Birth or Christ Part 3

 We now turn from the great forerunner who prophecy said should come; "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple", to one that is even greater; "Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting".


Our story unfolds with two weary travelers entering the city of Bethlehem, Joseph and his wife Mary, who was great with child. The journey was long and hard, if it was not for the need for Mary to come to register according to her family linage for the purpose of taxation, Joseph would have left his wife at home. Joseph could not remember where and when the birth pain began, but they had been coming for sometime. He was never so happy to a city, because he felt a sense of urgency to find refuge, for his wife was about to give birth. He stop at the first inn that he saw, but there is no room, they also informed him that all the inns were filled. Joseph pleads with the inn keeper to give some place to his wife, but to no avail.

Mary's birth pains were now coming so very close together,some place any place must be found at once. Frenetically, Joseph looks around, as he hasten his pace through the village, his eyes fasten upon some limestone rocks, to a cave that is used as a stable for horses and cattle, he quickly take refuge there and not a moment to soon. And so it was that Mary brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

At the same time there were three wise men coming from the east inquiring,

" Where is he that is born king of the Jews"?

When Herod the king heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. When the king had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.

And they said unto him,

In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when you have found him, bring me word, that I may come and worship him also. But the king's "true desire was hidden behind a pretense to worship the child, his real desire was to kill the child. So when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. A king gives a written authorization for a search, arrest, and execution of a baby.



What could this newly born innocent baby have done that would justify such a response?

Why did Herod the king and all Jerusalem with him become troubled?

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

Why do the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed?

We once again at this annual holiday peroid see were many want to take Christ out of christmas, nativity scene out of city, state, and federal places, along with how we should greet another. What we are witnessing is the fleshy mind at enmity with God because it is not subjest to him. King Herod and every fleshly minded person vain imagination is that if they make an assault upon Christ, or Christian symbols they will fade away, disapprear, and die out.



Still after all these years, the kings of the earth still set themselves, against the LORD, and against his anointed, the heathen still rage, and the people still imagine a vain thing. They have not learned from history, from the first futile attemp to kill the Christ child and the wholesale massacre of a multiutude of Christian martyr down through the ages, that their attemps to eradicate Christianity from the world was and still is an exercise in futility.

Now the question is: Do you set your self against the Lord and against his anointed?

Do you rage and imagine the same vain thing?