Lk.2:7 – She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
The hardest lesson the Apostle Paul had to learn was this, that the power of God is seen the clearest in our weakness. Paul said that he prayed three times for his thorn in the flesh, the constant assault on life, to be removed but that is where he discovered this powerful lesson. The Lord said to him, “My power is displayed in your weakness”. I thought of Paul’s struggle when I read this verse this morning describing Jesus being born in a manger. Think about it, the most powerful of all beings being cloaked in this startling circumstance of weakness. Not only was the Lord born in a human body, He started His life with the animals in a make shift barn; quite shocking. The greatest power of all, the omnipotent power of God was cloaked in this baby to display His power. The greatest display of His power is seen in His resurrection from the dead. Here is how Jonathan Edwards describes His curious birth.
“His infinite condescension marvelously appeared in the manner of his birth. He was brought forth in a stable, because there was no room for them in the inn. The inn was taken up by others, that were looked upon as persons of greater account. The blessed Virgin being poor and despised, was turned or shut out; though she was in such necessitous circumstances, yet those that counted themselves her betters, would not give place to her; and therefore in the time of her travail she was forced to betake herself to a stable; and when the child was born, it was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger; and there Christ lay a little infant; and there he eminently appeared as a lamb. But yet this feeble infant that was born thus in a stable, and laid in a manger, was born to conquer and triumph over Satan, that roaring lion.”
This baby boy, born in this place of weakness, was here to accomplish the greatest of all victories. He came to destroy the works of the devil. He accomplished this not through brute force but through humility and righteousness. Christ came to release us from our sins, He was born in weakness to die the horrible death of crucifixion. This is where He conquered Satan, this is what that strange birth was all about. He came as the Lamb of God, our sin offering, to defeat the power of sin.
