NORTH COUNTRY BAPTIST CHURCH
Remember the Babies
There is a dark side to Christmas, an ugly one in fact. Much of our time is spent (and perhaps rightfully so) celebrating the bright and glorious details surrounding the birth of Christ that we often fly past the words in Matthew 2,
“Then Herod….slew all the children that were in Bethlehem,
and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under.”
Those are dark, ugly words. At the very time in which Christ showed up here on His created ball, Satan showed up. King Herod was his tool, as he devised a plan to kill baby Jesus. He commanded that any male child, as innocent as they may be, under the age of two should be murdered. So in the masses of dead flesh, Christ the babe would be there killed by Herod. This devilish, Satanic bloodletting by Herod is a gruesome reminder of the heinous and evil work of Satan that never has good in view.
God saw this. This was not outside His hand-in fact, Matthew reminds us that Christ and His family were prophesied to have escaped to Egypt, preserving God’s majestic plan for eternity. Satan failed in his attempt to thwart God’s plan. He has failed since his all-out assault on Heaven’s throne in time past, and he will continue to fail until He is bound for eternity. Nevertheless, it is no small thing when Satan works to destroy God’s plan, for there is much carnage in the collateral damage.
To Satan, all those innocent babies were nothing more than collateral damage to overthrow God’s plan. Amid God’s plan, we hear the weeping of hundreds, if not thousands of mothers who bear the brunt of Satan’s evil. Certainly, it is no small thing that God’s plan would be accomplished, yet it is equally no small thing to see and be startled at the sorrow of Matthew 2.
As God works His plan to display His glory in and through our lives, Satan is equally working a plan to hide that same glory. When Satan works his plan, there are crushing consequences. We see in it much of the heartbreak and sorrow of our day. Perhaps, even more startling than the sorrow of those young moms, is how attracted we are to the plan of Satan. Just as Adam & Eve, or even King Herod had the opportunity to not be complicit in Satan’s plan, so do we can daily embrace the plan that God has for us.
This Christmas, remember the babies. When tempted, remember the babies.
Remember the sorrow of their moms. Remember the heartbreak that Satan brings when his plan is worked. Be grieved at the diabolical work of Satan. So much of the frustration, heartache, and sorrow takes place in our lives when we embrace Satan’s plan instead of God’s. Sadly, our lives turn into Satan’s collateral damage in His grander work to hide God’s glory through us, and that damage hurts and is so very painful. God offers a greater way, a grander way. He offers a way of escape from the bondage and the pain that sin brings. He came as our salvation from the penalty and power of sin-both now and for eternity. This is our hope. This is the Christmas message.
James Brabson
Pastor
