To Israel, God promised a Messiah. He would be the “seed of Abraham” (Gen. 12:1–3) and lineage of David (2 Sam. 7:12–13). To fulfill this promise, He (the Creator of all that is) involved a variety of His handiwork to accomplish His purpose of salvation for all who believe.
None are surprised that God used a couple, both of whom were not only devout but sensitive to the working of the Holy Spirit. Mary’s reply to the message of the angel that she would bear the “Son of the Most High,” even though she had never had sexual relations with a man, was a reply of humility. “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be unto me as you have said” (Luke 1:38). Such faith. Such obedience.
An angel also appeared to Joseph telling him about the coming birth of Jesus. Joseph’s response was to do “what the angel of the Lord had commanded him” even though it meant personal humiliation and ridicule (Matt. 1:24). Again, such faith. Again, such obedience.
God also used the insolent. He used Herod the Great who saw the newborn child as a threat to his power. Herod used lies, manipulation and power in his attempt to snuff out this perceived threat to his rule as king of the Jews. Every effort thoroughly failed because God’s ultimate will for humanity cannot be thwarted, not even by disbelief.
It was not Herod’s power or his wealth that caused his insolence. From the east came Magi — kings and spiritual leaders. Each symbolized power and wealth, but these aristocrats chose to bow before the baby Jesus. Herod represents those so lost in themselves that they consciously choose to oppose God.
The Magi were foreigners, not Jews. Their inclusion in the redemption story shows God’s intention that His salvation be available for every tribe and every tongue. No ethnic group is excluded.
Symbols of the world’s wealth — gold, frankincense and myrrh — were laid before the baby. One is reminded of the temptations of Jesus when Satan offered Him all the kingdoms of this world together with their splendor. Jesus rejected that offer, saying that only God is worthy of worship (Luke 4:5–8). Certainly the treasures left on the stable floor were not nearly as important to God as the believing hearts of the Magi who knelt before Jesus.
God used a pagan empire — Rome — to create the “fullness of time” for His Son to be born. He used Roman law — a required census — to drive a carpenter’s family from Nazareth to Bethlehem where the prophecy of old could be fulfilled concerning the place of the Messiah’s birth (Mic. 5:2).
God used a star to announce the birth of His Son. The star was so unusual that Magi followed it from afar but some nearby, like Herod, never even noticed its appearance. The light of the star guided those opened to its message to the One who was, indeed, the Light of the World.
Angels were chosen to sing “Glory to God in the Highest” because a Savior had been born.
Who beside the shepherds heard the joyful message of the heavenly host no one knows. Perhaps some thought the message nothing more than nighttime thunder. But the shepherds heard and understood. How surprising that of all the people around Bethlehem that night, only the poor, simple shepherds understood and obeyed.
Being a shepherd was not a vocation for those positioned to move up in the world. Shepherds were poor, mostly uneducated. Shepherds lived a simple life. But that fateful night God chose to include the poor in the cast of characters involved in the birth of His Son. God always shows Himself as caring for the poor.
God included the priesthood of Israel as well. Zechariah, the priest, was burning incense in the Jerusalem Temple when God uttered the first words about the soon-coming Messiah. Zechariah’s firstborn would be the Promised One’s Elijah to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). Later this priest would sing of Jesus as shining like the sun to shatter the darkness of sin (Luke 1:79).
God used prophets like Zechariah’s son John, of whom our Lord said that Israel had known no greater prophet. The story of John’s birth is inextricably woven into the fabric of our Lord’s incarnation.
There was the prophetess Anna. This was not a title she claimed for herself, but one bestowed on her by those who witnessed her faithful service and her relationship to God. It was Anna who saw Jesus at the Temple and “who spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” Only God could reveal such truth to her heart.
God also used the Jewish law in the story of His Son’s birth, for it was the law that prompted Mary and Joseph to take their son to the Temple where Mary would offer two doves as a sacrifice to complete her ritual cleansing. It was in keeping the law that the stage was set for Anna’s declaration as well as the affirmation of Jesus as the salvation of God made by Simeon, a man filled with the Spirit.
Not to be overlooked is another woman, Elizabeth, the mother of John. It was Elizabeth who made the first confession of faith in Jesus when she blessed Him while He was still in Mary’s womb (Luke 1:42).
God even used the animals in the stable. Not only did a donkey carry Mary all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem but the animals provided their manger — a feeding trough — for the newborn’s crib and their straw as a bed for His mother.
Some of these players might have been surprised to learn that God was in control, even when they failed to recognize it. Certainly all the world was surprised at the way the Son of God came into this world in human form.
It is comforting to know that in the midst of what appears to be chaos to the human eye, God can be at work in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.
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