7 min 37 sec: app reading time
December 4, 2024
WAKING UP TO THE LIGHT ON THE NIGHTSHIFT
Dear Friend:
December is known in the Christian West as the "Advent" month.
Scholars have found at least 456 passages in the Old Testament that Jewish Rabbis have historically interpreted as predicting the coming of the Messiah. Some scholars have close to 800 references.
As I said in my last "Chats," what blows my mind is that in spite of the specific prophetic narrative indicating the arrival of the Messiah, it seems no one was waiting or looking for the Messiah except in their rituals and festivals.
Unless I am missing something, it seems that absolutely no one was able to identify Jesus as the Messiah at His first coming, using the prophecy they were given to identify Him. For 400 years, God kept silent while the Jewish religion continued to decay into legalism and nationalistic pride.
All the accounts I read, including Jesus' recognition by Simeon and Anna down through the Apostles, indicate that these people were only able to recognize "Jesus as the Messiah," either after a personal introduction by Jesus or by revelation from God.
If the best Bible/Torah scholars of all time were not able to correctly interpret the OT prophesies well enough to recognize that the Messiah had come and was in their midst, why do we think our best interpretation of the end time prophesies will be as cut-and-dry as we have made them out to be? This has baffled me for years as a Seventh-day Adventist.
One can hardly blame the people of Jesus' time for being confused. Jesus predicted the same would happen now. (Matthew 24:12-TM)
According to what they saw as clear-cut prophecy, they were expecting someone called "Immanuel" (not "Yeshua").
They were expecting the Messiah to come as a King and establish a government that would deliver them from their enemies, and they were expecting Elijah to return before the Messiah appeared.
I can see how anyone would be confused, considering John the Baptist himself denied openly that he was Elijah.
For 400 years, the Jewish religion had inhabited darkness as much as the religious world today.
It was nighttime in Israel's history!
1) Mary got caught by surprise!
Luke 1: 26-38-TM says:
"God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth to a virgin engaged to be married to a man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the virgin’s name was Mary.
Upon entering, Gabriel greeted her:
Good morning!
You’re beautiful with God’s beauty,
Beautiful inside and out!
God be with you.
She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name
Yeshua.
He will be great,
be called ‘Son of the Highest.’
The Lord God will give him
the throne of his father, David;
He will rule Jacob’s house forever—
no end, ever, to his kingdom.”
Mary said to the angel,
“But how? I’ve never slept with a man.”
The angel answered,
The [presence of God ] will come upon you,
the power of the Highest hover over you;
Therefore, the child you bring to birth
will be called Holy, Son of God.
“And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.”
And Mary said,
Yes, I see it all now:
I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve.
Let it be with me
just as you say.
Then the angel left her."
2) The shepherds were caught by surprise during their night shift 9 months later!
Yes, shepherds! The most ordinary form of agrarian labor in the community was paid low wages and carried high responsibility.
Luke 2:1-20-TM states:
"About that time, Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there.
He went with Mary, his virgin fiancée, who was pregnant.
While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger because there was no room in the hostel.
Shepherds were camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep.
Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them, and God’s glory blazed around them.
They were terrified.
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.”
At once, the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:
Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the shepherds talked it over.
“Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.”
They left, running, and found Mary, Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the shepherds were impressed.
Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear deep within herself.
The shepherds returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told!"
3) The non-Jewish Persian kings were caught by surprise during their night shift!
Matthew 2:1-12-TM states:
"After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory—this was during Herod’s kingship—a band of Persian (non-Jewish) scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East.
They asked the ordinary Jewish people, “Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We’re on a pilgrimage to worship him.” (No one apparently knew)
When word of their inquiry reached Herod (Herod was an "insider," a "Jewish" King of Judea set up by Rome. Herod was seen as a betrayer of his own people for the sake of "political power"), he was terrified—and not only Herod alone but also the leaders of the "Jewish religion."
Herod lost no time. He gathered all the high priests and religious scholars in the city together and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
They told him, “Bethlehem, Judah territory.
The prophet Micah wrote it plainly:
It’s you, Bethlehem, in Judah’s land,
no longer bringing up the rear.
From you will come the leader
who will shepherd-rule my people, my Israel.”
Herod then arranged a secret meeting with the scholars from the East.
Pretending to be as devout as they were, he got them to tell him exactly when the birth announcement star appeared.
Then he told them the prophecy about Bethlehem and said,
“Go find this child. Leave no stone unturned. As soon as you find him, send word and I’ll join you at once in your worship.”
Instructed by the king, they set off.
Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies.
It led them on until it hovered over the child's place.
They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time!
They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother. Overcome, they kneeled and worshiped him. Then they opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh.
In a dream, they were warned not to report back to Herod. So they worked out another route, left the territory without being seen, and returned to their own country.
4) We live in the night shift of human history!
The Messiah (Immanuel: "God with us") was announced 6,000+ years ago.
When he arrived, the insiders were not ready.
The announcement was caught on the shepherds' night shift and the non-Jewish Persian scholar's night shift.
Do we expect the world to be ready for the next Advent of the Messiah?
History repeats itself.
Jesus predicted the fall of the Jewish religion.
Matthew 24:32-33 states:
"As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.
“Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
Jesus responded, explaining about his second coming.
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door."
Then again in Luke 13:6-9 it states:
"Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any.
So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now, I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down!
Why should it use up the soil?’ “Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"
Jesus’ three-year ministry ended 2,000 years ago in what I have described as a "fiasco" and "early Advent disappointment."
According to this prophecy, God waited 40 years from Jesus' execution until the Roman army devastated Jerusalem in 70 AD.
The long night shift of the last 2,000 years is coming to a close soon!
The last sign before the final Advent of the Messiah is taking place now. "Laodicea" has fallen! Laodicea represents the "Christian system" in its fallen condition. (All 45.000+ Christian denominations). (Revelation 3: 14-19-TM)
The final stage before the end is taking place right now as God invites people to accept love in their inner consciousness, Revelation 3:20. God longs to fellowship with humans!
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they will be with me."
God is knocking at the door of people's consciousness around the world now!
This is the night shift like it was 2,000 years ago when most people will be unprepared!
Jesus said, Matthew 24:26-28-TM
“So if they say, ‘Run to the country and see him arrive!’ or, ‘Quick, get downtown, see him come!’ don’t give them the time of day.
The Arrival of the Son of Man isn’t something you go to see. He comes like swift lightning to you! Whenever you see crowds gathering, think of carrion vultures circling, moving in, hovering over a rotting carcass. You can be pretty sure that it’s not the living Son of Man pulling in those crowds."
Where will you be when the final night shift of history wakes you up?
With you on your journey!
Pastor Harold
