All This... To Fulfill What the Lord Had Spoken

The wonderfully heart-warming, spirit-lifting, worship-inducing story of the birth of Jesus, there is one crucial element of the whole event that is often overlooked.That a virgin would bring forth a son is astounding; that Jesus will certainly save His people is reassuring; that God would condescend to be with us is humbling.But there is another point that Matthew purposefully interjects into the inspired account, and it is this: “all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet” (Matthew 1:22).All these things happened, Matthew says, because God said they were going to happen! Yet many individuals took part -- voluntarily and involuntarily -- in this great story of Redemption.We see here God’s omnipotence shaping reality with his Word; and we see the unrelenting responsibility of every human being to their Creator.