The nativity
While Mary was still engaged to Joseph, she miraculously became
pregnant through the Holy Spirit, as foretold to her by the angel.
When Mary told Joseph she was pregnant, he had every right to feel
disgraced. He knew the child was not his own, and Mary's apparent
unfaithfulness carried a grave social stigma. Joseph not only had the
right to divorce Mary, under Jewish law she could be put to death by
stoning.
Although Joseph's initial reaction was to break
the engagement, the appropriate thing for a righteous man to do, he
treated Mary with extreme kindness. He did not want to cause her further
shame, so he decided to act quietly. But God sent an angel to Joseph in
a dream to verify Mary's story and reassure him that his marriage to
her was God's will. The angel explained that the child within Mary was
conceived by the Holy Spirit, that his name would be Jesus and that he
was the Messiah, God with us.
When Joseph woke from his
dream, he willingly obeyed God and took Mary home to be his wife, in
spite of the public humiliation he would face. Perhaps this noble
quality is one of the reasons God chose him to be the Messiah's earthly
father.
Joseph too must have wondered in awe as he remembered the words
found in Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign:
The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will
call him Immanuel."
(NIV)
At that time,
Caesar Augustus decreed that a
census be taken, and every person in the entire Roman world had to go to his own town to register. Joseph, being of the line of
David, was required to go to
Bethlehem
to register with Mary. While in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus.
Probably due to the census, the inn was too crowded, and Mary
gave birth in a crude stable. She wrapped the baby in cloths and placed him in a manger.
The Shepherd's Worship the Savior:
Out in the fields, an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds who
were tending their flocks of sheep by night. The angel announced that
the Savior had been born in the town of David. Suddenly a great host of
heavenly beings appeared with the angels and began singing praises to
God. As the angelic beings departed, the shepherds decided to travel to
Bethlehem and see the Christ-child.
There they found Mary,
Joseph and the baby, in the stable. After their visit, they began to
spread the word about this amazing child and everything the angel had
said about him. They went on their way still praising and glorifying
God. But Mary kept quiet, treasuring their words and pondering them in
her heart. It must have been beyond her ability to grasp, that sleeping
in her arms—the tender child she had just borne—was the Savior of the
world.
The Magi Bring Gifts:
After Jesus' birth, Herod was king of Judea. At this time
wise men (Magi) from the east saw a star, they came in search, knowing
the star
signified the birth of the king of the Jews. The wise men came to the
Jewish rulers in Jerusalem and asked where the Christ was to be born.
The rulers explained, "In
Bethlehem in Judea," referring to
Micah 5:2.
Herod
secretly met with the Magi and asked them to report back after they had
found the child. Herod told the Magi that he too wanted to go and
worship the babe. But secretly Herod was plotting to kill the child.
So the wise men continued to follow the star in search of the new
born king and found Jesus with his mother in Bethlehem. (Most likely
Jesus was already two years of age by this time.) They bowed and
worshipped him, offering treasures of gold, incense, and
myrrh. When they left, they did not return to Herod. They had been warned in a dream of his plot to destroy the child.
