Not Really A Silent Night

Most of us has heard the Christmas story. The story about a virgin birth, the angels, the shephards, and the wise men. Are you picturing a stable with a star laden canopy above wrapped in a still quiet air? An occasionally bawh of a sheep, or the nah of Mary's donkey? An incredible miracle indeed. All this is true, but there is more to the story. The night of Jesus's birth was one of struggle. Satan tried his best to prevent the Son of God from being incarnated. You could almost call it warfare--spiritual warfare.

"A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him" (Wild at Heart).

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
"Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
They overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short."

When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Revelation 12

"As Philip Yancey says, 'I have never seen this version of the story on a Christmas card.' Yet it is the truer story, the rest of the picture of what was going on that fateful night. Yancey calls the birth of Christ the Great Invasion,'a darling raid by the ruler of the forces of good into the universe's seat of evil.' Spirituallly speaking, this is no silent night. It is D-Day. 'It is almost beyond my comprehension too, and yet I accept that this notion is the key to understanding Christmas and is, in fact, the touchston of my faith. As a Christian I believe that we live in parallel worlds. One world consists of hills and lakes and barns and polticians and shepherds watching ther flocks by night. The other consists of angels and sinster forces' and the whole spiritual realm. The child is born the woman escapes...Behind the world and the flesh is an even more deadly enemy...one we rarely speak of and are even much less ready to resist. Yet this is where we live now--one the front lines of a fierce spiritual war that is to blame for most of the casualties you see around you and most of teh assault aganist you. It's time we prepared ourselves fit it. Yes, Lue, there is a dragon. Here is how you slay him..." (Wild at Heart by John Elderidge p.154-155).

Until I read Wild At Heart: Discovering a Man's Soul, I had no clue that the Christmas story was any different then I had ever been taught. To think that a battle went on that night is incredible! I do not understand why we over look this passage in Revelation. I have never heard my pastor or anyone ever speak of this side of the story. I mean for crying out loud we sing "Away in the manager, no crib for a bed, the little to Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head, the stars in the sky look down where he lay, the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay." That does not sound like war to me....That sounds like an innocent peaceful--Silent Night.

Share this post on:

 •    •    •    •    •