Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - TWO MORE FACTS

 TWO MORE FACTS

The fact that the Magi were not there at the time of Jesus’ birth and the lineage of Herod as it relates to the attempt on Jesus’ life are both interesting aspects of the Messiah’s birth not often mentioned. There are others that often do not warrant much attention including these two.

In the book of Ruth, we are told of the migration of Naomi and her family from Bethlehem to Moab due to famine. There, as events unfolded, a Moabite woman, Ruth, became a daughter-in-law of Naomi and later came back to live in Bethlehem when the famine was over. Ruth married Boaz and they had a son, raised by Naomi.

Then Naomi took the child and…became a nurse to him. 

[And] the neighbour woman gave him a name, saying 

“There is a child born to Naomi…” 

(Ruth 4:16,17)

This child “of Naomi’s” was called Obed.

He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. 

(Ruth 4:17)

It was to Bethlehem and to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, that the Lord sent Samuel to find David.

 

…For I have provided Myself a king among his sons. 

(1 Samuel 16:1)

And so from Bethlehem God provided a king for Israel just as He would many years later provide a king for the world from the same city.

The second interesting fact is the time between when something is requested of God and its’ fruition. For over 400 years, the Hebrew people languished in Egypt and prayed for deliverance without any apparent result. It’s evident that God’s timing is His own and that we must be patient and alert to recognizing His answer when it comes. The Israelites apparently did not and begged Moses to take them back to Egypt.

“Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying,

‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it

would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians that that

we should die in the wilderness.” 

(Exodus 14:12)

The Israelites did not recognize their deliverance when it was there for them. It was also 400 years from the time of the last Old Testament prophet and the predictions of a coming deliverer and the birth of Christ. Once again, the people were not alert to what was taking place and were not expecting the answer when it came. For when Christ was born, neither the leaders nor the people were ready. The Bible states that:

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
(John 1:11)

Four hundred years and then not recognized when He came. Will the same happen to us? After all, it’s been many years since we were told that He would return. And so, as Peter says:

…scoffers will come in the last days…saying, 

“Where is the promise of His coming? 

For since the fathers fell asleep, 

all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 

(2 Peter 3:3-4)

In the Bible there are numbers which are important and the number three is indicative of completeness and divine perfection. We have already missed, in many ways, two occasions when God answered promises; hopefully we can do better with number three when it occurs.

At least, it gives one something substantial to think about.