Whether you believe that Yeshua (Jesus) was born at Christmas or during the time of the Feast of Tabernacles or during the summer solstice or whenever, the point is that we know Yeshua was born. And we should always come back to this simple reality that the Father sent Yeshua our Messiah into the earth as a deep expression of His love for all humanity (John 3:16). The Greek for “world” in this verse is kosmos, which can mean “universe,” or it can simply mean “people.” God loved the universe so much that He sent Christ, and God loved you so much that He sent His Son. God loves His whole creation because the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof (Psalm 24:1). God loves it all and He is set to redeem all of mankind and see this universe set free from futility. It was out of this motivation that the Father sent Yeshua.

In the Greek text, we know that the name Jesus is a transliteration from the Hebrew name Hoshea, which means “salvation.” Moses called him Yehoshua, which means “the LORD is salvation.” And it is transliterated as Joshua throughout the Hebrew Scriptures (Numbers 13:16). Yeshua is a shortened form of the name that was used for Joshua after Israel came out of bondage in Babylon. So I am more satisfied with Yehoshua, which is the full Hebrew name for Joshua. The Child was not named by His parents; God named Him through an angelic proclamation (Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:31). So I have a feeling that the angel would have called him by the full proper Hebrew name of Yehoshua.

Remember, “God so loved the world, that He gave us His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).[1] Yeshua was not the initiator of our salvation. He was the sacrifice that God provided, just like God provided a sacrifice in replacement for Isaac. That is what Abraham said: “God will provide for Himself the lamb” (Genesis 22:8). God saved you and provided for Himself a lamb (John 1:29). God so loved the world that God the Father sent His Son as the sacrifice for our sin; the prophecy in Isaiah states that our iniquity was placed upon Him (Isaiah 53:5). He was the sacrifice that God provided in our stead. Therefore, I think these names are important because it is God who saves us. Yehoshua represents the fact that Yehoweh saved us; the names blend together and are part and parcel of one another. The angel came and named the Child the proper name by proclamation of the Father; it is the expression that through this name we will be saved (Acts 2:38).

Yeshua Himself had to grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:52). For us, He needed to be born in a manger, grow as a child, and be raised by His parents. We can relate to that because it is similar to the process we are going through. He became the Word made flesh. And God again is looking for His Word to be made flesh in this generation. Why? Because He so loves this world that not only did He send His only begotten Son, but now He is sending you as the voice of His love and compassion and salvation into a world that needs it today as desperately, if not more, than it did when Christ came forth on that evening in Bethlehem.

[1] All Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995).