In our home every Christmas a silent war develops. Each member of the family has a vision of Christmas and their own commitments. Coordinating any time at all becomes a hassle – it is almost an American tradition to stress over calendars! Yet, Heaven’s view of the timing of Christmas was completely different than man’s view. Paul wrote in Galatians 4:4 that “at just the right time” the Savior came. Really? What was so right about it? Could it be that I am not qualified to know when God will act, who God can use, when and why? That might be one of the greatest lessons of Christmas!
Key Principle: I often don’t see things the way God does. Because of that, I am not qualified to disqualify someone from His purposes, nor am I able to say with assurance how and when the Lord will choose to work.
The Bible repeats the claim that Jesus was right on schedule. He came to earth was the time :
- 4:4 “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Gal 4:4-7).
- “And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel…” (Mark 1:15).
- “Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (1 Tim 2:6).
Add to that idea the PLACE where Jesus came to be born was the right spot, just as God had chosen:
- Micah 5:2-4 “2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” 3 Therefore He will give them up until the time When she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren Will return to the sons of Israel. 4 And He will arise and shepherd His flock In the strength of the LORD, In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they will remain, Becauseat that time He will be great To the ends of the earth.”
- So well known was the place that when the Magi came for a visit to Herod the Great, they told Herod the baby would be from Bethlehem in Matthew 2:1-5 “1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:”
In addition to the time and place, the very PEOPLE were chosen according to the Gospels:
- Luke 1:26-31: “26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus..”
Theologians down through the centuries have tried to explain the idea of God’s timing in ways that I cannot find that convincing:
- Some have shared that the cultural adhesion from Alexander onward offered a way of thinking that was easier for people to grasp the whole of the Gospel. That doesn’t seem to make sense if the Savior was to come as a JEW, since this was one group that sought to remain DISTINCT and not culturally adapted.
- Most cite that the Greek language was widely used during the period of the spread of the Gospel. That doesn’t truly take into account that most people on the planet did not speak Greek at the time. The Han dynasty was probably 14 million to the Roman world’s 12 million, and not all Romans understood Greek.
- Almost universally, theologians note the road system provided by the rise of the Roman Empire made the spread of the message of Jesus possible, though Jesus wasn’t the one Who used it. The message of the Gospel is still reaching parts of the world today, so the roads, though helpful, probably weren’t the key critieria of God.
- A number of historically minded theologians remind us that “Pax Romana” (the peace of the Romans meant that the world was essentially still and without significant conflict at the time of Augustus Caesar. The number of insurrections in Israel were significant (as Masada showed just a generation after Jesus). If the peace was the issue, the baby should have been born in the west, not near the only rival Empire on earth that could have successfully tested the Romans (the Parthians).
- One writer even makes the assertion that the time was right for the progressive revelation of God to His world: “Athens was in the late afternoon of its glory. The gods of Greece and Rome no longer could command the blind allegiance of the masses. Education, philosophy and great art created desires they could not fill. In the end the verdict was clear. Athens could produce Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides, and Aristophanes. Rome produced Seneca, Cicero, Juvenal, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Julius Caesar. But the best man could do was not enough. Nothing could fill the “God-shaped vacuum” inside the human heart. Art, literature, poetry, music, architecture, and the greatest military machine the world had ever known, all of it taken together could not provide meaning to life, or point the way to lasting forgiveness, or offer any answer to three questions we all must answer: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?” (-1999 Ray Pritchard). Certainly this is a logical argument, but there were many bright ideas and pagan philosophies that came after that time. It is not as though they had exhausted all the possibilities of pagan ideology. If the issue is “they ran out of other ideas” I don’t think this is a compelling case!
Did you ever watch a football game and see a play that was inaccurately called by the referee? With a short time to review, the ref can go to the side and look in the prompter box, and see on the monitor the play from as many angles as are available. On a number of occasions, the whole game was turned around by a second look. The problem is that we don’t see everything correctly, even when we are looking for it!
