Anchor My Faith

The Birth of Jesus

Scripture: Luke 2:6-7

The seven verses of this section don’t seem very exciting when first reading them, and seem to simply give information that Mary went with Joseph to Bethlehem and while there gave birth to Jesus in a place where animals stayed. It wasn’t a very impressive beginning for Jesus, but a necessary one if God is who the Scriptures report him to be. We learned that he established the place of the birth of Jesus in Micah 5:2. This section contains the details that show how God fulfilled that prophecy.

We pick up our study at verse 6: “And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth” (Luke 2:6 ESV). As one reads this verse, one might wonder why Mary didn’t stay home, since she was not required to go with Joseph, since she was so close to delivering. Maybe she felt it was important to be with Joseph so that if she were to deliver on the trip, he would be able to experience the event and be with her to help after the birth. Maybe one might say Mary was in Bethlehem and gave birth there because of this decree, but it is God who is ultimately in control of history and would guarantee that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem as prophesied in Micah 5:2. So, when the time came for Mary to give birth she was where God required her to be.

Since Mary was not at home when her time came and since many others had come to Bethlehem to register, there were not any good places left for them to stay while she gave 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 2:7 ESV).

What stands out in this verse is that the Son of God, who entered the womb of a woman to take on the flesh of a men, is now being born quietly in a stable in an obscure village in Judea. There is no fanfare and only a very few details, which included what the child was wrapped in after birth and where he was laid. The baby was wrapped in swaddling cloths, which were strips of cloth to keep a baby warm and secure. Since there were no rooms left in the inn they stayed with the animals and the baby was laid in a manager, a feeding trough for animals.

There is one more detail that needs to be considered and that is: “she gave birth to her firstborn son.” Since Luke is writing this after the death of Jesus, the word firstborn implies that she had other sons. As we progress in our study, we will find other verses that support the fact that Mary gave birth to other children after giving birth to Jesus. This is important because the Roman Catholic Church states that she was a perpetual virgin, which according to Scripture is not true.

Prayer

Father, it is amazing that you allowed the Son of God, the creator of the universe, to be born among animals and laid in a feeding trough used by animals. Each one who reads this lesson and has given birth to a child needs to stop and think of how you would feel giving birth under the same conditions as Mary. There is a very big difference between the sanitation and comfort of a hospital and a location where animals stay. Father, if we in the west are to truly understand the material we will spend years studying, we will need to get our minds around the culture of time that Jesus lived. I learned the importance of that during the time I served you in Asia.