INTRODUCTION:
First of all, I remind you that we are still in our great theme on
"DISCOVERING THE HISTORICAL AND PROPHETIC PORTRAIT OF JESUS CHRIST"
This teaching is an educational series in the form of a written documentary whose objective is to bring the people of God to discover the true story of JESUS CHRIST according to the Bible and the prophetic meaning of this story.
My concern in this new series is to bring Christians to discover another facet of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, a historical and prophetic personality whose life and ministry have marked history from Antiquity to the present day.
Here, in our sub-theme WHERE WAS JESUS CHRIST REALLY BORN? We will investigate in the Bible the true birthplace of Jesus Christ and its prophetic significance.
THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST:
In this section on his birth, we will explore the true story of the birth of Jesus Christ and try to answer these eight questions:
According to the Bible:
1.WHERE WAS JESUS CHRIST ACTUALLY BORN?
2.WHEN AND IN WHAT YEAR EXACTLY?
3.WHAT DOES THE TEXT TELL US ABOUT THE BIRTH OF JESUS?
4.HOW DOES THE BIBLE DESCRIBE THE SCENARIO OF HIS BIRTH?
5.WHAT WAS PALESTINE LIKE AT THE TIME OF JESUS?
6.WHY DIDN’T THEY FIND ROOM IN HOTELS?
7.WHY WAS JESUS BORN IN A CAVE?
8. WHAT DOES HIS BIRTH TEACH US? ( THE LESSON TO LEARN )
WHERE WAS JESUS CHRIST REALLY BORN?
Many scholars remain silent about the birthplace of Christ due to the lack of archaeological evidence. But the key to the true birthplace of Jesus is found in the Bible.
STORY OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS
TEXT THAT RECORDS THE BIRTH OF JESUS ( LUKE 2, 1-7 )
At that time, the emperor Augustus[a] issued a decree ordering a census of all the inhabitants of the empire. 2 This census, the first of its kind, took place in the time when Quirinius was governor of the province of Syria. 3 Everyone went to be registered, each in the town where he came from. 4 So Joseph also left Nazareth and went up from Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the city of David, because he belonged to the house of David. 5 He went there to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was expecting a child. 6 Now while they were staying in Bethlehem, the time came for Mary to give birth. 7 She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the guest room.
THE SCENARIO OF THE BIRTH OF CHRIST
According to the scene written and revealed by the Gospel of Luke, this is how the story of the birth of our Lord JESUS unfolds. In the cold of winter, after a long journey from the village of Nazareth in the region of Galilee, they finally arrive in the province of Jude, precisely in the city of Bethlehem, knowing that the Gospels do not specify at what time they arrived in Bethlehem where Mary and Joseph are trying to find a place to stay. But the sad news for them is that all the guesthouses in the city are turning their backs on them, while the birth of their son is imminent
There is no room in the guesthouses but Mary is already suffering from the pains of childbirth so they decide to take refuge in a small cave that serves as a stable. In the Gospel of Luke, this is where Jesus is born, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, warmed by the warmth of the animals: the donkey and the ox that are installed next to him in the manger.
Reading the Gospels, it seems that Jesus' parents were from Galilee, because at the time Mary became pregnant, they were both living in Nazareth, a small village in the region of Galilee. But the complexity of this story about the regional origin of Mary and Joseph arises at the time of the census ordered by the Emperor Augustus. We have seen, according to the Bible, that Joseph took his wife to go and register both of them in the locality from which he came. Because, according to the law, each one went to register in the locality from which he came.
According to the Scriptures, they left Galilee precisely from the village of Nazareth to go to the region of Judea, precisely to Bethlehem which was not far from Jerusalem, in the Bible Bethlehem was called the city of David: And Joseph belonged, in fact, to the family of David.
We do not really know if Joseph and his wife were born and raised in Galilee, in Nazareth, or if they previously lived in Bethlehem in Judea and then immigrated from the region of Galilee to Nazareth, or perhaps it was their grandparents or great-grandparents who immigrated there. But the truth is that they were not from Galilee or Nazareth. They came from the region of JUDEA, from the village of Bethlehem, the city of David his patriarch.
