Jesus’ Birth
Seek the Truth with all your heart.
Jesus did not ever mention the words born or birth about Himself. He always said “I came to Earth.” He is the only one Who has ever claimed that GOD was His true FATHER, which He knew was so, without being told.
When His Earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, lost Him in Jerusalem, they searched for three days and found Him in the temple having a very informed and intelligent discussion with the priests, who were amazed at his knowledge.
Jesus obviously already knew that His being twelve years of age meant that He had reached Jewish traditional adulthood which is known as ‘Bar Mitzvah.’ All of this showed that He was a unique and very special person.
Jesus was born when times were rough and brutal under Herod Antipas who married Herodias while she was still his brother’s wife.
Isaiah 7:14 ‘Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a Son, and will call Him Immanuel.’
Isaiah 9:6-7 ‘For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty GOD, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.’
Isaiah wrote this under GOD’s inspiration, approximately 740 years before Jesus’ birth.
Matthew 1:1-17 ‘This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the Son of David, the son of Abraham. The following verses 2-16, name the generations from Abraham to Jesus.
Verse 17 ‘Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.’
Matthew 1:20-23 ‘But after Joseph had considered this, an angel of the LORD appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save His people from their sins.” (Repeated in Luke 1:35.)
(Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua which means ‘The Lord saves.’) All this took place to fulfil what the LORD had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call Him Immanuel.” (Which means ‘GOD with us.’ Repeated in Isaiah 7:14.)
Matthew 1:23 ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means, “GOD with us.”
Matthew 2:1-23 ‘After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the One who has been born king of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “For this is what the prophet has written:
But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.”
‘Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find Him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship Him.”
‘After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. Ehen they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with His mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of incense and of Myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.’
‘When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and His mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill Him.”
So he got up, took the child and His mother and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
‘When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more.”
After Herod died, an angel of the LORD appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, Get up, take the child and His mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
So he got up, took the child and His mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets that He would be called a Nazarene.’
Luke 1:26-38 “In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, GOD sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a young virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured.! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her. “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favour with GOD. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord GOD will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever, His Kingdom will never end.”
How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin.?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of GOD. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with GOD.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.’
Elizabeth became the mother of John the Baptist. She and Jesus’ mother Mary were cousins.
Luke 2:52 ‘And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with GOD and man.’
Luke 19:10 ‘The Son of Man (Jesus) came to seek and to save what was lost.’
Without Jesus being born on earth and doing what He did, we would all be lost for eternity; however the choice is ours, Jesus has opened the door, but we need to make the choice, and honour and follow that path.’
For a time Jesus was a refugee to enable escape from Herod’s plan to kill Him in a broad blanket of killing, by having all male children under two years of age put to death by his order, by way of being sure that Jesus did not escape. However He did escape by way of being taken to Egypt.
John 1:1-4 & 14 ‘In the beginning was the Word (Jesus,) and the Word was with GOD, and the Word was GOD. He was with GOD in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life and that was the light of all mankind.’ ‘The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, Who came from the FATHER, full of grace and truth.’
Jesus never said that we are to celebrate His date of birth – birthday – which is unknown anyway. It certainly was not in December, it would have been in September or October, because it can be calculated in relation to the birth of John the Baptist whose mother Elizabeth was a cousin of Mary - Jesus’ mother. John the Baptist’s birth can be calculated approximately in relation to an event at the time, and we know that Jesus was born six months later.
Shepherds were not in the field in December. The cold, rainy season began long before December 25, when the sheep were kept under shelter. Jesus was not born in December; He was probably born sometime between late August and early October, as most reputable Bible commentaries acknowledge.
Jesus never observed His birthday, and neither did the Apostles. There is no instruction in the Bible to celebrate His birth.
We are to be constantly aware of His having died for us, and reclaimed life for us. Jesus is the One Who will resurrect us to immortal, eternal life in His, and our FATHER’s kingdom.
In the year 245AD the noted scholar Origen - ‘Repudiated as sinful the very idea of keeping the birthday of Christ.’ (Ref. Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th ed.)
Joseph: Mary’s husband, and Jesus’ Earthly ‘father.
Joseph came from a line of kings. Matthew 1:20, Luke 1:27
Joseph was a son of David from the tribe of Judah.
Joseph’s Son would be the ‘Seed’ which GOD promised to Abraham. Genesis 3:15
That the prophet Isaiah was talking about Joseph’s Son when he wrote, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel”? Isaiah 7:9
When Joseph fled to Egypt with Mary and Jesus, to escape King Herod, he was protecting The Seed of GOD’s promise to Abraham.
Film clip of the Angel of GOD telling Mary that the LORD GOD has chosen her to be pregnant with Jesus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysgiJSARhpg 4 minutes.