The Night Before Christ's Birth

[Dawn Marie]

’Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house…”

You have heard this phrase a thousand times over.

But have you ever wondered what the night before Christmas — the first Christmas — was really like?

In a figurative sense, what was the era like before Jesus came into the world?

Prior to the birth of Jesus, the Jewish people were under the heavy hand of Rome and the corrupt local leadership of King Herod.

They were disillusioned by their oppression, and their hope for the Messianic deliverer was crushed with every passing year.

It had been more than 400 years since the Jewish people had a word from the Lord, when one of the last prophets of the Bible, Micah, painted this bleak picture:

“You shall have night without vision, and you shall have darkness without divination; the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them… for there is no answer from God,” (Micah 3:6-7).

This was the portrait of the night before Christmas — national and spiritual darkness, and a pervading ignorance of God’s great purpose for his people.

But then, the light dawned.

The son of God came into the world.

In him was the light of life.

Jesus gave new life to all who believed in him — that he was the messiah.

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[Dawn Marie]

“You shall have night without vision, and you shall have darkness without divination; the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them… for there is no answer from God,” (Micah 3:6-7).

This day could be summed up in quite the same way...especially the last part; for there is no answer from God.