Joseph and his dream (Matthew 1:19-25)

Joseph was a pretty important character in the Christmas story. In fact, of all the people in the whole Bible who had dreams, Joseph had the most - four dreams! And thank God he did, or Jesus may never have been born.

Joseph was a "just man". That is, he desired to obey the Law of God. So when he found out that Mary, his wife, was pregnant - and not by him - he was in quite a quandary. He was very kind, and had no desire to make this thing public. If he did, the Law demanded that Mary be stoned. So he made up his mind to put her away secretly, through divorcement.

Now the Bible says, "While he pondered these things..." (v. 20). While he was considering which of these two options to take, an angel appeared to him in a dream. In essence, the angel said, "Joseph, there is a third option, and here it is, and this is why."

Have you ever been in a quandary about what to do? And you feel like you have exhausted all your options? And none of them look all that good? Well, God still has ideas that you have never had. We can't see down the road and around the bend, but God sits up high above the earth and can see everything. So why not ask Him? And wait for His answer.

Satan was trying his best to stop Jesus from coming into the earth. He put pressure on Joseph to do the right thing. And there were two right things to choose from, according to the Law. But aren't you glad that God is more involved in grace than law? When it looks impossible, and Satan is trying to get the upper hand in your life, God in His grace comes with a totally unheard-of option. An option, that when revealed, makes perfect sense.

And when Joseph obeyed and took God's option, Jesus was born - the Savior of the World! You see, with God, there is no Plan B. Plan A always works, if we will obey God. Take a lesson from Joseph.
Start looking to God for Plan A, His plan, the one that always works. Be willing to wait until you relax and quit fidgeting (like, take a nap, dude!). God is never late, He is always on time!

Blessings this Christmastime!

Zacharius & Mary (Luke 1)

Boy! The messenger angel was certainly busy during that first Christmas season! Think about it, he sat around for nearly 400 years waiting to deliver a message to someone. Then suddenly, in a period of a few months, he was speeding up and down the land of Israel, delivering messages to men and women alike.

Two of those messages were to an old priest named Zacharias, and a young virgin girl named Mary. One was in the south of the land, the other in the north. Their messages were quite similar, but their reactions were vastly different, with quite different consequences.

Zacharius (Zachary, today, or Zach, if you please) was an old priest, married to Elizabeth, a barren wife. Here he was,
     ending his days in the priesthood
          with no successor,
               no child,
                    no grandchildren. Not a very promising picture, to say the least. But while in the temple, performing his required services, an angel appears with a message. It was a glorious message, too! (Luke 1:5-23) Not just some ho-hum event, it was a world-changer.
     He would have a son,
          his name would be John,
               and he would go around announcing the coming of the long-awaited Messiah.
Okay, finally after all these years of no children, we have paydirt!!

Here comes the problem: First thing out of his mouth was a wrong question. Did you ever want to grab what you just said and stuff it back in your mouth? Instead, it just hung out there in the air in vibrant neon color. Oh no! He said, "How shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years?" (v. 18) ...and the angel struck him dumb, until John was born.

Now, here is Mary.
     She is a very young girl
          (in today's standards),
               unmarried,
                    and no real prospects of a husband. She is just beginning life, unlike Zach, and her whole future is before her. The messenger angel shows up in her room with a glorious message (is there any other kind from heaven?), just for her.
     She would have a son!
          He would be the promised Messiah from heaven. (Luke 1:26-35)
               And she would call him the Son of God.
In so many ways, she was scared spit-less.

Here comes the question, just like Zach, sort of. She asked, "How shall this be, I am not married?" (v. 34) ...and the angel explained it to her, unlike Zacharias.

So what is the difference? They both had good reason to ask a question. Zacharias felt the promise had come too late. Mary felt the promise had come too soon. But Zacharias questioned the fact of the promise, while Mary only inquires as to the mode.

So be watchful this Christmas season. You may not know how Jesus will appear to you, but know for a fact that he will. For he promises, that if we will believe, he will come to us and make his home with us.

Be blessed this Christmas season!

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. Matthew 2:10

What a joyful sentence in the midst of this - or any - Christmas season! When they saw the star...

But wait a second, they had followed it for nights and days, and it led them to Israel to see the newborn King of the Jews. Why now did they rejoice?!

They were human, just as you and I are. Wouldn't you assume that the new king would be born in the capital of the country? Where the temple was? That is a natural assumption, if you hadn't read the prophecies, or hadn't read them closely enough. So, when they got to Jerusalem, they did the normal thing. They went to the palace and asked the present king. And they started a furor that caused many babies to die a terrible death.

Apparently, in their haste and wrong decision to go to Jerusalem and ask of Herod, the star vanished. In some way, they could no longer see it. But when they left Jerusalem without a solid answer to their question, the star suddenly appeared again, and (I believe) they realized their mistake and rejoiced that the star was still there. As it turned out, they were guided to Nazareth, not Bethlehem, and to the "house where Jesus was," and there they fell down and worshiped Him.

