My wife (Cindi) and I have made it a regular part of our Sunday to watch the church service online from the W.O.L.C., or Word of Life Center from St Joseph Missouri, with Pastor Brian Zahnd. We have started doing that after I spent the first several months of this year listening to every sermon on the church's podcast since sometime in 2017. Then in the past few months, after I caught up to the present time, we made it a routine to watch the service instead of just listening to the podcast, (though I have listened a few times again after as well anyway).
I say all of that to say, that as we were listening to the service today, Dec. 19th, '21 it was the fourth of a four part series on Advent, and as part of his message Brian preached from the book of Micah 5:2 "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."
In his sermon, which you can watch Here, he talked about the meaning of the town Bethlehem as being house of bread, and the meaning of Ephratah, as meaning ash heap. The history of which included Rachel who died there giving birth to Benjamin, and also the same place where King David was born! The prophet Micah, some 700 years before Jesus, prophesied what we know as the birth place of the coming Messiah. He did not know when, he just knew where. Isaiah, a contemporary of Micah, writes in Isaiah 7:14 "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive. and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel"So as to NOT write out Brian's sermon, I will get closer to my point. Let's go to the New Testament, and see where Jesus is announced to that prophesied young virgin, Mary. In verse 35 of Luke 1:26-38 it says:"And the angel answered ansd said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
So far, if you have been at all familiar with the "Christmas Story", (and I am confident you have), you are following what I am saying but a little further, and I hope to show you something you might never have thought of before.
Luke 2:4 says this: “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David"
Consider what is happening here, as though you have never heard the story before. Put yourself in Mary and Joseph's shoes for a second, as it is happening real time. They are espoused to be married, Mary gets a visit from an angel and is impregnated with the Son of God. Joseph finds out and we are told that he gets a visit from an angel who assures him of what has happened to Mary. Okay, so that is pretty amazing and hard to comprehend in it self! Who would have ever thought that was possible to happen to ordinary poor working class people?
Now, there is one other point that gets missed. These are Jewish people. The difference between Jewish people and us is that THEY know their Scriptures! Especially the boys, since they memorize entire books of the Torah! They know by memory the prophet's writings! They would know what it says in Micah!! Get it? Where is the Messiah supposed to be born? Bethlehem. Where are they living? Nazareth!! "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
They don't know the rest of the story at this point!! What do you mean you are pregnant with the Messiah, we live in Nazareth, and the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem. We don't live in Bethlehem, so how is that possible? What are we supposed to do, move there? For almost the whole pregnancy, they are in Nazareth. Is the prophet wrong? Are they wrong? Are you sure the messenger did not give you more instructions? How long do we wait? Do we stay or do we go? You don't want to travel late into the pregnancy! And then at the very last month, and for whatever time it takes to travel there, suddenly a decree comes that all the world should be taxed, and they have to travel to Bethlehem!! Imagine the concern of traveling... WITH THE SON OF GOD in your womb!!
We live our whole life real time; not knowing the rest of the story! When we read this birth story, we have heard the ending in advance and know how it turned out. They did not. Any time we read biographies, we can even read the last chapter of an entire life to see how it ends if we want. When we read the struggles and fears and disappointments as well as the joys and celebrations we can see in a short time, the years it took to accomplish in real time!
And thus is our life. Lived out in real time! Not knowing what's coming next. Always wondering what is just around the corner. I have heard a story told of a poor Asian family working a farm trying to scratch out a living. One day someone gifts them a horse, and they celebrate the goodness of God, so now they can farm much easier. Then their son gets thrown from the horse and breaks his leg, and they complain that the horse has brought this disaster upon them. Then soldier come to the house to drag every able bodied boy to fight in their war, and since the boy's leg is broken, he is left behind, and now the family celebrates God's goodness once again!
Have you lost your job? Have you had an accident? Is there an unexpected bill you can't afford to pay? Are you sick in the hospital? Has God given you a promise that seems impossible? Look at all of the sudden changes that has taken place since the COVID pandemic! What will come of it all? We don't yet know because we are living it out in real time! But God knows, and years down the road, when the books are all written, the results of the rest of the story will be known, but for now, as always we must keep on trusting in God as we live out our lives in real time, putting our faith and trust in the fact that indeed God knows the end from the beginning, and is in complete control, even When We Don't Know The Rest Of Our Story