PALESTINE AT THE TIME OF JESUS:
At the time of Jesus, the map of Israel had three main provinces: in the north was Galilee, in the center Samaria, and in the south the province of Judea, whose capital was Jerusalem where the great temple of Jerusalem is located.
HERE IS THE MAP OF PALESTINE AT THE TIME OF JESUS:
SAMARIA AND GALILEE WERE PAGANICIZED:
Galilee and Samaria were regions considered impure by the true Jews practicing the tradition because they are two provinces Samaria and Galilee where foreigners and their idols mingled. Originally the name Galilee comes from the words Gelil haggoyim which means circle of the Gentiles.
The Jews who lived in these two provinces of Galilee and Samaria were considered impure or sinful because of this mixture with the pagans. Because in the true Jewish tradition, they do not mix with other peoples so as not to be influenced by their divinity, it is for this reason that even everywhere in Europe they always manage to build their own neighborhood, school and nursery, etc. even by marriage the true practicing Jews they do not marry with other nationalities because they want to keep the purity of their race.
I don't know if one of the reasons they were denied a place in the Bethlehem inn was the fact that they came from the province of Galilee. But I think that may have been one of the reasons. Indeed, how could the Jews of Bethlehem not have pity on a pregnant woman suffering the pains of childbirth?
Looking at the map of Palestine at that time, we see that Joseph and Mary made a long journey, I don't know by what means of transport, to finally arrive in Judea in the city of Bethlehem where Jesus was born in a cave. Reading the Gospels, we clearly understand that they made a long journey just to fulfill the prophecy concerning Bethlehem, because the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem according to the Bible.
The Bible verse that prophesied Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem is Micah 5:2. The verse says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are not very good among the families of Judah, out of you will come one who is to be ruler over Israel.”
NO ROOM FOR JESUS’ BIRTH
“There was no room for them in the room” LUKE 2:7
We cannot think of the birth of Jesus without thinking of this important phrase that expresses Mary and Joseph’s desperation to find a place to welcome their first child into the world.
One might ask: Why did no one have enough room for the pregnant Mary?
Were there no compassionate people to provide a place for them?
Why did God not reserve a majestic palace for them for the birth of Christ?
In the phrase “there was no room for them in the room,” the Greek word kataluma used by the evangelist Luke can be translated today as “room,” that is, any place where one can leave luggage. The author of the gospel By choosing a somewhat vague term, he deliberately did not want to clearly indicate to us the nature and function of this place, the evangelist Luke seems to speak here of a simple community "room" rather than a real inn intended to accommodate vacationers.
In his usual concern to make the scenes painful, the evangelist Luke would have deliberately wanted to remain vague, in particular with the use of the term kataluma in Greek, because he clearly does not want to specify the nature and function of this place, in order to let us know that Christ was born in a normal place that was not built to accommodate pregnant women for childbirth.
THE MESSI IS BORN IN A CAVE:
Since there is no room for them in the common room, they find a discreet place for the birth of Christ. In the village of Bethlehem, located at the top of a small mountain with limestone geology, there are many shepherds, sometimes in networks of embankments, who used it to raise their sheep. This is where Christ was born, it is said.
HIS BIRTH TEACHES US:
If Luke remains relatively imprecise on the place of the birth of Christ, he nevertheless emphasizes that Mary, then pregnant with Christ the Messiah of Israel, does not receive a royal welcome. No red carpet for the Family of the Kings of kings the Lord of lords.
Concretely, "there was no room for them". This precision is simply astonishing in a story that seeks to describe the birth of a character as important as Christ. While the almighty God becomes man, he incarnates himself in the body of a small child; while the Messiah of Israel, the Christ awaited by an entire people for centuries, there is not even a place to welcome his birth.
