The Christmas Story- Spiritual Warfare (Rev.12:1-5) by: Francis Jackson

      Often times we hear the Christmas story from the perspective of the manger scene, the amazing news given to Mary of giving birth to the Son of the Most High, the wise men and their gifts, and other areas surrounding the pregnancy of Mary. The background however, is not something we hear a lot about. The events prior to the coming of Jesus Christ. This amplifies the meaning of Christmas so much for me because of how the bible reveals all the spiritual warfare God surpassed in order to bring forth the Messiah that we celebrate. Ever since the first prophecy given in the bible by God (Gen. 3:15b) of the serpent's head being bruised by Eve's seed, Satan has been at work to prevent this process from happening. Satan is the dragon in this passage as described in verse 9. The woman clothed with the sun, moon, and twelve stars is identified as the nation of Israel (Gen. 37:9). The Child is identified as Jesus Christ (Ps. 2:8-9). With Satan knowing of Christ being born through the nation of Israel, his whole purpose was to destroy that possibility by annihilating the Jews. Biblical history gives great examples of Satan's attempts to devour the Child (Rev. 12:4b). For instance, the coming of Moses in Exodus 1. The pharaoh saw the Jews were greatly numbered and ordered the Hebrew midwives to execute all newborn males (vv.15-16). This would stop them from reproducing, which would eventually lead to their extinction. This attempt failed due to midwives disobeying king's orders out of fear of the Lord (vv.17-18). Later Haman conspires to completely wipe out the Jews by smooth, flattery words to the king that the Jews were not conforming to the king's laws (Esther 3:8-11). This attempt failed through Esther's courage to go against the law in approaching the king in the inner court to save her nation (4:10-11,15-16; 5:2-3; 7:3-6)-read through ch.8. Last but not least is Herod's plot to wipe out the all the infants in Bethlehem in order to kill baby Jesus (Matt. 2:13b,16). This attempt failed due to the wise men not returning to Herod (v.12) and the family fleeing to Egypt til Herod's death (v.13). Through it all, God's sovereignty ruled over all spiritual warfare and Israel gave birth to the Son who would rule the nations with a rod of iron (Rev.12:5; Ps. 2:8-9). Our promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, who would come and take away the sins of the world (John 1:29). Merry Christmas.