The pastor phoned in an order for a special Christmas banner for the sanctuary. It was to say, “Unto Mary, Jesus was born!” He also specified the size. But the salesman evidently misunderstood him, because the finished banner read, “Unto Mary, Jesus was born – five feet long and three feet wide.”
Wow – that’s a big baby!
Most homes prepare for the birth of a child. But did you know that the Father in Heaven also prepared our world for the birth of His Son.
Galatians 4:5 says, “But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son…” * Jesus was sent to us at a precise and perfect time.
It was a time when….
– the world spoke a common language.
Since the tower of Babel, the world had been segmented by a multitude of distinct cultures and languages. Nations went centuries without being able to talk to each other. But in the 4th century B.C., Alexander the Great conquered the world and infused the Greek language into it. By the time of Jesus, Greek was the trade language of every nation. It became the common bridge through which to speak the Gospel.
– the world was at peace.
The world had been ruled by rogue empires. First Egypt, then Assyria, then Babylon and on and on. The constant instability and lawlessness would have made it difficult for the messengers of Christ to do their job.
But that changed when Rome came into power. For almost 500 years, the Roman legal system protected her people and the Roman Legion kept the peace. This peace and stability gave the Gospel messengers freedom to journey forth and preach.
– travel was superior.
Prior to the Romans, roads were narrow dirt paths, often impassable when the weather was bad. They followed the easiest route – often circuitous paths. But Rome paved the roads, so well in fact some are still in use today. Their roads were built with efficiency in mind.
They went through mountains and over rivers and marshes. There were 51,000 miles of paved highways in the empire. People like Paul were enabled to move freely and quickly from place-to-place sharing the gospel – assisted by Roman roads.
– the world was spiritually prepared.
The ancient world was bursting with idols and pagan religions while the truth of the Yahweh was bottled up in Israel. Several centuries before Christ, Israel was invaded by Assyria and then Babylon. The Jews were forcibly dispersed throughout the world.
Consequently, by the first century every major city of the world had a synagogue where faithful Jews would meet for worship on the Sabbath. These Jewish folks created monotheistic oases in the desert of polytheism. Through them, the world was finally made aware of the holy God of Israel, and the promise of a Messiah.
Paul wisely used that network of synagogues across Asia, Europe and the Middle East to proclaim Jesus.
God truly sent His Son in the fullness of time.
If it had been earlier, the message would have been bottled up and lost. There would be no common language with which to communicate it, no peace and protection for those who carried the message, no superhighways to facilitate the travel of its messengers, and the spiritual soil would not have been plowed and made ready for the seeds of the Gospel,
On the other hand – had the Father sent His Son much later – the advantages of the first century would have been lost, for after the Fall of the Roman Empire the world reverted into chaos until the modern era.
God’s timing was impeccable – He sent the Lord Jesus in the fullness of time.
Makes me wonder – Since God did such a great job with the timing of the birth of Christ, why we don’t trust Him with the everyday issues of time that affect us?
A PRAYER: Lord of time, help us to trust you with our schedules.
This has been Jim Johnson and pickleheavenpress.com
May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
*Scripture reference is from the New American Stand Version
Pickle Heaven Press-James R. Johnson 