POSTED 15 DECEMBER, 2008

Tis the Season

by Mark Huey
mark@outreachisrael.net

reproduced from the McHuey Blog

Today while scanning some news reports on the Internet, I inadvertently read an article by someone who was an admitted atheist, who was complaining about the upcoming Christmas season and all of the religious trappings that surround this time of year. My initial thought was something like this:

Hallelujah! Once again, whether this person realizes it or not, another atheist is going to have to deal with the birth of the Savior of the world. Perchance, such an atheist might even stroll into a mall and be subjected to the subtle background music of Christmas hymns. Maybe in an aggravated moment, this atheist will have to ponder concepts like: Joy to the World; Come all Ye Faithful, or Hark the Herald Angel—along with scenes of the angelic host declaring that a miraculous event had taken place. Maybe this atheist might even have to hear Handel’s Messiah and its declaration of prophecies that foretold the coming of Yeshua from the Old Testament.

These thoughts led me to ponder on my own extended family and aging parents, who to this day do not have what I understand is a confessed saving knowledge of the Messiah. While I am not judging their hearts, I am aware that the concept of being born from above is something that none of them readily confesses and certainly do not embrace. In fact, years ago as I was witnessing to one of my sister’s friends at a dinner setting, my sister rudely interrupted my comments to inform her friend that whatever I believed in, she believed in just the opposite!

So you might imagine that when I have visited my parents around the Christmas holidays—and now my agnostic sister decides that everyone (meaning her family, my parents, and me) needs to go to a Christmas Eve service before going out to a nice dinner meal—that I am personally ecstatic with her insistence. Two times in recent years this has occurred, and each time I have sat joyfully praying that something said by the preacher, or perhaps something conveyed in the lyrics of the Christmas hymns will somehow take root. I pray for the hearts of my parents, sister, brother-in-law, nephews, and others who have been swept up in the entourage who would not normally be found in a church.

As a Messianic Believer who does not place any special emphasis on Christmas, but instead enjoys a growing family tradition of celebrating the Messiah Yeshua as the Light of the World at Chanukah, I have never attempted to force my new understandings upon my beloved family that grew up following the standard American Christmas traditions. It was confusing enough for all of them when I was born again and started taking my relationship with the Lord seriously. It further befuddled them when our family started doing all of this “Jewish stuff,” as they called it. So with wisdom tempered with love, it has become obvious that I should not cast pearls of understanding before a family who is neither ready nor would be able to comprehend. Why create consternation, and further muddy their waters of understanding? I am delighted that at least once a year, my non-religious family is going to in some way at least acknowledge that many people are very serious about the birth of Jesus Christ.

Additionally over the years, as our family has celebrated Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread, in lieu of the traditional Christian Easter—I am again elated that my unbelieving or agnostic family will again have to deal with the concept of a crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection of One who claimed to be the Savior of the world. Once again, when I find out that certain family members have been “lured” into Easter Services for whatever reasons, I am thankful for the faithful who continue to make this remembrance a special time on the religious calendar.

Whenever the various religious calendars happen to coincide and Easter Sunday falls close to the week of Passover, or Christmas falls close to Chanukah like it does this year, I am especially grateful. It is at these coincidental times that perhaps a sincere, probing question might arise that opens the door for more explicit answers as to why we choose to celebrate things differently. Over the years, we have found the receptivity to new understanding much greater when the curious questions arise from those who are interested, rather than making taunt and unsolicited declarations about different perspectives when people are not really interested.

This year, as you perhaps hear some background music as you meander about your workplace, or browse through the malls, how about taking some time to pray for those in your immediate vicinity who would not otherwise be touched by the Word of life? While you might be next to an atheist, an agnostic, or simply someone who is hurting because of a bad religious experience—there is a good chance that you will be in range of people who have loved ones praying for them. I am not sure how our collective prayers work, but I do know that in the Heavenly realm that there is a golden bowl of incense that contains the prayers of the saints. It is described in this passage from the Book of Revelation:

“And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth’” (Revelation 5:6-10).

Did you notice that the Messiah of Israel, the Lamb of God, the very One people are thinking about being born in a stable at this time of year—is the only One worthy to open the Book of Life? This contains the names of the saints chosen from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Did you also notice that those bought and paid for have become a kingdom of priests to God that will rule and reign on the Earth?

I must admit that I do not know how it all works, but I can imagine the prayers of the saints being stored up in Heaven in these golden bowls, and that the King of kings is enjoying the very smell of incense emanating from the bowls. But I also picture those bowls getting to a point where they are overflowing to the point of spilling down from Heaven on those specific souls for whom they were first prayed. Earlier in Revelation, we get a picture of the angelic host actually casting down the incense to Earth creating all kinds of physical reactions like thunder, lightning, and earthquakes:

“Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake” (Revelation 8:3-5).

In my mind, if God’s angelic host can take some of the overflowing prayers of the saints and with the fire of the altar throw them to the Earth generating sounds, flashes of light, and movement of tectonic plates—then it is not too hard for me to imagine that those same prayers can reach the hearts of those being prayed for by the Kingdom’s priests. Since I consider Believers the called priests, who like salt and light are mixed in among the multitudes wandering about the Earth, I have concluded that our intercession for family and mankind in general has its purposes, even in an elevator or shopping mall.

If praying for those you encounter during this season comes to mind, then pray as the Spirit leads. You might just unknowingly pray for my sister or parents, and be the final prayer that spills the incense down upon their aching hearts!

After all, tis the season!

Until the restoration of all things…

Mark Huey (B.A., Vanderbilt University in History and Graduate Studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) is the Director of Outreach Israel Ministries (www.outreachisrael.net). He is the author of several books, including: TorahScope, Volumes I & II, and Counting the Omer: A Daily Devotional Toward Shavuot. He is also co-author of Hebraic Roots: An Introductory Study.