"...9 months later...baby #1" - Luke 1:57-80
This is my view from upfront. It is a " sea " of green. Maybe it is a reminder that it will look this way outside after the long hard winter. All the Christmas decorations are down but we are not through our detailed account of the 1st coming of Christ. We will probably finish up sometime in February after we return from our vacation. I have found that real life applications show up in the unfolding of the true events of Christmas. This passage is no exception. We come face to face that what God said came to be both in the form of near and far prophecy. The far prophecy was His words through the prophet Malachi 400 years prior to the Israelites that a messenger would come before the coming Messiah. The near prophecy was His words through the angel Gabriel 9 months prior to Zechariah that the son born to Elizabeth was that messenger. It is this example along with many others in the pages of the Bible gives us ...