Truthfully, nothing seemed right about the Christmas scene in my thinking. In fact, I can’t really say the story makes a lot of sense set in the time and place it was, with the people that were included. That’s the point of this episode of God’s Word – I don’t think like He thinks. I don’t see people, places or time the way He does. I study His Word, and yet I admit that my world view seeps into my thinking such that I cannot trust my own analysis without checking the Word. It is that simple. Let me show you how I would “call the play” apart from the instant replay of the Word of the Living God:
It seems like the wrong people:
- A lineage of criminals, sinners and pagans:
As students of the Word, you are aware that there are two different genealogies for Jesus’ lineage in the Gospels – one in Matthew 1:1-17 and the other in Luke 3:23b-38. The two of them are NOT the same – a point critical professors of the Bible try to use to prove mistakes in the Bible.
Matthew is showing a LEGAL document approach to the situation, tracing the Kingship evidence of Jesus from David. The Book of Matthew uses the title “Son of David” in a number of places (cp. 1:20) to demonstrate that Jesus is right for the throne via the line of Joseph, the LEGAL Jewish father of Jesus. He begins with a selection of generations from Abraham to David, then David to Babylon, then the Persian return to Joseph. In each he claims 14 generations – the number of the name of DAVID – just as the Antichrist has a “number of his name” (Rev. 13:17). This appears to be a JOSEPH legal line issue.
Luke tells the story from HUMAN genealogy, tracing it in reverse back to Adam. Whereas in Matthew Jesus’ line was from David through SOLOMON – in Luke it is through NATHAN – the son of King David and Bathsheba (1 Chronicles 3:15) the older brother of Solomon. He was David’s third son (of four to Bathsheba) born in Jerusalem. This is likely MARY’S side of the family.
Barring the differences in the genealogies, let’s face it – neither side of the family has stellar people in it. The bottom line is this: you and I wouldn’t have chosen this family from either side. Let’s pick some highlights:
- Abraham was a liar, who feared for his own life more than the purity of his wife.
- Isaac was not the one his father wanted to have the blessing –as Abraham pleaded to give it to Ishmael.
- Jacob lacked character and fell out of the proper place in the line but played the birthright out of his brother’s hands.
- Judah dropped by a harlot’s den when he got bored (Gen 38).
- Perez was born of an illegal sexual rendezvous of Jacob with his disguised daughter in law Tamar.
- David was a murderer, adulterer and lust filled king at points in his life. His last words before he died were about revenge.
And that’s just a few of them in the line, without mentioning Rahab from Jericho or Ruth from Moab! Is that the line of the Messiah you would have chosen?
- Unlikely Parents: an older man and an unmarried girl:
Journey in your mind’s eye back two thousand years, to an unwalled village of Nazareth. The small cave style homes were built against the cliffs, each with a small pen for goats and sheep attached to the front of the house, a tiny rock fence that defined each property. Some olive trees offered a bit of shade near the houses and a spring ran into the valley a few hundred feet north of the village near to small the barley fields on the terraces. This was a poor town – without the resources to build aqueducts to bring water close (as their city neighbors in nearby Sepphorus had done). In this town getting water meant taking a walk each morning, a jug perched upon the head of each of the women of the village. As best we know Nazareth was not more than a few dozen families, enough to have the requisite ten “heads of households” (a minyan) to have local synagogue prayers. The chalky road wound into town from the large valley of Jezreel to the south and connected Nazareth to the northern villages of Cana and Capernaum, as well as the larger Galilean cities of Sepphorus (still under reconstruction) and Ptolemais.
We do not know at what time of the year it was, but the Bible says that an angel appeared to a young unmarried virgin girl in that village, named Miriam. She was quite young, no doubt, but old enough to have gained a reputation of integrity and tender mercy that reached past the doorstep of the Heavenly palace. She was no one of consequence in her world – that is, until God came knocking and gave her a call that would change all of us!
Dr. Luke clues us into the scene: (1:26-38)
26 “Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have foundfavor with God. 31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. 36 “And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”
- An unwelcoming and suspicious family:
We cannot be overly specific here, but the scene was at least difficult to understand by a religious Jewish family. Joseph himself only kept the engagement because he was told to by an angel – Mt. 1:19 said that “And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.”
