Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and shall call His name JESUS. (Luke 1: 30-31)
Many believe Mary was an adolescent teenager when she gave birth to The Messiah. Picture this, the angel Gabriel appears to, by our standards, a child and tells her she will give birth to the Savior of the world. The Bible tells us that Mary was certainly afraid, but in the face of that fear she stood strong and said “yes” to God’s call. I often think of this moment whenever I’m fearful, apprehensive, or feel a level of discomfort in my life. I think of the part of Mary that must have considered not going along with God’s plan. Why else would she be afraid? Well, besides the angelic encounter that is. Often times in this funny thing we call life we feel a sense of fear in the midst of something deep down we know we want, but there’s a period in which we try and convince ourselves that we don’t. Why? It’s too hard, it’s too painful, it’ll take too long. What will people think? The list can go on and on. In times like these I have to remind myself that my Lord does not allow me to accomplish or attain anything without allowing me to feel a level of fear, stress, apprehension, etc. Strength cannot be forged without an opposing force. Take trees for example. Trees cannot grow upright and strong without temporary wind.
The betrothal period of a Hebrew couple was about a year when the future bride and groom would separate. History tells us this was for various reasons and one of them was to see if the future bride was to become pregnant. If so, this would make the “contract” null and void due to impurity or infidelity. Joseph endures his own moment of intense doubt and fear where, once discovering of Mary’s pregnancy, decides to divorce Mary in secret. Instead he changes his plans when an angel appears to him in a dream.
“You, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me One who will be Ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)
700 years before the birth of Jesus the prophet Micah delivers this powerful message. Joseph and Mary make the trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem because the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus decides to take a census. He orders everyone to be registered in their own city. So Joseph, being of the lineage of David, takes Mary to the city of David…Bethlehem. Hold on, wait a minute. Let’s back up a bit. Did Micah just say “Bethlehem Ephrathah”? What is Ephrathah? Ephrathah was the district of which Bethlehem was located…
“The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion – Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah.” (Ruth 1:2)
Not only does Micah want us to know that our Savior will be born in Bethlehem but he’s so precise he even tells us the district in which Bethlehem resides. Even more powerful is the fact along with Bethlehem Ephrathah there existed another Bethlehem closer to Nazareth. I’ll let you simmer on this for a minute. Upon arrival in Bethlehem Joseph and Mary cannot find lodging at the Inn, because many have come to be counted in the Emperor’s census. Though scripture doesn’t disclose the exact location of Jesus’ birth, it does tell us that Mary laid him in a manger, but before she lays The Son of God in the manger she wraps him in swaddling cloth. It’s easy to skip right over this seemingly minor detail of the swaddling cloth, but history tells us there were fields outside of Bethlehem called Migdal Eder which translated means “The Tower of the Flock”. In these fields Levitical shepherds would tend to sacrificial lambs that were deemed holy and could only be sacrificed in the Temple. Before these holy lambs were sacrificed the shepherds would wrap the lamb in the very same swaddling cloth in which Mary wrapped our Lord.
“And you, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, even the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.” (Micah 4:8)
Even though we don’t know the exact location where Mary gave birth to Christ a few things we do know. Those that were present were Joseph, Mary, a few shepherds, and of course angels. Wait, where are the wisemen that we see in all those beautiful nativity scenes? To answer this the reader must put pieces of scripture together that were written out of chronological order. This is a characteristic of The Word of which I adore. Many times in order to find the answer to a question God will force you to flip back and forth between 66 books all written out of sequence to uncover a sequence. The Bible is alive, it’s a river that ebbs and flows in and around the oceans of time. All of scripture is intertwined. It moves with tenderness and power like a dance of poetry in motion.
“Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord), and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:22-24)
There are two fun facts happening in this passage that tell us that the Magi were not present at the birth of Christ. Joseph and Mary waited until an allotted amount of time had passed according to the law of Moses to dedicate baby Jesus in the Temple.
