor their sin brought upon them. Lives that would have existed forever became temporal and mortal as sin began the cycle of disease, death and destruction. Although they did not die immediately, they began to feel the results of their rebellion against God. Cain and Abel were the first two children Adam and Eve produced after their sin. Death became a reality as their rebellion was inbred into their sons. Jealousy over their offerings to the Lord caused Cain to kill his brother Abel. Having the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve discovered they could not live a holy life without the presence of the Lord. Experiencing the consequences of their sin first hand, the reality of sin and death became starkly personal. Death stared them in the face. Cain lived the rest of his life under the curse of death and murder. There would be no help for any of their descendants if God did not intervene on their behalf. The Lord established a “temporary” sacrificial system for them until His complete, eternal redemption could be enacted.
Millenniums passed while God chose one man after another to speak for Him in order to show the people how to live, but for the most part, they chose to continue in their rebellion of God’s will and His ways. Miracles were witnessed and devout examples of leadership rose to prominence through many of the prophets and kings, yet the people continued to worship their idols instead of the one, true God. Most of God’s messengers were not only rejected, they were killed by the people because they chose their idols of self-rule instead of that of their Creator.
Over three thousand years had passed from Adam to the prophet Isaiah when Heaven began to stir again. The time had come to initiate the plan the Father, Son and Holy Spirit had created to save mankind. The precision of God’s timing intersected with the chosen prophet to deliver His message. Isaiah was selected by God to speak His declaration of hope to the people on earth at that moment. The name Isaiah means Yahweh is Salvation!
All the heavenly beings bowed in reverence as the Lord God stood to speak a Word that would impact both heaven and earth. As He began to declare His eternal promise, an explosion of light empowered His Words. Met with a roar of thunder, the two collided as His decree broke through the heavenly realms. It pierced the veil of great darkness that covered the earth. The eternal seed of Truth was deposited in the earth to remain until its divine purpose would be fully revealed. Empowered by His glory and all the authority of heaven, a lightning rod of God’s Word penetrated the heart and the mind of the prophet Isaiah as he stood before the people. He began to speak the very Words of God…
“For unto us a Child shall be born, to us a Son shall be given and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. There shall be no end to the increase of His government and of peace. [He shall rule] on the throne of David and over his Kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from that time forward and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.” Isaiah 9:7.
The Holy Spirit began to brood over the Words of God as the time for the incarnation of the Son of God and man would enter the earthly realm. The Almighty has always watched over His Word to perform it and it has never returned to Him void of its intent. The Lord also promised the people a sign would accompany His Son as He came to earth…
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Listen carefully, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will call his name Immanuel (God with us).” Isaiah 7:14.
Yahweh is Salvation was declaring the incarnation of the Savior. The people heard with their ears but their sinful hearts clouded their understanding.
Eight hundred more years passed before the day finally came for the King of Glory to be born. The Majesty from on High entered the womb of a virgin named Mary so that He might show the people the true heart of God. Seeking shelter as His birth was imminent, Mary and Joseph found no place other than a stable on the edge of Bethlehem for this holy, Son of God to be born. Although He deserved to be born in a great palace filled with silver and gold, His infant form was placed in a stable manger, a mere feeding trough for animals.
The moment of His first cry, all of heaven stood at attention and began to rejoice! The angels sang, praising their King, who gave up the glories of heaven to save His people. A huge star converged over the humble stable and guided believing hearts even thousands of miles away. Shepherds who were tending their flocks nearby saw a great angel in the sky and heard their voice proclaiming the Good News, a Savior has been born who is Christ the Lord. The Long awaited Messiah (Christ) broke the veil between God and man entering the earthly realm as a tiny babe in a most humble borrowed manger.
Wise men from the Far East had seen the star and ventured the difficult and distant journey to see the wonder it proclaimed. They brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh which were symbolic of His deity, His death and resurrection, and His eternal reign as King above all Kings.
The King of Glory became the servant of all, the Lord of Life was the sacrifice for sin and death. The Prince of Peace reconciled God to man, and The Way, the Truth and the Life led His disciples to eternal life. The curse of sin and death was forever broken and all who would believe were given a way unto salvation!
At a time when those with eyes could not truly see and those with ears could not truly hear, the Lord made the ultimate sacrifice to reach His people through His abandoned, reckless love. Those who would believe saw a Savior in a manger, the God of heaven and earth in His miracles and the Lord of Life on the cross. He has given us a new way to live and the power to be transformed into His image.
May the glorious birth of Jesus so impact your life that you will never be the same. May the truth of His gospel so fill your heart that you live in heaven on earth as you prepare others for His return. May His death and resurrection produce resurrection life in your innermost being, and may His Truth sustain you until you see Him face to face in eternity! God bless you all, and Merry, Merry Christmas.
