Day 42 Last Day Epiphany

 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:7-9 ESV

January 6 is  the twelfth day of Christmas, or Epiphany. In some countries. It is celebrated as the Feast of the Wise Men, and commemorates the coming of the Magi.

The word "epiphany" means a sudden overwhelming revelation of truth, especially divine truth. In common usage, an epiphany is an "eureka" moment, when something all of a sudden becomes clear to us and ideas fall into place. 

An epiphany does not always mean that something has suddenly changed, but our perspective on things suddenly changes. An epiphany does not meant God has suddenly come to us, but that we suddenly recognize the hand of God.  God has been with us all along, but we have not seen Him.  Then we have an epiphany, and we are shown His hand upon us. The veil is lifted, and now we see.  God's presence, which has always been there, is now suddenly revealed to our eyes. 

The coming of Christ  was not the sudden appearance of God. God had been with Israel since there was an Israel. He never left.  Just as God has been with us all along,  walking beside us, and we have not seen Him. Then when the time comes, God removes the scales from our eyes and we see what He is doing with, in and for us.  

During the last forty-two days, I have said nothing new about Jesus. Everything has already been said  many times over. But just because it has been said does not mean we have heard it.  The veil is down and scales still cover our eyes when we think of the things of God.  Every year we repeat the same stories of the Incarnation and  Resurrection, hoping that this year we will more fully realize what they mean. Every year we seek a new epiphany and realize that it is more than a story.  It is the revelation of the truth of Christ, God's eternal Word.

"Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever." He did not come for one people and one time, but for all people and all time.  We all must see Him for ourselves, and experience Him for ourselves. There was one coming, but many personal epiphanies.

My hope is that God has spoken to you in some way through these words, and that He has revealed Himself to you in your life situations. But know this--he has not stopped revealing Himself.  Christmas may be over, but Christ is still the same, and His redemption is still the same. Nothing can separate us from Him--nothing at all. He is with us forever.

"Father, thank you for being the same.  Thank you for continually revealing Yourself to us through the Holy Spirit and through Your word.  Help us to seek you always. In Jesus' Name.  Amen."

Day 41 Flight Into Egyps

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my son."  Matt 2:13-15 ESV

When the Wise Men failed to return to Herod, he became angry and ordered  all  male children under two in Bethlehem to be killed.  He wanted to destroy the Messiah before He could grow to manhood and challenge his authority.  At the time, Herod was already in his seventies.

Why was Herod worried about Jesus.  Histories showed that Herod cared little or nothing for his own children, so why did he worry about who would rule after he died?  If Jesus had become a worldly king, he could only have done it when he reached manhood. By then Herod would  been  over a hundred, if he were alive at all! Why should he care whether or not Jesus would have grown to take his throne?  It is likely from what we know about Herod's paranoid insanity, he probably believed that he would live forever!

Herod tried to kill Jesus but failed.  Joseph had been warned in a dream to flee immediately for Egypt. The gifts the Wise Men gave were worth a lot of money, and would have been more than enough to provide them with supplies and a place to stay when they got there. Without the warning and without the resources that God provided, Herod may have succeeded.

Egypt may seem like a strange place to flee, but in Jesus' day, it would be the most logical place to go.  There were three great centers of Jewish culture in the First Century-- Galilee was one,  Judea was another, and  Egypt was the third. According to many scholars, there were more Jews in Alexandria than in Jerusalem.

Each Jewish center longed for the Messiah and each had certain prophecies that indicated the Messiah would come to them.  The flight to Egypt meant that the Jews living in Egypt could rightfully claim Jesus came from out of them.  God settled the debate between these three centers as to where the Messiah would come from by arranging for Him to come from  all three!

God has a plan for all our wanderings.  We have no idea why we experience the troubles we do, especially not while we are enduring them.  Joseph probably had no idea why they went to Egypt,  but their trip would later be a witness to future generations that God's prophecy had been fulfilled.

In the midst of our wanderings, God provides.  The Wise Men's gifts must have at the time seemed extravagant, but they turned out to be needed provision.  Without them they could not have traveled so freely.

When (not if) God calls us out of our peace and comfort into an unknown future, He will not leave us.  God was with Joseph and his family in Egypt, just as He was with them in Nazareth and Bethlehem.

We leave behind all earthly things eventually. We leave the nursery for the school house and our parent's homes for marriage and career.  We leave our jobs for retirement, lose our spouses to death or divorce,  leave our home for retirement homes or to live with others, and eventually leave our bodies behind as well. But in all the changes of life, God remains constant.  Wherever He calls us, even in Egypt, He will go with us.

