December 23, 2024 • 30 mins
In this episode, we talk about all the key players in the nativity scene as Jesus came down to our level and entered our world as a mortal.
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(00:00):
Music
(00:19):
Detours family, welcome to a special Christmas episode. I am here with my beautiful wife Deb.
Hi guys.
And we are going to do just a quick Christmas special episode. We did one last year. Deb, what did we do it on last year?
Last year we talked a lot about what the wise men brought to baby Jesus and how the gifts itself foretold of him being Messiah. It's a really interesting episode. I really encourage the listeners to go back and check it out.
(00:49):
Yeah, so we did that last year. We may touch on it a little bit this year, but we're not going to go nearly in depth like we did last year. To Deb's point, just go back and listen to that episode.
But we do want to talk about a lot of the other key players in the birth of Jesus because, you know, the entire Old Testament, I don't know what percentage of the Bible the Old Testament makes up.
(01:10):
Probably somewhere between two thirds and three quarters of the entire book is Old Testament. And it's all pointing forward to the birth of Jesus. Either you're seeing Christophanes, it's prophecy, something is connected and it's a road sign pointing to the birth of Jesus.
The birth of Jesus is one of three, the three major events in the Bible, the birth, the death and the resurrection. So God foretold the sending of his son. And so I would almost imagine, Deb, we've talked about it.
(01:42):
If you're going to have three quarters of a book prophesying something like this, that the king is going to arrive and the king is here to save everyone, that is going to be something like the Lion King, where little Mufasa, I think is his name.
I don't know if that's his name or his dad, but the little lion is sitting there. Everybody knows the king has arrived. A monkey walks up onto a cliff.
(02:04):
Everyone's singing. Everyone's doing a song and dance. The monkey holds up the little baby and everybody sees it and everybody kneels down. The entire kingdom is in unity. Everyone's bowing. There's honor. There's royalty. But that's not at all what's happening in the Bible.
It's a very humble beginning. I mean, as humble as you can get, which speaks to God's character, you know, he could have come that way. He could have come in all of that royalty, but he comes in this very humble setting and presents himself to the least of these, really.
(02:40):
You know, we have a lot of visions of Christmas based on images that we've seen, like a manger and these shepherds and really the shepherds themselves. I love that an angel announces the birth of Jesus to shepherds of all people because they were not like we view them today.
(03:02):
They were the least of these. Their testimony wasn't valid in court. They were considered unclean in, you know, the temple because they dealt with animals and they couldn't do some of their ritual celebrations. They just weren't looked on very fairly, honestly.
Yeah, they were left outside with the animals. So they were just nobody wanted anything to do with them.
(03:25):
Yeah. So, but it's interesting that you mentioned this is the group of people that their testimony isn't allowed in court, but yet these are the first people that get word that the King has come.
Amazing, right? Yeah, this is the group of people that Jesus sends an angel to announce his coming.
(03:46):
I love that. That speaks everything to God's character. He sees the outcast.
And it's interesting that, you know, the angel goes to the shepherds out in the field. Their testimony is not allowed in court, but it's on their word that the King is coming. And it's the same story at the end where he is risen, right?
(04:09):
Yeah, it's a woman, right? Mary Magdalene sees and her testimony is not valid in court either. And she's looked at as a second rate citizen like all women in those days were.
It's beautiful that God says, I give you my message. I give you to tell the world.
Yeah, and she's literally witnessing something that only a high priest in the Old Testament was allowed to see if he survived.
(04:37):
Right. If he survived the sacrifice. And yet she's sitting and they only saw a shadow of Jesus's resurrection.
And of course, we're speaking about the Ark of the Covenant, but in the Holy of Holies, a little bit more for the audience.
Like she is almost well, she is like the high priestess in a sense.
(05:00):
Well, Hebrews chapter four says Jesus is the high priest. So she's just, you know, the royal priesthood.
I believe the book of First Peter would call her a royal priest. But yeah, in the Old Testament, the high priest had to offer a blood sacrifice in order to even enter the Holy of Holies.
(05:23):
And if that sacrifice was rejected instantly, he died. So approaching the mercy seat was terrifying, was absolutely terrifying.
They put bells on the poor guy so that if he was a sinner, they could pull him out and not enter in.
Yeah. And so, you know, here's Mary entering the tomb that represents the mercy seat and the sacrifice that was given was the life of Christ.
(05:52):
And so that obviously was accepted. What's interesting is Jesus Christ is the high priest and he is the sacrifice and he accepts that sacrifice.
And Mary goes in and she witnesses that the sacrifice has been accepted. He's no longer there. He's risen.
And so Jesus is leaving his resurrection again in the hands of someone whose testimony is not allowed in court.
(06:20):
So you see the parallels between the shepherds and Mary. And you ask the question, what does that tell you about God's character?
Yeah, he really does seek out those that are not always accepted in society. And for me, that speaks volumes to me because I always felt like an outcast.
(06:42):
Yeah, it tells you that Jesus is looking for people of lowly heart to reveal himself to, right? Your testimony, my testimony, so many people's testimony, it comes at a low point in their life.
Not everyone, but so many of us come to Jesus at a very low point in life when our cup is just empty, when we're at the end of ourselves.
(07:04):
The very first Christophany in the Bible is a single woman pregnant having a child from a married man.
Right. Hagar.
Yep. Basically thrown out and she's sitting by a well in the middle of nowhere. And that's who Jesus reveals himself to. It's not Abraham.
