Before our Newborn King Arrived

I find it sad that many Christians get worked up about our Lord's birth BUT they pay little attention to God's preparation for this momentous event in human history. That's why I've been writing this month about the prophecies and deity of Jesus.

Luke's gospel fills in the details of this preparation. As with any ruler back then, a herald was sent ahead of royalty to announce their arrival. So it was with the King of Kings.

Israel's high priest at that time was given the news of this forerunner in Luke 1:13 (BBE). "But the angel said, 'Have no fear, Zacharias, for your prayer has come to the ears of God, and your wife Elisabeth will have a son, and his name will be John.'""

But John was no mere individual but the last of the prophets sent by God. Luke 1:15-16 (BBE) says, "For he will be great in the eyes of the Lord; he will not take wine or strong drink; and he will be full of the Spirit of God from his birth. And through him great numbers of the children of Israel will be turned to the Lord their God."

The angel also visited the young woman who would become Christ's mother. Luke 1:30-31 (BBE) says, "And the angel said to her, 'Have no fear, Mary, for you have God's approval. And see, you will give birth to a son, and his name will be Jesus.'"

Joseph also was told by an angel that Mary's baby wasn't the product of fornication but of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:20 (BBE) reads, "But when he was giving thought to these things, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, have no fear of taking Mary as your wife; because that which is in her body is of the Holy Spirit.'"

Neither was it an accident of history that the taxation of all Rome's colonies happened just as Christ was ready to be born. Luke 2:1 (BBE) states, "Now it came about in those days that an order went out from Caesar Augustus that there was to be a numbering of all the world."

How wonderful it is that nothing takes God by surprise. He planned out every detail of history to accomplish our salvation. I want to make people aware of this in my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? Some people actually believe that God is just making things up as he goes. Nothing could be further from the truth.

On Thursday, I'll post about how Christ's death was predicted centuries before his birth. New believers in Jesus need to know that it was no accident that the Lord was crucified.