A Star is Born

Of God the Son this morning? We celebrate your birth, Lord Jesus, and we exalt your name, and we ask that as we turn our hearts to your word, that you would fill us up, that you would speak to us, that you would guide us, that you would direct us. We do come, as that last song said, as people whose faith waffles in measure at times, who come at times weary and broken. who come feeling uh guilt-ridden. Saddled by life, who come feeling dejected, depressed, anxious.

weighed down, but Lord, you are faithful. to meet us where we are, to give us strength for today and hope for tomorrow. And Lord, this morning we celebrate in many ways the zenith of that hope. And so, Lord, we ask that you would bless us as we have the privilege of reflecting. As we have the privilege of study, as we have the privilege of entering into continuing to worship you now through the Word, and we pray for insight from your Spirit, Lord, in all things, in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. A star is born. If you ever heard that phrase before, I'm sure you have. I can remember a couple of times when, in small ways, Nothing magnanimous that's going to change the world like we're going to talk about, but where you see somebody and you go, okay, as the kids say, he's different.

She's different. Like something about them is unusual and stands out. I remember watching, if you don't like country music, there's time to come down to the altar and repent of that this morning. Um if you don't. But if you do, I was watching a music special and it had an artist that I don't like at all singing a song.

And I'll let him remain nameless. His name's Luke Bryan. But anyway, um.

So He was singing a song and he had like this background guy. Singing with him. And the background guy singing with him had like I mean, he looked like he had just rolled up off of the pavement. He had long, shaggy hair, big old beard here, beard gut the size of Nashville. And he'd play in a way like this.

And then all of a sudden, they gave him a little solo part. And this guy opened his mouth. And I mean to tell you, it was one of the most powerful vocal pieces I'd ever seen in my life. And hardly anybody knew who this guy's name was. And he was the guy who wrote the song, and so he had been asked to come up and be like this little background guy for Luke Bryan, and he's a little guy named Chris Stapleton was his name.

And if you know anything about music, you know Chris Stapleton is now probably the most popular country musician in the world. And I remember hearing him and I thought, he's he's different. He sounds a lot better than Luke Bryan. No offense. When a star is, you kind of stop and you go, okay.

Whatever that category is that person's in, whether they're an athlete, whether they're a musician. Whatever their focus is, maybe it's a book you read. I've read it, there's authors I read and I go, they write. better than almost everyone. There's just something that stands out.

And what happens is they rise in fame within that nuanced specific category and become a standard bearer for the category. I want to talk to you about what was actually a wonderful segue from our children's story right into this message. You saw a little prophecy tucked away in that story from Numbers 24, 17. And what we're going to do this morning. is a bit different, but we're going to just Build a little bit of a case around that prophecy.

And I want you to see. how really concrete That prophecy is. And as we sort of move along through this, I'm going to highlight for you. I'll show you, it's going to be a little bit of an educational kind of time because I'm going to show you some maps and stuff like that. But I was in Jordan a couple of months ago.

And I literally had a sort of a bird's eye view of the location of this prophecy. And I want to share that with you a little bit so you can see how this all weaves together in an amazing fashion and empties itself out in the New Testament. And so, as we begin thinking about this, and a star, a star, I want you to, we're going to kind of key in on that and see that motif sort of work its way through.

So, what I'd like to do is start you where all Christmas messages start in Numbers 22. That's where you did your reading this morning, I'm sure. But if you have your Bibles, grab them and go to Numbers 22. And if you don't have a Bible, you can grab one from the racks there in front of you or just keep a Bible. We want to make sure you have a copy of it.

But I want you to get to Numbers 22. And we're gonna stay Dart inverse. one. Start in verse one.

Now, this is right on the heels. Of the nation of Israel in its wanderings, they have conquered Sihon and Og. Two kings. That are one in the land of Moab, the one just north of there, east of the Jordan River in modern-day Jordan. You can look in your Bible or up on the screen, but here's verse 1.

of twenty of Numbers 22. Then the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab. I'll show you a little later the plains of Moab. Beyond the Jordan at Jericho.

