Isaiah 44:6 Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.”
What were your first words? Baby talk can be really fun to decipher. The gurgles, the mumbles, the coos all mean something to someone. Momma hears “momma” and Daddy hears “momma.” All of the language development takes place so quickly and if you happen to teach your baby sign language, it takes place even faster. Whatever your first words were back then, they meant something to someone.
At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. God, the creator of the universe, the King of Israel, was born as a little baby. What do you think his first words were? The words recorded by the prophet Isaiah may not have been Jesus’ first words, but they sure would fit. “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.”
“I am the first…” Jesus was the first born Son of God, the only begotten Son of God. God had never come to His people in human skin. He was the first because he had been around since before people were created. He was first because he was before everyone else. Now, he was the first and he would be the last.
“I am the last…” God would never again come in this same way. He would never again show up in human skin in the form of a baby. He would finish what God had begun so long ago, the redemption of mankind. His birth, life, and death on the cross would be the final chapter in the salvation story, until He comes again in glory.
“Besides me there is no god.” All of the other “gods” of this world amount to nothing. There is no other god except the Our God, the LORD. No one else can give us what God can give us. Nothing else can offer forgiveness, life and salvation. Jesus, the baby born in Bethlehem, is the true gift of Christmas.
I’m pretty sure that the infant Jesus did not come out able to speak in clear and loud terms about who he was. His first words were probably in Aramaic, though I don’t think gurgling takes any particular language. But His Father speaks for Him, through the prophet Isaiah in no uncertain terms about who He is.
May you always know with confidence who God is, was and always will be. Jesus, the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, a baby born in Bethlehem, our Redeemer crucified and risen.
Merry Christmas.
Thank you for Christmas, Heavenly Father. Amen.
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