In these Advent meditations we consider the Bible’s images about the incarnation. An angel of the Lord reassured Joseph that he should marry a scandalously but miraculously pregnant Mary. They should name their child Jesus, because he was the one God promised to deliver his people from their sins (Matthew 1:18-22).

Angels from the realms of glory rarely appear unless God will soon set in motion extraordinary, saving events. But the story of Israel contained images of celestial creatures. Inside the Ark of the Covenant were the tablets of God’s moral Law. The atonement cover over the Law was the Mercy Seat. Blood of sacrificial lambs was sprinkled on this lid — testifying that God would provide atonement for his people’s sins. Wrought into the atonement cover were two cherubim, angels gazing down in wonder at the sacrifice God was prepared make to atone for sinners. As the Apostle Peter would later exclaim, “Even angels long to look into these things!” (1 Peter 1:12) God was prepared to send his one and only Son as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

Even before Advent on earth in “the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4) there was war in heaven between God and the evil one. We see cosmic and cryptic images in Revelation 12:1-6:

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant … crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down la third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

Apocalyptic literature often has indecipherable images. But much in this passage is clear. Revelation Chapter 12 is central and pivotal. The red dragon represents the devil, cast down to the earth. The pregnant woman represents God’s chosen people, specifically Mary, in whose womb the Savior was conceived to be born into the world. King Herod was part of the dragon’s plot to kill the newborn Son of David who would rule the nations. It was all predicted: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and … his Anointed (Messiah).” (Psalm 2:2) John's Apocalypse skips over the historical ministry of Jesus to his ascension to God’s throne, on the heavenly Mount Zion.

The Great Christ Comet is an intriguing, well-researched, but debated book. Author Colin R. Nicholl finds an astronomical basis for this thesis: the cosmic nativity scene in John's vision is what the Magi actually observed from the East. A great comet appeared in the constellation Virgo (the virgin), with a meteor shower emanating from the constellation Scorpio (the dragon).

Did Mesopotamian astrologers connect their celestial observations to the warning of Balaam, learned from the Jewish Diaspora in Babylon? “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth … and one from Jacob shall exercise dominion.” (Numbers 24:17,19) Did a comet’s tail appear to rise out of Israel to guide the Magi to Palestine? Ancient astrology and modern science alike change and are fallible. The Magi had to consult Scripture (Micah 5:2) to find the Christ child at Bethlehem.

The Bible’s Advent images are bizarre, strange, and yet true. From the first promise of a Savior (Genesis 3:15) to Balaam’s warning, all of the images, prophecies, and promises are fulfilled by Jesus, the Seed of the woman, who crushes the head of the serpent. Advent is more than images of a crèche, a Nativity scene. Advent is God’s cosmic victory over all his and our enemies.