So think, they are east of the Jordan River, across the Jordan River from Jericho, in a valley, this valley that would, at flood stages, fills up a bunch of it with water, but it is a very wide, fertile valley amidst what really feels like, especially in that area, kind of two desert elements on each side. And Balak the son of Zippor Saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, and Moab was in great dread of the people because they were many. Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel, and Moab said to the elders of Midian, This horde will now lick up all that is around us. As the ox licks up the grass of the field, they're going to take all the supplies, they're going to take everything, nothing's going to be left because this mammoth camp of these people in the fertile plains of Moab.

So Balak the son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at the time, sent messengers to Balaam. the son of Beor at Pithor. which is near the river in the land of the people of Amma, to call him, saying, Behold, a people is come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me. Come now.

Curse this people for me. Since they are too mighty for me, perhaps I shall be able to defeat them. and drive them from the land, for I know That he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.

So Balak invites. A prophet, kind of an oracle giver in this ancient realm named Balaam. Apparently, kind of a shadowy figure. We kind of only know about him from the next this in about four or four chapters here in Numbers and then other reference that are made to him from the New Testament.

So he's sort of a mysterious figure. But apparently He was a prophet. And Balak calls him as this known quantity to come say, Curse these people. because they're going to end up causing our destruction, and we need to get them out. Right now, all I want you to focus on actually outside of Balaam and his role is the location.

that they're in the plains of Moab. At the end of these oracles, which go from chapter 23 and 24. There are four of them. You read this, right after the oracles are done, when Israel lived in Shatim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.

Now, Shatim. Is uh is a place located. And you look on this map, you can see Abel's Shatim, where it's located. If you were to go straight east on the map, you don't see it there. It's not identified on the map because it's not of interest to the map.

But if you did, let's see if this guy worked. There we go. And you were right over here, that's where Jericho would be. right across.

So you're in this spot right here, Abel's shitim. In the plains, in this whole area here. Right in here are the plains of Moab, and this is where Israel has settled all the way down to the Dead Sea.

So this is a photo that I took while I was there, and I was standing on the top of what is called now Al-Hammam, which is a tell that is ancient Shatim.

So we're up on the top of this place. It was privately, it was kind of fun because it's privately owned, actually. And we had to sneak up the backside. And Indiana Jones, we had whips. It was great.

And Bill McKeever was whipping people. And we got up there, and you look out, and if you can make it out, if you have good eyes, you can see across, and it looks like a bunch of houses that are dotting at the base of those mountains.

Well, you'd be right, and that's Jericho today. And you're looking across. The Jordan River Valley, so you're looking straight west as you look across and you're elevated up and you can see it's kind of fertile and so forth.

Now, if, and I don't have a photo for you, I chose not to, but if I turned the other way and looked, it would look kind of like the opposite of that in a way. You look back and it looks more like you're looking up at desert mountains like we see sometimes here if you look back up the other direction.

So they're here settling in Abel Shatim. Abel Shatim.

Now, I want to I want to show you a couple of things about these oracles as we kind of walk this direction. Just take your Bibles for a second as you're there and look in Numbers 22. Verse 41.

So in the intervening, there's this weird thing where Balaam is going to get ready and he's going to go curse Israel. And he is riding a donkey. And a donkey ends up stopping because the angel of the Lord that Balaam does not see is in front of his donkey. And as the angel of the Lord is seen by the donkey, but not seen by him. The donkey gets spooked, bumps up against a wall, bangs his ankle and his leg, pins it against the wall.

He gets angry, he starts beating the donkey, and then the donkey does what ancient donkeys do and talks to him. And says, why are you hitting me?

Now, I'm telling you this. I go running with my dog around daybreak. And my dog stops to pee more than any dog that's ever existed. on the face of the earth. And I'm running.

And about every, it feels like every quarter mile, that dog has to stop.

So after a while, I realize this dog has emptied her tank. Yeah. And I don't even let her. I mean, after, I mean, come on. You can't go pee seven times on a one-mile run.

I mean, maybe you can. You should go to your doctor, though, if you're doing that. And this dog, it's awesome. I'll pull the dog, I'll pull the dog, I'll pull the dog.

Now, if one time that dog looked at me and said, stop yanking on me, I'm getting sick of this. I'm going to be freaked out.

