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The Birth of the Messiah How God Prepared the World for the Coming of Christ.
We shall begin this chapter by quoting, "But when the
fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a
woman, made under the law." Gal. 4:4. A careful scrutiny of
the history of man upon this earth will convince anyone that no
period was more advantageous for the advent of the Messiah than
the exact time in which He appeared. With meticulous care and
providential foresight God prepared the world for the Saviour
and the message He was to bring.
The fact that peace prevailed throughout the world is most
important. The ensign of Caesar's legions fluttered victoriously
over every citadel from the border of India to the British
Isles. Roman guards and centurions held every bastion and
preserved a rigorous peace throughout their vast realm. This was
known to history as the Pax Romanum, or Roman Peace, and it
lasted approximately one hundred years. During this time, Christ
was born and the first evangelists heralded His soul saving
message.
It is tremendously significant that the Greek language was in
almost universal use. Not only was ancient Greek language the
most beautiful language the world has ever known, but, it was
capable of conveying the spiritual qualities of the gospel of
Christ in a manner unequalled before or since. The prevalence of
the Greek tongue permitted evangelists, like Paul, to make
converts everywhere they went.
Roman law and Roman citizenship provided unparalleled
advantages. Not only did they ensure security under the best
civil law known till that time, but individuals possessed of
Roman citizenship were permitted to travel freely anywhere
throughout the empire. This afforded maximum liberty for the
evangelists to propagate the gospel in every land.
Roman ingenuity and engineering skill is best illustrated in
their marvelous network of unsurpassed highways. These roads
radiated from their great metropolis and connected all their
thriving cities by the most direct means of communication. Along
these commercial and military arteries they inaugurated a stage
system not unlike our modern train service to provide
transportation with regularity and precision to every point.
This made it possible for people to travel and thus, exchange
ideas and news in every section of the empire.
Not only were the physical and civil aspects of the world
best calculated to speed the gospel message, but the mental and
spiritual forces were at work also. Great philosophers like
Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and Seneca had done much to undermine
the time-worn veneration of pagan gods. Greek freedom of thought
has seldom been duplicated in the history of the world and it
provided a soil for receiving new ideas such as was enjoyed by
no previous civilization. A general spiritual dissatisfaction,
together with a weakening of the grip of idolatry, pervaded
society and many hearts were longing for something better based
on reality.
All of these factors, along with many more we have not
mentioned in detail, give us some idea of what Paul meant when
he said, "But when the fullness of the time was come, God
sent forth his Son." God times His actions perfectly. There
could be no mistake on His part. The message of our Saviour and
Lord waited to unfold His plan, the world was more fully
prepared to receive it than at any other time on record.
The Genealogy of Christ. The story of the miraculous
birth of Christ is intensely interesting. The term Messiah is a
Hebrew word meaning, "The Anointed One." It is only
found twice in the Old Testament and an equal number of times in
the New. Greek, the language in which the New Testament was
written uses the name "Christ" most frequently. This,
however, is the Greek equivalent to Messiah. When Peter
declared, "Thou art the Christ," he meant that he had
found the One promised in the Old Testament, the Messiah.
The first promise in the Bible points to the Virgin Birth.
Christ was to be the "seed of the woman." Gen. 3:15.
The genealogy in Matthew goes back to Abraham who is the
patriarchal father of the Jewish people. Luke traces His lineage
back to Adam and thus connects Christ with the entire human race
as Son of Man. John gives no genealogy whatsoever because he
directs us at once to His heavenly origin and declares Him as
the incarnate Son of God. An amazing thing to observe is that
the Bible does not give an ordinary father-to-eldest-son record
but rather what may be termed "faithful-father to
faithful-son" record. We do well to ponder this though a
moment for it very definitely bears evidence of inspiration.*
Note: It is puzzling to many to note the divergence of names
recorded in Matthew compared with the lineage of Christ given in
Luke. There are several reasons for the contrasting names.
Matthew gave his list primarily to show that Christ did not have
an earthly father. Matt. 1:17 says, "…there are fourteen
generations from the carrying away into Babylon to Christ."
By counting the names given we discover that Joseph is the
twelfth generation and the only way Christ could be the
fourteenth is to count Mary as a separate generation from
Joseph. This precludes any possibility of his being father of
Jesus and is a positive assertion of the Virgin Birth. There are
other evidences in the lineage to prove that Matthew gave his
record to prove the Virgin Birth. The genealogy of Luke traces
the record down on Mary's side of the family to Heli, who is
reckoned to be the father-in-law of Joseph, that is, Mary's
father.
