Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Galatians 4:4-5 When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS (Part 1)
When the time was right, when all was prepared, God sent His Son to be our Savior. To make things ready, God controlled the flow of history -- the events of men and nations. He prepared the geo-political world. As a result of Alexander the Great's conquests Greek became the language of commerce in the Mediterranean world and would be the language of the New Testament. But travel would be necessary to spread the Word, and that was much improved by the rule of Rome. There were new Roman roads and Roman troops to protect travelers.
But God made other more important preparations in getting ready for the first Christmas, beginning long before there was a Rome or even an Israel. God prepared for the Savior's coming through His word of prophecy.
He began by giving His Word to Adam and Eve, when sin and death first laid waste the earth. Instead of writing our race off as a poor experiment, the LORD personally promised to send the Head-crusher -- promised Satan that a descendant of Eve would undo his, the devil's, evil work and be the undoing of the Prince of darkness himself. Bad news for Satan, Good News for Adam and Eve -- and us. The first Gospel promise by our gracious God: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (Gen 3:15 NIV).
This promise would be repeated and expanded down though the centuries as God prepared for the coming of the Christ by preparing human hearts, by creating life-giving faith, by using His Word to make people confident that the Lord God would do what He said . . . when the time was right.