"Father, thank you for the journeys of life. Help me to see that whatever places or people I must leave behind, You will never leave me or forsake me. In Jesus' name. Amen
 

Day 40 The Last Witness

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. Luke 2:36-38 ESV

Anna is the last  witness that Matthew and Luke call forward in the Christmas story to demonstrate that the Christ Child was the Messiah. These witnesses include Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, John the Baptist (while still in the womb), the Shepherds, The Magi, Simeon, and finally Anna the prophetess.

None of the people would have known who Jesus was if God had not shown them individually.  God sent a message to each one of them saying , that Jesus was God's one and only Son, the Messiah of Israel. Matthew 18: 16 says  "every charge must established by two or three witnesses."  God produced eight witnesses to point the way to His Son. 

Anna like Simeon was a prophetess who prayed daily in the temple. She was in extreme old age like Simeon was and  had been waiting for Jesus. Just like Simeon she prophesied over the boy. 

Anna's prophecy is similar to Simeon's but it contained an important difference. Simeon's prophecy was "Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed."  His word describe Jesus as a warrior and a leader and spoke to those who wanted a Messiah to be king. 

But Anna spoke of Jesus to those who waited for Christ to be the redeemer of Israel.  Christ would be king, but he would also be redeemer.  A king takes what he wants. A redeemer pays for what he wants.  Jesus would become the spiritual king of God's people through paying for all the sins of God's people.

Jesus came to be a leader, but even more He came to be a redeemer. He did not come to destroy but to love; not to rule by force but to rule  through love and sacrifice.  He would establish a kingdom on earth founded on love not coercion.

Today we give God thanks that Jesus is both Lord and Savior of humankind. As lord He rules. As savior, he did does not impose His will upon us, but declared forgiveness  and God's favor upon us, so that we may be with Him forever.  This is the reason that Christ came to earth.

"Father, we thank you that you gave us so many witnesses to your grace. May our lives be a witness to your glory. In Jesus' Name, Amen."

Day 39 Simeon's Blessing

"And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord") and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons." Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

 "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word;  for my eyes have seen your salvation

  that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,  a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel."

 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 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  (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." Luke 2:22-35 ESV

According to Exodus 13:2.  God required a ritual sacrifice for all the first born children of Israel. It was a way to indicate that the family and the child were dedicated to God.  A lamb was the preferred sacrifice, but if the family could not afford a lamb two turtledoves could be substituted.

Simeon, an aging prophet, had been waiting for them in the temple.  He had never met Jesus, but he knew they were coming, because God had revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. He was told he would not die before he saw the Messiah with his own eyes. When He saw the Christ Child, he broke into song.   After he held him in his arms,  he was ready to go. His life wish had been fulfilled.

Do you have a life wish? Is there something you have desired for a long time? God does not give everyone the same privilege of seeing their life wish fulfilled. Simeon did not see Jesus until he was a very old. We do not know when God first spoke to this prophecy to him, and how long he had to wait. He may have been waiting his entire life.

But even so, Simeon never gave up hope. Even in old age, he knew that he God would fulfill His promise.

Simeon displayed that hope in three ways--prayer, praise and presence.

He never stopped praying for an answer. We often stop praying before God can answer. As we are praying the answer may already on the way.

He never stopped praising God either.  Praise is the recitation of the attributes of God. When our faith fails, it is really our concept of God that fails. We tend to forget that God is all powerful, that He loves us, and that He works on a much larger time scale than we do.  When God doesn't give us what we want in a time that seems long enough to our feeble human brains, we think God has forgotten  us. In reality, it is us who have forgotten who God is.  Simeon expressed his hope by daily worshipping and praising God in the temple. This praise was on one hand an expression of his faith, but on the other hand, it was an act which encouraged and strengthened his faith.  God never changes,  but our faith does.  Praising Him helps keep our faith alive.

Finally Simeon was a presence in the temple every day. He never stopped showing up to worship, even when day after day he must have gone home disappointed.  Some days it must have been hard for this old man to drag himself daily to the temple, but he never stopped coming.  When Jesus finally came, Simeon was there to meet Him. What if Simeon had decided that day he was too old to come? Then Simeon would have missed what he was waiting for his whole life.

There is no guarantee that we will get exactly what we want out of life. But there is a one hundred percent guarantee that if we give up seeking or working, or hoping that we won't get it.  If we hold fast to God, we may not get the blessing we expect, but we will get the blessing we want and need.

Don't give up on life, no matter how old or discouraged you may be. As long as you breathe there is hope that God will reveal wonders to you.

"Father, let us see our promised salvation. We thank you for showing us Jesus, who is the source of all blessings. Grant us the strength of mind and the courage of heart to keep seeking, hoping, praying and working to see your promised glory. In Jesus' name. Amen. "

Day 38 Given a Name

"And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb."

