Editor’s note: Editor’s note: Do you ever feel like you get lost in the weeds when you read the Bible, or that you don’t understand the story arc from beginning to end, or you don’t know how what you’re reading applies to your regular life? Zach Windahl breaks it down for us in The Bible, Simplified. Enjoy this excerpt on the birth and early life of Jesus.
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Matthew 1–2; Luke 1–2
At this point in time, the Israelites had been waiting centuries for the fulfillment of the promises spoken of by their prophets: that one day God would send the Messiah to establish His Kingdom throughout the earth.
But they had been waiting and waiting and waiting...
And hope was drifting away.
- Will God ever send the Savior? Or did He forget about us?
The story picks up in the hills of Jerusalem with a barren couple named Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were very old and wanted a baby, but they hadn’t been able to conceive. (This might bring to mind Abraham and Sarah’s barrenness too.)
Zechariah was a priest from the line of Aaron, and one day when he was working inside the temple, fulfilling his priestly duties, an archangel named Gabriel visited. The angel told Zechariah he was going to have a son named John who would prepare Israel for the Messiah, helping to usher in the messianic era they had all been waiting for.
Then the story shifts to the small town of Nazareth in the region of Galilee. Here we are introduced to Elizabeth’s cousin Mary. Yes, that Mary.
The same angel who visited Zechariah appeared to Mary and said,
Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you... Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a Son, and you will name Him Jesus. 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. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His Kingdom will have no end. — Luke 1:28–33
This was the moment the Jews had been waiting for.
There was one problem: Mary, still a virgin, wasn’t married. But the angel assured Mary her pregnancy would be a miraculous one, and Mary accepted this promise. But as you might imagine, her fiancé, Joseph, had a harder time accepting it.
Joseph decided to quietly call off the engagement.
But one night Joseph had a dream in which the angel confirmed Mary’s story to him.
To have a child out of wedlock at that time was extremely shameful. Nobody would have believed that Mary’s pregnancy was a miracle from God. The fact that Joseph agreed to remain the father of Jesus instead of leaving Mary was a miracle all its own, because now that shame was going to be placed upon him as well.
Sure enough, nine months later, Mary was nearing the end of her pregnancy. Around that time, the emperor of Rome, Caesar Augustus, sent a decree all around the world, calling the Roman citizens back to their hometowns to be registered for a census.
Joseph, a descendant of David, was from Bethlehem — so he and Mary made their way back to his hometown.
When they arrived, the city was packed. Bethlehem did not have room for everyone.
So Joseph and Mary ended up spending the night in the same place the animals were taken care of, either a stable or a shepherd’s cave.
It was not an ideal spot to deliver a baby. But this was the place Jesus, the Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah, was born into.
Now while all of this was happening, a group of shepherds was nearby in the wilderness. An angel appeared to them and said,
Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. — Luke 2:10–12 NIV
The shepherds hurried off to Bethlehem and found Mary, Joseph, and the baby just as the angel said they would.
The time they had all been waiting for was finally here — and in a completely different way than they would have expected.
Meanwhile, a group of wise men (called “magi,” a sort of ancient spiritual advisor) from Babylon saw a sign in the stars. The sign told them a new king had been born to lead the world into a new era. They followed the star to Jerusalem and went straight to Herod, expecting the new king to be from his bloodline — but they were shocked to discover that the child wasn’t Herod’s. So the wise men left Herod’s palace, and the star rose again and led them straight to baby Jesus. We call these guys the “three wise men” or “three kings,” but the Bible doesn’t actually say how many of them there were. All we know is that they brought three generous gifts: frankincense and myrrh — two ancient perfume-like substances — and gold. These gifts would have been worth a lot of money in Israel.
Herod, out of fear for what might come of his throne, commanded his army to go into Bethlehem and kill every baby boy two years old or younger. Sound familiar? This parallels the story in Exodus when Moses was born.
- The story was set up for the original Jewish audience to anticipate Jesus as a great leader of God’s people — like Moses, but even better.
The parallels don’t end there. While the Israelites fled Egypt to get away from the oppressive pharaoh, Joseph and Mary and Jesus fled Judea to escape Herod’s evil plans and sought safety in Egypt.
After Herod died in 4 BC, an angel appeared to Joseph telling him they were free to return to Israel, to Nazareth, since the threat was no longer there.
So now Jesus — born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth — was going to grow up to become the Savior of the world.
One-Sentence Recap
After centuries of Israel’s waiting for the promised Messiah, Jesus was born to the virgin Mary and would grow up to become the Savior of the world.
How to Apply This Lesson to Your Life
God often works through humble and unexpected circumstances to fulfill His plan and purpose for our lives.
Excerpted with permission from The Bible, Simplified. by Zach Windahl, copyright Zach Windahl.
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Your Turn
Jesus was born in Joseph’s ancestral town of Bethlehem, the city of David. The One that the Israelites had been waiting for… arrived… but in a very different way that they had expected! The same is true for us oftentimes, right? God shows up in unexpected ways. How do you see Jesus showing up in your life today in a way you never anticipated? ~ Devotionals Daily