Read Luke 2:1-20…Read it not like you have year after year, but read it like you are a detective looking for clues to the DETAILS of the story that are missing.
Write down what you find.
The people of Israel were waiting for centuries for the Messiah to arrive. in order to fulfill the prophecies, Jesus had to come at the perfect moment during the census of the entire Roman World. Jesus had to somehow be moved from where his parents lived to the place he was prophesied to be born. It had to be the perfect time to fulfill God’s time.
The birth of Jesus was foretold in Micah 5:2
The Scribes understood the birth of Jesus in Matthew 2:5-6
The commoners understood it in John 7:42
Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem meant house of bread, Jesus was know as the bread of life (John 6:35). Bethlehem was the city of David, Jesus is the son of David (Matthew 1:1).
Do you need to hear today that God’s time is always ON TIME?
It may not look like the right time, it may not be your time, surely it wasn’t Mary’s time to get on a donkey and ride to another city being GREAT with child. Gods time is always ON TIME! I promise you this to be true. I can testify to may TIMES in my life where I thought ‘this can’t be God’s timing’ and time after time, I come to understand…yes it was, yes it is. God’s time is always on time!
When you read this accounting of Jesus’ birth did you come to understand that Jesus came and lived like the “least of these”, he came in poverty. It is the beginning of the humiliation and lowering of our Lord. When Christ was here on the Earth he distinguished himself and made himself remarkable by nothing so much as the insistence of humility.
God chose to let the shepherds be the first to hear of Jesus birth, they were outcasts. Dirty men living and sleeping with animals, unfit to enter the temple. BUT they were not sleeping, they were keeping watch. Those that hear from God must stir themselves up, attend to their calling(their jobs, their responsibilities), and abide with God, ears open and available. The Angels came to tell them their story and although I have so much more I shared this morning about this part of Jesus’s story, I will leave you with one thought!
Can you imagine what that conversation was like between the shepherds and Mary and Joseph as they compared and shared their angel encounters?!
How does your sharing your story with others and hearing their story strengthen you? The shepherds went away, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen. I guarantee there are people that heard their story and chose not to believe it. There were people that willfully shut their eyes to it. But once you see and understand the simplicity of God’s caring grace you can’t help but tell the story. The shepherds got it and had to share it and if you’ve got it you have to share it to.
What have you to give Glory to God?
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