Every December, Christians around the world celebrate the birth of the Messiah with joy, lights, carols, and festive traditions. Amid the holiday celebrations, it is important to remember that Christmas is a profoundly Jewish story. The incarnation did not occur in a theological vacuum; God did not enter history apart from a people (Israel), a covenant, and a story already unfolding for centuries.
Jesus Was Born into a Jewish World
Jesus was born to Jewish parents, circumcised on the eighth day according to the law (Luke 2:21), presented at the Temple (Luke 2:22–24), and raised in a home shaped by the Jewish Scriptures. He learned the Jewish prayers, observed the feasts of Israel, and worshiped at the Temple.1
When angels announced His coming, they proclaimed the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his descendants, including King David and the prophets of Israel. The angel who appeared to Miriam (Mary), Jesus’s mother, said to her:
Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end. (Luke 1:30–33)
The angel who announced Jesus’s birth to the shepherds said:
Behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. (Luke 2:10–12)
The promise God made long ago through his holy prophets to send the Messiah had finally come to fruition. Jesus was finally here.
Christmas and God’s Faithfulness
Christmas reminds us of God’s faithfulness. The birth of Jesus testifies that God keeps His promises, even when centuries pass and hope appears delayed. The incarnation—God taking on human form in the person of Jesus—is a guarantee that just as He fulfilled His promise through the Jewish prophets to send the Messiah, He will likewise keep His future promises. At Alliance for the Peace of Jerusalem, we affirm that God is faithful, unchanging, and keeps His covenants with and promises to Israel, which benefit all nations (Numbers 23:19; Lamentations 3:22–23; Deuteronomy 7:8-9; Romans 4:21; Romans 11:29; 2 Timothy 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 5:24; Hebrews 13:8; Revelation 1:8).2
God promised through the prophet Micah that the ruler of Israel would come from Bethlehem, yet be from eternity: “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2). This seeming contradiction—one who is born yet also comes from eternity—finds its explanation in the person of Jesus. Though He is God and existed for eternity, He humbled Himself to be born as a baby in a manger (Philippians 2:7).
The prophet Jeremiah promised that the coming King of Israel would be a righteous branch from David’s line:
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, “The Lord our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:5–6).
In the broader context of this prophecy, God was rebuking Judah’s kings for their failed leadership. He promised a righteous king from David’s line would soon come. This promise finds its fulfillment in the incarnation. Jesus, who came from David’s line (Matthew 1:1), was Israel’s righteous king. Furthermore, this king would bear the Lord’s name. Jeremiah’s mentioning of “the Lord our Righteousness” is the only time in all the Hebrew Scriptures where the name of the Lord (the tetragrammaton, or Adonai) is applied to a human being. Unlike Judah’s failed human kings, the Messiah-king would be righteous because of his divine nature, though He also had a human nature.
God also promised through the prophet Isaiah that the child born to Israel would be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, [and] Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). The titles “Mighty God” and “Eternal Father” are reserved for God alone. Isaiah was prophesying of the unique human and divine nature of the coming Messiah.
Isaiah also prophesied that Messiah would serve as a light to the Gentile nations, bringing them salvation:
It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth. (Isaiah 49:6)
It is in the name of Jesus that believers throughout the world now know and worship the one true God, the God of Israel.
Christmas reminds us that God does not abandon His promises. He kept His promise to Israel to send the Messiah, and He will keep His promise of Messiah’s return.
The Prince of Shalom
The most common greeting in Israel is “Shalom.” Isaiah used this Hebrew word, shalom, when He called the coming Messiah, Jesus, the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). The Hebrew word shalom means completeness, soundness, welfare, and peace.3 The term connotes not merely the absence of conflict, but the presence of wholeness, justice, and restored relationship.
At His first coming, Jesus, the Prince of peace, restored humanity’s relationship and peace with God, bringing forgiveness of sin. At His Second Coming, He will bring peace to Jerusalem and the entire world. Therefore, when we “pray for the peace of Jerusalem,” as Psalm 122:6 commands us, we are praying for the return of the Prince of Peace, Jesus the Messiah to Jerusalem. We look forward to this glorious day!
by Jennifer Miles
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1 To read more about the Jewishness of Jesus, check out our article, “Jesus is Jewish.”
2 “Statement,” Alliance for the Peace of Jerusalem, accessed December 17, 2025, https://allianceforthepeaceofjerusalem.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/APJ-Statement-Formatted-Final.pdf.
3 “šālôm,” Blue Letter Bible, https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h7965/kjv/wlc/0-1/, accessed December 17, 2025.
