Pastor Charlie Rousey
Revelation 12:1-5
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Like many of you, I read the Christmas story to my family on Christmas morning. We read the account given to us by the only New Testament Gentile writer, Luke. When I finished reading Luke 2, I asked everyone what part of the story really stood out to them as we read it this year. Everyone had something to say about this story that is unlike any other story and has been told billions of times. It truly is the greatest story ever told.
Luke gives us that moment-by-moment account of the birth of our Savior but Revelation tells the story from a different view. While in college, I worked as a security guard for the third tallest building in Chicago. Every night I was required to go to the roof and walk the perimeter. Every time I went up there, I would climb on the stone wall and look straight down at the streets of Chicago. Everything looked very different from this view.
In Revelation 12, God allows us to climb the wall of time and look down at the most important event in history, the birth of Jesus. In this view, there are no shepherds or wise men. The packed inn and the lowly manger are not the backdrops of this view, and Simeon and the temple are not seen.
This view shows us things that Luke's gospel does not. There is a great enemy that is looking to destroy this Child that is born in Bethlehem. He has been at work in history's past to stop this birth (Esther 3:13), he was at work in Bethlehem to stop the Messiah (Matthew 2:16), and he is at work now trying to stop all that follow this “Child that will rule all nations.”
This is a battle that I am involved in daily and like every war, there are times we want to just give up. We look at our society and what is being extolled as right and wrong, we look at our economic and political system and wonder if any sane person is involved, and we look at the world our children and grandchildren are to go into and fear.
This is what I know about this war: the Child will be King, and He will one day rule this Earth in righteousness. I am fighting on the winning side, and I must never quit.
Amen!