So all of a sudden, the donkey says, What are you doing? I've been your donkey. And I'm paraphrasing, but he says, I've been your donkey for years. Why are you hitting me? Might you think something's going on?

And then the Lord opens Balaam's eyes and he sees, and of course he's freaked out and he realizes, okay, these people are different. I probably shouldn't curse them. And instead, he thinks, I'm going to say whatever exactly the Lord wants to tell me. And so in Twenty-two. 2241.

We read, and in the morning, Balak. took Balaam. And brought him up to Bamath Baal.

So his disposition has changed. He is still going up, but he's going to say whatever the Lord tells him. And he came up to this location right here, Bamath Baal.

Now remember, they're camped right in here.

Okay, and they're kind of nuzzled up against this side and so the angle with the mountains and the ridges roll down I've been there it rolls down just like if you went over here on the Wasatch front and you stood on the edge and tried to look one direction if somebody was camped up against the mountains It'd be hard for you to see them all So they can't see all of them. And Balaam, verse 1 of 23, said to Balak, build for me here seven altars, prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.

So he gets this all set up. He's going to go ahead and he's going to offer an oracle. And as he offers the oracle, the oracle comes out not as condemnation or cursing, but it comes out as blessing. And Balak says, wait a minute, that's not what I hired you for. You're not doing your job.

Let's try this again. And so They move. And they go up one more location here just north.

Now, this place is famous, Mount Nebo. If you go there to visit, it's a big tourist attraction. All people all around, Mount Nebo is famous because this is the place where Moses. Goes up on top of Mount Nebo, looks, God discloses the promised land, he sees the whole thing in front of him, and then he dies up there. And up where Mount Nebo is, kind of like you have twin peaks over here, you've got a couple of peaks.

One of them is Mount Nebo, and the other is called Pisca. And so right there. He goes up and we have Oracle number two. Look at numbers 23. 13 and Balak said to him, Please come with me to another place from which you may see them.

You shall see only a fraction of them, still on an angle, still can't see them all. and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there. And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Piskah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Now, you should be asking yourself, why does it keep mentioning that he only sees a fraction of him? Why does it even matter? Only sees a little bit, only sees a portion of them on each of these. Then Balaam, for the second time. States an oracle.

And it comes out as a blessing. It doesn't come out as a curse. And Balak again, that's not what we hired you for. Why do you keep doing this? Knock it off.

Let's try number three.

So, number three, they go up to Beth Baal. Pure. Beth Baal Peor. And I want to think for a second and give you a little bit about this location a little bit because there's going to be two oracles from here, and you guessed it. The same thing's going to happen.

In verse 3 and 4, so to speak, of these oracles, as happened in verse 1 and 2. That is, he gets to Oracle three and four, and he is unable. to curse them, he can only bless them. And Balak has wasted his funds. Balak ends up being depleted and dis and ultimately dejected.

Because what he wanted this man to do, he was unable to do because God would not permit him to do so.

Now here's another map. If you look, the plains of Moab. You can see on this map right here. It says the valley of Shatim. I don't know if you make it out, but right over here it says Beth Peor.

So, topographically, you can see it kind of goes right down. They're in the plains here, and then it starts heading up. There's Jericho, the city of palms over here, and you got Jerusalem over here.

Now, I want you to remember this map. I want you to remember it. It's important.

Okay.

So Numbers two. One through three. Let me sh let me let me just zip back. Keep in mind Where are they now? They're up here at Beth Pior.

They're looking down and here they are camped.

Okay.

Now look. In Chapter 20. Three Verse twenty-seven. And Balak said to Balaam, Come now, I'll take you to another place.

So this is the move up to Beth Pior. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.

So Balak took Balaam to the top of Beth Peor, which overlooks the desert. And Balaam said to Balak, Build for me your seven altars. Prepare for me your seven bulls, seven rams. He's doing the same thing again. And Balak did as Balaam had said and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. And this is a key verse. And Balaam lifted up his eyes. He looks out. He's looking out across this valley.

And saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. Up until then, what has he seen? Fractions. Fractions, a little bit of them, not anymore.

