MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/1/2026
12:19 PM
My
Worship Time Focus: “The
Personal Setting”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
2:6-7
Message of the verses: “While they were there, the days were
completed for her to give birth. And she
gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in
a Manger, because there was not room for them in the inn.”
Let me begin by saying that last
evening we had a very big thunderstorm, and the result of it was that it caused
us to not have any electric power, and so I was unable to do my Evening
Spiritual Diary. The power is still out
and say that it will not be back online until around midnight, so I am writing
this SD using a head lamp to see with and will post it whenever I am able to do
so.
MacArthur writes: “Luke described the most profoundly
significant event in all of history up to that point—the birth of the God-man,
Jesus Christ—in startlingly simple, straightforward, unembellished, even sparse
language. While Joseph and Mary were
in Bethlehem, the days were completed for her to give birth. Luke did not say how long they had been
in Bethlehem, or whether they were still waiting to register, or stayed there
after registering because Mary’s time to give birth was near. He gave no
description of where the birth took place, except to say that it was not in the
inn. Luke simply said that Mary gave
birth to her firstborn son.” Now let
me stop to say that I think that these words “firstborn son” are very important, and the reason is because
it indicates that her and Joseph had more sons, which they did and two of those
sons, Jude, and James actually wrote letters found in the Word of God. They also had daughters, but their names are
not mentioned which was how things usually worked in those days. Now as to where He was born, earlier I quoted
from an earlier SD that I did on an earlier Christmas day which stated in the
article that the author’s thought was that Jesus was born in a barn where the
Passover Lambs were born and raised, however that place is not there
anymore.
“No
heavenly trumpets rang. No voice from
heaven announced the birth of the Son of God.
Alone except for her young husband, far from her family and friends, in
the most primitive of conditions, a young girl gave birth.” Now if the article that I talked about above
then there would have been people in this cave that were taking care of the
lambs would have been there.
“Thus did
the second person of the Trinity step from eternity into time and space.”
“Luke carefully noted that Jesus was
Mary’s firstborn (Prototokos), not her only (monogenes) son
(cf. his use of monogenes to refer to an only child in 7:12; 8:42; 9:38).” I am always happy when MacArthur agrees with
what I have written before I read what he has written. “The teaching of the Roman Catholic Church
that Jesus was Mary’s only child and that she remained a perpetual virgin until
her death, is clearly a denial of Scripture.
Matthew 1:25 says that Joseph “kept her a virgin until she gave birth
to a Son” (emphasis added). That
strongly implies that after Christ’s birth, they had normal marital
relations. It is also revealed that Mary
gave birth to other children, Jesus’ half brothers and sisters (Matt. 12:46-47;
13:55-56; John 2:12; 7:3, 5, 10: Acts 1:14).
As the first born, Jesus had the primary right to the family inheritance
(cf. Gen. 43:33; Deut. 21:15-17; 1 Chron. 5:1; 2 Chron. 21:3). Joseph was not wealthy (cf. the discussion of
2:21-24 in chapter 14 of this volume), and had no great estate to bequeath to
his firstborn son. But what he did pass
along was the right to the throne of Israel (Matt. 1:1-16).
“As was customary, Mary wrapped her
baby in cloths. Strips of fabric
were used to bind a baby snugly for warmth, security, and to keep the limbs
straight. The point is that Jesus was
treated like any other baby. He was not
dressed in royal robes but in the normal wrappings that other babies word.
“Having borne her Son and wrapped
Him, Mary laid Him in a manger. The
reference to a manger has given rise to tradition that Jesus was born in a
stable. The Bible nowhere states that,
however. Phatne (manger) is the word for a feeding trough. Such troughs could be found anywhere animals
were kept, not only in stables. The Bible
does not specifically say where Mary gave birth to Jesus although a tradition,
dating back to the middle of the second century, says that it was in a
cave. While that is possible, since cavers
were sometimes used to shelter animals, there is no way to verify it.” (Again if you have not looked at my Spiritual
Diary from 03/28/2026 please do as it gives the details of what many believe
was the true birthplace of Jesus.)
“Wherever the couple stayed, it was
not in the inn, because there was no room for them there. Part of the Christmas legend is the heartless
innkeeper who turns away a young woman about to give birth. But kataluma (inn) is not the
normal Greek word for an inn (pandocheion, which Luke used in 10:34),
but rather a general term for a shelter, or logging place (it is translated ‘guest
room’ in 22:11). Exactly what that
loging place was is not clear, but it may have been a public shelter or campground,
perhaps a place where caravans stopped.
But with the overcrowding brought about by the census, there was no room
for Joseph and Mary even in such a makeshift shelter. As a result, Mary was forced to give birth in
the only place available—the place where the travelers’ animals were kept.
“When Jesus came into the world, He
was born in the most comfortless conditions—a smelly, filthy, chilly shelter,
surrounded by noisy animals. It was a
fitting entrance for the “Son of Man [who had] nowhere to lay His
Head (Luke 9:58); the one who ‘was in the world, and the world was made
through Him, and the world did not know Him’ (John 1:10); for the one ‘who,
although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a
thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant,
and [was] made in the likeness of men’ (Phil. 2:6-7); for the ‘Son of
man [who] did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a
ransom for many’ (Matt. 20:28) by bearing ‘our sons in His body on the
cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness’ (1 Peter
2:24). His humble birth was
appropriate for Jesus, who came to die as a substitute in the place of lowly,
humble, wretched sinners. As the writer
of the hymn ‘Ivory Palaces’ put it,
Out of the ivory palaces,
Into a world of woe,
Only His great, eternal love
Made my Savior go.”
4/1/2026
1:39 PM
