A Christmas Miracle
12-21-09
By Rev Deb
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6)
The prophet Isaiah prophesied of the birth of Christ about 500 years before that glorious event had actually arrived. When researchers fell upon a complete book of Isaiah among a library of documents that had been preserved; you could imagine the great enthusiastic excitement.
Researchers did not realize the magnitude of this discovery until they found that the Essenes had buried the scroll of Isaiah in A.D. 70. It remained incognito for nearly 2000 years. Then in 1947, just one year before Israel became a sovereign nation, the book of Isaiah was discovered at Qumron. The scroll was dated at about 100 B.C., this would make the scroll 170 years old when it was buried by the the Essenes.
After specialists had taken all variations into consideration; spelling, environment, dialect... the ancient scroll was intrinsically the same as the text we read today.
Isaiah is considered to be the major messianic prophet of the Old testaments. 500 years before Christ was born, the book of Isaiah predicted that Messiah would come as a child, would be the Son of God, would be called wonderful councilor, He would be the Prince of peace, He would be born through the house of king David, the government would rest on His shoulders, and His throne and kingdom would have no end.... (Isa. 9:6)
"Isaiah also predicted that this Child would be born of a virgin and that He would be named Immanuel, which means, "God with us" (Isa. 7:14).
Isaiah foresaw that this awesome Child who would be born of a virgin would in fact be God in the flesh, both truly God and truly man!!!
Isaiah 9:7 said that the Child would be born of the seed of king David and that His kingdom will be perfect and eternal. ( truly amazing!! Hallelujah to all who believe!!) Perfection and eternal existence are both attributes that belong solely to God.
Isaiah 11:1 said that the Messiah will come as "a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of His roots."
The how is the Christmas miracle. Jesse was king David's father who actually started the royal lineage. How Jesus became the greater Son of David is where the miracle lies.
King David had a number of children, but for this message only two bare significance to the Christmas wonder...
Most people know how very difficult it is for a birth to even occur, but what they might not know is how very difficult it is to issue a line (lineage) and out of the multiple generations have a certain baby be born by certain parents in at a certain time in history.
Now even more difficult then this, is for both parents to be from the same lineage and having one cursed to prevent human fathering.
This is just what happened in order for Christ to be born in this manner. And lest we forget; all this was predicted throughout the Old Testament over many generations BEFORE CHRIST WAS EVEN BORN!!
THE HOW...
David had two son's, Solomon (who became king) and Nathan his bother. Solomon's lineage is told in Matthew's gospel. The prophet Jeremiah predicted that a grandson many times removed would be cursed along with his descendants...
"Is this man Coniah (also known as Jeconiah) a despised, shattered jar? Or is he an undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out and cast into a land that they have not known?
O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord, Write this man down childless. A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in judah". (Jer. 22:28-30)
WOW !!! Jeremiah was sure not using flattery with this prediction!!
Israel had become so unfaithful to the Lord at this time in their history, that God brought the Babylonians against them in a final siege as a discipline.
Coniah or Jeconiah the king was promptly removed from the throne by Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, just as was prophesied by Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah predicted that no one of Jeconiah's descendant's would ever sit upon the throne again. The Lord cursed Him and his royal lineage from succeeding the throne for leading Israel to such a level of unfaithfulness. .. (see Jer 36:30-37:1,2)
Now, guess who belongs to this cursed lineage? If you thought Joseph, Mary's husband, you would be correct!! Joseph's ancestor is king Jeconiah, who is a descendant of Solomon...
Matthew 1:11, Josiah was the father of Jehoiachin [a] and his brothers (born at the time of the exile to Babylon).
( [a] Greek Jeconiah, a variant spelling of Jehoiachin; also in 1:12. See 2 Kgs 24:6 and note at 1 Chr 3:16).
The book of Matthew traces Jesus Christ's lineage from AbraHam to Joseph. Joseph belongs to the cursed line of Jeconiah and therefore, could not sit upon the Davic throne (Matt. 1:16).
Mary on the other hand also descended from king David's line, but through Nathan the brother of Solomon... Mary's lineage is recorded in Luke 3:23-31. Because a women's pedigree was not accepted in the first century, the Holy Spirit traced Jesus' line through Mary's father Eli (v 23).
THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
One king (David), two sons (Solomon and Nathan), 42 generations, one cursed line (Joseph's), one blessed line, (Mary's) and one Savior (Jesus Christ). How could Isaiah and Jeremiah's predictions be so meticulously accurate about one child and a marriage of two particular people that descended from the same royal lineage? How could they be so precise about one of the sons of David's line being cursed? Only God could so orchestrate such a miraculous wonder!! Only God could direct Joseph's line to be removed from the throne via a curse and still allow for David's lineage to seat the predicted child on his throne to be king forevermore...
"He will be born of the seed of David, but His kingdom will be perfect and will be eternal."
"Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this." (Isaiah 9:7)
As we enter into this Christmas season, let us remember that it was this Christ child who came to set us free and has given Himself as the gift to mankind...
Jesus is the reason we celebrate this season... Let us take time to thank Him...
A MERRIEST CHRISTMAS AND THE HAPPIEST NEW YEAR !!!
God's blessings to you all!!!
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