“So I commended
…..enjoyment,
……….because a man
……….has nothing better
……………under the sun
…..…..than to eat,
…..drink,
and be merry…”
(Eccles. 8:15)
If you love the chiasmi of the Bible, why not arrange a “Covenant” Christmas banquet using the Bible Matrix?*
A Christmas sequel to Joseph Gets Passed Over.
The subject matter of this article was corrected, revised, and expanded in December 2018 and published here: Matthew 2: Jerusalem as Egypt.
Jews, Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses have a big problem with the Son of God. How could God, a Spirit, take on human flesh and become a man? When we understand the significance of humanity being made in God’s image, and then being estranged from God by sin, the only mediator possible between the warring parties had to be both 100% God and 100% Man.
.
Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
Of the Virgin Mary — rejoice!
The time of grace has come—
This that we have desired,
Verses of joy
Let us devoutly return.
God has become man,
To the wonderment of Nature,
The world has been renewed
By the reigning Christ.
The closed gate of Ezechiel
Is passed through,
Whence the light is born,
Salvation is found.
Therefore let our gathering
Now sing in brightness
Let it give praise to the Lord:
Greeting to our King.
Just watched The Nativity Story with our seven-year-old son (the girls have seen it). Bawled my eyes out at many points, particularly now that I have a better understanding of the typological significance of many of the events since I last saw it.
When Ahaziah, king of Judah died, his mother Athaliah wanted to be queen. She ordered all her grandsons to be slaughtered. Only one escaped. The nanny Jehosheba hid baby Joash in the Temple of God for six years.
When he was seven, Jehosheba’s brother, the High Priest, called the royal bodyguards and escorts and showed them the king’s son. Athaliah was executed and the temple of Baal was torn down (2 Kings 11).
The Bible gives us a family tree, with a single “royal” bloodline from Adam to Jesus (see Matthew 1). If Joash had died with his brothers, that bloodline would have been severed, making impossible the fulfilment of God’s promise in Genesis 3: the offspring of Eve would crush the serpent’s head.
King Herod also slaughtered innocent children. One escaped: Jesus. He too would be anointed King and tear down all false worship by dying as payment for the sins of mankind. This task continued with the destruction of Herod’s Jerusalem in AD70 and will continue until all His enemies are under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:25-26).
“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight — if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven…” (Colossians 1:21-23)
Merry Christmas from the Bulls. Thanks for reading! Catch you in 2010…
“And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?” Isaiah 8:19
I remember reading this verse for the first time in the KJV and wondering what it was exactly that the wizards were peeping at!
Mary’s song, like most songs in the Bible, seemed to me to contain mostly extraneous material. My modern mind couldn’t relate her words to the version of Christianity I was familiar with. I guess that’s because it was a version bereft of much understanding of the Old Testament.
Mary’s song seems to follow the matrix pattern. As such, it is a new Creation, and a new Tabernacle, (John 1:14, “dwelt” is literally “tabernacled”). It is the liturgical response of the bride to the promise of Covenant succession – the Covenant succession. This new generation was also regeneration.
We don’t know how many wise men travelled from the east, but perhaps we can make a guess via God’s deliberate typology.
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