The Story - The Prophesies Fulfilled

Throughout this whole series, we've seen instances of foreshadowing. Time and time again, we've been pointed to a coming Savior: the seed of the woman, a shepherd king, Elijah. But we haven't yet seen what's to come of all these prophesies.

Today, we've finally made it. 

500 years after the final exile of the Jewish people, the children of Israel are under the rule of a new empire: Rome. This had been prophesied during the control of the Babylonians by an Israelite named Daniel, and has finally come about. 

Against this historical backdrop, an angel named Gabriel—a heavenly being unlike anything mankind has seen before—is sent by God to a teenage girl named Mary. Mary isn't very exceptional, as girls go; we don't know much about her history. We do know, however, that she's engaged to be married to a young man named Joseph, and that she's most decidedly not married to him yet. 

Gabriel gives Mary a message. Soon, he says, the promised Savior will come. And he will come through Mary. She will conceive, he tells her, and bear a son, who is the descendant of David and the seed of the woman. And "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." (Luke 1:32-33)

The Savior is the fulfillment of David: check. He will be a king: check. And the virgin birth is in itself the fulfillment of a prophesy: Isaiah, back during the old age of the kings, predicted that "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."

And so, what the angel said comes to pass. Mary becomes pregnant, and though Joseph originally intends to break off their engagement, the angel comes to him and explains the situation. 

Then, Caesar Augustus (the current ruler of Rome) declares that a census is going to be taken of everyone in his empire. To make things organized and efficient, this means that everyone is going to go back to the place that they were born, so that the documentation will be easy. For Joseph, that place happens to be Bethlehem. 

So off to Bethlehem they go: Joseph with his very pregnant betrothed, Mary. It's extremely crowded, and they have some trouble finding a place to stay. A reader might be tempted to wonder why God made Caesar declare a census at such an inconvenient time—shouldn't he want his Son's birth to go smoothly? 

But the census is another very important part of the fulfillment of all the prophecies; it was foretold that the Messiah would be born in the city of David, which is Bethlehem. And the decree came at the perfect time to fulfill that one, too. 

And, inside a crowded stable stall, the Savior of the entire world is born. His earthly mother names him Jesus, a callback to the early Israelite leader Joshua, as the names are actually the same (the differences in English come from transliterating from the Old Testament Hebrew and the New Testament Greek). This birth has so much significance that it's impossible to know it all. 

But the significance doesn't stop there. Events conspire to make the current king of Judea, Herod, aware of Jesus's birth. Viewing him as a threat, he orders all young boys in the area killed—rather like Pharaoh, don't you think?—and Joseph and Mary flee. 

To Egypt. Which, incidentally, fits with the words of the prophet Hosea: "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son." 

And after the danger from Herod is past, the family returns to Joseph's home, the region of Galilee known as Nazareth. So, Jesus grew up as a Nazarene, which was indirectly prophesied in Isaiah 53:3 (see this article to understand how). 

The Savior is born. The Christ, the Messiah. The prophecies have been fulfilled.