There was no room in the guest chamber of the family home, making us wonder if there was a sense of rejection in the story. Luke 2:7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
- Loafing workers as first visitors:
The first guys to drop by were middle of the night shepherds that were supposed to be on duty but were off their job site: “8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. …15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”
It seems like the wrong place:
- Egypt yielded great dynastic heritage:
Old Kingdom Egypt was around since nearly 2700 BCE, with its first pyramids erected by 2500 BCE. The monuments were well known and preserved to this day. The great pyramid of Cheops was already 600 or 700 years old when Abraham was born! If you wanted to establish a long dynasty of an “everlasting kingdom”, Egypt would be on your short list. Psalm 45:6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
- Athens yielded great genius:
From the bards that proclaimed HOMER’s epics by 700 BCE, to the tough politician Draco who wrote severe laws, or Thales who was the father of observation science in about 600 BCE, the Greeks gave much to civilization. Where would we be without the geometry of Pythagoras, The dramatic work of Thespis, the military strategy of Themistocles, the histories of Herodotus, the philosophies Scrates and Aristotle. Here is a long tradition of wisdom and learning.
No synagogue of Nazareth or all of Judea would have such notoriety. Yet, the Scripture says that:
Lk. 2:51-52: “51 And [Jesus] went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; …. 52 And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
- Rome yielded great military conquerors:
Who hasn’t heard of Julius Caesar? Yet, he comes from a long line of Roman conquerors stretching back to the mythical founding of Rome in 753 BCE. Originally a dynasty of four kings from a local Italic tribe, the Romans fell for about 100 years under the Etruscans. The Romans tolerated injustice of these powerful kings until the wayward son of Tarquin the Proud raped a woman named Lucretia, and brought on the overthrow of a people that didn’t stop fighting for five hundred years. They took Rome back, then sacked the Samnites and on to Carthage and eventually the world. If you wanted a powerful government, you just couldn’t ask for a better reputation of power than Rome. Even Daniel referred to them as a beast of IRON.
Yet the Bible said of Messiah: “6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”
- Why it is also true that the Persians produced great universities and that the Han dynasty commanded the largest people group:
- Yet the chosen place was - Bethlehem – known more for its pagan past - a tiny small village on the edge of the wilderness.
Her original name was Bit Lahi – house of the pagan god Lahi.
She was first recalled in the ancient text for the sadness at the death of Rachel the Matriarch: “Ge 35:19 – So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”
It was then mentioned as a place of famine and want in Ruth 1- “Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.”
Doesn’t sound like the kind of place dreams are made of – does it?
It seems like the wrong time:
- Lack of high tech developments to carry the message:
Paul carried the message of the Gospel to the world, but think of what he could have done with EMAIL with this track record:
2 Cor. 11: 24 “Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.”
Oh, if we only had time – we could look at the other problems:
- four hundred years of no prophetic revelation that was kept for us as authoritative from God
- driven by a census on a journey at the end of the pregnancy to a technologically backward and hygienically needy people
Yet the Bible said it was the RIGHT TIME, the RIGHT PLACE and the RIGHT PEOPLE.
God knows how to tell time. The problem is ME! One Pastor wrote recently: “When Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper on a monastery dining room wall, the monks began to have many questions about his ability, and his integrity. The picture was merely a copy of the dining area in which it was being painted. The tables, the linens, even the dishes used by the monks, were all identical to those in the picture. Some of the monks thought da Vinci was taking advantage of his contract to paint this picture. They were resentful of his long periods of inactivity, when da Vinci would stand for hours without touching his brush to the wall in front of him. When they asked da Vinci about his inactivity, he replied, “When I pause the longest, I make my most telling strokes with my brush.” No other event in the life of our Lord has been painted more often, but none can match the one painted by da Vinci nearly 500 years ago. Da Vinci took his time and his Last Supper is one of the most famous paintings to this day. If he would have rushed through it, this would probably not be the case. Every stroke of his brush was carefully planned and we see the beauty of the finished product.
The simple fact is that I often don’t see things the way God does. Because of that, I am not qualified to disqualify someone from His purposes, nor am I able to say with assurance how and when the Lord will choose to work.
