This concept of the “Consolation of Israel” comes in Luke 2:25 onwards, with the life of Simeon. I always seem to come back to this story, ever since a trip to Dundee in 1994. It was a turning point for me personally, in that God began to show an issue which this Scripture highlights. There is a issue which I think we need to depart from the Christmas “tradition” that is the “story” built up humanly and via points of view that do not follow faithfully the real true narrative.
The story that seems to undergird the expectant peoples who knew in their hearts that something was coming that was big, Luke highlighting 2 such people who were great influencers of their day, Simeon and Anna. These had groups all over Jerusalem. Their conviction was not just mental assent, but they had had an interaction with God that showed them clearly that God was about to birth something so great that all things would begin to change.
What many miss, is that the spiritual birthing of those great things preceded the natural birthing that would take place. This birthing would be part of a greater broader process: The Consolation of Israel. To understand this we need to examine how this would be birthed in particularly the two Luke mentions. The Lord began to show me that “Consolation” was a word that needed a true precise defining. What I had to examine were in particular 2 men whose name had the word “consolation” very much integrated in them, them being Noah and Nehemiah. Their lives are marked by the purposes God worked out in their trajectory, flood and destruction. You look at the meaning of their names, being “comfort” is the meaning, yet what we see is that comfort, consolation can only be manifest from tragedy. We saw in this series how tragedy marked the start of Anna’s 84 years in the Temple. It seems that God “allows” tragedy in our lives to accomplish a greater purpose. It is a difficult concept to accept, but how much tragedy comes to God’s people in the Bible. We just need to read the different movements of tragedy, and the Temple, in 2 Chronicles7 God spells out specific tragedies that the Temple could minister into in its prayer ministry. Sword, pestilence and famine, 3 main tragedies that Israel was no stranger to.
When we consider the tragedies of our own lives, loss, uncertainty, rumours of wars, wars, family instability we can certainly understand the connotation of those Biblical tragedies in the context of our own experience. Yet these losses, are “birth pangs” of a greater plan. The Consolation we need comes out of our spiritual process of what we perceive in our walk with God.
We have a choice, to look at bitter experiences with human eyes, or seek a heavenly perspective. God used a sterile womb to birth the Prophet, the greatest of the Old, and a Virgin womb to birth the Christ. One womb denied, one womb innocent. There is no birthing without pain. There is no pain that is vain, when God takes us through it.
When you consider that the Middle East is undergoing the most greatest changes, where terrorist states, groups are being defeated, and it seems that dictators are departing, like Assad from Syria, and it seems that the regime in Iran is collapsing, there is a sense of a new era in the nations. It seems all the nations that allowed the false narrative of what has been going on are undergoing turmoil, and this will continue. Then there are historical churches that hid sin in its ranks now being exposed. Changes come with great pain. The Christmas story is no stranger to this reality.
What pain are you feeling at this time? It is evident of the Consolation of Israel in our midst. This consolation is birthing what is spiritual and manifesting in the natural. This process has been going on for 2000 years. It culminates in the coming of Jesus again, His return FOR His people. What is the Consolation of Israel doing? We need to examine what it is then we will know in our day too.
Restoring Hope in Hopelessness
Israel was not a nation, truly after the Captivity, and for us to understand how this is negative we need to read how the faith in God and having a nation were connected. Being a province of a greater nation, empire, is humiliating. It indicates that restoration that God started in the Jews’ return was not completed. The Church has 2000 years been through many processes, but now with divisions and doctrinal errors, false teachers and prophets, we see a global Church going through much shaking, exposure, but all this is to prepare a pure Bride. Hope is what the Consolation of Israel shows us, God will glorify, purify and magnify both Israel and the Church to their former glories.
Restoring a people to God’s purpose
Christmas has turned for many a superficial feast and not a meaningful celebration with God. God has been substituted with carnal gratification and lives have lost true purpose in God that leads us into peace and joy. Just as the angels appeared in glory, so shall the return of the Lord be. Full of glory. God’s people is to found a celestial community based on King Jesus. This is what God is preparing now. Our celebration of Christmas foreshadows this.
My prayer is that the Consolation of Israel, which is raising up the true “prince” in the earth to prevail against men, and prevail with God. This can only happen when Jesus who returns to our hearts, for our hearts, with our hearts in fullness. Christmas is a forerunner of this and must be celebrated as such.
Christmas is about celebrating the baby King, the boy King, as the glorious king.
When you see the shepherds recognise the King in the baby, recognise the boy King with the wise men, baby King with Anna and Simeon, we learn that Christmas is about looking beyond the insignificance of the natural to see the significance of the supernatural. Only those so prepared could discern this reality. Jesus was born King of kings. Just need the right spirit to discern Him. Christmas can only truly be discerned beyond the natural celebrations, when we choose whether to involve ourselves, submerge ourselves in the worldly version, in that the Baby Jesus, cute how He is, is just that, the baby that requires nothing of us. The Consolation of Israel when it comes to us, can then come through us, so that this season can be celebrated in its true context.
Maranatha!
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