Receive God’s Christmas gifts
“The LORD has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy.” (Zephaniah 3:15)
“Punishment” and “enemy” are not words we like to hear at this time of the year. We expect and like to hear about things such as: joy, peace, love and similar happy ideas. If you really look at our verse for this week, it is talking about joy and peace because of God taking away “punishment” and turning back “your enemy.”
So often when we think of peace and joy we think primarily of things such as: families getting along, nations settling their differences or someone getting some good news in the face of a difficult situation. Yes, those are things show peace or bring joy, but we all know how temporary or fleeting they are.
The words of the prophet Zephaniah are first and foremost a foretelling of earthly peace which God would give to his Old Testament people in the midst of conflict with their earthly enemies. But the bigger picture and meaning is that the God who could bring peace among warring nations would also bring peace to the conflict between all of us as sinful people and a perfect God.
Time and time again in the Old Testament right along with prophecies of earthly peace, God gives prophecies of the coming Savior, Jesus and the peace he would bring with his perfect life and his death on the cross to pay for all of our sins.
Each one of us has things which still hang in our mind or trouble our conscience from sins we have committed in the past. What more could give us peace than to be pointed from the manger where we’ll kneel in a little over a week to the grown up baby of Bethlehem hanging on a crossing assuring us “It is finished.”
As you celebrate Christmas next week as the birth of your Savior, remember that it is the first step toward God assuring you that the punishment of all your sins has been paid for at the cross. Know that the little baby whom we’ll again see in the manager is the same one who silenced your enemy and mine, the devil, with the power of his Word.
The best part of this “punishment taken away” and “enemy turned back” is that it is not a one-time event or something limited to only certain situations in your life or mine. The punishment of every single sin has been satisfied in Jesus and he continues to hold the power of the devil at bay.
The reason we often don’t have the true peace and joy which God gives us in Jesus is because we fail to fully trust in what God gives us Jesus or we doubt that his grace and love can cover all our sins.
As you give and receive gifts over the next week or so, I pray that you also pause to receive the most important gift you can receive this Christmas – the peace and joy God gives in the punishment of sins removed through forgiveness and our enemy the devil turned back in God’s almighty power working on our behalf.
Friends, I pray that each one of you receives peace and joy this Christmas as you enjoy God’s Christmas gifts!