Monday, Dec. 24

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When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.  But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. - Matthew 1:24-25

If God decided to send His Son to earth again to be born as a baby, and if He was looking for a suitable home where the child would be properly raised, would yours be in the running?  Consider only the spiritual, moral, and relational qualities God would look for so that, from the human side, a couple could prepare the Savior for His ministry.  Would your home qualify?

Why do you suppose that of all the people He could have chosen, God picked Joseph and Mary?  I would have guessed that God would have picked somebody of prominence, perhaps a priest, a rabbi, a prophet, or a ruler.  He would want His Son to be well cared for, so I would have expected a family that was comfortable financially.  Since His Son would need a first-rate education, God would probably pick a well-educated couple.  Since the best schools, the best opportunities for meeting the “right” people, and for having the proper social upbringing would occur in a city, I would have expected the “right” couple to hail from Jerusalem.

But God didn’t do it that way.  He picked an obscure couple, unknown in the religious and social circles of Jerusalem.  The man was not a ruler or a priest, or even a rabbi, but a common carpenter of no notoriety.  We know that they were poor, because they offered the poor-man’s sacrifice at Jesus’ birth, a pair of turtledoves or pigeons (Luke 2:24).  As far as we know, they were not well educated.  They were common, working people, living in the small, out-of-the-way village of Nazareth in the northern part of Israel known as Galilee.  Why this couple?

One reason is that this just seems to be the way that God prefers to work.  

The apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

In other words, when God does his work, God should get the glory - not man.

Here are just a few other examples of how God chooses to work through unlikely people and circumstances:

Genesis 21 – God allows Sarah (95) and Abraham (100) to have a son – Isaac!

Genesis 25-32 – God chooses Jacob (the younger and weaker brother) over Esau to be the heir of the promise and blessing.

Exodus 4-12 – God chooses Moses (a runaway with a speech impediment) to defy the most powerful ruler on earth and lead nearly 1 million slaves out of Egypt!

Judges 7 – God chooses Gideon (a nobody from a weak clan) to save Israel, and God trims Gideon’s army down from 30,000 to only 300 men!

1 Samuel 16 – God chooses the shepherd boy David, the youngest of 8 brothers, to be anointed King of Israel.

1 Samuel 17 – David, a sling & 5 smooth stones vs. The Philistine Giant Goliath - you know the story…

1 Kings 18 – God chooses Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe (so far out in the boonies that scholars today are not even sure exactly where that was!) to defeat 450 prophets of the false god Baal, and to overthrow the wicked Queen Jezebel.

I guess it really shouldn’t surprise us that God chose a poor teenage girl and a carpenter from the middle of nowhere to raise the Savior of the world!  

How often do we shrink back from what God is doing in us because we think that we are not spiritually qualified, or not gifted enough, we don’t know enough, or we just aren’t “ready” for whatever it is that we think God is asking of us?  

The point is that apparently God gets a kick out of using unlikely people in unlikely circumstances to do his work.  This is the way God worked then, and it is the way he works still today, all he is looking for is a little faith and a willing heart! 

Jeff Frazier