(07:25):
Pre-incarnate Jesus because you said Christophany and I'm not sure everyone knows what that is. So I wanted to make sure we...
Yeah, that's a sighting of Jesus in the Old Testament. And, you know, it's not Abraham. It's not Moses. It's not Noah. It's this...
It's Hagar.
Yeah, it's this woman.
She even names him the God who sees me.
Yeah, amazing that he picks someone.
(07:47):
Elroy.
Yeah, it's amazing that he picks someone, again, of just a lowly heart. And what's even, what's beautiful to me about the field that the shepherds are in, the Old Testament talks about it.
Twelve hundred years before the shepherds were there, Ruth was in that field gleaning. So let's fill in our audience on a little bit of Ruth and her story.
(08:09):
But the field that Ruth is in gleaning is the exact same field that the shepherds are in.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
Ruth is a Moabite. She is an outcast in the nation of Israel. As anyone who really wasn't an Israelite, you know, if you married in, there was always that like chance that you weren't going to be accepted.
And she was in a family and her mother-in-law was Naomi and all the sons had died and you have all these daughter-in-laws left with a mother-in-law and you have to fend for yourself.
(08:38):
And as a woman, that's that's like almost a death sentence.
And she goes to the field of Boaz and Boaz is the kinsman redeemer.
He's the next in line to be able to redeem this family.
And, you know, she is a woman that pretty much announces her love of the God of Israel for anyone who would know.
(09:05):
And she is met by, I guess, like almost the the grafting in of Messiah.
Like she gets to she gets to be a part of this family of faith because of her faith.
Yeah. I mean, you say the family of faith. She's one of the I don't know how many greats are in it, but she's a grandmother.
(09:26):
Great. Yeah, there's several greats there.
She's a grandmother of Jesus. Jesus literally graphs her into the family.
It's quite an amazing story. But yeah, Boaz's field is the same field.
It is the field that the shepherds were in when the angel made the announcement.
So just again, another situation where someone that was rejected, that society that the world would have labeled and said, we don't have any use for.
(09:51):
Yeah. You know, once again, there's a but God moment in there.
So the shepherds are definitely an important part of the story.
I think baby Jesus, obviously not not who he is, but just what is being painted by the picture of his birth scene,
because a lot of people will put that outside their house. They put the little stable there with three wise men and a wooden.
(10:17):
Yeah. What am I what am I looking for? The little wood, major, little wood, major with a pillow of straw and everything.
And that's not what was happening. Not at all. Actually, it was a stone feeding trough.
Right. And that those aren't comfortable. And you know what they look like?
They actually look like tombs, ancient tombs. So you have this baby and then tomb like, you know, trough calling himself the bread of life.
(10:46):
Right. He is the bread of life and he can be fed upon and in Bethlehem, the house of bread.
Yes. Yes. Yes. So much irony there. Yeah. So Jesus. Oh, intentional. Oh, totally.
Totally, totally. And the word manger in Greek literally translates to eat.
So here you have from the house of bread comes the bread of life sitting in a manger.
(11:14):
Manger translates to eat, but it looks like a sarcophagus.
And little baby Jesus is sitting there and he's swaddled. So you're a mother.
So if you were going to swaddle little one day old Anthony, what would he look like?
He looked like a burrito. He looked like a burrito. Yeah. You crisscross the arms.
(11:36):
You crisscross the legs so that they don't wiggle out of this swaddled position.
And you, you know, you wrap them up and you know what that kind of looks like? A mummy.
It looks like it looks like death. And so when the angel comes to the shepherds in the field
and the angels say you're going to see a sign, the sign is not the star of Bethlehem.
(12:04):
The sign is you're walking into what you might see on the outside as a death scene.
You're walking into a cave. Right. You're looking down at a what looks like a sarcophagus
with something swaddled, something wrapped in cloths. And instead of something being dead,
(12:29):
there's a very much alive little baby Jesus. Yes. So that is the sign of walking into death, but seeing life.
Yeah. So that's the sign that the angels are talking about. It's actually a lot of people think the sign
is following the star of Bethlehem that leads them there, but that's still not the sign.
(12:50):
The sign is, okay, great. Once you go there, what am I looking for? I'm still looking for that sign.
And that is life from death. Yeah. So again, more foreshadowing. Ultimate foreshadowing.
Only an author like God could write this into history. And that's what I think like the Bible is so,
you couldn't make this up if you tried. These were that hundreds of years apart from each other.
(13:14):
You know what I mean? Where someone's getting a sign 700 years prior to, and this one's going to see it this way.
And you're like, wow, Lord, you have really crafted the most beautiful story of redemption one could ever read.
And I'm so grateful to be a part of God's family. Yeah, absolutely.
(13:36):
And just because we say the star of Bethlehem wasn't the sign doesn't mean it wasn't critically important.
Oh, sure. You know, the reason that the shepherds knew to even look for a star is in the book of Numbers,
chapter 24, verses 17. And this is so ironic because it's almost like people that look at the cross.
(13:57):
It is the same thing as what happened when people looked at the star.
The cross is very divisive right now. You can either look at the cross and you see forgiveness.
You see freedom. You see Jesus. You see your king and what he took for you.
Or you see complete foolishness. Right. And the star of Bethlehem was the exact same thing.
(14:23):
And if you look, verse 17, basically what's happening is Balaam is sent out to curse the Israelites.
