That Precious Gift from God
Isaiah 9:6, 61:1-2 | December 20 – December 26, 2023
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
~ Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given—perhaps one of the most beautiful verses in all of scripture. Isaiah was speaking of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus—the Messiah. Two chapters back and 700 years before Jesus’s birth, Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin and would be called Immanuel (God with us), that Mary would give birth to a son, a miracle placed in her womb by God.
Thirty years after his miraculous birth, Jesus would begin His ministry preaching in the synagogue at his hometown of Nazareth. All eyes were fixed on Jesus as He preached from Isaiah 61, which prophesied of the Messiah and why He would be sent from God:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
After Jesus read this timely passage, He humbly proclaimed, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Sadly, those in the synagogue that day who heard Jesus’s words became filled with wrath and drove Him out of the synagogue. They simply could not accept the carpenter’s son as the holy Son of God. They would not believe.
Later, while speaking with Nicodemus—a man of high standing within the ruling Pharisees who’d secretly come to Jesus sincerely seeking answers—Jesus would confess the full reason for His coming into this world:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Today, there are many throughout the world who hear or read the blessed words of Jesus, spoken by Him in love, yet still reject Him.
Christmas has become a season of giving, where we, out of love, give gifts to one another. This Christmas, let us all endeavor to remember the most precious, most glorious, most meaningful gift ever given mankind.
Our Heavenly Father gifted to us His beloved Son, as a holy sacrifice for our sin. He sent His Son, born of a virgin in a humble little stable, to die in our place that we would not perish but have eternal life with Him in heaven. Jesus was not sent to condemn us, but to save us.
That precious gift from God need only be accepted.
Heavenly Father,
We humbly accept the precious gift of your holy Son.
And as we celebrate His birth on earth, we remember why you sent Him—
out of divine love for each of us.
~ AMEN
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