God has been pleased, from time to time, to send His word to man by the ministry of His angels. True, the words first heard by man in Paradise were spoken by an angel fallen from his high estate. Dark and lying was his utterance, yet man refused it not, and so it is that, from that day till now, the human heart has learned—oh! how bitterly—the misery of untruth and darkness. It was to the serpent, the fallen angel, that Jehovah spoke the good news of blessing to fallen man. The woman’s seed “shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Gen. 3:1515And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)) And in his weakness, and subject to death, man heard Jehovah’s words, and those who believed the good news, took God’s side against Satan and themselves.
As centuries rolled by, Satan-spread falsehood as to God increased, and demon-worship reigned over the greater part of the earth. Evil grew greater, darkness denser: man listened to the voices from hell. Satan played with man’s intellect: learned heathen in their devotions reared their altar to “the unknown God.” Man by wisdom knew not God. The religious Jew in his departure from God substituted ceremonies and observances for dealing with God Himself. The reality of God’s presence was known but to a small remnant upon the earth. Thus terribly had the power of falsehood triumphed, and man in his weakness had become the slave of darkness.
Then it was that were heard on earth voices from heaven! But not such as those recorded in the Old Testament—not such as the angels sent from heaven brought to worldly Lot in guilty Sodom, “Up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city” —nor such a voice as that with which Jehovah answered Moses, when Sinai shook with thunders, and all the people of Israel trembled. No: far different for THE GLAD CHORUS of heaven-sent angels was heard proclaiming glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and God’s good pleasure in men! The natural darkness, which night wraps about the earth, was dispelled by the shining of the glory of Jehovah. This the humble shepherds of Bethlehem saw, and were sore afraid, for the sight of Jehovah’s holy messenger and His light made them tremble. But the angel said, “Fear not; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord.”
The bright messenger from heaven gave his message lovingly to man: “FEAR NOT,” said he. Thus, when the blessed Babe was born, the very first heaven-sent words to man were calming and assuring: “Fear not.” How often did the Saviour, who was born that day, utter them, when a Man amongst men! And afterward when seen in His glory by John, who at the sight of Him fell as dead at His feet, still once more Jesus said, “Fear not.”
These words from heaven are in the records of the New Testament, bound up with the ways of the Saviour towards men—records which unfold to us the Person of the Son of God, who came from heaven to tell us of the Father. “Fear not,” anxious heart; “Fear not,” troubled soul. There is heavenly music in the angel’s words for poor, sin-stricken, dying man—music so sweet, so clear, that the heart rejoices. “Fear not,” for Jesus has entered this world, and He is a Saviour.
“I bring you GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY,”
the angel said, speaking from out of “the glory of the Lord,” that night. What a joy it must have been to this heavenly messenger to bear such news to man! The angel had no mysterious words to utter such as had he who was withstood twenty and one days on his way to Daniel with the message of times and seasons to be accomplished upon this earth. (Dan. 10) Satan had not power for one moment in holding back the good tidings spoken from the glory of Jehovah, of the Babe born in David’s royal city. From that bright, shining glory issued the cheering words, “....Good tidings of great joy.” How sweet are they for weary and longing souls!
Dear reader, how does your heart concern itself with the great fact that a Saviour has been born? Is it tidings of great joy to you? Perhaps you hardly estimate the misery of what sin has wrought, even in your own case? It may be you are indifferent to its consequences even in your own person! The angel had seen the working out upon this earth of the woe of sin for some four thousand years, seen it in individual cases, seen it in the history of nations, and not on earth only, but in what is to us the unseen world, and in the places where the spirits of men go after death, and his voice attuned to God’s thoughts, uttered the heart of God to man, when he said, “good tidings of great joy.” And many a child of Adam has echoed his words, for Jesus is a Saviour for poor dying man for time and for eternity, and gives great joy on earth, and greater joy in heaven, and when we have Him near us, then heaven has begun for us.
“And this shall be A SIGN UNTO YOU,”
the angel said, “ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” The royal Babe was born an outcast from men. There was no room for Jesus in the inn. Even the common shelter of the wayfarer was denied the woman’s seed. He was despised and rejected of men from His entrance into this world until His exit from it, from the manger to the cross! And this was to be the sign by which to recognize the Babe of whom the angel spake. Strange direction given by the heavenly messenger, swift from the shining courts of glory above, to proud man. And so it is on this day, if you would find Jesus, you must take the angel’s directions to do so, and look for One whom man rejects, whom man despises, for whom man has still no room. He is still outside the wayfarer’s resting place, and thither must you go to find Him. Who else save the Lord was to be cast out from His very birth, and being cast out and rejected, to be the peace and the center of happiness of all who come to Him!
