Watch Focus December 19th, 2025
 
Arise, O God, judge the earth;
For You shall inherit all nations   Psalm 82:8
 
The Advent liturgy prayer today is “O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples; before you kings will shut their mouths, to you the nations will make their prayer: Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.”
 
The corresponding verse of our Christmas carol is “O come, O Rod of Jesse’s stem, from ev’ry foe deliver them that trust Thy mighty pow’r to save, and give them vict’ry o’er the grave!
 
In the last six days, Hanukkah leading to Christmas, we have witnessed a radical Islamist father and son, using hunting rifles, kill 15 and wound 42 Jewish celebrants on Bondi Beach, a Portuguese man with permanent US residency through the Diversity Immigration Visa program murder 2, wound 9, travel to another city and murder an MIT professor in his Boston home with the family present, and the son of a Hollywood celebrity murder his parents in their home.
 
We stand before the throne of our intervening God and pray, “O Emmanuel, Come! Deliver us from evil!”
 
Scholars estimate Jesus at the Feast of Dedication in John’s gospel occurred literally at this time, on December 18 AD 32, days before winter solstice, the darkest time of year. John makes a direct connection between this feast, the Maccabees rededication of the Temple, the harvest of Tabernacles, and Christ confronting rulers who oppose Him.
 
Jesus makes three earth shaking declarations:
I Am the Light of the world.
I Am the Shepherd of the sheep.
I Am One with the Father.
 
He quotes Psalm 82 which indicts failed rulers. Jesus has come to supersede them in accordance with their own prophetic scripture. “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep… I will feed them… I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep” (Ezekiel 34:11–15, ESV).
 
This week we recognize the great spiritual battle over the nations.
 
We pray for a harvest of souls: Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
 
We pray for laborers in the harvest: Matthew 9:37-38, “Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
 
We pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and salvation to come on followers of Islam around the world.
 
We pray for anointed equippers in those nations: Ephesians 4:11, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for equipping the saints for the work of ministry.”
 
We pray for President Trump, his Administration, and Western leaders to become courageous, righteous, faithful, shepherds who refuse to allow thieves and wolves to enter our borders and run rampant in our societies.
 
We pray for outpouring of the Holy Spirit: Joel 2:28-29, “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days.”