“And
while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she
gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and
laid him in a manger; because there was no place for them in the inn.”
-Luke 2:L6-7 (ESV)
Now
the birth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was on this manner:
Because there was no room in Bethlehem Inn, Mary with her husband Joseph
were lodged in a stable. This resting place, we are told, may have
been a limestone cave in a hillside near the inn where animals were
sheltered from the elements and rested at night following a day of
grazing. Or it may have been a place where people lodging in the inn
kept their animals. This would have been a room or area beneath the
house at ground level, a place especially for animals. Because the Jews
were very fastidious, the stable would have been cleaned thoroughly.
Still this was an unlikely place for the birth of anyone, especially the
King of Glory, the Savior of the world, Lord of Lords, Messiah.
And so it came to pass that the place of the King’s birth was a
stable. And his first earthly resting place was a manger—a feeding
trough for animals. What do the stable and the manger represent? They
bespeak the poverty, humility and humanity of Jesus. The poverty, “no
crib for a bed.” The humility, Immanuel, God with us, was among the
lowliest—born where a servant might have been born. In Philippians
2:6-7 we read: Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing,
taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” As
to the humanity of the Baby, He could cry, He felt heat and cold, He
was subject in His body to all the feelings, emotions and needs of any
human, although God (Immanuel—God with us). He was born wholly human,
wholly divine. Later we would be told of Him: “He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15, ESV).
Jeremiah the prophet wrote: “I will raise up…a King who will reign wisely” (Jeremiah
23:5). Song writer and musician William Harold Neidlinger gave us both
words and music to the carol “The Birthday of a King”:
“In the little village of Bethlehem, There lay a child one day,
And the sky was bright with a holy light O’er the place where Jesus lay.
Aleluia! O How the angels sang, Aleluia! How it rang!
And the sky was bright with a holy light,
‘Twas the birthday of a King.”
Prayer:
Today as we celebrate the birthday of the King of kings and Lord or
lords, let us allow the depth of truth of this blessed event to draw us
closer to Him. May we adore and serve Him in true allegiance to the
King of kings. Amen.
May each who reads this have a blessed Christmas. -Ethelene Dyer Jones 12.25.2015.
