Twelfth Day of Christmas

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.

 

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Twelve drummers drumming

Twelve Tribes of Israel

 

For the completion of the Christmas season, on Twelfth Night, we celebrate the twelve tribes of Israel.  Twelve is a number of completion and perfection in the Bible.  In both Old and New Testaments the number was preserved after adjustments.  In the Old, Ephraim and Manasseh each became a tribe, from Joseph’s one, so Levi was dropped from receiving an inheritance.  In the New, Judas was replaced by Matthias, to keep 12 apostles (Acts 1:21-26).  Revelation especially describes the perfections of God’s people with the numbers of 12 and 144, which is 12 times 12 (chpts 7 and 14). 

 

As usual, God’s enemies like to mess with His gifts.  The holy fast of Lent was tainted by the immoral revel of Mardi Gras the day before.  All Saints’ Day on November 1 was corrupted by All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween) the night before.  And so Twelfth Night became a festival signified by twisting natural things to the unnatural.  Shakespeare is the prime example of this in his play, “Twelfth Night,” where a woman dresses as a man, and a servant passes as a nobleman.

 

God’s perfect order is twisted by sin.  How is this happening in your life?

Singles resist the pursuit of marriage.  Men and women find themselves attracted by same-sex sexual desires.  Married people want out.

The siren song of the world likes to proclaim that God’s natural design is “boring.”  Giving it a twist would be interesting and fun!  Where are we called to stay with God’s order, and where does He give us freedom to be creative?  This takes wisdom.

 

The contrast jars me.  The 12 Israelite tribes on the 12^th day of Christmas, and the Gentile focus of Epiphany on January 6.  There is an order to God’s people, reflecting the 12-ness.  But don’t forget the unpredictable, untamable wildness to the Gentile inclusion among God’s people (Romans 11:13-21).  Magi from the east, after all!  The church tends toward one or the other of these.  Reformed types might emphasize our Israelite origins and the generational covenantal succession.  Evangelical types might stress that God brings ANYONE to Him – prostitutes, astrologers, tax collectors, etc.  Both are true, but uniting them in one body is our call.  Since Christ is our Lord, this is not impossible!