Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2183117951984132/?source_id=181918175166472

October 3rd

Today’s bible reading is in Matthew 2 and Luke 2.

Bethlehem was the birthplace of Jesus. This ancestral home of King David would become the first earthly home of the King of Kings...Jesus. Bethlehem was a small town, about 6 miles south of Jerusalem. In olden days, the town was called Ephratah. It meant “fruitfulness”. And the most beautiful fruit of Ephratah was the Christ child.

Now Bethlehem, in Hebrew, meant the “House of Bread”. Remember this? Jesus speaking to a great crowd in Capernaum?...“For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger..."

‭‭John‬ ‭6:33-35‬ ‭

Wow, the House of Bread was the birth place of the Bread of Life...Jesus Christ...How Awesome!

The night Jesus was born in Bethlehem. What a night, a king was born in a stable...that’s odd. Don't future kings usually get born in palaces? Yes, but the stable or sheepfold in Bethlehem was the palace for the Good Shepherd born there.

Do you see it? The child would know and love his sheep intimately. Love them so much that he would lay down his life for them, for the sheep of his pasture.

The night Jesus was born, God chose shepherds to be the Messiah’s first witnesses. Shepherds in the MiddleEast, even to this day, translated into an old man teaching and training children and young people to lead and feed and protect the flock of sheep that under their watch.

I have thought it interesting that God would choose the young and the old, the children, and the elderly to receive the angelic announcement about the important baby in a manger.

The children would have had the capacity to accept the wonder of it all. And the old had the experience and the history and the faith to explain the events in light of the word of God.

The young would have had the energy level necessary to take the wonderful story of the newborn king to the “whole town”. The old would have had the credibility to support the eager witness of the young.

A stir begins as soon as Christ is born. He hasn't spoken a word and he has not performed a miracle. He has not proclaimed a single doctrine. But when Jesus was born, at the very first, while as yet you hear nothing but infant cries, and you can only see infant weakness, still his influence upon the world is made known. When Jesus was born, it was wise men from the east that came and so on...such infinite power in the infant Savior.

Reminds me of two passages that speak of the finger of God. One from the magicians in Egypt and one from Moses at Sinai...

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’” And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.”

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭8:16-19‬

“And the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭9:10‬

Today, Jewish Rabbis will often include the raising of the little finger before the congregation recites the Shmeh Israel. It’s a reminder that their God has more power in His little finger than all the false gods put together.

Every Christmas I remember that Jewish tradition. But I don't think of the God of the Exodus from Egypt...I raise my little finger and think of the saving power in the tiny hand and fingers of the newborn Christ lying in the manger for me and you.

Have a great day