Category Archives: Jesus

Christmas Verses – The First Coming #6

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Numbers 24:17 NIV

“I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near.
A star will come out of Jacob;
a scepter will rise out of Israel.
He will crush the foreheads of Moab,
the skulls of all the people of Sheth.

The speaker of this verse is Balaam. He is noted as one who walked in the Abrahamic covenant, but he uses sorcery to conjure himself into the presences of God.  He was supposed to be cursing Israel instead he predicts the Messiah and the defeat of Edom and Seir.

The unique aspect of this is that God will use you He chooses.  Balaam has a vision and sees Jesus.  The Star of Bethlehem, I think, is mentioned here as well as a repeating of Jacob’s word to Judah about the “Scepter” belonging to Jesus.

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Christmas Verses – The First Coming #5

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Genesis 49:10 NIV

The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,[a]
until he to whom it belongs[b] shall come
and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

Jacob is the speaker of this prophecy about his fourth sons. Judah had the right of the first born, and so would have authority over his brothers.  The words for scepter and staff in Hebrew have about the same meaning – stick.  But the scepter carries the idea of clan or tribe with it.  (There are other Hebrew words for scepter.)  Staffs and rods also can be signs of authority, such as Moses’ rod in the Exodus.  This is one of many passages that talk of the “nations” and them being part of His kingdom.

 

By Пакко – Picture taken in Veliko Tarnovo exhibition “Symbols of the bulgarian system of state”, 22 of Semtember 2008, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4859839

Christmas Verses – The First Coming #4

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Isaiah 40: 3 NIV

A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the Lord: make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.”

We need to include John the Baptist in our Christmas verses. This verse in Isaiah is repeated the most in the gospels about John.  According to Matthew 17: 11-13 John was the fulfillment of this verse and Malachi 3:1. It would seem that the teachers of the Law started the idea that these verses speak of Elijah.  Remember, they were thinking of just an earthly kingdom and a military leader.

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Christmas Verses – The First Coming #3

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Genesis 28:14 NIV

Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

This promise was to Jacob as he was running away from Esau.  This prophecy is a continuation of the word given to Abraham and Isaac, but it does reassure Jacob of the blessing and birthright.  That word has proven true, the descendants of his children have blessed the world plus it is a predication of Jesus.

Christmas Verses – The First Coming #2

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  1. Revelations 12:1-5 NIV

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron

scepter.”[a] And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.

This complex sign signals speaks of Creation, His birth in Bethlehem, and the future. The woman resounds with images of the fourth day of Creation: she is wrapped in the greater light (it rules the day), she has conquered or is greater than the lesser light (ruler of the night), and her symbol of authority/ right to rule is twelve stars.  The devil/Herod is wanting to devour the Son.  Because the Son was born and snatched up to God verse 10 happened: salvation, power, the Kingdom of God, and the authority of His Christ.

PIC = www.LumoProject.com.