Many of us have never felt the desperation of war happening in our backyard, and we definitely wouldn’t connect it to Christmas. However, this entire passage focuses around God’s deliverance of His people from war and oppression. For hundreds of years before and after this was written (and even to this day), the Jewish people are intimately familiar with the desperation of war. It is because of their intimate familiarity with being worn down, under siege, and desperate for help, that they were looking for a Messiah to rescue them. Yet, when Jesus showed up, it didn’t look like anything anyone expected. The Messiah came to be a shepherd, born into one of the smallest families in Judah, born to nobody parents, born in a manger, born without an earthly kingdom. How was this baby going to protect Israel, become their ruler, and bring peace to the land? After all, “…can anything good come out of Nazareth (Jn.1:46)?” When the Jewish people read this passage, their version of events involved immediate rescue from physical oppression. They focused on their physical needs and completely missed their greater spiritual need. Perhaps, we judge their lack of response to the Messiah and wonder how they missed Him. Yet, how often in our lives, whether we are facing illness, death, grief, family and relationship struggles, loneliness, or life just not going how we planned, do we feel the desperation of being under siege? Micah 60
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