The circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus, God’s Son,
show us that God chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the
wise. (I Corinthians 1:27) His Kingdom
is not of this world.
Consider the reality of what Joseph and Mary experienced at
the birth of Jesus:
·
They were under oppressive Roman rule with heavy
taxes
·
Mary had to travel with Joseph to be taxed; there
were no airplanes, luxury cars, trains or public transportation. Mary had a long, bumpy ride on the boney back
of donkey, plodding along mile after mile after mile. It's likely Joseph had a donkey too. Did they get rained on? Were they hot or cold?
·
There were no phones, no computers, no Census Bureau that mailed a census questionnaire to their home, no H&R Block and
no IRS to collect their taxes. It was a
person to person transaction.
·
Mary and Joseph were far away from home, and she
was totally dependent on God and the husband he'd given her.
·
There was no place to stay because all the inns
were full. There was no comfortable
Hilton Hotel, and for all practical purposes, they were homeless.
·
No sterile hospital welcomed Mary as she went
into labor. She didn’t have the aid and
comfort of a mother or a midwife to attend to her needs. But God himself helped her; he attended his
own Son’s birth! I believe Psalm 22:9-10
talks about this: “Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you
even at my mother’s breast. From birth I
was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.”
·
I wonder if Joseph felt inadequate as a man when
he couldn’t provide Mary with decent sleeping accommodations. I wonder if he was terrified at the thought
of having to attend to the birth process himself. Did he feel faint at the sight of blood? Did he feel helpless in knowing what to do?
·
Jesus was born in a smelly, unsanitary stable, and
Joseph certainly couldn’t boil any water in that stable! Jesus’ birth came in the lowliest possible
way.
·
There were no baby showers with relatives, friends
and well-wishers, no party food or celebration, and no gifts of fine
clothing. But God saw to it that the
Wise Men brought Him valuable gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
·
No birth announcements were sent to relatives,
yet God announced it from the heavens through the lowest caste of society.
·
Shepherds were at their post, guarding their
sheep from wolves and predators in a field at night when an angel of the Lord
appeared to them, and the brightness of heaven’s presence lit up the entire
area around them, and they were terrified by the supernatural occurrence. Here again, as to Mary, the angel spoke peace
to them. “Do not be afraid. I bring you
good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is
Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to
you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (KJV)
·
In entrusting His message to lowly shepherds,
God elevated them to a place of honor.
·
God provided a lavish display of heaven’s joy as
a great host of angels filled the sky, praising God and saying, “Glory to God
in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” His Kingdom had made its entrance into the
earth with the birth of Jesus, and He was no longer angry with sinful
humanity. His Son would be the sacrifice
for their sins. He considered it done,
even before full payment was made.
·
Those shepherds believed the message from
heaven, and were so overjoyed at the good news that they left their sheep and
hurried off to Bethlehem
to see what had happened. In leaving
their sheep, it shows they trusted God to keep their flock safe while they were
gone. They found Mary and Joseph and the
baby lying in the manger, just as the angel had said.
·
The shepherds became evangelists as they spread
the angel’s message about this baby, and everyone was amazed by what they
heard. The shepherds didn’t embellish
the message by adding to it, and didn’t leave anything out for fear of
offending some. (I think of Peter in
Acts 4:20 where he said, “We cannot but speak the things we have seen and
heard.”)
·
It occurs to me that the humble, simple folk are
the ones who can more easily believe God and act on His word. The intellectual types who rely on human
reasoning and what people think have a hard time humbling themselves to accept
God’s word.
I’m fascinated by the statement, “But Mary treasured up all
these things and pondered them in her heart.”
(Luke 2:19) I can imagine as she
and Joseph left Bethlehem
and made the long trek back home, Mary pondered the enormity of what had
happened. But she didn’t talk about it. She
didn’t try to prove her virginity when she got pregnant, and she didn’t tell
folks back home what had transpired in Bethlehem . Sometimes one shouldn’t try to explain the
things of God to those of carnal mind. There is great virtue in keeping quiet
about some things. We needn’t say
everything we know, or try to prove our innocence and the justice of our
cause. We are to live justly, love
mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
(Micah 6:8)
I can’t help but believe that Joseph was impressed with
Mary’s character and her faith in God, and that she indeed was a wife to be
trusted. I think of Proverbs 31:10 –
11: “A wife of noble character who can
find? She is worth far more than
rubies. Her husband has full confidence
in her and lacks nothing of value. She
brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.”
God provided for his Son; Jesus was warm and fed, and God saw
to it that his Son had godly parents to raise him to become the Savior of the
world. He’d be the One who would take
the punishment we deserved when He died on a Roman cross thirty-three years
later. “For God so loved the world that
he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish
but have everlasting life. For God did
not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world
through him. Whoever believes in him is
not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he
has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:16-18
Receive the Gift of Christmas from God to you; He loves you
so very much!
*All scriptures are from the NIV translation unless
otherwise noted.
© 2013 Elaine Beachy
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