Gods Purpose Revealed in Bethlehem
Horatius Bonar
And the Word was made flesh. —John 1:14
There was nothing great about Bethlehem. It was “little among the thousands of Judah” (Mic 5:2), perhaps but a shepherd village or small market town. Yet there, the great purpose of God became a fact: “The Word was made flesh”…Bethlehem is not named in our text, but you cannot read the verse without being transported to that city. “In the beginning was the Word” (Joh 1:1) carries you up into heaven and back into past infinity. “The Word was made flesh” (Joh 1:14) brings you down to earth and the finite things of time: to the manger, the stable, and “the young child.” The shepherds are gone; the wise men have departed to their own country; the glory has passed up again into heaven; the angels have left; the song of the plain has ceased; the star has disappeared—the star of which Balaam spoke, as yet to sparkle somewhere in these eastern heavens, and which Micah may be said to have fixed and hung over the city, when he named the name of Bethlehem as the birthplace of the coming King (Mic 5:2)…
At Bethlehem, our world’s history begins. All before and after the birth of the young child takes its color from that event. As the tree, rising from a small root or seed, spreads its branches, and with them its leaves, its blossoms, its fruit, its shade, north, south, east, and west, so has this obscure birth influenced all history, sacred and secular, before and behind. That history is an infinite coil of events, interwoven in endless intricacies, apparently with a thousand broken ends—now upward, now downward, now backward, now forward; but the raveled coil is one, and its center is Bethlehem. The young child there is the interpreter of all its mysteries. As He is “the beginning of the creation of God”1 (Rev 3:14), the “first-begotten of the dead” (Rev 1:5), so is He the beginning and ending, the center and circumference of human history. Christ is all and in all; and as such, from the manger to the throne, He is the incarnation of Jehovah’s purposes, the interpretation of the divine [actions], and the revelation of the heavenly mysteries.
Few statements contain in them such a world of truth as this of our text. Let us see what it is [and] what it teaches.
What it is: The “Word” is the eternal name for the young Child of Bethlehem. He is so called because He is the revealer of the Father, the exponent2 of Godhead. He is so now; He was so in the days of His flesh; He has been so from eternity. The names Christ, Immanuel, Jesus, are His earthly ones, His names in time, connected with His incarnate condition; but the names Word and Son are expressive of His eternal standing, His eternal relationship to the Father. What He was in time and on earth, the same He has been in heaven and from eternity. The glory that He had “before the world was” (Joh 17:5), and of which He “emptied himself” (Phi 2:7), was the glory of the eternal Word, the everlasting Son. As the eternal revealer of Godhead, “the brightness of his [the Father’s] glory, and the express image of his person” (Heb 1:3), His name ever was The Word. As the declarer of the mind of God to man, His name is no less The Word with this addition: “the Word made flesh.”
“In the beginning was the Word” (Joh 1:1) is the divine, heavenly, upper portion of the mystery. “The Word was made flesh” is the human, the earthly, the lower. It is this latter that so specially concerns us; for without it the former was nothing to us. “God was manifest in the flesh” is the great “mystery of godliness” (1Ti 3:16) that links together the creature and the Creator, that brings down to the sinner’s side the waters of the eternal well. It is this that makes the inaccessible and unapproachable Godhead accessible and approachable—the unseen becoming the seen, nay, the most seen of all; the far off becoming the near, nay, the nearest of all; the incomprehensible becoming comprehensible—nay, the most comprehensible of all: a little child, a child of poverty and weakness, suckled at a woman’s breast and resting upon a woman’s knee.
The Word was made flesh! He became truly man: man all over— within and without, in body, soul, and spirit—in everything but sin. All the nations of the earth God hath made of one blood, and of that one blood was the Word made partaker, becoming bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. His soul [was] truly human, not superhuman nor celestial. His body of the very substance of the virgin—true, real, yet holy flesh, the holiness not making Him less truly flesh, and the flesh not making Him less truly holy.
