The Dawning Light

"Arise, shine, for your light has come,


and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.

See, darkness covers the earth

and thick darkness is over the peoples,

but the LORD rises upon you

and his glory appears over you.

Nations will come to your light,

and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Isaiah 60:1-3



The know very little about the nativity of Jesus, but there is one thing of which we may be fairly certain—he was not born on Christmas.

We know this for three reasons. First, we have the statement in Luke 1:26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, This may refer to Elizabeth’s sixth month of pregnancy, but this is not likely, since it would be a repeat of what the angel said earlier. More likely it would mean that Mary conceived in the sixth month of the year, and gave birth in March of April. Second, shepherds did not abide in the field in December. Shepherds stayed in the field so the sheep could fatten themselves on the spring grass. In December, it would have been as barren as our grass. Besides it would have been terribly cold. Third, the earliest celebrations of Jesus’ birth were held in April, not December.

Some people say that the reason Christmas is celebrated on December 25 is because of a Roman holiday called Saturnalia. Personally I do not believe it. There was a much deeper reason.

The selection of December 25 was a stroke of genius. It is four days after the Winter solstice, the darkest time of the year. What better time to celebrate the coming of the Light of the World?

From the very earliest days, Christmas has been a festival of lights, because He was the Light of the World. John wrote of him “in him was life, and that light was the light of men.”

The coming of the Light of the World has astounding implications. Think of it! Thousands and thousands of years ago, Adam and Eve committed the first sin. Darkness entered the world. For our whole existence the dark implications of that one sin have been growing on the earth, not only affecting people, but all of creation as well. The world grew gradually darker with sin.

In the first eleven chapters of Genesis, we can trace the progression of sin. Adam and Eve had two children--Cain and Abel. Cain murdered his brother out of rage. Perhaps it was premeditated, perhaps not. Perhaps Cain felt sorry, perhaps not. But we cannot deny that killing a human being seems a more manifestly evil act than stealing fruit from a forbidden tree.

The third recorded sin was worse. Cain's great-great-great grandson Lamech not only killed a man, but bragged about it to his wives. There is no fear or shame in him. He said.

wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times."

It got worse from. Just before the story of Noah, the Bible says "When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose." Gen 6:1-3

The "sons of God" refers to angelic beings. These “sons of God” are really fallen angels, or demons. In six chapters we have gone from fruit stealing to consorting with demons. The darkness is spreading, growing thicker.

In Genesis 9, we have a new dawn of sorts. God wipes out the whole world except for the eight people—Noah’s family. But sin rode on the ark along with the animals. Noah got drunk, his children go bad to worse, and soon the world is back as before, full of sin and corruption. Soon they all gather at the tower of Babel, and sin has become the victor again.

No one knows how much time elapsed between Adam and Noah, or Noah and Abraham. But we know that sin continued to thicken and darken, like smoke pouring into the atmosphere from a hundred hellish flames. The thicker it became, the more it obscured the light of God.

God made a promise to Abraham, that through Him would come a seed that would bless the whole earth. But Abraham never saw that child, or even dreamt what that redemption would be. When he did up in heaven, Abraham rejoiced to see it.

Two thousand years elapsed between Abraham and Jesus. During that time, sin continued to grow. We have a record of it in recorded history. There were wars, famine,d slavery, human sacrifice, ritual slaughter, torture, and genocides. By the time of Isaiah in the seventh century BC, the world had already seen several evil empires, as evil as Babel--Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Egyptian, Hittite, and many we cannot know. All these empires were built on sin—pride, idolatry, greed, and cruel oppression. Isaiah, looking out from his position as advisor to King Hezekiah, would have seen the wickedness first hand. Isaiah had every reason to believe sin would destroy everything good and holy that was left on earth.

But Isaiah saw the heart of God, too. Even then the dawn was approaching. He wrote.

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. "

Isaiah saw that sin was thick and the world was dark. Even so dawn was coming. God was going to part the clouds of sin, and the light of God would eventually sign through.

But this parting did not come in Isaiah’s time. Far from it! The seventh century BC was terrible but the sixth century was even worse. The Assyrian Empire was followed by the Babylonians, who were followed by the Persians, who were followed by the Romans.

We could not say if the Romans were the worst people who ever lived—but they certainly had to among the worst. They brought order to the world, but they did it through war and oppression. They destroyed whole nations without a hint of remorse. We would be shocked by the level to which they sank. Some emperors were insane like Nero ad Caligula. But there were sane ones were much, much worse, because they were systematically wicked. Today's mafia was based on Roman "virtues" such as vengeance and ruthlessness.

But the rest of the world was not any better. Even the religious leaders of those days were corrupt beyond belief. The whole world was a cesspool of slaughter.

The child of Bethlehem was born into the world of the Romans. He was the light of which Isaiah spoke. But he only came to a small place, and only a few knew. Nevertheless, the light broke through.

Think about what it is like during a thunderstorm. You know the storm is over when you see a small cloud get out of the way for a moment and light break through. A single ray cames down, refracting from the moisture in the atmosphere. A rainbow appears.

Jesus was that rainbow, appearing in the midst of a dark and messed up world. His appearing signaled the end of a long, long night.

Thirty-three years later, Jesus was died on the cross. It was a dark time for him, but it was the beginning of the light. On the cross Jesus paid the penalty for every sin ever done--for Cain and Lamech, for Noah's children, for the Nimrod, of the builders of the Tower of Babel. He paid the price for the Akkadians, Babylonians, Persians, and even for the sins of the Romans who nailed him there. He looked down at the Roman guards and said "Father Forgive them."

Now understand, this was not the end of darkness. It was the beginning of the end. The clouds parted, but there was still plenty of dark. Sin still happened. But gradually the forgiveness and glory of God in Jesus spread throughout the world until now, there are citizens of every country who rise up and call him Lord.

Now it is two thousand years after the manger and the cross. Sin is still thick. But we can no longer say (as some do) that the world is worse. Now it can be better, because the light of God is in it.

Sin Is not gone. Injustice exists, temptation exists, death exists, but it no longer has to be. Now, there is a light we can go to, and a forgiveness that has been bought for us

Jesus said "father forgive them" He meant it for the Romans as well as the Jews. He meant it for all the remaining generations of people until this very day. Now he offers us forgiveness. He offers the same forgiveness to the Arab terrorists and to the militant atheists and secularists. The light has come for them, if they will see it. They may be forgiven and have a new life because of the Baby of Bethlehem.

For the past two thousand years, the light and the darkness have been warring with each others. Sometimes the light is on the top. Other times it is th darkness. Our final victory is assured. But not before the last battle in our war is fought.

In Revelation we read that the darkness will gather for one more great push. Ut will be blown away like morning fog. The light will finally come to every part of the world. Adam's sin will at last be finally repaired.

But until that day, we have Christmas. We have the Bible, We have the Holy Spirit to point us in the direction of the light.

Many Christians despair this Christmas. Do not despair. The light has already come. We have Christmas to remind us, along with the Bible and the Holy Spirit. The Glory of the Lord is coming.

Rejoice that the light has come, and morning has broken over us.