This scenario of the birth of Christ is so strong and powerful in teaching because in these scenes of the birth of Jesus there is a Revelation where God places himself in a hide-and-seek dynamic so as not to impose himself too much. This major event that billions of people still celebrate centuries later would not have caught the attention of a few villagers of Bethlehem at the time.
Here we see the birth of a God go unnoticed by the eyes of the Villagers of the time, it is not an imperial triumph that appears but the proof of humility and discretion proper to all true greatness. And all those who are called to greatness, to lead or to reign must be clothed in the same virtue as Jesus Christ our model.
CONCLUSION AND LESSON LEARNED:
1. LIVE IN DISCRETION AND HUMILITY:
In conclusion, the story of this birth teaches us above all two great things: discretion and humility. In addition, we notice that they were not received and acclaimed as kings in the village of Bethlehem, while they carry within them a powerful grace that the world has been waiting for centuries.
2. ACCEPT THE WORLD'S REJECTIONS:
Secondly, the story of the birth of Christ teaches us that we must be ready to accept the rejection of the world or society. Do not think that you will always be received as princes and kings because you carry a great grace from God.
To all those who are called to the ministry, I wanted to emphasize here that no matter how great the grace of your calling is, it is very likely that you will be rejected, ignored and that the world will tell you that there is no place for you, that you are behind. There is no hope of success for you. But do not give up on your calling if you believe that God is with you.
3.BE DETERMINED DESPITE OBSTACLES:
The third lesson we learn from the story of the birth of Jesus is
determination despite obstacles. Despite everything, you must have the determination of Jesus' parents who did not get discouraged by refusals and negative responses but on the contrary fought to finally find a place to fulfill their destiny.
Whatever the obstacles and rejections of life, you must fight to find a place in society because no one will offer you a free place or even out of compassion, it is your responsibility to fight to accomplish your mission on earth
4. DO NOT GIVE UP, EVEN IN THE CAVE YOU CAN SUCCEED:
The fourth lesson we learned from the story of the birth of Christ: we must not give up, nor be discouraged because of obstacles, even in a cave we can write a great destiny, Jesus was born in an unknown cave in Bethlehem, even the villagers of this village did not realize that at that time a great man, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, had just been born because the problem is not the place of birth but the grace he carries to save the nations of the world from perdition.
Prophetically, the cave symbolizes distant places, unknown or not taken into account by society. We saw Jesus' pregnancy begin in Nazareth, a worthless village, and be born in a cave, a worthless corner, but the rest of his story was great to the point of impacting the whole world.
JOHN 1:46
Nathanael said to her, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
5. NO MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE, WHEN THE TIME OF PROPHECY COMES, GOD ARRANGES EVENTS FOR ITS FULFILLMENT:
The fifth thing we learn from this story of the birth of Jesus is how God was able to arrange events to fulfill the prophecy of the birth of Jesus.
At the beginning of this story, we see the virgin Mary miraculously becoming pregnant, but the problem is that at the time Mary becomes pregnant, she is living with her fiancé in a house in Nazareth, in the province of Galilee. This means that without the census decree ordered by the emperor, Jesus would have been born normally in Nazareth, in the province of Galilee.
But God wanted the prophecies of the Bible to be fulfilled, so God moved the emperor to decree this census that would eventually force Joseph to take his wife and go to Bethlehem to register and when they arrived, the prophecies were fulfilled because the baby Jesus was born in Bethlehem exactly as described in the scriptures.
The Bible verse that prophesied the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem is Micah 5:2. The verse says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you were too small to be among the families of Judah, out of you will come one to me who is to be ruler over Israel.”
In conclusion, I believe we have learned some important things from this story of the birth of Jesus, no matter our background, culture, or family. You can create a beautiful story if you are determined in life. In every great destiny, there is the part of man and the part of God. Mary and Joseph's part in this destiny was to find a place and God's part was to ensure the safe arrival of the Messiah into the world. If you sit back and refuse to do your part, you risk missing your destiny.
Please try to read the next article to read the continuation of this teaching.
Comments