And the third time a blessing comes out and he says, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near.
A star shall come out of Jacob. A scepter shall come out of Israel and batter the brow of Moab and destroy all the sons of Tamal.
(14:50):
And the Magi, they were astronomers. And then when they saw that star, they knew that the Messiah was coming.
So that was good news to them. But verse 18 starts talking about Herod, King Herod.
And we know that it's King Herod because King Herod was an Edomite, which is mentioned in the previous section.
(15:12):
And he is basically looking at the star and he's he thinks of verse 17 and he was reading verse 17.
The part that he's thinking is a scepter shall come out of Israel and batter the brow of Moab.
That's him. That's a threat to him. So he sees the star as a threat where the shepherd see it as the king is coming.
(15:40):
It's pure joy. Herod is sitting there going, this is not good. This has been prophesied. This is a threat to me.
I need to take action. Yeah, he does. He kills all the babies, all the male babies.
So you have emphasyde instead of genocide, just the infants. And even the book of Revelation is going to be the same way.
(16:02):
Jesus revealing himself. It's either going to be joy or it's going to be terror. That's true.
What side of the fence are you on? Right. And that's what's so interesting is there's really all of these events in human history are events that divide.
It's either one or the other. There is no lukewarmness. You either love Jesus and you are for him or your apathy and you're like,
(16:29):
I don't really care, still falls on the side of you're against him. And Jesus even says that you're either for me or against me.
Yeah. And King Herod and so many people today obviously were against Jesus. And so he's cursed.
(16:50):
And we get that from Genesis chapter three, verse 15, where the curse of the serpent is the first sign of Herod. It says,
I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. We will strike his heel and he will strike your head.
So Herod in the Old Testament and a lot of different places, including Psalm 74, Isaiah 51, Ezekiel 29 and 32.
(17:18):
Herod is referred to as snake qualities, being a serpent. That's why John, one of the reasons, John the Baptist,
when he was talking to the Pharisees, he claims that they are brood of vipers. So what brood literally means family.
So family are vipers. So he's calling them literally the seeds of the serpent. Seed of Satan. Seed of Satan, seed of Herod, seed of the serpent.
(17:42):
And that's why one of the reasons why they were so offended upon many other reasons. But it's pretty incredible just how it's all tied together.
And like you mentioned earlier, just a great apologetic that the entire story from start to finish is all tied together like this.
For sure.
(18:03):
So, you know, what's interesting is this means that with Jesus coming during his life, he goes up on the Mount of Transfiguration.
And he's seen there with two figures. He's seen there with Moses and Elijah.
And this is the Bible signifying that Jerusalem has become the new Egypt and Jesus has to lead the new Exodus.
(18:34):
So let me unpack that a little bit. That is that is what that is based on on Moses, right?
Yeah, Moses was a prophet of death and Jesus is a prophet of life.
Yes. So why don't you break down just how Moses decided the Exodus?
Well, they were in bondage. They were in bondage in Egypt and bondage signifies sin, you know, and we are in bondage.
(19:01):
We're in sin before Jesus.
Yeah. And so Moses leads them out of Egypt after 400 years, they've been in bondage and he leads them out to make them free.
And so Moses is also on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus.
(19:24):
So we know in the Book of Revelation, it gives us a description.
It reads that wicked city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, which is the city where the Lord was crucified.
So what is that city? That city is Jerusalem.
So Jerusalem has become the new Egypt and Jesus has to lead us out of it.
(19:46):
In other words, that makes sense. So Jesus has to lead us out of that.
So when he's on the Mount of Transfiguration, he's literally sitting there with Moses and Elijah discussing the Exodus.
And what happens right before the Exodus out of Egypt?
(20:08):
What happens right before there is a Passover?
Yeah. And the Passover lamb had to be slain that night before they are set free.
Oh, amen. I see it. Yeah.
So now Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, he's literally sitting there discussing his departure with Moses and Elijah.
(20:34):
He's literally at the Exodus departure.
He's literally sitting there discussing his departure with the same one of the men that led the Israelites out of Egypt.
And here Jesus is now the new Passover lamb that is basically being going to be slain to set us free from sin.
(20:55):
Praise God. Just an incredible, incredible story.
Just look at that interweaving of story. You know what I mean?
You can't like imagine this happening. And then here it is.
He is exactly foretold and then lays it all out and fulfills it. It's amazing.
And I've even heard some people say in apologetics that there are many, many times through the New Testament where it will read Jesus did something because prophecy said it was going to happen.
(21:31):
And that was the reason the Bible gives there.
And people will come back and push back on that saying, well, Jesus knew prophecy, so he just did it because that's what the prophecy said.
Where you can have that, I suppose you can have that perspective, but I look at it as Jesus did exactly what he said he was going to do.
(21:54):
Who wouldn't want that? Amen.
Like to be pessimistic and to see that glass half full. I always thought that was interesting.
And even if that's their argument, he had to be at the right place, the right time in history to fulfill that.
So, you know, you can't make it up. It's too much of an apologetic to get over like that.
(22:17):
Right. I agree.
So now let's talk through and I'll let you kind of start this one.
This topic is how does Jesus's birth indicate his death?
So we could give you we could even talk about like, am I being quizzed?
You know, let's talk about the Mary and Joseph, Mary and Joseph.
Oh, that's so cool. I love that. OK, so at his birth, there's Mary, his mother, and Joseph is, well, basically a stepdad.