Now he is on an angle that he looks down and he sees them camping tribe by tribe. What does that even mean that they would camp tribe by tribe? You go back to the early portion of Numbers. And we read, The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, The people of Israel shall camp each by his own standard with the banners of their fathers' houses. They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side.

Those to camp on the east side toward the sunrise shall be of the standard of the camp of Judah by their companies. The chief of the people of Judah being Nashon the son of Aminadab.

So, what's that mean? Imagine you have a tabernacle in the middle. Right, and you have this is facing east, so you have a tabernacle in the middle, and you have Judah. Set up to the east. You have a couple of other tribes that sit there with them.

And Judah is sort of the head tribe of these tribes in the way that they're labeled. And you have Judah on the east, and then you have tribes on the north, tribes on the west, and tribes on the south.

Now that means on our map, they're the ones that are pushed to the east up against the mountains. The narrative is giving us these details for a reason.

Okay.

So now This is a picture. from standing on top Yeah. Baal Pior of Beth Pior or Baal Pior.

Now it's hazy when we were there, so it's difficult to know to see some of it, but If you were to look over here. That's the top of the Dead Sea right there. That's the north edge of the Dead Sea. This is where Shatim is located right up there. And that's where we were standing when I took that picture that looked further east out across to Jericho.

And here we are up in this desert plain. place. Literally right after this, I turned around, walked back, and got a picture with a Bedouin shepherd. that were out there with us. And you're looking out and what you need to understand then.

Is that right down here? Right? is where Judah Right up against these foothills is encamped and here where we're looking out. Stands Balaam. And Balaam It's about To give a fourth oracle, his final oracle.

He gives a third, it's a blessing, and he gives a fourth. And here's the fourth oracle. And he took Up his discourse and said, The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is opened. The oracle of him who hears the words of God and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down with his eyes uncovered. And then what does he say?

He looks out. Just like you're looking out right here. And he sees them camped, and he sees there's the people camped down below him. Is Judah? Whether Balaam is aware of that, probably not.

But that's who's there. And he says, I see him.

Well, that's weird. Who's a him is an individual? A hymn is not a nation. I see him. But not now.

What does that mean? I behold him. But not near. A star shall come out of Jacob. And a scepter shall rise out of Israel.

It shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth. I look out. He says, and I'm standing here and I see. Him. But not now.

What am I talking about now? I'm talking about a different time. Um Behold I behold him. But not near, not in proximity to this time. Right?

So what we need to do Is think, what's the significance in the ancient world of him saying that? What would that matter at all? A star. In the ancient Near East. Look at Amos 5, 26 up on your screen.

You shall take up Sykoth your king. And Keon, your star god. Your images that you made for yourselves.

Now, this is significant because. of a couple of pieces. You saw a star. and a scepter. in what I read to you, right?

Here you see the mention of a king, and you see a star. God. All right. What does that even mean?

Well... Let me give you a little insight. If you were to go into the ancient world, And you get with the earliest writing, just about that we know of with the Sumerians. was the symbol that the Sumerians had for God. The symbol that they used was a star.

In fact, there's an ancient people. Right around the same time as Balaam's. prophecy which was about the middle of the 15th century BC. And in the 16th to 18th century BC, there's the Mitanni. People who were at the northern end of the Euphrates, kind of the north part of the Fertile Crescent in the Mideast.

Or the Near East. And we've discovered what's called a cylinder seal. And a cylinder seal is, if you look on the left side here, there's this cylinder, a round thing, and they would take, lay out wet clay, and they take that cylinder and they would roll it across the wet clay. And the image that's on the cylinder would then show up on the wet clay.

So what's on your right is the image On the wet clay, of what the cylinder produced when it rolled, and what's in the middle of it. It's two people, and what's in the middle? is the Sumerian symbol For a star that they are divining. They are worshiping. They are elevating.

And it's this idea that they're before the God The star.

So when Balaam makes this prophecy. He's making it into a world that is in the ancient Near East identifying the symbol of a star with God, and he says, I see it. Not now. I behold him, not near, a star. and a scepter.

A star and a scepter. that will come out of Jacob. And then this plays itself down throughout cultures. I mean You Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Mars, why are stars and their names associated with gods in the Roman and Greek context? Because this is the thought in the ancient world.

