Advent at Ararat - Day 21: God confirms Who the Christ is, with signs.

“And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭2‬:‭12‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Obviously, when we read stories from the Bible, we are not given all the minutia of the events. Basically, we are told what we need to know to be able to form a correct picture of what the Lord wants us to receive.

Additionally, we see that many major events described in the Bible have been prophesied at some other point in the Bible so that the events can be recognized and given due attention.

In our opening scripture we see that the angel—having told the shepherds the good news of Christ being born—gives them two signs indicating that they have found the One Who is Christ the Lord. First, the child will be swaddled in strips of cloth; secondly, He will be lying in a manger. Although swaddling was a common practice in those days (as is still today in some cultures), being accompanied with the fact that the newborn would be lying in a manger, basically would remove all doubt that they were seeing the Lord when they came upon Him.

Now, why is this important? You see, we have a large portion of what the shepherds probably had to do in order to find Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, left to the imagination. As we discussed earlier, Bethlehem was overrun with people because of the census. Indeed, so many that there was no place for Mary and Joseph to stay; therefore they were relegated to a barn of sorts.

Now, as we will see, the shepherds went to find Jesus. What we are not told in the narrative (as it is not essential to our understanding, but is obvious to our reasoning) is that they didn’t go straight and find Him. They probably went to any number of places throughout the city before coming upon the stable in which the Christ Child was born.

Our personal seeking for a savior can feel like a daunting task. So many voices offer relief; but there can be only One Savior. Indeed, God has given us sure signs that Jesus is the One Whom we seek in that He fulfilled every Old Testament prophecy concerning the coming Messiah.

The testimony of the shepherds to those they told the story of having seen the Lord, was reinforced by the important fact that the angel had told exactly where He would be and in what state He would be found.

Make no mistake, the Lord shepherded every detail concerning the birth—indeed, the life—of Jesus; every prophecy was fulfilled.

Our trusting Jesus as being the Savior sent from God is not baseless. God gave us clear signs that would accompany every aspect of His life.

For today meditate on the sure signs the word of God has given us concerning the identity of our Lord. Additionally, consider the signs given pointing to the time of the Lord’s return that we are seeing all around us even today.

Oh, what a wonderful assurance we have that the little boy sleeping in that manger on that starry night in Bethlehem was the Savior, Christ the Lord!

Peace to you.

#adventatararat