You will remember that Abraham had eight sons, two of whom
are specially mentioned. Of those sons it was Isaac the second
son who was chosen. Isaac in turn had two sons and again the
second son was chosen. His son Jacob had twelve sons and Judah
the fourth was chosen to be in the line to Christ. David was the
eighth son of Jesse. The lineage does not even stay within the
Hebrew race, as we see in the case o Rahab and Ruth; and yet,
with unerring accuracy each father preserved the record of him
through whom Christ was to come according to the flesh. Each
family through several thousands of years presented many choices
and possibilities of being mistaken; but God ordained the
preservation of an unbroken record from Adam to Christ of the
one line in all the world whose members all had one quality in
common--that quality was "faith." Whether it was Rahab
concealing the spies, or David on the throne; whether it was
peace-loving Isaac the patriarch, or Joseph the carpenter; each
had faith. Not every member of any family had faith. Ishmael did
not. Esau did not. There is nothing to indicate that the seven
older brothers of David had faith. The unerring accuracy by
which each link in the chain is chosen bears irrefutable
evidence of the inspiration of the Bible, since no possible
guesswork could account for the record. Moreover, the genealogy
of Christ precludes any possibility of accounting for His
matchless character on the basis of heredity. His lineage
includes people from almost every level of society, from the
socially outcast Rahab to the morally upright, contemplative and
peace-loving Isaac. This is meant to demonstrate that as Son of
Man, Christ came from all men, and as Son of God He came in
order to save all men.
We must keep in mind that the basic conception of the Messiah
in the Word of God is the Saviour of man. During the spiritual
apostasy in the Jewish religion after their return from Babylon,
there developed the idea of a Jewish Messiah who would save the
Jews from foreign oppression and make their kingdom the greatest
in the world. This teaching is found to a large extent in Jewish
writings known as the Talmud, a book of traditions and Jewish
explanations of the Old Testament. Their tradition were
specifically condemned by Jesus because they contradicted the
true meaning of the Law and "made the Word of God of none
effect." Matt. 15:3, 6.
Let us call attention once more to the inspired prophecy of
Gen. 12:3, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be
blessed." An illuminating comment is given in Cruden's
Concordance on the word Gentile. "The Hebrews called the
Gentiles by the general name of Goiim, which signifies the
nations that have not received the faith or law of God. All who
were not Jews and circumcised are comprised under the word Goiim.
The old prophets declared in a very particular manner the
calling of the Gentiles. Jacob foretold that when Shiloh, or
Messiah would come, to Him should the gathering of the people
be, that is, the Gentiles should yield obedience to Christ and
acknowledge Him as their Lord and Saviour."
If we keep in mind the universal meaning of the term
Gentiles, it throws light on many prophecies concerning the
mission of the Messiah. Isa. 11:10, says, "And in that day
there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign
of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek." Mal. 1:11,
says, "For from the rising of the sun unto the going down
of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles."
Many other Scriptures may be found which reveal how the prophets
recognized Christ as the Saviour of the world and not merely as
a Jewish Messiah with political ambitions, for a world-wide
kingdom here on earth.
Matthew, whose gospel is primarily written for Jews, relates
that the first to worship the new born Messiah were the wise men
from the East. These men were Gentiles who were unfamiliar with
the Scripture telling that Christ would be born in Bethlehem.
Matthew relates also that the ministry of Jesus began in
"Galilee of the Gentiles." Matt. 4:12-15. The
testimony of Luke in Ch. 2:10, 11, 31, 32 follows: "Behold
I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all
people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a
Saviour which is Christ the Lord." In similar vein Simeon
spoke by inspiration upon seeing the infant Messiah, saying,
"Mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared
before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles
and the glory of Thy people Israel." So he also drew
attention to the universal mission of the Messiah. Notice that
the angels declared that the birth of the Messiah provided a
blessing for all people because Christ was born a Saviour. Truly
God knew what men needed better than they knew themselves.
The kingship of the Messiah, like his Saviourhood, is also
universal. His scepter and sovereignty reach as far as His
salvation; they are as universal as mankind, both endless in
duration and limitless in scope. They are the opposite of the
reign of Satan and sin. This was God's purpose for His Son Jesus
when He confidently placed Him on the bosom of Mary and
committed Him to the mission of redeeming mankind and bringing a
lost world back to God. Let us see how convincingly the Messiah
fulfilled all that was written, concerning Himself.
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