So, what you need to understand is in the ancient world, in an ancient revelation, a star. Was seen as a symbol of divinity. And so when Balaam makes this prophecy, he's looking down and he sees something that is culturally in that context identified with divinity. The star and scepter get related even in your Bible. There's a taunt that's given in the prophets to a king of Babylon in Isaiah 14.

And actually, it mentions the scepter in verse 5 of 14 as a symbol of the strength of the king. And in verse 12 of chapter 14, it says, How are you fallen from heaven, O day star, son of dawn? How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations. Lo. Many think this is a reference to Satan sitting behind the king of Babylon, but there certainly is an immediate reference to the king of Babylon who is seen as a king and is seen as one who in the ancient world often kings were trying to divinize themselves in different ways.

And then we even come to the tail end of our own New Testament. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things. For the churches, I am the root and the descendant of David, a king. The bright and morning. Star, kingship.

Scepter and star find a convergence in the text. Where else do they find a convergence?

Well, I think you know because we read the story, right? In the fulfillment of this, so take your Bibles and turn to Matthew 2. And we're not going to go through this whole text in detail at all. I just want you to see the culminating fulfillment. And then later on in our Christmas Eve service, I'm going to touch on a couple of other things in this passage.

But for now, what I want you to do is look in verse 1 of Matthew chapter 2. Verse 1 of Matthew 2.

Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the house of bread. of Judea in the days of Herod the king. And you should note, Herod's a bad dude.

So bad, he's a a paph Edomite, which means if you've ever seen pictures of or are familiar with Petra. which is the famous, one of the wonders of the world, that's in the land of what would have been Edom. And the descendants of Esau. But that gives you an idea of this rocky sort of, it's sort of red rocky kind of territory that he comes from. And he ends up marrying into the Hasmonean clan, and that launches the end of the Hasmonean dynasty and the launching of the Herodian dynasty.

And he is king from about 37 BC to 4 BC.

Now, there were screwed-up dating methods when they were trying to date the birth of Jesus. Jesus was probably born sometime around 5 or so BC, right towards the end of Herod's reign.

Okay, so when we think BC to AD, Jesus was, Christ was born before Christ. How about that?

So you should note that in our dating methods, that's why he dies probably sometime around 27, 28, maybe 29 AD.

So Herod is king. He's such a bad guy that he took a bunch of prisoners. put them in jail, put them in prison.

So that when he died, they would be killed and slaughtered because he knew nobody would mourn for him, but he wanted people mourning on the day of his death.

So This guy In the days of Herod it says, Behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, the Magi.

Now, we don't know a lot about them, but we can look at the way the term is used, and we can also. look into the ancient world to understand certain things about how um people and classes in society and different roles functioned. And we can piece together that the Magi were likely, in that way, wise men who were sought for counsel. But who majored in astrology/slash astronomy because they were the same discipline? back in that day.

Today they're two different disciplines, right? Astronomers don't open the horoscope page.

Okay, don't open the horoscope page and say I'm doing astronomy N no, you do that in a telescope. All right. One is the scientific study of the stars. And planetary movements and so forth. The other is: uh-oh, you act that way because you were born in February.

You're an Aquarius. Right? Kind of silly stuff, in my view. But in the ancient world, you have the stars that are, from their perception, dictating key aspects, speaking in, in a sense, right? They're divinized and symbolically speaking.

So for them to see a star. is the kind of thing that they'd go, oh, something's happening here.

Something's going on. Wise men from the East. Came Jerusalem.

Now Remember. We saw That proclamation was made right here. Beth Baal Peor, right? That's where he stood. This road right here Where it's dotted.

Rabah is modern-day Amman, Jordan. This road is called the King's Highway.

Now these Magi came from one of two places, and I don't know which one it was. They either, in a more traditional view, came from what was ancient Persia, Babylon area, think. Far eastern Iraq, western Iran.

Okay, almost on a line, straight. east from where this is.

Now, that fits in one sense because we know that the Persians had a historical culture where people like Magi were present and so forth and sought for counsel and the like.

So it might be the case. But there's another view that they may have come from down south. If you take the King's Highway all the way down, it ends in an area where modern-day Aqaba is at the top of the Red Sea. And if you go immediately east, you go into the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. And if you go all the way to South Arabia, you find certain things that come from South Arabia.