Luke 2:21-22

Jewish tradition held that a child was not officially named until he was circumcised on the eighth day.  On that day,  the Christ Child was officially named Jesus, as the angel Gabriel commanded.

Jesus is a Greek form of the Hebrew name, alternately  spelled with variations Jeshua, Joshua, or Hosea.  All these variations mean the same thing-- "Jehovah is our salvation."

In ancient times names always meant something. Names were like blessings spoken over a child, telling them what their lives will be. Fathers picked the names of the children with great care. Our names are the first gifts our parents ever give us.

In Jesus' case,  Joseph and Mary did not name the child--His Father did.  His name was a prophecy of what He would do.  He came to save.  He did not come to rule or conquer, but to rescue and renew.  Jesus lived, died and rose again for the sole purpose of bringing us salvation.

This was not the mission the Jews envisioned for their messiah. The people wanted a king who would destroy their enemies.  In spite of the message contained in His name,  they were not prepared to see Him as a savior--only another conquering king.

If Jesus were to come today, we would probably react in the same way. With all the problems we have in our modern world--terrorism, climate change, overpopulation, crime, disease, famine--we want someone who will come to take over and fix it.  But Jesus did not come to save us militarily or politically, but morally and spiritually. Jesus came to save us from our sins.  It is our sinful nature that causes all the other problems.

We've had strong men claiming that they can fix the world--Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon,  Hitler, and many, many others. Where has it got us? A strong man rises and  becomes corrupt, and we look for another strong man to save us from him.  The benevolent dictator becomes the corrupt despot and the cycle of death and destruction begins again.

Jesus came to save us from our sins, not someone else's.  We look too much at world events, and not enough at the condition of our own hearts. It is easy to blame our troubles on the world without noticing that most of our troubles come from our own selfish hearts.  Sin within us is the root of most of our problems.

God's plan never was to change the world though political or military action, but to save the world through inner spiritual change. If the world were just the way we wanted it, it would still be more like hell than heaven if our hearts were not also changed. But If our hearts are changed,  then the condition of the world won't matter so much. We will be able to endure it.  It is our own sinful selves that keeps us most in bondage.

The salvation that Jesus promises is salvation from ourselves. 

"Father, teach us what is really important in this world. Save us from our own sins before you save us from the sins of others. In Jesus' Name, Amen."

Day 37 Right Beginnings

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth." Genesis 1:1

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  John 1:1

There are two books in the Bible that begin with "in the beginning". Genesis 1 begins with the history of God's creation.

John 1 begins with "In the beginning was the Word."  Both references affirm that God was there in the beginning, and that Jesus--the Word of God-- was there with Him. He never changes.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  The Holy Spirit was there with them, too, brooding over the primeval waters, planting Jesus in Mary's womb,  and witnessing to His eternal nature.  

Before God, nothing else was there.  Everything else we can name has both a beginning and an end. It is possible that before this creation there were other creations, but we would never know it if there were. All trace of what came before would have been eradicated in the moment of our universe's creation.  But if any existed before, it would not matter to us.  When God created our world, all things were made new.

When Christ came, as John reveals,  the world was made new again through the Eternal Word of God. We existed before encountering Christ, but that existence does not matter.  For us,  Jesus is the beginning of all things.  All the resentments, sins, and failures of our imprisoned and oppressed existence before the Cross are over in Him. Our world begins when the Word appears.  Jesus is the very act of creation. Through Him, all things were brought into existence.  Even if we have made a mess of things in the past, whenever we encounter Christ we have a new beginning. 

New Year's Day is a wonderful opportunity to begin again, but only if that beginning starts with Christ. The mistakes and failures of this last year do not matter--they are put to death on Christ's cross.  What matters is that  we are walking now with Jesus, whether we see or know Him today, and whether we will walk with Him in the future.

Two misconceptions tie us forever to the past--guilt and unforgiveness. Guilt ties us to the past by constantly bringing to mind our past mistakes--what that we no longer have, what we should have done that we did not do, or what we ought not to have done that we did.  It's foolish to dwell on any of these.  We do not live in yesterday--we can only live today.  When we hold on to resentment about what others have done to us, we get stuck in the past. Jesus tells us in the Lord's prayer.  "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors". If we cannot let go of other people's sins,  how can we believe it when we read that God has let go of ours?  

When we let go of the past we can begin again.

Today can be a new beginning.  Face this new year with a clean slate in Him. God has great things for you if only you will have the courage today to be free.

"Father, help me to know that I am forgiven, and help me to forgive others, so that I can be free to experience all the new adventures you have for me this year. In Jesus' name, Amen."