Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

	The Old Testament closes with the Messianic prophesy of the coming of the Lord. The way would be prepared, the path would be established and the Lord would come unto the temple of humanity to save and to redeem. The Lord God did in no-wise hide the coming of the Messiah, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Every avenue, every prophecy was written and taught within the synagogues of the people of God. They were constantly anxious for the appearance of the Chosen One, and yet, when John the Baptist proclaimed the coming of Jesus of Nazareth. And when the every letter of the Scripture was fulfilled in the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, almost two thousand years ago, the Children of Israel, God’s chosen nation, those who were awaiting and expecting the Messiah, preferred rather to disavow Christ, and rejected the One Who is the very essence of God.
	The entire world order was watching and waiting for the Promised One of Israel, not with expectation, but rather with fear and dread. The birth of Christ, the very Son of God would accomplish all that God intended from the Great Council of the Ages Before Eternity, the full relatedness of man in Christ with God, Heart to heart and Spirit to spirit. That relatedness will forever bring to an end the bondage of God’s creation to the powers of this corrupted world order.
	So powerful and so afraid was the power of this realm, as we are informed in the Second Chapter of Matthew, that even King Herod of the Jews, of the Children of Israel was influenced to genicide. He was in such fear of losing his earthly kingdom, that he ordered the massacre of all the children, two years of age and younger in the vicinity of Bethlehem. He was willing to kill off an entire population of his own people, whom he should have been shepherding, rather than to face the prospect that the Messiah, the King of kings, and Lord of lords would be born in his life-time. 
	Christ’s birth was met with an immediate response from this realm, yearning for the blood of the Christ, before the appointed hour. Every effort was made by this realm to preempt the plan and the purpose of God to establish that which would bring creation and Creator into a relationship far beyond the limited imaginations of any of the created beings. Only God could plan and purpose and bring to fruition such an all-encompassing and thoroughly comprehensive course of action that would eternally establish such a marvel and miracle of Life in Christ Jesus Our Lord and Savior. All the angelic beings, with their intimate relationship with God, do but stand in awe with wonder as God’s plan is being revealed in the lives of those who have accepted Christ; in the lives of those who have been brought, by the Holy Spirit into the very family of the Most Holy, and Most Omnipotent, and Omniscient and Omnipresent Triune God. Soon, and we pray with increasing fervor, all the more sooner, all of creation will be witnesses to the revealed plan and purpose of God in Christ Jesus, and will have to bow down before Him and acknowledge His Rightful Lordship over all the realms of creation, physical and spiritual. 
	This is what the powers of this realm tried to prevent, when the birth of Christ was announced. This is why the very Children of Israel, as a nation, lost in its desire after this world, rather than in the desire after God, failed to recognize the Messiah. The world knew that its very core of power and influence was at stake if Christ fulfilled the Word of God. The truth, however, was that the world never recognized the fact that God, as recorded by the Apostle John ...so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God’s intent went far beyond an idea of struggling to recover a lost possession. There was no retaliation in the heart of God toward this realm for the wrong it had committed. Rather, God chose to love the world, to love you and me, to love our neighbors, our friends and our enemies. He chose rather to seek the lost and to comfort the afflicted, to heal the diseased and to save the doomed. To that perfect expression of Agape, God sent forth His Word, to accomplish that which could alone satisfy His heart in all of creation. Again, the Apostle John tells us in the first Chapter of his Gospel, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
	The darkness that shrouded this realm could not understand the great Love of God with a purpose beyond self-serving ambitions. It will never be able to realize how the very Son of God could lay aside His Godhood, that which the enemy, the Prince of Darkness has so utterly desired and instilled into the heart of unregenerate mankind. And it will never comprehend how the Word would take upon Himself human flesh, even in the form of a baby born to a virgin, in the humblest of births in a stable, in order to express, in fullness, the complete heart of God to man. The world power will never be able to fathom such an immense love. This age’s focus is securely centered on self and especially on self-preservation. As such, it will always be confined to a delusion of an importance that it will never attain.
	Christ, in emptying Himself of all equality with God, chose rather to serve than to be served. In that fragile state of self-sacrifice in order to please the Heart of God, He was born into this world, sinless and pure in the hour appointed. It was heralded by the angelic hosts, and witnessed unto by heavenly beings. The star that shone attracted the wisemen, those who were open to the plan of God. They came with gifts to honor Him, signifying His place as the True King of kings. They worshipped Him, and blessed Him with their hearts. As recorded in Matthew 2:10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. 
	The world knew Him not, but those whose hearts were after God sought after Christ, the Messiah, the True and Present King. The angelic hosts proclaimed Him unto the learned, those wisemen who then sought after Him. The heavenly messengers hearkened unto the humble, those shepherds tending their flock by night. The angels brought forth the message of the Lord, born in Bethlehem, and the herders went forth to see such a marvelous thing. They were in desperate need of one to guide them and to keep them. They were willing to travel far in order to seek after that which was told to them by the divine hosts of heaven. These are the compilation of those for whom Christ was sent forth to redeem. At His birth, the great of this world and the poor of this world were brought together in the equality of the need to find Christ. It matters not whether we are rich or poor, whether we are learned or of simple knowledge, of great standing or insignificant in this world order, each and every one of us must come to the place of seeking after Jesus Christ as our Savior, as our Lord, as our King. There is no other way of salvation. There is no other form of right-standing with God. Christ is the only way! The Christ-child, born so long ago, was born for you and for me, as the only means whereby God could and did perfectly accomplish that which would express the full measure of His Being of Love into each one of us.
	This world, with all its distractions, still vainly attempts to overshadow the plan and purpose of God in Christ, by maligning and distorting the name and the design of God in Christ. It will freely acknowledge Christ as a good man, as a teacher, as a major figure in the development of the history of mankind. But, in self-preservation, it utterly rejects the truth that Jesus Christ is the Word of God incarnate, Who brings each person who accepts Him as Savior, into a living relationship with God. To do so, to recognize the full impact of God in the giving of His only Begotten Son, is to concede the need for God, for the Salvation of God, for the Lordship of God, and for the expressed Love of God, all in the person of Jesus Christ.
	It is the person of Jesus Christ, in Whom we delight this day and every day of our lives. It is Him and Him only, Who is the Word of God, sent forth from the throne on high to call and to redeem those who will respond to the Word. We know that God’s Word does not and never will return void unto Him. That is the reality of Christ! He came to redeem, and in Him we have received far greater than what could ever be imagined by man, or by angelic hosts, both now and evermore.
 
Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.