(22:47):
And the same like you have characters at the end of the story.
It like mirrors the end of the story. You have Joseph of Arimathea and it probably butchered his name and his tomb is being used.
And he's there to help embalm him and take care of him.
And Mary of Magdalene is there witnessing the resurrection like it's Mary and Joseph again.
(23:15):
Yeah, all over again. What's what's fascinating earlier, we talked about a baby in swaddling clothes.
Well, our swaddling cloths, they didn't wear clothes that were cloths. Right.
The reason you swaddle a baby is to recreate the comfort of being in a womb.
So at Jesus's birth, you have a virgin womb.
(23:36):
And what did we learn about Joseph Arimathea? Yeah, Joseph of Arimathea's tomb had never been used.
So he went to a virgin tomb. So you have the virgin womb and the virgin tomb.
And what's amazing, too, about that is in Jewish culture, when when baby Jesus was born, if everything followed tradition, obviously, Mary gives birth.
(23:57):
And Joseph is the one that takes baby Jesus and actually cleans off all the blood and everything from birth using linens.
That's his responsibility as the father or stepfather, however you want to position it.
But it's his position in the household to do that. And Joseph of Arimathea, it was his job to take the crucified Jesus and clean all of his wounds with those cloths that they buried him in.
(24:27):
Wow. And apply what is it? The myrrh that was given at birth.
Myrrh, thanks to I think a song of Solomon, that book, we know that myrrh is an embalming spice. So he's sitting there applying an embalming spice to the Christ.
And so you have Mary and Joseph, not just the name, the correlation of the names.
(24:51):
Right. You have the tomb and you have all of the all of the little nuance that you could pass over in scripture if you don't slow down and really read it and take it in and look at it as one big picture.
Yeah. So it's it's it's just pretty incredible that the completeness of the story and just how every there are like pages and things that you read, details that you read that in your own mind, you're like, well, that that doesn't even need to be closed.
(25:20):
And yet you get to the resurrection and Jesus closes things that you didn't even know, like Joseph being the one to wipe off at birth and at death.
Yes.
Like it didn't need that detail. But yet Jesus went to those lengths to give us those details.
What does Bill call it? Logographic necessity like and I probably butchered that and it's funny that I butchered it, but it's every word and every detail is there for a purpose.
(25:53):
And it has significance. Everything. Every word has significance. Yeah. Yeah. So all those details matter.
Yeah. Every detail, every detail matters. And I think, you know, kind of the last thought for me for the episode anyway is just, you know, you're a parent. I'm a step parent. I don't have any any children of my own.
(26:19):
I've inherited yours and you're so lucky. He's a good kid. He is a good kid.
So I got to ask, you know, when giving birth, like now that you're you're 30 years removed from giving birth, when you sit back and you look back, how much of it do you think about the pain versus how much do you think about the joy?
(26:43):
No, you don't think about the pain, the pain of childbirth. You don't.
How long were you in labor? Oh, gosh, I don't know. It was pushing like 34 hours. Okay. So it wasn't pushing Anthony out of me for 34 hours, but the labor itself was so long, so long.
(27:04):
And yet, how much do you do? Do you ever even think about unless you're prompted? Do you think about that? No, no. And I think most moms would say that once you give birth, you're not thinking about was so painful.
I mean, yes, it was. But you're just so excited to have your baby in your arms.
And I think that's that's what we get to witness here is the birthing pains. Once we get through the birthing pains that are happening, especially right now in the world, and we get to the other side.
(27:35):
Yeah, thanks to what what Jesus did coming down to our level. How far did he choose to come down to leave heaven and come down here to be with us and experience some of those birthing pains with us to understand to be here with us?
Yeah, literally, like he suffered everything like there's nothing that he doesn't know. You know, he's a high priest that can empathize with our pain.
(28:02):
Yeah. And and and he's he sees the joy. Yes, because of the joy set before him. He endured the cross. So he's sitting there in eternity, experiencing all the joy that is.
Yeah, Deborah Marsalisi, Michael Snyder, every single person that saved he's sitting there experiencing that joy going, yeah, I'll absolutely go through that pain, because I'm not even going to think about it once it's over.
(28:28):
He would have done it if it was just one person that needed to be saved. Yeah. So that's what we're celebrating here, guys. This episode is coming out two days before Christmas. Yeah, don't forget and all the craziness and all the chaos, all the family, all the presents, all the food, all the phone calls, whatever it is.
Don't forget the beautiful tapestry that was weaved together that was the birth of Jesus Christ. And that is why we celebrate. Amen to that. You know, and we just the other day watched Snoopy. What's the Christmas movie Snoopy does?
(29:03):
Charlie Brown's Christmas and at the end, I know Linus gives the gospel. It's so awesome. It really is. Well, not the gospel, but the birth narrative. And that's why, you know, we celebrate Christmas, Charlie Brown. And to think that was on TV, national TV for all to hear, you know, yeah.
Yeah, he came out in 65. Yeah. And how far we've fallen. So take a few minutes and be a little bit more like it was Linus that gave the speech. Yes. Okay. Be a little bit more like Linus today and take a few minutes and just remember why we are celebrating in a couple days.
(29:39):
Yeah. Merry Christmas, guys. Merry Christmas, guys. We are going to say happy new year because we won't talk to you guys until sometime in early January. But for now, thank you so much. It's been an amazing year and we will talk to you guys all soon.