Thus, Bethlehem becomes the link between heaven and earth. God and man meet there and look each other in the face. In the young Child, man sees God, and God sees man. There is joy in heaven, there is joy on earth, and the same song suits both. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luk 2:14). Jacob’s ladder is now firmly planted on the earth. God is coming down; man is going up; angels are in attendance upon both. The seed of the woman has come! God has taken man’s side against the old serpent. He has not only knocked at man’s door, but He has come in…
What it teaches: The angel was the first to interpret it: “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy” (Luk 2:10). Yes, tidings of peace and good-will, tidings of God’s free love, tidings of His design to pitch once more His tabernacle here and to take up His abode with the sons of men.
It teaches us God’s thoughts of peace, for incarnation means this at least: God’s desire is to bless us, not to curse; to save, not to destroy. He seeks reconciliation with us; nay, He has brought about
the reconciliation. He has not merely made proposals of peace and sent them to us by the hand of an ambassador; but He has Himself come to us, bearing His own message and presenting Himself to us in our nature, as His own ambassador. Incarnation is not, indeed, the whole; but it is much. It is the voice of love, the message of peace. God Himself is both the speaker and the maker of peace.
The message that comes to us from Bethlehem is a very decided one. It is not a finished one; it was only finished at the cross. But, so far as it goes, it is quite explicit, quite unambiguous. It means love, peace, pardon, eternal life. The lesson taught us at Bethlehem is the lesson of grace—the grace of God, the grace of the Father and of the Son. We may learn much, indeed, as to the way of life, from Bethlehem. It must not, indeed, stand alone; you must associate it with Jerusalem. You must bring the cradle and the cross together. But still it teaches us the first part of the great lesson of peace. It says, though not so fully as Golgotha, “God is love” (1Jo 4:8). The beginning is not the end, but still it is the beginning…Bethlehem is not Jerusalem, but still it is Bethlehem. And the Prince of peace is there. The God of salvation is there. The manifested life is there.
Do not despise Bethlehem. Do not pass it by. Come; see the place where the young child lay. Look at the manger: there is the Lamb for the burnt-offering, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Joh 1:29). These little tender hands shall yet be torn. These feet that have not yet trod this rough earth shall be nailed to the tree. That side shall yet be pierced by a Roman spear; that back shall be scourged; that cheek shall be buffeted and spit upon; that brow shall be crowned with thorns—and all for [sinners]! Is this not love? Is it not the great love of God? And is there not life in this love? And is there not salvation in this life, a kingdom, and a throne?
At Bethlehem, the fountain of love was opened, and its waters have gushed out in their fullness. The well of David has overflowed the earth, and the nations now may drink. The good news has gone forth from the city of David, and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Would you learn the way to God? Go to Bethlehem. See yon infant: it is God, the Word made flesh. He is “the way…no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (Joh 14:6). Go and deal with Him. So shall Bethlehem be to you the gate of heaven…Would you have a safeguard against worldliness, sin, error, and the snares of the last days? Choose and keep the young Child’s companionship…
Would you learn to be humble? Go to Bethlehem. There the highest is the lowest, the eternal Word a babe. The King of kings has not where to lay His head; the Creator of the universe sleeps in a woman’s arms…“Be not proud,” says yon Bethlehem manger. “Be clothed with humility,” say the swaddling-clothes of yon helpless Child.
Would you learn to be self-denied? Go to Bethlehem. See the Word made flesh. He “pleased not himself” (Rom 15:3). Where shall we find such self-denial as at the cradle and the cross? Where shall we read a lesson of self-sacrifice such as we have in Him Who made Himself of no reputation, Who chose not Jerusalem, but Bethlehem, for His birthplace—not a palace nor a temple, but a stable for His first earthly home? Shall we not be followers of His lowly love?
From “Bethlehem and Its Good News,” available from CHAPEL LIBRARY.
1. The beginning…God – this does not mean that Christ is the first thing created, but the “beginner, origin” (Gk = ἀρχή arche) of all God’s creation.
2. exponent – one who sets forth or interprets.
From “Bethlehem and Its Good News,” available from CHAPEL LIBRARY.
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