Advent | Meet Him At The Manger by Stuart and Jill BriscoeSample

Christmas: The Divine Invasion

I don't understand why people get so perturbed at the miraculous nature of Jesus' birth. If the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish it, then nothing is impossible. The Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit is nothing less than the divine invasion of God into this world. And this is a source of great joy. The fact that God brought His Son into the world in this way once again demonstrates His unlimited power and wisdom.

But if you think the virgin birth itself was a miracle, how about the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, coming to earth as a human being? Perhaps the great miracle is not so much a baby born of a virgin, but the awesome identity of the baby. This babe born of Mary was the One who created and still sustains the universe, holds all authority and power in heaven and on earth, and is the ultimate source of meaning and purpose for all creation.

The Son of God vacated His heavenly throne for a lowly stable. This miraculous birth was nothing less than a divine invasion, where the almighty Word of God became a fragile human baby, unable to speak.

But we have allowed the divine invasion of that initial Christmas to degenerate into something sentimental. We have lots of clean straw and colored lights and beautiful oxen and well-behaved donkeys. A lovely girl with a halo around her head sits among shepherds kneeling and regal wise men adoring. There they gather, beautifully and sentimentally, around the manger in which the most magnificent child you ever did see slumbers silently.

Yet the Son of God was born to demonstrate His power and dominion:

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.…

Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end. (Isaiah 9:6-7 NKJV)

There was something majestic and eternal about this invasion. God came to earth as a human being in order to secure the redemption of His creation. What a divine idea!