Wednesday, October 8, 2014
A Child Is Born
This is a portion of a scripture that foretells of the birth of the Messiah. It is from Isaiah who prophesied about the one that would come and be born of a virgin.
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
This truly is a beautiful description of our Messiah’s birth and mission to us. You may wonder why I have selected this scripture today. It is because we are about to enter the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast has a several points of importance. On of these is that this feast must be kept after Jesus returns and is reigning on the earth. Once he has defeated the enemies of Israel and is ruling in Jerusalem, Zechariah says we must keep the feast.
Zechariah 14:17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE Lord; and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
It is also important for another reason. John tells us something of this day.
John 14:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
The word “dwelt” here is actually the word “tabernacled”. So Jesus tabernacled among us when He became flesh. It is very interesting to understand the time frame of Jesus birth. This can be traced to when Zacharias was in the temple ministering to God and the angel appeared. He did this according to his lineage, placing him there at a certain time of year. His wife becomes pregnant with John the Baptist. Mary is visited by the angel and the Holy Spirit overshadows her. Jesus is placed in her womb and she goes to visit her cousin Elisabeth who is pregnant with John and John leaps in his mother’s womb at six months, which would be about December. Forty weeks later our Messiah tabernacles among us, making it about the September-October time frame. The September-October time frame is the Feast of Tabernacles which is seven days long, begins with a high holy day, and then has another high holy day tacked on the end. If Jesus was born on the first high holy day, he would have been circumcised on the eighth day, another high holy day. All of Israel would know of this, and it would explain why Mary and Joseph were making the journey to Jerusalem with her so far along – all men had to be in Jerusalem on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Looks like we are about to have a birthday party for our King!
Prayer
Father, we exalt You. Thank You for sending to us Your Son to tabernacle among us. Let Your kingdom reign today Father. Send Your overwhelming abundant provision. Give us Your forgiveness for our iniquities. Heal us and deliver us. Bring quickly the times spoken of by the prophets that we talk of here. Show us a token for good that all men might know that You alone are God. In Yeshua’s (Jesus’) name. Amen.