We all must seek Him and follow Him by faith. There is no other way. Sometimes the glitz and glimmer of this world, sometimes the noise and busyness, sometimes the schedules and demands, dim our view of faith. We lose our way, as it were, and we begin to come up with our own idea of what we should do. That is when we discover that we have made a mess of things and can't figure out how to get out of it all.

Repent means to turn and go another way. They left Jerusalem (repented?) and went another way when they saw the star. That brought great rejoicing!

May I encourage you, and me, this Christmas season? Keep your eyes on the Star of the season - Jesus. Turn away - in your heart - from all the noise, and schedules, and gift-buying, and gift-opening, and family gatherings, and dinners, and keep your eyes on the Star. That is where the change is. That is what will make Christmas - and your life! - different. It will cause you to "go home another way" (v. 12).

Like the chorus says:
     "Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
     Look full in His wonderful face,
     And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
     In the light of His glory and grace."
                                                 - Helen H. Lemmel

Where is He who is born king of the Jews? Matthew 2:2

All my adult life I wondered why Herod went ballistic when the wisemen came to him and asked this question of him. One Christmastime Sunday morning, I was preaching about the wisemen. I arrived a little early at the church and had time to review my message. I decided to read the passage from my Greek New Testament. In doing so, I suddenly stopped at verse 2 on the word "born". Something was wrong, this wasn't the normal Greek word for "born". And why was this word chosen over the normal word for born?

I began to research the issue, and found the answer to my long-asked question. There are four Greek words for "born", this being the last one normally used. This word (teek'-tow) places emphasis on the product, rather than the process. It doesn't focus on the conception or the gestation, but rather the finished product itself.

In a literal sense, the wisemen were asking Herod, "Where is he, the product of the seed, the king of the Jews?" And that is what made Herod go crazy (I should say, crazier). He wasn't the true king of the Jews. He had usurped that position and had gotten Rome to validate it. Inside, he always knew that his position was tenuous, at best. Now here come these wisemen (read, goofballs, to Herod) who want to know where the king of the Jews is. And they identify him perfectly, and separate him from Herod and his offspring. All in one word!

When Adam and Eve sinned, God promised the devil, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel" (Genesis 3:15). For centuries, the Jews had looked for the seed of the woman, the Messiah (read, Product of the Seed) to come. And Herod, being part Jew, would certainly be aware of this most prominent promise among the Jews. He knew his time was soon to be up, and the devil in him knew as well.

Thus begins the bruising of His (the Messiah's) heel with the killing of the babies in Bethlehem.
Thus begins the bruising of Satan's head with the birth of, the appearance of, the product of the seed, the Messiah.
And just mention Jesus in public, and watch "Herod" go ballistic. Same results today as when He was born a baby in Bethlehem.

This is a glorious season, Christmas, set in the midst of political, financial, social, and personal upheaval. Why does it happen that way? To remind us that the Product of the Seed has come, He has bruised Satan's head. And very soon, He will destroy Satan's influence over the people of the earth forever. Christmas is still a foretaste of that which is to come.

Now, the birth of Jesus was on this wise. (Matthew 1:10-18)

Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus, filled with less than perfect men and women, less than stellar kings. So filled with such imperfect specimens is this listing that the Holy Spirit then says: “Now the birth of Jesus was like this.” Or “On the contrary the birth of Jesus was like this.”

His birth was so very stellar and other-worldly compared to his lineage that there is no comparison at all.

The “players” in the drama are

          Mary & Joseph

          Zacharias and Elizabeth

          The shepherds

          The wise men

          King Herod

          Anna of Asher

          Simeon of Judah.

And the inn-keeper

Each had their mundane lives to live:

          Mary & Joseph lived in a backwater town.

          Zacharias and Elizabeth were at retirement age, having spent

their whole lives in a non-eventful and thankless job, and childless.

          The shepherds were caught up in a monotonous and lonely

                   routine.

          The wise men – a few of many scholars – were wise by

                   knowledge, but they had no real experience. They were

                   insulated by their books.

          King Herod was caught between Rome and the Jews. Not a

real king, he was distrustful of everyone, and distrusted by everyone.

          Anna & Simeon had spent a lifetime of waiting with only a

                   thread of hope.

          The inn-keeper was a little known businessman in a village

whose only sense of importance was the claim to the

birthplace of King David.

In a two-year period, each had an interesting encounter with God.

          Zacharias stumbled into God’s presence.

          Elizabeth and God used the same body.

          The shepherds and God attended the same angelic concert.

The inn-keeper and God used the same stable for their

lambs.

          The wise men and God were interested in the same star.

          King Herod and God had designs on the same throne.

          Anna and God inhabited the same temple waiting to give

                   thanks and receive thanks.

          Simeon and God anticipated the same Salvation for Israel.

          Joseph and God had an eye for the same woman – and met

                   in a dream to work it all out.

          And Mary’s and God’s “fullness of time” occurred at the same

                   time in the same place.

And yet, each would have lived a life that was unknown and not-long-remembered by more than one or two others…except…

          for the unseen,

                   other-worldly,

                             cataclysmic events that were occurring

                                      simultaneously.

