Already Written
The first few years of Jesus’ life had to be a wild ride for Joseph, the man God chose to be His father on earth. First, his fiancée became pregnant, and he had to trust that this truly was God’s doing and not unfaithfulness—now that’s a pretty big step of faith all on its own. She was carrying the Son of God and Savior of the world, but they were traveling when she went into labor, and there was no room for them in the inn, so she placed this newborn Savior in a manger. Then Joseph was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt, and they stayed there until Herod’s death because Herod had heard about Jesus and was actively searching to kill Him. After Herod died, an angel appeared to Joseph again in a dream and told them to return to Israel. However, they heard Herod’s son was the new ruler of Judea, so they settled in a small town called Nazareth. This probably felt very chaotic for Joseph. I wonder if he ever questioned, “Is this really part of God’s plan? Is it supposed to happen like this?”
What we see in Matthew 2 after Joseph and his family moved to Nazareth is the beautiful reason “why” everything happened the way it did.
“So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’” Matthew 2:23 NLT
There were over 300 Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfilled during His time on earth, from His birth to His death. Every unexpected turn and every inconvenience was God’s intricate handiwork at play, proving with detail after detail that Jesus was indeed the Messiah the Old Testament prophets spoke about.
Josh and Sean McDowell refer to an interesting study about Messianic prophecy in their book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. Professor Peter W. Stoner, who was Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College and Chairman of the science division at Westmont College, conducted a study on the mathematical probability of one person in the first century fulfilling just eight of the most clear and straightforward Messianic prophecies. His conclusion, written in his book, Science Speaks, states:
“We find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.” (One in one hundred quadrillion.)
Wow. What purpose we find in the unexpected twists and turns of Jesus’ story. It wasn’t what anyone expected the Savior of the world would be like, but it was so much more significant than anyone else could have planned.
We can look at the unplanned detours Mary and Joseph had to take to raise Jesus and find comfort in knowing that we have the same Writer. While the details of our individual stories are not written in the Bible like Jesus’ were, they are already planned by our incredible Creator, just as His were.
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” Psalm 139:13-18 NLT
Not only has God already written our stories, but He loves us dearly. Just as He loves His one and only Son and used His deepest pain to bring about the greatest victory of all time, so He works every trial and every unexpected turn for His glory and greater purpose when we surrender our lives to Him. Do you trust Him with your story?
