A Christmas Devotion from Jan

Adonai

Every year, it seems as though the Lord gives me a special Christmas message that helps me to see Christmas in a new and fresh way.  This year that message began with a word: Adonai.  Maybe it’s because He’s been teaching me so much about obedience in the past few months. 

Adonai.  One word.  One meaning:  Lord, Master.  One personal application:  is He Lord and Master over your life?  Many, many uses.

So, I asked God how  what He was showing me  related to Christmas.  Here is how He answered me.

While Scripture may not answer every question we have about Jesus, and we don’t know much about his childhood, it still  tells us a lot about His purpose for coming and His earthly ministry.  As always, God tells us what he thinks it’s important for us to know.

This is one of my favorite and very illuminating passages:

The Incomparable Christ

13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.19 For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven .

Col 1:13-20 (NASB)

Another place the Lord took me is to 2 Chronicles.  When King Solomon decided to build a tabernacle for God, he realized the greatness and glory of God which is why he said:

 "But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him?   2 Chron 2:6 (NASB)

And, finally, one more wonderful O.T. passage:

Psalm 8

The Lord's Glory and Man's Dignity.

For the choir director; on the Gittith. A Psalm of David.

1 O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained ;4 What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God , And You crown him with glory and majesty!6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,7 All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field,8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Psalms 8:1-9 (NASB)

So, what does this have to do with Christmas?  I have a wonderful little book written by Bob Coy called “Devotionary” that I like to take out this time of year.  In it, he writes:  “why would this God who has the wisdom and ability to create all life as we know it, who is so immense that we cannot contain Him, and who has the authority to part the sea, shut the mouths of lions, and stop the sun and moon in the sky choose to inhabit the body of a vulnerable, helpless baby? The author of life took on human form for the sole purpose of dying, because death was the penalty for the wrongs we had committed.  That is the heart of Christmas.”

As I reflected on what that Christmas message means to me,  that led me to consider what Scripture tell us about His birth and what it meant to the Jews.  The Jews weren’t ready for Him.  They expected a King mightier than Saul and handsomer than David.  Even so, Luke writes:

As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road.37 As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen,38 shouting: "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"   Luke 19:36-38 (NASB)

This is a ceremony fit for a King.  It’s the same ceremony 2 Kings 9 records about the crowning of Jehu as King of Israel.  But, Jesus wasn’t the King they were expecting because He didn’t come to bring them a kingdom that would be victorious over their oppressors.  He came to usher in a spiritual kingdom.   Luke further records:

41 When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it,42 saying, "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.43 "For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side,44 and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."

Luke 19:41-44 (NASB)

As Jesus came to Jerusalem He knew what awaited Him.  I wonder if when He met with Moses and Elijah on the high mountain, the time that He was the connecting point or the bridge between God and man, temporal and eternal, if they discussed what was to come?   What could they have told Him?  What had God already told Him from the time He was a child?  What did He know and understand even as He was learning to talk in earthly words?  I believe God had prepared Him from the beginning for what He was to face. 

There is one more thing that we need to see in this Christmas message.  How are we to respond to it? Isaiahs’ vision and call to ministry is a wonderful answer to that question and one that has very special meaning to me personally:

1 In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.3 And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory."4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.5 Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.7 He touched my mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven ."

The Lord Isaiah saw sitting on the throne is our Adonai.  And, what was Isaiah’s response? 

Isaiah's Commission

8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!"9  

Isaiah responded by humbling himself completely before His God; His Adonai and said simply, Here I am; send me.

So, this is the message I believe God has for me this Christmas.  A life for a death.  A death for a life.  He was born to die so that I might have everlasting life.   As Adonai, He could have commanded the heavens to open and obliterate the Romans.  And yet He came willingly as a sheep to slaughter.  Whether we see Him as a babe in a lowly manger, or as Mighty Counselor, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father or Almighty God.  He is Adonai, Lord and Master, seated on the throne and worthy of our worship and our obedience.  And, the take away message for me this year has been will I be?  Will you?