It doesn't mean they couldn't be elsewhere by trade, but they come naturally from South Arabia. Do you know what two of them are? frankincense and myrrh. That come from South Arabia.

So if you look on a map They come from the east. What we don't know is, did they come from the southeast or did they come from the straight east? I don't know. I'm suspicious about Arabia because of the myrrh and the frankincense that they bring with them. Either way, to get there, it doesn't matter for our purposes because as they came, they'd be coming down this way.

Through Rabah or modern Amman, and then they would come right down the ridge, right probably in between. Nebo, pisca, and Beth Peor. Or they'd come up and then they would hang a Louie. And come right over, and they were heading toward Jerusalem. Why is that significant?

Because what you need to understand is as. Literally. As Balaam stands and looks out across there, and he says, I see him. But not now. I behold him, but he's not near.

A star. A scepter. He's looking right at the location. where the old road goes down the ridge. that the Magi would have walked.

On their way. to see the star that is right out there. It's staggering. And they come in verse 2. Saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him, scepter? King. Star. And we've come to worship him.

Now, Herod's going to use this in all kinds of manipulation. He doesn't want any part of it. You know the story. I'm going to actually stop there. I'll touch on this a little bit more this evening.

with Herod and the Magi. But for now, what I want you to see is literally in the exact location where the prophecy is uttered 1,500 years prior, in that exact spot, looking out across. What is it that is seen? A star What is it that is seen 1500 years later? A star.

It boggles the mind. that the orchestration of this Takes place in this way. I wanna show you one more detail so you don't think that this is a bunch of Christians looking back at the Old Testament and going, how do we make Jesus show up back there?

Okay.

I don't know if you've ever heard of something that took place in Jewish history after Jesus. But the the Jews had a series of revolts against the Romans. The third revolt that they had against the Romans found its height from 132 AD to 136 AD. And it was uh where the Roman ruler Hadrian oppressing them and it's called the bar kokba. Revolt, the Bar Kokhba revolt.

They've got these, the Jews at the time dug out caves and so forth. I've climbed in those caves, it's fascinating. But this bar cocoba revolt, now here's the thing, the guy that led it was a man named Simon Bar Kosaba. It wasn't Bar Kokba. His name was Simon Barkosiba.

But we call it the Bar Kokhba revolt. Do you know why? Because Simon Barcosaba one day was walking along. And a prominent rabbi named Rabbi Akiva saw him. And when he looked at him, he said, look.

It's Barkokma. Why'd you say that? because he was playing off of his last name Kosuba. And he used the Hebrew word for star. And he said, look, it's the sun of the star.

And do you know why he said that? Because He, along with a host of people in that revolt as Jews, were convinced that Simon Barcosebah was the Messiah. And what does that tell you? That tells you. That the Jewish expectation was that the fulfillment of the Numbers 24:17 prophecy.

would be the Messiah. This isn't a Christian retrofitting. This was the Hebrew expectation and understanding looking out from Numbers 24:17 and saying, That individual, him who is not now, him who is not near, 1,500 years prior, would be the Messiah. And that's. the one that the Magi knelt before and Herod attempted to kill.

The entire orchestration of God to bring about the inbreaking of His Son for you and for me.

So, when we worship today and as we exalt Him, and tomorrow, as you share your gifts and as you spend time together, remember. that a star was born in that sense. And a star was born in the sense that everything shifted, not in a genre like music, not in a genre, an activity like sports, but in every single thing that hinges in the history of the world. In over fifteen hundred years, a symbol was curated to cash out. to cash out.

sometime around five BC, Under a vitriolic ruler, Who would come and be a king? And he would be God, a scepter. and a star. for us to live under. for us to worship.

for us to give our lives for, who redeems us to himself. Father, I thank you for your word. And I pray that you would bless. Each one here, and as we celebrate this Christmas season, I just pray, Lord, that you would so work in our hearts and lives and Just help us as we seek to orchestrate the things of our lives. Uh order them.

in such a way to worship you, Lord. Order them under your lordship. Order them. By the revelation that you've brought forth in Jesus' name. Amen.