Take care.
(30:25):
Bye.
Music
(00:19):
Detours family, welcome to a special Christmas episode. I am here with my beautiful wife Deb.
Hi guys.
And we are going to do just a quick Christmas special episode. We did one last year. Deb, what did we do it on last year?
Last year we talked a lot about what the wise men brought to baby Jesus and how the gifts itself foretold of him being Messiah. It's a really interesting episode. I really encourage the listeners to go back and check it out.
(00:49):
Yeah, so we did that last year. We may touch on it a little bit this year, but we're not going to go nearly in depth like we did last year. To Deb's point, just go back and listen to that episode.
But we do want to talk about a lot of the other key players in the birth of Jesus because, you know, the entire Old Testament, I don't know what percentage of the Bible the Old Testament makes up.
(01:10):
Probably somewhere between two thirds and three quarters of the entire book is Old Testament. And it's all pointing forward to the birth of Jesus. Either you're seeing Christophanes, it's prophecy, something is connected and it's a road sign pointing to the birth of Jesus.
The birth of Jesus is one of three, the three major events in the Bible, the birth, the death and the resurrection. So God foretold the sending of his son. And so I would almost imagine, Deb, we've talked about it.
(01:42):
If you're going to have three quarters of a book prophesying something like this, that the king is going to arrive and the king is here to save everyone, that is going to be something like the Lion King, where little Mufasa, I think is his name.
I don't know if that's his name or his dad, but the little lion is sitting there. Everybody knows the king has arrived. A monkey walks up onto a cliff.
(02:04):
Everyone's singing. Everyone's doing a song and dance. The monkey holds up the little baby and everybody sees it and everybody kneels down. The entire kingdom is in unity. Everyone's bowing. There's honor. There's royalty. But that's not at all what's happening in the Bible.
It's a very humble beginning. I mean, as humble as you can get, which speaks to God's character, you know, he could have come that way. He could have come in all of that royalty, but he comes in this very humble setting and presents himself to the least of these, really.
(02:40):
You know, we have a lot of visions of Christmas based on images that we've seen, like a manger and these shepherds and really the shepherds themselves. I love that an angel announces the birth of Jesus to shepherds of all people because they were not like we view them today.
(03:02):
They were the least of these. Their testimony wasn't valid in court. They were considered unclean in, you know, the temple because they dealt with animals and they couldn't do some of their ritual celebrations. They just weren't looked on very fairly, honestly.
Yeah, they were left outside with the animals. So they were just nobody wanted anything to do with them.
(03:25):
Yeah. So, but it's interesting that you mentioned this is the group of people that their testimony isn't allowed in court, but yet these are the first people that get word that the King has come.
Amazing, right? Yeah, this is the group of people that Jesus sends an angel to announce his coming.
(03:46):
I love that. That speaks everything to God's character. He sees the outcast.
And it's interesting that, you know, the angel goes to the shepherds out in the field. Their testimony is not allowed in court, but it's on their word that the King is coming. And it's the same story at the end where he is risen, right?
(04:09):
Yeah, it's a woman, right? Mary Magdalene sees and her testimony is not valid in court either. And she's looked at as a second rate citizen like all women in those days were.
It's beautiful that God says, I give you my message. I give you to tell the world.
Yeah, and she's literally witnessing something that only a high priest in the Old Testament was allowed to see if he survived.
(04:37):
Right. If he survived the sacrifice. And yet she's sitting and they only saw a shadow of Jesus's resurrection.
And of course, we're speaking about the Ark of the Covenant, but in the Holy of Holies, a little bit more for the audience.
Like she is almost well, she is like the high priestess in a sense.
(05:00):
Well, Hebrews chapter four says Jesus is the high priest. So she's just, you know, the royal priesthood.
I believe the book of First Peter would call her a royal priest. But yeah, in the Old Testament, the high priest had to offer a blood sacrifice in order to even enter the Holy of Holies.
(05:23):
And if that sacrifice was rejected instantly, he died. So approaching the mercy seat was terrifying, was absolutely terrifying.
They put bells on the poor guy so that if he was a sinner, they could pull him out and not enter in.
Yeah. And so, you know, here's Mary entering the tomb that represents the mercy seat and the sacrifice that was given was the life of Christ.
(05:52):
And so that obviously was accepted. What's interesting is Jesus Christ is the high priest and he is the sacrifice and he accepts that sacrifice.
And Mary goes in and she witnesses that the sacrifice has been accepted. He's no longer there. He's risen.
And so Jesus is leaving his resurrection again in the hands of someone whose testimony is not allowed in court.
(06:20):
So you see the parallels between the shepherds and Mary. And you ask the question, what does that tell you about God's character?
Yeah, he really does seek out those that are not always accepted in society. And for me, that speaks volumes to me because I always felt like an outcast.
(06:42):
Yeah, it tells you that Jesus is looking for people of lowly heart to reveal himself to, right? Your testimony, my testimony, so many people's testimony, it comes at a low point in their life.
Not everyone, but so many of us come to Jesus at a very low point in life when our cup is just empty, when we're at the end of ourselves.
(07:04):
The very first Christophany in the Bible is a single woman pregnant having a child from a married man.
Right. Hagar.
Yep. Basically thrown out and she's sitting by a well in the middle of nowhere. And that's who Jesus reveals himself to. It's not Abraham.
