What is it? Only a helpless baby, born in deepest poverty. But it was God's gift, and that made it great. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
This was the Redeemer, who was to turn away ungodliness from men. So we read: "Who is so great a God as our God? You are the God that does wonders: You have declared your strength among the people. You have with your arm redeemed your people." (Psalm 77:13-15)
It is with His strong right arm that God redeems His people; and this arm of the Lord is Jesus Christ whom He has sent; for we read again: "Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." (Isaiah 53:1-3)
This is the "mighty arm" of the Lord, with which He redeems His people. Prophets had sung of it, and kings and people had looked with eager longing and exultant hope for its revelation; and: "When the fullness of the time was come," (Galatians 4:4) what did they see? Only a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger. Disappointed? Yes; many of them were; but they had no reason to be; for that was the sign which the angel gave to prove that the great gift was bestowed. "The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (1 Corinthians 1:25)
What is weaker and more destitute of reason than a newborn babe? Not any other animal that lives. Yet that helpless babe was "the power of God, and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:24)
The cross of Christ is the power of God. Christ hanging on the cross, nailed hand and foot, the helpless object of the ridicule of the mob, is the gift by which God redeems mankind. "[God's] strength is made perfect in weakness;" (2 Corinthians 12:9) and so in the cradle and the cross we have the highest manifestation of God's everlasting power. "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the East, and are come to worship Him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea; for thus it is written by the prophet, And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, are not the least among the princes of Juda; for out of you shall come a Governor, that shall rule [feed] my people Israel. Then Herod when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when you have found Him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship Him also. When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star which they saw in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy." (Matthew 2:1-10)
It was most fitting that wise men should bring gifts to God's unspeakable gift--to Him who was the wisdom of God. Earth's wisest men did homage to "the foolishness of God." In Him we see wisdom and foolishness combined. He who is set forth as the foolishness of God, which is wiser than men, is also the wisdom of God; so that God's foolishness is His wisdom.
This is encouragement for the foolish of this world--those who lack wisdom. "God has chosen the foolish things of the world," (1 Corinthians 1:27) in order that He may through them glorify His own wisdom; for even the foolish things are by Him made to confound the wisest men of earth. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings You have ordained strength, that You might still the enemy and the avenger." (Psalm 8:2) And Jesus said unto them, Yea; have you never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings You have perfected praise?" (Matthew 21:16)
Well might the wise men of earth bring the richest treasures to the infant Jesus, for He was "the Son of God," (Luke 1:35) "In whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him; And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." (Colossians 1:14-17,RV)
All heaven, yes, the earth also, and the entire universe, was contained in that one gift; for: "It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." (Colossians 1:19) "In [Him] are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," (Colossians 2:3) "[even] unsearchable riches." (Ephesians 3:8)
There is not a good thing enjoyed by any person on earth, that does not come from Christ. "A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven." (John 3:27) "Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights." (James 1:17) "[He] gives us richly all things to enjoy," (2 Timothy 6:17) so that our daily bread comes to us from the cross of Christ. "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit. ... None of the princes of this world knew [the Lord of glory]." (1 Corinthians 2:9-10,8)
They could not discern Him in the guise of a little child. Divinity was clothed with humanity, and the fleshly clothing which the Word took was a veil that concealed the glory from the eyes of the unspiritual. So when men were speculating as to who He was, and Peter declared, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus answered,...flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 16:16-17)
Even to this day the flesh serves as a veil to hide the Divine power from the perception of those who "have eyes, but see not." (Jeremiah 5:21)
That is, who do not allow God to use their eyes and all their other members. But the blood, the life of Christ, even in mortal flesh, gives us boldness to enter into the holiest, where we can "behold the beauty of the Lord," (Psalm 27:4) although outwardly "there is no beauty that we should desire Him." (Isaiah 53:2)
This failure to discern the Lord in the weakest form of weak humanity is what holds men in sin and degradation and misery. They look at themselves, at their own bodies as good as dead, and lose heart. "It is impossible for me ever to overcome," they say; "these sins are part of my nature; they were born in my flesh, and I cannot hope to get rid of them."
They forget, that: "The righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, Saynot in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what says it? The Word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart; that is, the Word of faith, which we preach." (Romans 10:6-8) "The Word was made flesh," (John 1:14) and still remains in the flesh, with "power over all flesh." (John 17:2)
Heaven's richest Gift, the power and fullness of the whole universe, is brought to and placed in everybody. No longer, allow the flesh to hide the glory of the only begotten of the Father; but yield your bodies as temples of the Holy Ghost where God may sit enthroned, so that: "He that sits between the cherubim [may] shine forth." (Psalm 80:1)
But think! this gift was "born King of the Jews." (Matthew 2:2)
Shall we therefore reject Him, saying, "We want no Jewish King to reign over us!"
If so we reject salvation, "for salvation is of the Jews." (John 4:22)
Those wise men from the proud East were not ashamed for all Jerusalem and all the world to know that they had come to worship the King of the Jews, although the Jews themselves were ashamed of Him, and hid their faces from Him.
Ever since Constantine, the self-elected head of the apostate church, said, "Let us have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd," professed Christians have been following his lead. They reject God's law, and especially the Sabbath, because, as they say, "It's Jewish."
And in rejecting the law, they reject the Lawgiver, the One who bestows the unspeakable gift; and so they despise the gift itself. No other throne was promised Him except that of "His father David": "The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever." (Luke 1:32-33)
God's richest gift is brought to us in the meanest covering and in the meanest form. May He give to us "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him." (Ephesians 1:17)--Present Truth, December 13, 1900--Timeline: I-5 (Visit of the Magi)--Matthew 2:1-10.