“For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren…” (Hebrews 2: 16, 17).
While preparing for a Christmas-themed lesson, this one word, from the text above, stood out: behoved. “…it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren.”
Behoved, as it’s used here, is synonymous with necessary, required, and appropriately fitting.
It was necessary for God’s son, called Jesus and titled Christ, to be made like unto his brethren. He had to come in the flesh, as the son of man. It was necessary that he himself (note the emphatic pronoun use of Hebrew 2:14—also himself) become a partaker of flesh and blood: to die, and consequently destroy (theworks of the devil), and then deliver. This is the genuine Christmas theme: “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim . 3:16).
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Merry Christmas.