“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. Then she shall continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any holy thing nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed.” (Leviticus 12:1-4)
So now we know the allotted amount of time was at least 40 days Joseph and Mary waited to dedicate their baby to God. Here’s the real interesting part. Joseph and Mary do not offer a lamb but two turtledoves and pigeons.
“But if he is poor and cannot afford it, then he shall take one male lamb as a trespass offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed oil as a grain offering, a log of oil, and turtledoves or two young pigeons, such as he is able to afford: one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering.” (Leviticus 14:21-22)
Combine this passage with the passage from Luke and we now know the new parents give two turtledoves and pigeons because they were financially poor. The next piece of the puzzle is we have to think about the gifts the Magi present to our Messiah. Frankincense, myrrh, and…gold. So the question here is…would Joseph and Mary make an offering of two turtledoves and pigeons if they were recently gifted with gold? There’s many more scriptural clues similar to the one I have presented, but I’ll leave you to conduct the detective work on your own. My point here is this…can you see how easy it is to pervert the truth? It seems pointless and harmless, which in this case it is, but many aspects of God’s word over time has been twisted into a mold of what the world wants it to be. In the end, all of these Nativity scenes we see are absolutely stunning and beautiful, because they are all pointing to the birth of our Savior.
“When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.” (Matthew 2:9-10)
How do the Magi know about this mysterious star? Well, first we would have to start with who the Magi were. It is believed the Magi were a group of mystics from, what is now, Iran and Turkey, who practiced something called “Zoroastrianism”. In other words they worshipped the stars. How could a group of men who worshipped the stars have so much reverence for a newborn child? Let alone know to even follow the star? Another example where God forces us to “connect the dots”. To answer these questions we must travel back 500+ years from the advent of Christ to the Babylonian exile.
“Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.” (Daniel 2:1-2)
During the Babylonian captivity king Nebuchadnezzar seeks council from “magicians” and “astrologers”. The Greek translation for these words is … “Magi”. Daniel interprets a dream for Nebuchadnezzar and because the king is so impressed with Daniel he elevates him to the position of the chief prefect of…the Magi.
“Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts; and he made him ruler of the whole province of Babylon, and chief administrator over all the wise men (Magi) of Babylon.” (Daniel 2:48)
What we do know for certain from the Book of Daniel is that he accurately predicts when the Messiah would be revealed on Palm Sunday with the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel 9. Now I’m not going to go through a complete breakdown of the mathematical calculation, but I will confess if you’re someone like me then you’ve sat down and dissected Daniel’s 70 week prophecy using the Hebrew calendar and were absolutely floored when you ended up on Palm Sunday 33 AD. Furthermore Daniel’s prophecy accurately tells us when Christ would be crucified. So, I propose to you this. With the knowledge of Daniel’s 70 week prophecy is it so hard to imagine that the Magi would know when and where the Messiah would be born? In relation, is it also difficult to imagine that Daniel may have revealed knowledge of the star to the wise men as well since it’s the wise men who patterned their life after the stars?
“I see Him, but not now, I behold Him, but not near; A star shall come out of Jacob…” (Numbers 24:17)
When the Israelites are wandering in the wilderness they travel through an area called Moab. The Moabite king Balak employs a mystic named Balaam to curse the Israelites, but instead he can only speak beautiful blessings such as this passage above. Is Balaam referring to the star Daniel potentially instructed the Magi to watch for?
God uses people from all walks of life to fulfill his plan… believer and nonbeliever. The Magi along with Balaam are just many examples of this fact. So I return and end with Mary. The angel Gabriel appears to her to deliver one of the most powerful messages in all of scripture. I often find myself contemplating the level of fear she must have felt in that moment. The quiet strength that she exhibited is incredibly praiseworthy and gets me through a lot of tough moments in my life. In addition, I often think about how it’s Gabriel who appears to Mary to tell her of things to come. The same Gabriel who appears to Daniel and tells him of things to come.
Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and shall call His name JESUS.
Here I Am, Send Me 