Bethlehem Was Not Incidental or Accidental - Love Worth Finding - December 26
December 26, 2025 – Bethlehem Was Not Incidental or Accidental
Sermon: 1896 Mary's Little Lamb
Pray Over This
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”
Ponder This
A little lamb was born in Bethlehem. The Great I AM was born a lamb. It was not incidental and not accidental that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. I have visited Bethlehem many times. It is a little village about five miles south of Jerusalem, and most of us would have heard very little of anything about it had not that little lamb been born in Bethlehem. But it was not accidental, nor was it incidental. It had been prophesied for centuries. During those centuries, the Jewish priests had been raising Passover lambs in Bethlehem. Those fields outside of Bethlehem held a very special breed of sacrificial lamb that was being raised and nurtured to be brought to Jerusalem. And at Passover, they would be slaughtered. Fittingly, it was there that God’s perfect lamb, the Lord Jesus, was born.
Of all creatures, a lamb is one of the most gentle, meek, and defenseless. A lamb has no fangs, it has no claws, it cannot run, it cannot fight, and it can frighten nothing. A lamb seems to invite, “Are you hungry? Eat me. Are you cold? Shear me.” A lamb seems to present itself to the slaughter. Jesus willingly laid down His life for us. He came as a lamb.
- What strikes you about God’s plan of using an unlikely place and a gentle animal as part of His plan for deliverance?
- How is God’s plan different from how you would have addressed the brokenness of the world?
Practice This
Thank God for choosing the unlikely and the overlooked in His redemption story.
For more from Love Worth Finding and Pastor Adrian Rogers, please visit www.lwf.org.
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