(07:25):
Pre-incarnate Jesus because you said Christophany and I'm not sure everyone knows what that is. So I wanted to make sure we...
Yeah, that's a sighting of Jesus in the Old Testament. And, you know, it's not Abraham. It's not Moses. It's not Noah. It's this...
It's Hagar.
Yeah, it's this woman.
She even names him the God who sees me.
Yeah, amazing that he picks someone.
(07:47):
Elroy.
Yeah, it's amazing that he picks someone, again, of just a lowly heart. And what's even, what's beautiful to me about the field that the shepherds are in, the Old Testament talks about it.
Twelve hundred years before the shepherds were there, Ruth was in that field gleaning. So let's fill in our audience on a little bit of Ruth and her story.
(08:09):
But the field that Ruth is in gleaning is the exact same field that the shepherds are in.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
Ruth is a Moabite. She is an outcast in the nation of Israel. As anyone who really wasn't an Israelite, you know, if you married in, there was always that like chance that you weren't going to be accepted.
And she was in a family and her mother-in-law was Naomi and all the sons had died and you have all these daughter-in-laws left with a mother-in-law and you have to fend for yourself.
(08:38):
And as a woman, that's that's like almost a death sentence.
And she goes to the field of Boaz and Boaz is the kinsman redeemer.
He's the next in line to be able to redeem this family.
And, you know, she is a woman that pretty much announces her love of the God of Israel for anyone who would know.
(09:05):
And she is met by, I guess, like almost the the grafting in of Messiah.
Like she gets to she gets to be a part of this family of faith because of her faith.
Yeah. I mean, you say the family of faith. She's one of the I don't know how many greats are in it, but she's a grandmother.
(09:26):
Great. Yeah, there's several greats there.
She's a grandmother of Jesus. Jesus literally graphs her into the family.
It's quite an amazing story. But yeah, Boaz's field is the same field.
It is the field that the shepherds were in when the angel made the announcement.
So just again, another situation where someone that was rejected, that society that the world would have labeled and said, we don't have any use for.
(09:51):
Yeah. You know, once again, there's a but God moment in there.
So the shepherds are definitely an important part of the story.
I think baby Jesus, obviously not not who he is, but just what is being painted by the picture of his birth scene,
because a lot of people will put that outside their house. They put the little stable there with three wise men and a wooden.
(10:17):
Yeah. What am I what am I looking for? The little wood, major, little wood, major with a pillow of straw and everything.
And that's not what was happening. Not at all. Actually, it was a stone feeding trough.
Right. And that those aren't comfortable. And you know what they look like?
They actually look like tombs, ancient tombs. So you have this baby and then tomb like, you know, trough calling himself the bread of life.
(10:46):
Right. He is the bread of life and he can be fed upon and in Bethlehem, the house of bread.
Yes. Yes. Yes. So much irony there. Yeah. So Jesus. Oh, intentional. Oh, totally.
Totally, totally. And the word manger in Greek literally translates to eat.
So here you have from the house of bread comes the bread of life sitting in a manger.
(11:14):
Manger translates to eat, but it looks like a sarcophagus.
And little baby Jesus is sitting there and he's swaddled. So you're a mother.
So if you were going to swaddle little one day old Anthony, what would he look like?
He looked like a burrito. He looked like a burrito. Yeah. You crisscross the arms.
(11:36):
You crisscross the legs so that they don't wiggle out of this swaddled position.
And you, you know, you wrap them up and you know what that kind of looks like? A mummy.
It looks like it looks like death. And so when the angel comes to the shepherds in the field
and the angels say you're going to see a sign, the sign is not the star of Bethlehem.
(12:04):
The sign is you're walking into what you might see on the outside as a death scene.
You're walking into a cave. Right. You're looking down at a what looks like a sarcophagus
with something swaddled, something wrapped in cloths. And instead of something being dead,
(12:29):
there's a very much alive little baby Jesus. Yes. So that is the sign of walking into death, but seeing life.
Yeah. So that's the sign that the angels are talking about. It's actually a lot of people think the sign
is following the star of Bethlehem that leads them there, but that's still not the sign.
(12:50):
The sign is, okay, great. Once you go there, what am I looking for? I'm still looking for that sign.
And that is life from death. Yeah. So again, more foreshadowing. Ultimate foreshadowing.
Only an author like God could write this into history. And that's what I think like the Bible is so,
you couldn't make this up if you tried. These were that hundreds of years apart from each other.
(13:14):
You know what I mean? Where someone's getting a sign 700 years prior to, and this one's going to see it this way.
And you're like, wow, Lord, you have really crafted the most beautiful story of redemption one could ever read.
And I'm so grateful to be a part of God's family. Yeah, absolutely.
(13:36):
And just because we say the star of Bethlehem wasn't the sign doesn't mean it wasn't critically important.
Oh, sure. You know, the reason that the shepherds knew to even look for a star is in the book of Numbers,
chapter 24, verses 17. And this is so ironic because it's almost like people that look at the cross.
(13:57):
It is the same thing as what happened when people looked at the star.
The cross is very divisive right now. You can either look at the cross and you see forgiveness.
You see freedom. You see Jesus. You see your king and what he took for you.
Or you see complete foolishness. Right. And the star of Bethlehem was the exact same thing.
(14:23):
And if you look, verse 17, basically what's happening is Balaam is sent out to curse the Israelites.
And the third time a blessing comes out and he says, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near.
