God's timing

In thinking about the arrival of the Magi to the Christmas story (albeit sometime after the shepherds paid their visit) I got to thinking what the importance of these folk from the East actually was, and came to the conclusion that it was all about the fact that with the arrival of Jesus on the scene, God was ready to bring the whole world back into fellowship with Himself - all of history had been working up to this point, and now God was ready. Up until now it had all been about the People of Israel, now the net was cast far and wide!

And unsurprisingly the world was also ready. I'm grateful for William Barclay for this information, but it so fits in with my musings -

When Jesus was born the jigsaw was almost complete

All the known world spoke Greek. It was the language of trade and literature – if you were going to take part in public life you had to know Greek, and that meant that the early missionaries had no problems with spreading the Good News if they could speak Greek.

If we go abroad then we have to make sure that the paperwork is right, and for many countries we need a passport or visa to cross the border and gain entry. But at the time that Jesus was born wherever you went you were probably travelling through the Roman Empire and that made life much simpler. A missionary would be able to travel freely from one end of the known world to the other.

And if you were travelling then what better time to travel than when the Romans had covered the land with serviceable roads and more or less rid the seas of pirates.

This was surprisingly also a time of relative peace within the known world, and you could travel within the vast Roman Empire in safety.

Add to all that the fact that at this particular time there was a real searching for salvation. There was a real feeling in the air that people had needs that wanted fulfilling. The time was right for people to listen and respond to the Good News that would be brought to them.

Jesus came to the world when he did because it was the right time, God’s time! The world was ready!