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Health & Fitness

Advent Perfect World Timing

“The incarnation is the supreme example of fulfilled prophecy the supreme example of God’s faithfulness to His promises.  And this is surely most comforting, especially as we consider it in the setting of the world in which we find ourselves.”*

As we have looked at, the timing related to the coming of Jesus Christ into the world on that first Christmas was not an accident.  God had that specific date planned from the beginning of time.  The timing was perfect for the Jewish people, and it was also perfect in terms of the Roman world.  There were many developments and changes that took place in the world before and surrounding the birth of Jesus that made it just the right time for the Savior of the world to be born.

After centuries of wars, invasions, and city-states, most of the known world had been conquered by the Romans and Rome declared a time of peace.  The Pax Romana lasted about 206 years from 27 BC to 180 AD.  During this time wars ceased and the people learned to live in relative peace.  Because there was a common government for the people, there was also a common language, common trade routes, and a common way of learning developed.  When Alexander the Great conquered much of the world, the Greek language began to dominate and by the time of the birth of Christ most people knew at least a little Greek.  The time of peace also allowed for the Roman government to work on infrastructure including roads and trade routes.  This meant that people could travel anywhere and everywhere, in peace, on actual roads, and speaking a similar language.  This was something like the world had never experienced before. 

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Not only could people travel, but information could travel as well.  Like information about the birth of the Messiah who had been born in a little town called Bethlehem.  Before this time of peace and prosperity for Rome, people did not have good ways to travel, to communicate, to share or spread anything, but now the world was ready for a radical message to spread quickly and easily.

Not only were the Jewish people in the perfect position for the Messiah to be born, but the entire world was too.  God often works in our own lives in the same way.  When we look back at the times when God has intervened in our lives we can begin to see how things came together just right, at that moment, for God to work.  Sometimes we call it coincidence, but instead, it is God working His ultimate plans for us.  No one at the time Christ was born could have predicted that everything happening would make the perfect timing for God to break into the world, but God knew because He planned it that way.  Many times we don’t see how the things going on in our lives could point to anything.  We can look at the lives of people who have not yet come to know Christ and wonder if God is at work at all.  The timing of the birth of the Messiah is a reminder that God is always at work, even when we don’t see it or understand it (Romans 8:28).  Trust that God’s plan is good, and God is at work in all times and all places (Jeremiah 29:11).  God is actively using the things we don’t see, and the things we don’t understand, to bring about His glory. 

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God bless, Rev. Liz Arakelian, www.LivingHopeEC.org

*My Soul Magnifies the Lord:  Meditation on the Meaning of Christmas by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

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