Driving to the airport yesterday I was listening to a commentator on an economic radio program give the dismal report on "Black Friday's" statistics. "Target was down 10%, while the average store reported sales 17-18% below last year's," he lamented. "However, Nordstrom was up 2% and Kohl's alone reached a 3% increase over last year. Can Kohl's save Christmas?"I am making the obvious assumption that this commentator's definition of Christmas is the commercial season between Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays when retailers hope to get their yearly profit margins in the black. It seems to have become the definition of Christmas for our nation. And so he asks, "CAN KOHL'S SAVE CHRISTMAS?"
Let's go a step further. Even if we are a people who don't define Christmas as a commercial retail phenomenon, how do we define it? And does our definition agree with Scripture and the ways YHVH defines it? Ask any child to define Christmas. Most will tell you, "It's when Santa comes and brings presents!" Why do parents lie to their children and tell them there is a magical, mystical man who flies through the universe and who rewards the good and punishes the bad? Why did I lie to my children and why did my parents lie to me? Santa, reindeer, sparkly trees, yule logs...it all seems so fun, so innocent. For many of us they were cherished family traditions. But look up the history of these traditions. Search an encyclopedia to see what a yule log was; and please read Jeremiah 10:3-4. Yeshua reminds us, "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." (Mark 7:8) It is hard to let go of traditions that were so much a part of our childhoods. But it is the pagan traditions that led to the lies of our forefathers and still profane the celebrations that Christians keep today.
December 25 was the birthday of Sol, the sun god - and so it was conveniently selected as the day to celebrate the Messiah's birth. The holy was mixed with the profane - and YHVH hates that! (See Ezekiel 44:23). What Scripture commands that we celebrate the day of His birth? What writer of the Gospels gives us the date and the way in which we are to keep this "feast"? Search it out! It is not there. If Yeshua had thought it important, He would have told us so. But He seems about as interested in a birthday party with presents and nativity pageants and decorated trees as He would be in the results of Kohls profit margin! That is because He continually tried to focus the people on His Kingdom. He is a King and a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek, who has no geneaology, no father or mother, no beginning and no end (Hebrews 7:3) "He is the image of the invisble God, the firstborn over all creation, for by Him all things were created" (Colossians 1:15). In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; He was with God in the beginning (John 1:1). He is the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). He is the same yesterday, today and forever! (Hebrews 13:8). He is called Emmanuel - which means "God with us." He was conceived in the womb of a Jewish woman during the feast of Hanukkah as His Light (like the oil of the light of the menorah) came into the world. He was born as a child at the Feast of Tabernacles (which means God dwells with us) and is returning again at the Feast of Tabernacles when He will establish His Kingdom reign forever. HalleluYah! How marvelously the feasts of the LORD fulfill all the prophecies about Him! "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1).
Can Kohl's save Christmas? Does Yeshua want it saved? Ask Him yourself. This year instead of us saying, "Oh well, He knows my heart" - let us earnestly seek to know His heart.
