’Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house…”

You have heard this phrase a thousand times over.

But have you ever wondered what the night before Christmas — the first Christmas — was really like?

In a figurative sense, what was the era like before Jesus came into the world?

Prior to the birth of Jesus, the Jewish people were under the heavy hand of Rome and the corrupt local leadership of King Herod.

They were disillusioned by their oppression, and their hope for the Messianic deliverer was crushed with every passing year.

It had been more than 400 years since the Jewish people had a word from the Lord, when one of the last prophets of the Bible, Micah, painted this bleak picture:

“You shall have night without vision, and you shall have darkness without divination; the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them… for there is no answer from God,” (Micah 3:6-7).

This was the portrait of the night before Christmas — national and spiritual darkness, and a pervading ignorance of God’s great purpose for his people.

But then, the light dawned.

The son of God came into the world.

In him was the light of life.

Jesus gave new life to all who believed in him — that he was the messiah.

Fast-forward 2,000 years to this Christmas.

The darkness of spiritual ignorance has once again obscured the light.

We vainly imagine that we can solve our problems politically and socially.

We have relegated the things of God to the bottom rung.

Thus a vast darkness has shrouded hearts from true light.

Many have sought after the pleasures and the affairs of this life, rather than seeking God.

They have turned to their own way, having sinned and fallen short of his glory.

Jesus, the light of the world, was born during and largely in response to such spiritual darkness.

Isaiah 9:2 puts it this way: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.”

Then as now, the coming of Jesus, the light of the world, can mean the end to your present darkness.

Realize that the source of all your trouble and spiritual darkness is sin, which has separated you from God.

In light of that, accept the challenge to examine who he was and what he did for you.

Let this night before Christmas be the last time you settle for spiritual darkness.

Read the Bible and explore the words of Christ.

He came, was born as a man — yet God — so he could die for our sin.

Welcome in the great light that has come into the world, your world, this night before Christmas.