I am taking a one- week break from the ten commandments series to repost this series written in 2010, explaining the significance of Babylon in Scripture, and the Christmas connection to it.
christmas and babylon, part one 2012 dec 25
The first 11 chapters of Genesis are some of the most important chapters in the Bible, because they give us the big picture and the framework that the rest of the Scriptures through Revelation is built upon. All of Scriptural theology and all the doctrines of grace, salvation, eternity, the nature of God and every other thing is introduced in Gen 1-11. This is why the enemy has worked so hard to discredit those chapters more than any others, not only in the eyes of the world, but also in the eyes of the church. The enemy cares not if you believe Psalm 23 is true. But if you believe Gen 1 is true, or Gen 6 is true, or Gen 11 is true, woe be unto you; you will be made to seem a fool, even in the eyes of the church.
So out of one man, God made one nation, and that one nation — His nation, Israel — stood in covenant with God, as opposed to all the other nations of the earth who had thrown their lot in with the enemy. Fast forward to Rev 7: the chapter opens with the sealing of the witnesses of the one nation, Israel, in numbers which can be counted. The chapter closes with every nation, tongue, tribe, family, and language (referring thematically back to the nations and languages of the Tower of Babel) in uncountable numbers, before the throne of God, worshiping and glorfying Him. Because of Rev 7:1-8, we will have Rev 7:9-17. Praise God! You see, Rev 7 is a picture of God’s plan in response to the enemy’s strategy of Gen 11.
How He restores every nation beginning from one nation, is just one of the many purposes of the Messiah. God made Israel His wife, as the covenant from Sinai was a marriage contract (Jer 31:31-32), with Sabbath keeping as the wedding ring, the sign of the covenant (Exo 31:13, Eze 20:18-20) . The fruit of their union was the Promised Seed – the Messiah of Israel, who is also the Savior of mankind (Rev 12:1-6). It is by His blood, that those of the nations, who were aliens, outsiders, and strangers to the covenant of promise (which God had made with Israel) were grafted in to Israel, to become restored to God with Israel, to partake of relationship with God and fellowship with God and worship of God with Israel, as Paul explains to us in Rom 9-11 and Eph 2 and in other places throughout the epistles.
Now we get to the birth of Yeshua haMashiach, Jesus Christ – He, the Promised Seed! Of Him Isaiah prophesied:
Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’” Isa 49:6
It is my belief that Jesus was born on the 1st day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and circumcised on the 8th day, for Tabernacles is the feast celebrating God With Us, Immanuel. Tabernacles falls in September or October every year. So how on earth did we get December 25 as the nativity of the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God, when the Scriptural evidence points to an autumn birthday?
Before we answer that question, let us please remember who Israel is. Israel is the seed of Abraham. If we believe in God, and believe the Word of God is true (Yeshua is the Word of God made flesh), we are the seed of Abraham, are we not? We are of the household of faith — we have returned to God from the world and from the nations. We have repented of the Great Rebellion. That is what Paul takes most of the book of Galatians to painstakingly and logically and irrefutably prove.
For further reading:
Jesus’ Date of Birth by Luzius Schneider
Messiah was born on Sukkot (Tabernacles, which falls in Sep-Oct) by James Trimm (Broken link, active December 26, 2012)
christmas and babylon, part three 2012 dec 27
christmas and babylon, part four 2012 dec 30
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