Two thousand years ago, as we reckon times and celebrations, Mary and Joseph would have been trekking long on the road to Bethlehem now. Sometimes when I begin to fret about times and places and appointments or things that need to happen or not happen in my puny time frame, I think about the vast amount of organization that had to take place for Jesus to be born when and where he was with all the accompanying complications.
First there was finding a virtuous woman, in the place where He needed her to be. Second there was finding an equally virtuous righteous man that He could trust to serve as the earthly father figure for the baby. He had to have both of them in a frame of mind that would allow Him to deal with them. He had to have them both dedicated to the point that they would see His Project through even in the face of public criticism regarding the woman’s pregnancy [Isa. 7:14; Luke 1:26-35;46-55; Matthew 1:18-25]
In conjunction with that, there was the support system that needed to be in place when the young woman discovered she was pregnant by the action of the Holy Spirit. She needed someone influential to ‘be on her side’ for the long months of a socially incorrect pregnancy. The same support system would also create the precursor of the coming of the Messiah. [Luke 1: 5-25; 36-45; 57-80]
Second, He had to get them to Bethlehem. How could He do that with two people who had probably never traveled five miles from the place where they were born. That all involved a ruler who had to be prompted to have the necessary concerns and issue the necessary decrees far enough ahead of time that everything could happen when it was supposed to. [Micah 5:2; Luke 2:1-6]
Then there were those wise men from the east hundreds of miles away. They had to be there at the right time. How to get them there might have been a problem. [Matthew 2:1-12] And the star! That star involved blowing up an entire sun uncountable billions of miles into space!
And after all that there was the problem of getting the Christ child out of town before the soldiers could kill him. [Matthew 2: 16-18; Jer31:10-17]
Talk about organization!! And never mind all those angels and heavenly messengers who had to be dispatched at the right time. [Luke 1:26; Luke 2:8-14; Matthew 2:13]
We breeze through the Christmas story without a thought regarding the vast scope of events that the Lord had to put in place far ahead of time for the Christ-child to be born. But for just a moment give some thought to all the things that had to line up precisely for the miracle of Christmas to come about. Of course, this is the same God who created the universe, but that didn’t involve dealing with human beings who always mess things up with their willfulness. Go back and read the references for each happening. Think about trying to organize that all yourself! And yet our Lord brought it all about so smoothly that we accept it without a second thought! Jeremiah observes, 17Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:. . . and God responds, 27Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:17 & 27
How can we worry about His Power to control our own little lives?
First there was finding a virtuous woman, in the place where He needed her to be. Second there was finding an equally virtuous righteous man that He could trust to serve as the earthly father figure for the baby. He had to have both of them in a frame of mind that would allow Him to deal with them. He had to have them both dedicated to the point that they would see His Project through even in the face of public criticism regarding the woman’s pregnancy [Isa. 7:14; Luke 1:26-35;46-55; Matthew 1:18-25]
In conjunction with that, there was the support system that needed to be in place when the young woman discovered she was pregnant by the action of the Holy Spirit. She needed someone influential to ‘be on her side’ for the long months of a socially incorrect pregnancy. The same support system would also create the precursor of the coming of the Messiah. [Luke 1: 5-25; 36-45; 57-80]
Second, He had to get them to Bethlehem. How could He do that with two people who had probably never traveled five miles from the place where they were born. That all involved a ruler who had to be prompted to have the necessary concerns and issue the necessary decrees far enough ahead of time that everything could happen when it was supposed to. [Micah 5:2; Luke 2:1-6]
Then there were those wise men from the east hundreds of miles away. They had to be there at the right time. How to get them there might have been a problem. [Matthew 2:1-12] And the star! That star involved blowing up an entire sun uncountable billions of miles into space!
And after all that there was the problem of getting the Christ child out of town before the soldiers could kill him. [Matthew 2: 16-18; Jer31:10-17]
Talk about organization!! And never mind all those angels and heavenly messengers who had to be dispatched at the right time. [Luke 1:26; Luke 2:8-14; Matthew 2:13]
We breeze through the Christmas story without a thought regarding the vast scope of events that the Lord had to put in place far ahead of time for the Christ-child to be born. But for just a moment give some thought to all the things that had to line up precisely for the miracle of Christmas to come about. Of course, this is the same God who created the universe, but that didn’t involve dealing with human beings who always mess things up with their willfulness. Go back and read the references for each happening. Think about trying to organize that all yourself! And yet our Lord brought it all about so smoothly that we accept it without a second thought! Jeremiah observes, 17Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:. . . and God responds, 27Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:17 & 27
How can we worry about His Power to control our own little lives?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment