JESUS CAME TO EARTH

I am sorry this seems so garbled in its format.  In my editor it is as it should be.  I don't know how to correct it.

JESUS CAME TO EARTH

Luke 2:6  And so it was, that, while they were there,

 the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

 Luke 2:7  And she brought forth her firstborn son,

and wrapped him in swaddling clothes,

 and laid him in a manger;

because  there was no room for them in the inn.

Christmas is cherished by some and despised by others.  What I am about to

say is not to try to reconcile or take sides with either of these.  I want to say

some things about Jesus coming to earth.  Some of what I shall say will be

again loved by some but hated by some others.  I want to show some things

that are scriptural and some that are not.

Let's begin with the fact that Jesus came by way of the virgin birth.  In

Bethlehem neither the inn keepers nor anyone around them would have

known that.  It is a fact, however, that Isaiah had foretold this.  Isaiah 7:14

says, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin

shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."  Matt.

1:18-25 records our Lord's coming to earth.  The angel told Joseph to take

Mary as His wife, and name the Child, Jesus.  Then verse 22 records that all

this was done to fulfill Isaiah 7:14. 

Now He came by the virgin birth, but that birth was not on Dec. 25.  Uh Oh,

I just turned off how many readers.  Just look at Luke 2:8, "And there were

in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their

flock by night."  Instead of putting their sheep in the sheepfold and heading

for cover, the shepherds kept their sheep in the field and watched over them

through the night.  On the 25th of Dec.?  I think not.  The date is anyone's

guess.  It was probably in the Spring after things had begun to warm up.  It

was surely a time when it was warm enough for the sheep to graze and for

the shepherds to wait in the field through the night.  He was born of the

virgin but not on Dec. 25.

Who is this One Who came from Heaven to Earth?  John tells us He is the

Word.  According to John 1:1-3 He was in the beginning.  This indicates He

is eternal.  He was with God, but it is also true that He was and is God.  In

verse 3 we are told that He is the Creator.  All things were made by Him,

and without Him nothing was made.  When Mary held that Baby in her arms

and looked into His infant face, she was looking into the face of God.  I am

afraid we are sometimes so taken up with the precious baby, that we forget

that even in His infancy, He was God.  In John 1:14 we are told that the

Word (Jesus) was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory

as of  the only begotten Son of God.  He was not just a wonderful child, He

was and is God.

He came in fulfillment of the prophecy of Gen. 3:15.  Speaking to the

serpent in the Garden of Eden God said He would put enmity between the

serpent and the woman and between their descendents.  More particularly

God said the heel of the woman's seed would bruise the serpent's (devil's)

head, and the serpent (Devil) would bruise the heel of the woman's Seed. 

That was a prophecy that was literally fulfilled in the crucifixion of Jesus

Christ.

Perhaps Mary did not understand when she was told that the sword would

pierce her own heart, yet she stood beneath the cross to watch her Son die. 

This is the same Son of which she rejoiced at His birth saying she rejoiced in

God her Savior.  This destroys the concept of her immaculate conception. 

She had sin as well as all other people, but she knew her own Son as her

Savior.  May we rest in Him also for our salvation.  He is Light.  May He

lighten our hearts in this dark, dark world.