The Birth of Jesus Christ (Luke 2:1-7)

Hello All,

Let us go back in time 2,000 years ago…

The Birth of Jesus Christ (Luke 2:1-7)

By Joanne Liaw Sook Ling (14^th November 2012)

A decree was issued by the Roman Emperor

Octavian, who was known as Augustus Caesar

Which required the whole world to be registered

That was when Quirinius was Syria's governor

Joseph set off from Nazareth in Galilee

To Bethlehem in Judea, David's city

To be registered with his betrothed, Mary

For he was from the line of David's family

In Bethlehem, the inn was full with no more room

Poor Mary was due to give birth anytime soon

In desperation they settled in a stable

With only a lowly manger for his cradle

Points for Reflection:

·         Before the fall of the Roman Empire, a very large part of the world was conquered by Rome. Thus, Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome, issued a decree that everyone from all the countries under Rome had to return to their hometown to be registered for the purpose of taxation.

·         Although Joseph was at this time living in Nazareth, his ancestral home was Bethlehem. This caused the birth of Jesus Christ to occur in Bethlehem, exactly as prophesied (Micah 5:2), rather than in Nazareth where Joseph and Mary were then living.

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. (Micah 5:2)

·         We have seen so far that so many prophesies in the Old Testament regarding the coming of Jesus Christ into this world was fulfilled from his virgin birth, his ancestral line (descendant of King David) right up to the place of his birth.

·         The following website calculates the probability of Christ being born in Bethlehem as 2.8 x 10⁵ or 1 in 280,000.  This is just the probability of one prophecy alone without taking into consideration the other Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by Christ in the Bible. Christ fulfilled 8 major prophesies (not counting the minor ones) which have the odds of 1 x 10²⁸ or 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to come to pass!

http://www.goodnewsdispatch.org/math.html

·         This shows that the Bible is 100% trustworthy and that God determines and is in control of every single event in history, the present time and even the future. When I was studying probability and statistics during my university days, someone once told me that with God, there are no probabilities. With him, it happens or it doesn’t.

·         Are you afraid and worried about the future? Are the hardships of the present too overwhelming? Does the past haunt you with unhappy memories? Take comfort in our loving God who is in control of every single detail of our lives and find strength in prayer.

·         Doesn’t it amaze you that our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be born in such a lowly stable, with a manger, containing animal feed, as his cradle? And he went through all of that because of his love for us, undeserving sinful human beings.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8)

·         Aren’t we so fortunate to have such a loving God? Take some time to thank him for his great love for us. Pray that you will grow in your love for him each day.