A star shall come out of Jacob. A scepter shall come out of Israel and batter the brow of Moab and destroy all the sons of Tamal.
(14:50):
And the Magi, they were astronomers. And then when they saw that star, they knew that the Messiah was coming.
So that was good news to them. But verse 18 starts talking about Herod, King Herod.
And we know that it's King Herod because King Herod was an Edomite, which is mentioned in the previous section.
(15:12):
And he is basically looking at the star and he's he thinks of verse 17 and he was reading verse 17.
The part that he's thinking is a scepter shall come out of Israel and batter the brow of Moab.
That's him. That's a threat to him. So he sees the star as a threat where the shepherd see it as the king is coming.
(15:40):
It's pure joy. Herod is sitting there going, this is not good. This has been prophesied. This is a threat to me.
I need to take action. Yeah, he does. He kills all the babies, all the male babies.
So you have emphasyde instead of genocide, just the infants. And even the book of Revelation is going to be the same way.
(16:02):
Jesus revealing himself. It's either going to be joy or it's going to be terror. That's true.
What side of the fence are you on? Right. And that's what's so interesting is there's really all of these events in human history are events that divide.
It's either one or the other. There is no lukewarmness. You either love Jesus and you are for him or your apathy and you're like,
(16:29):
I don't really care, still falls on the side of you're against him. And Jesus even says that you're either for me or against me.
Yeah. And King Herod and so many people today obviously were against Jesus. And so he's cursed.
(16:50):
And we get that from Genesis chapter three, verse 15, where the curse of the serpent is the first sign of Herod. It says,
I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. We will strike his heel and he will strike your head.
So Herod in the Old Testament and a lot of different places, including Psalm 74, Isaiah 51, Ezekiel 29 and 32.
(17:18):
Herod is referred to as snake qualities, being a serpent. That's why John, one of the reasons, John the Baptist,
when he was talking to the Pharisees, he claims that they are brood of vipers. So what brood literally means family.
So family are vipers. So he's calling them literally the seeds of the serpent. Seed of Satan. Seed of Satan, seed of Herod, seed of the serpent.
(17:42):
And that's why one of the reasons why they were so offended upon many other reasons. But it's pretty incredible just how it's all tied together.
And like you mentioned earlier, just a great apologetic that the entire story from start to finish is all tied together like this.
For sure.
(18:03):
So, you know, what's interesting is this means that with Jesus coming during his life, he goes up on the Mount of Transfiguration.
And he's seen there with two figures. He's seen there with Moses and Elijah.
And this is the Bible signifying that Jerusalem has become the new Egypt and Jesus has to lead the new Exodus.
(18:34):
So let me unpack that a little bit. That is that is what that is based on on Moses, right?
Yeah, Moses was a prophet of death and Jesus is a prophet of life.
Yes. So why don't you break down just how Moses decided the Exodus?
Well, they were in bondage. They were in bondage in Egypt and bondage signifies sin, you know, and we are in bondage.
(19:01):
We're in sin before Jesus.
Yeah. And so Moses leads them out of Egypt after 400 years, they've been in bondage and he leads them out to make them free.
And so Moses is also on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus.
(19:24):
So we know in the Book of Revelation, it gives us a description.
It reads that wicked city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, which is the city where the Lord was crucified.
So what is that city? That city is Jerusalem.
So Jerusalem has become the new Egypt and Jesus has to lead us out of it.
(19:46):
In other words, that makes sense. So Jesus has to lead us out of that.
So when he's on the Mount of Transfiguration, he's literally sitting there with Moses and Elijah discussing the Exodus.
And what happens right before the Exodus out of Egypt?
(20:08):
What happens right before there is a Passover?
Yeah. And the Passover lamb had to be slain that night before they are set free.
Oh, amen. I see it. Yeah.
So now Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, he's literally sitting there discussing his departure with Moses and Elijah.
(20:34):
He's literally at the Exodus departure.
He's literally sitting there discussing his departure with the same one of the men that led the Israelites out of Egypt.
And here Jesus is now the new Passover lamb that is basically being going to be slain to set us free from sin.
(20:55):
Praise God. Just an incredible, incredible story.
Just look at that interweaving of story. You know what I mean?
You can't like imagine this happening. And then here it is.
He is exactly foretold and then lays it all out and fulfills it. It's amazing.
And I've even heard some people say in apologetics that there are many, many times through the New Testament where it will read Jesus did something because prophecy said it was going to happen.
(21:31):
And that was the reason the Bible gives there.
And people will come back and push back on that saying, well, Jesus knew prophecy, so he just did it because that's what the prophecy said.
Where you can have that, I suppose you can have that perspective, but I look at it as Jesus did exactly what he said he was going to do.
(21:54):
Who wouldn't want that? Amen.
Like to be pessimistic and to see that glass half full. I always thought that was interesting.
And even if that's their argument, he had to be at the right place, the right time in history to fulfill that.
So, you know, you can't make it up. It's too much of an apologetic to get over like that.
(22:17):
Right. I agree.
So now let's talk through and I'll let you kind of start this one.
This topic is how does Jesus's birth indicate his death?
So we could give you we could even talk about like, am I being quizzed?
You know, let's talk about the Mary and Joseph, Mary and Joseph.
Oh, that's so cool. I love that. OK, so at his birth, there's Mary, his mother, and Joseph is, well, basically a stepdad.
(22:47):
And the same like you have characters at the end of the story.