Have you sought Him? Have you looked for Him? Has your heart inquired diligently after Jesus? You shall not seek in vain. Seek and ye shall find. Have you found Him? Who is like Him, whom man despises and rejects? Ah! poor troubled heart, having found, the Lord, you shall re-echo the angel’s voice from heaven, and repeat to your fellow men, as those only can do who know Jesus, “I bring you good tidings of great joy.”
The shepherds having been told, who the Babe born that day was, and the sign having been given to them as to how they should distinguish Him from all other babes in Bethlehem, suddenly the glory of heaven answered the indifference of men—a multitude of heavenly voices broke forth in chorus, praising God, and saying,
“GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
Now what man on earth shall ever measure the full meaning of the first words of this loud acclaim, “Glory to God in the highest”? We read that “The heavens declare the glory of God”; yes, we know that even the humble daisy beneath our feet proclaims His praise as Creator; but this marvel of divine wisdom and grace—the eternal Son emptying Himself, and laying aside His honors in heaven, and assuming the form of a servant, not an angel-servant, but a man—exceeds the glories of creation, and unless we are taught by God the Spirit, is to us incomprehensible.
No glory of God is like that which issues from the person of His Son, once humbled upon this earth. In its fullness, and in a day yet to come, the wide universe shall be filled with the glory which issues from Jesus, become a man, having suffered in the body prepared for Him, and having died to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. The mighty angels, the creatures God made, beheld the weak Babe in the manger, and instructed by divine wisdom, proclaimed over Him, “Glory to God in the highest.” How paltry is short-lived human infidelity in the presence of the words of these beings who saw the earth’s foundation laid!
First and foremost the thought of the creature should be, Glory to God in the highest. Strange that these servants of Jehovah, who excel in strength, should speak thus to many human hearts in vain! “Glory to God in the highest!” ah proud man, creature of a day, this is not earth’s chorus. Glory to man, is earth’s gospel; but he who would hear heaven’s good tidings of great joy, must learn as his first article of faith, Glory to God, and God’s highest glory is the Babe of Bethlehem, now the exalted Man at the right hand of Divine Majesty in heaven.
From the shining glory of Jehovah that night, these sweet words, distilled as the dew, fell upon this weary world—
“ON EARTH PEACE.”
On earth peace! How so? Yes, ask the question in reply to heaven’s greeting, and answer it, Jesus is here. Yet let us inquire as those who desire it, Where is peace on earth? Where the Saviour dwells, where Jesus is. In that heart, in that home where Christ the Lord is welcome. Not in those hearts which are full of strangers, like the inn of Bethlehem.
As the multitude of the heavenly host looked down upon the shepherds of Bethlehem, they could but have recalled to mind strange scenes of earth’s sin and sorrow and strife. How that centuries before some of them had visited Sodom, and witnessed it corruption and its doom of fire. How that some of them had stood round about Elisha in fiery chariots, when the iron chariots of the Syrians compassed Samaria. How that the pride and strength of Sennacherib, one hundred and fourscore and five thousand had perished in a night in Isaiah’s days.
But now since the Holy Babe was born the mind of God was expressed by the heavenly host in sweet chorus, and in these words, “Peace on earth.”
Yet more wonderful, still, if possible, were the last words of these voices from heaven
“GOODWILL TOWARD MEN,”
it good pleasure in men. There is something very beautiful in this, and especially as uttered by the angels. For God’s good pleasure is not in angels; He taketh not hold of angels, but on the seed of Abraham He taketh hold. The fallen angels are left in their fall, but fallen man is visited by a saviour, by the Son of God in human form I cow what shall our hearts say in response to these voices from heaven? God has pleasure in us. Sinful creatures, and creatures of a lay as we are, He loves us. He loves man. He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).) The Father sent the Son, the Saviour of the world. (1 John 4:99In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. (1 John 4:9).) Have you yourself laid hold of this reality? Have you, as a poor guilty child of Adam, a worm of this earth, asked yourself the question, “What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?” (Psa. 8:44What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Psalm 8:4)), and answered it by these words, “He gave His only begotten Son.” Is the heart overwhelmed by this love? Why should God have pleasure in man? There is but one reply, Because He is God, He is love.
Would that each of our readers might numbly take the love into his or her own bosom, and cry, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.”
H. F. W.