Last week, in “In the Doing: Christmas Lessons From the Prophets, Part 1”, we saw that not only are actions vital in our faith, but God, Himself followed this model! When sin came into the earth, He did something! He sent Jesus!
Today’s Christmas lesson comes from the book of Zechariah.
The prophet Zechariah prophesied to the people of Israel who were returning from the Babylonian captivity. His book is full of obscure visions, each with important messages for the people. And here is where we find this beautiful message of Christmas: “Then I raised my eyes again and looked, and behold, there was a flying scroll. And he said to me, ‘What do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.’ Then he said to me, ‘This is the curse that is going forth over the face of the entire land; everyone who steals certainly will be purged away according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears falsely will be purged away according to the writing on the other side. I will make it go forth,’ declares the Lord of armies, ‘and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name; and it will spend the night within that house and destroy it with its timber and stones.’” (Zechariah 5:1-4 NASB)
Not the passage you generally see attached to the Christmas message, is it?
Notice, however, that this scroll represents a curse that is to be on anyone who steals and on anyone who swears falsely.
Truthfulness is vital to God. Multiple times in the Bible we are encouraged to keep our vows. We are told that breaking our vows has grave consequences: “When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow!” (Eccl. 5:4 NASB) and that we must be careful when we make vows in order to ensure we can keep them: “It is better that you not vow, than vow and not pay.” (Eccl. 5:5 NASB). The devil, on the other hand, doesn’t keep his vows: “the devil…was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44 NASB)!
Digging in a bit further into the theft part of the vision, we know that besides the fact that it’s a grave sin to steal, the devil is a thief: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…” (John 10:10a NASB). I’m pretty sure we’ve all experienced how the devil steals our time, our finances, our health, our help, our vision. In addition to this, however, he has stolen our Salvation and our ability to live forever, the way we were created to live. Here, in this obscure few verses of a strange vision given to the prophet Zechariah, we see the reason for Christ’s birth: To return what the devil has stolen from us: “I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10b NASB)! And even more than that, to put a curse on the devil so that he no longer has any power over us, for: “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil…” (Hebrews 2:14 NASB. See also Revelation 20:10)!
We also see in this verse the reason Jesus came to this Earth that first Christmas! To put a curse on the devil so that the deception and the theft could be stopped once and for all!
One more thought to take away: While the devil is a liar and doesn’t keep his word, God keeps His! When it was the right time, God remembered the multiple promises of redemption He had made to His people: “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters.” (Galatians 4:4-5 NASB)!
And that, my friends, is a Christmas message worth meditating upon! And I encourage you to do just that as Christmas 2025 draws near: God kept His promise of redemption on that first Christmas. He sent Jesus to erase the curse of sin, to defeat the devil and do away with his theft and his lies forever!
Please join us next week for one more Christmas lesson from the prophets: In the Humility: Christmas Lessons From the Prophets, Part 3.
In His love,
Lyn
Lynona Gordon Chaffart
Author, Moderator, Acting Director, Answers2Prayer Ministries
(To access the entire, “Christmas Lessons From the Prophets”, please click here.)