It like mirrors the end of the story. You have Joseph of Arimathea and it probably butchered his name and his tomb is being used.
And he's there to help embalm him and take care of him.
And Mary of Magdalene is there witnessing the resurrection like it's Mary and Joseph again.
(23:15):
Yeah, all over again. What's what's fascinating earlier, we talked about a baby in swaddling clothes.
Well, our swaddling cloths, they didn't wear clothes that were cloths. Right.
The reason you swaddle a baby is to recreate the comfort of being in a womb.
So at Jesus's birth, you have a virgin womb.
(23:36):
And what did we learn about Joseph Arimathea? Yeah, Joseph of Arimathea's tomb had never been used.
So he went to a virgin tomb. So you have the virgin womb and the virgin tomb.
And what's amazing, too, about that is in Jewish culture, when when baby Jesus was born, if everything followed tradition, obviously, Mary gives birth.
(23:57):
And Joseph is the one that takes baby Jesus and actually cleans off all the blood and everything from birth using linens.
That's his responsibility as the father or stepfather, however you want to position it.
But it's his position in the household to do that. And Joseph of Arimathea, it was his job to take the crucified Jesus and clean all of his wounds with those cloths that they buried him in.
(24:27):
Wow. And apply what is it? The myrrh that was given at birth.
Myrrh, thanks to I think a song of Solomon, that book, we know that myrrh is an embalming spice. So he's sitting there applying an embalming spice to the Christ.
And so you have Mary and Joseph, not just the name, the correlation of the names.
(24:51):
Right. You have the tomb and you have all of the all of the little nuance that you could pass over in scripture if you don't slow down and really read it and take it in and look at it as one big picture.
Yeah. So it's it's it's just pretty incredible that the completeness of the story and just how every there are like pages and things that you read, details that you read that in your own mind, you're like, well, that that doesn't even need to be closed.
(25:20):
And yet you get to the resurrection and Jesus closes things that you didn't even know, like Joseph being the one to wipe off at birth and at death.
Yes.
Like it didn't need that detail. But yet Jesus went to those lengths to give us those details.
What does Bill call it? Logographic necessity like and I probably butchered that and it's funny that I butchered it, but it's every word and every detail is there for a purpose.
(25:53):
And it has significance. Everything. Every word has significance. Yeah. Yeah. So all those details matter.
Yeah. Every detail, every detail matters. And I think, you know, kind of the last thought for me for the episode anyway is just, you know, you're a parent. I'm a step parent. I don't have any any children of my own.
(26:19):
I've inherited yours and you're so lucky. He's a good kid. He is a good kid.
So I got to ask, you know, when giving birth, like now that you're you're 30 years removed from giving birth, when you sit back and you look back, how much of it do you think about the pain versus how much do you think about the joy?
(26:43):
No, you don't think about the pain, the pain of childbirth. You don't.
How long were you in labor? Oh, gosh, I don't know. It was pushing like 34 hours. Okay. So it wasn't pushing Anthony out of me for 34 hours, but the labor itself was so long, so long.
(27:04):
And yet, how much do you do? Do you ever even think about unless you're prompted? Do you think about that? No, no. And I think most moms would say that once you give birth, you're not thinking about was so painful.
I mean, yes, it was. But you're just so excited to have your baby in your arms.
And I think that's that's what we get to witness here is the birthing pains. Once we get through the birthing pains that are happening, especially right now in the world, and we get to the other side.
(27:35):
Yeah, thanks to what what Jesus did coming down to our level. How far did he choose to come down to leave heaven and come down here to be with us and experience some of those birthing pains with us to understand to be here with us?
Yeah, literally, like he suffered everything like there's nothing that he doesn't know. You know, he's a high priest that can empathize with our pain.
(28:02):
Yeah. And and and he's he sees the joy. Yes, because of the joy set before him. He endured the cross. So he's sitting there in eternity, experiencing all the joy that is.
Yeah, Deborah Marsalisi, Michael Snyder, every single person that saved he's sitting there experiencing that joy going, yeah, I'll absolutely go through that pain, because I'm not even going to think about it once it's over.
(28:28):
He would have done it if it was just one person that needed to be saved. Yeah. So that's what we're celebrating here, guys. This episode is coming out two days before Christmas. Yeah, don't forget and all the craziness and all the chaos, all the family, all the presents, all the food, all the phone calls, whatever it is.
Don't forget the beautiful tapestry that was weaved together that was the birth of Jesus Christ. And that is why we celebrate. Amen to that. You know, and we just the other day watched Snoopy. What's the Christmas movie Snoopy does?
(29:03):
Charlie Brown's Christmas and at the end, I know Linus gives the gospel. It's so awesome. It really is. Well, not the gospel, but the birth narrative. And that's why, you know, we celebrate Christmas, Charlie Brown. And to think that was on TV, national TV for all to hear, you know, yeah.
Yeah, he came out in 65. Yeah. And how far we've fallen. So take a few minutes and be a little bit more like it was Linus that gave the speech. Yes. Okay. Be a little bit more like Linus today and take a few minutes and just remember why we are celebrating in a couple days.
(29:39):
Yeah. Merry Christmas, guys. Merry Christmas, guys. We are going to say happy new year because we won't talk to you guys until sometime in early January. But for now, thank you so much. It's been an amazing year and we will talk to you guys all soon.
Take care.
(30:25):
Bye.
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