And what of your “mundane” life? And what of the worldly events happening all around you without your control? Could it be that God is doing something

          unseen,

                   other-worldly

                             cataclysmic

                                      and simultaneous with you?

Could I encourage you today to be an Anna or a Simeon? Could you commit yourself to waiting on God? staying in His presence? not giving up with the passing of time?

Could I encourage you to be a Mary and allow God to do impossible things with you? Could you be a Joseph and allow God to change the course of your life and future history?

Like Zacharias and Elizabeth, would you start life again at what the world considers the end and produce a greater blessing for God – and the world?

Like the shepherds, would you release your hands from this world’s busyness to bow before God in adoration?

Or like the wise men, would you allow God to re-chart your life and send you to unknown places to supply needed gifts for the King?

Today, no one thinks of these first century AD lives as mundane. Instead we wish we had been there. We dream of what it would be like to be one of them. We give God praise that each of them allowed God to invade their mundane-ness.

And we take hope and are encouraged that God is also using us in a very significant way. And He is!

          “He that began a good work in you will continue it until the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

Did you say otter skin?

 
Many years ago, as a young pastor, I was re-reading the Old Testament passage about the wanderings in the wilderness of the Hebrew children. As I was reading I came across the passage that told about dismantling the tabernacle for each move in the desert. One of the interesting things was the coverings that went over each piece of furniture in the tabernacle to protect it for traveling. I suddenly stopped reading and said, "Otter skins?!"

The otter lives in/near water. And of course, the Hebrew children were in the desert - way in the desert. To even have otter skins, some of the men would have had to make a trip to the coast to catch otters. So this was a big undertaking. But my main shock was the need to cover the furniture with otter skins in the desert. The main thing value of otter skins is that they are waterproof. So what was the necessity of covering everything with this waterproof material in the desert?

This question haunted me for years. I could not seem to get an answer to this elusive question. How do you search out something like that? I didn't know where to begin, except to ask other pastors and scholars. No one seemed to have an answer. They had just accepted it, thinking that it wasn't all that important. But I knew that everything in the Bible was important. So I kept searching and wondering.

Many years later, I was reading in the Psalms and came across a verse that stopped me in my tracks. It was the long-evasive answer to my question about otter skins in the desert. Psalm 68:7, 8 reads, "O God, when You went out before Your people, When You marched through the wilderness, The earth shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel (nkjv)." Wow! There was my answer.

When it was time to move, the pillar of cloud (fire at night) that stood over the tabernacle would lift, indicating to all the people that it was time to pack up and move. As they began to move, the cloud (fire) would go before them, leading the way. And as it lifted up in the heavens and pushed itself through the atmosphere, it shook out the water. Rain! Rain! That is why the furniture was covered with waterproof material. Wow!

That is why I love the Bible so much. It not only is truth for me, it also has mysteries for a mystery-lover. When they say that the Bible is everything; it truly is. What fun reading! What marvelous discoveries are waiting to be found.

Go up, you bald head!

A Facebook friend asked this question, "I have a question for my christian friends. Could 2 Kings 2:23, 24 have been mistranslated? If not, what does it mean?" I don't normally write much in Facebook, just read a lot of what goes on out there. But this question caught my attention, and I felt it deserved an answer. After thinking through the question for most of the day, I finally answered. Here is my answer in two parts, first question and second question.

The Hebrew word is na'ar. It is used of Isaac who was 28, Joseph who was 30, and Rehoboam who was 40. God took the taunting of these children in Second Kings personally in this way. Though Elijah was bald, he lived another 50 years, so he was probably prematurely bald. However, the "Go up" of verse 23 was the real taunt and was blasphemous about the way that God was intending to raise Elijah to heaven. It was a blasphemous insult to God. These children were certainly old enough to have been taught the scripture and respect - especially respect of God. In verse 24, the Hebrew word for children is a different Hebrew word and actually refers to/means progeny - the produce of the womb. My children are 38 and 40. They are still, and always will be, my progeny. In a couple of places in the scriptures (one in Psalms) God says, "Touch not mine anointed, nor do my prophet any harm." Today, there is virtually no respect for pastors/ministers. Most of that is due to some of the ones who have acted in unholy ways, to be sure, some is due to lack of teaching true respect in the home. But it really makes it hard for the ones who try to follow God, hear Him and love others. What if God did the same in this dispensation as He did in Second Kings? Would it help to bring back respect for these men/women of God? Fortunately for us, this is the age of Grace and not Law!

Question two - Could this be mistranslated? It is a poor translation. The problem with translation is that languages and words change in meaning. Example: the Gay 90s and gays today. In the King James times, you would have a sentence like this. "Bring the carriages freely by and by." We would not understand that today without a little research. Carriages were pieces of luggage, freely meant without pay, and by and by meant immediately. (Does that make you scratch your head?) So the sentence today is "Bring the luggage immediately without pay." The problem all translators have is how to stay true to the original language and yet still express the truth in modern parlance.

Paul's exhortation to Timothy is still relevant today. "Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that does not need to be ashamed, handling correctly the Word of God." (2 Timothy 3:15)