Devotional Yeshua/Jesus Birth Foretold

Sunday 12-15-24 1st. Day Of The Weekly Cycle, Kislev 13 5785 85th. Fall Day







26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.
37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
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--
Love always, Walter and Debbie

 

[Outcast]

Isn't it interesting that "John the Baptist" seems to be a minor player in this story? I remember very few who ever considered his importance other than to Baptize Yeshua. He, also, was full of the spirit while in the womb!

Lk 1:14–20 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

That is stated in the New Testament, but it is only recently that I was lead to see the significance of Yeshua having the "fullness" of the spirit of His Father.

Col 2:6–12 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

The obvious difference between the two is the humanity of the father of John. (By the way, verse 27 can easily be seen as saying the Joseph was in the line of David by sentence structure. The clause "of the house of David" is misplaced. My understanding is the Mary was a descendent of King David.)

John was prohibited from drinking wine "or strong drink" as well as being of "the spirit and power of Elijah."

It hay be just trivia, but it got my attention. Yeshua and His disciples drank wine. I fail to see the significance of the restriction for John, and not for the Son of God.

Any thoughts?

 

[Gary Burnett]

Was not John the Baptist raised under the Nazirite vow?

 

[Gary Burnett]

Like Samson was by his parents?

 

[Outcast]

Was not John the Baptist raised under the Nazirite vow?

I know that Samson was, but I don't know if John the Baptist was a "Nazarite."

 

[Walter And Debbie]

Isn't it interesting that "John the Baptist" seems to be a minor player in this story? I remember very few who ever considered his importance other than to Baptize Yeshua. He, also, was full of the spirit while in the womb!

Lk 1:14–20 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

That is stated in the New Testament, but it is only recently that I was lead to see the significance of Yeshua having the "fullness" of the spirit of His Father.

Col 2:6–12 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

The obvious difference between the two is the humanity of the father of John. (By the way, verse 27 can easily be seen as saying the Joseph was in the line of David by sentence structure. The clause "of the house of David" is misplaced. My understanding is the Mary was a descendent of King David.)

John was prohibited from drinking wine "or strong drink" as well as being of "the spirit and power of Elijah."

It hay be just trivia, but it got my attention. Yeshua and His disciples drank wine. I fail to see the significance of the restriction for John, and not for the Son of God.

Any thoughts?

Good Morning Outcast, How are you all? I remember what Yeshua said about John The Baptist:

11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Read full chapter

Love, Walter

 

[Outcast]

Good Morning Outcast, How are you all? I remember what Yeshua said about John The Baptist:

11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Read full chapter

Love, Walter

Doing well, Walter. Thank you. I think the statement related to verse 11 shines a light on something worth note:

Mt 11:11–15 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

In short - with John the Baptist, things changed significantly.

Before now, I didn't realize the impact he made in Yahweh,s plan.

 

[LeeB]

John 1:19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27 Apparently there are three Elijah’s; the original prophet the Tishbite, John the Baptist who prepared the way for Christ and the Elijah yet to come before the day of the Lord who RESTORES ALL THINGS. Could it be said that John was the last old covenant prophet and the first new covenant prophet. Would this involve Matthew 17:3 Moses introduced the old covenant but John introduced the new. Then we have; Matthew 17:11,12,13 This also ; Malachi 4:5,6 Luke 1:17. John 5:35,36 Our focus should not be on the man but on the spirit that empowered the man and on the spirit without a man.

 

[Outcast]

Actually, I am still rocking mentally at how -the man- played such a large part in the introduction of the New Covenant and was selected by Yahweh to do so. Yet, the story of the period of time when this took place seems neglected by churches except as this crazy character with a camel hair garment eating locusts and honey instead of this blessed servant that served Yahweh.
Part of my focus was, indeed, about the filling of both he and Yeshua with Yahweh's spirit. I feel a little guilty myself for not focusing on the role that John the Baptist played.
As I claimed, it would appear to be simply trivia to most, but I latched onto it for some reason.

 

[LeeB]

John played another important role in the fulfillment of prophecy. When Jesus came to John to be baptized in Matthew 3:13,14 but John at first refused but after Jesus said, John 3:15 , then John understood and agreed. This baptism was not for Jesus but rather to fulfill all righteousness. The ancient saints before Christ were circumcised, a sign, a seal of righteousness by faith so that in Jesus all who believe but have not been circumcised may have righteousness credited to them as well. Romans 4:11 in this way , Romans 15:8 The understanding is that circumcision was a sign only but baptism was the fulfillment of the sign. All the ancient saints had their faith confirmed when Christ was baptized by John and this fulfilled all righteousness because circumcision indicated that the Christ would physically be a descendant of Abraham ; this confirmed the promises given to Abraham as Abrahams one and only seed in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed. Therefore there is neither Jew or Greek for all are one in Christ.

 

[LeeB]

From this day of the baptism of Jesus and forward all who YAHWEH would draw to HIS son must be baptized in the name Jesus Christ.

 

[Outcast]

From this day of the baptism of Jesus and forward all who YAHWEH would draw to HIS son must be baptized in the name Jesus Christ.

Oh, that was the first conviction that started my journey to find Yahweh's truth. That was a long time ago, and it was the beginning of my friction with church members - they were so wrapped up in theories that there was no immersion or water involved - yet they could not tell me why. Some simply believed that their baptism was "by fire" -meaning the Holy Spirit. So, when I asked about:

John 3:22–24 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized (for John had not yet been put in prison).

Acts 8:34–38 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

-they simply got angry with me for being so ignorant, I suppose.

I did not realize at the time that I was on a new pathway.

 

[Outcast]

Was not John the Baptist raised under the Nazirite vow?

Gary, back with you on your question -

Yahweh's instruction about the behavior to this John would seem to parallel him with those who became Nazarites by choice, in in his case, he had no choice in the matter. So, there may or may not have been a vow made. I am probably chasing unicorns with this question, but scripture does establish that he was chosen of God for a heavenly calling.