As we’re reminded every Christmas, Mary and Joseph were required to travel to Bethlehem by imperial decree for a Roman census. Luke 2:4 says, “Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David.”
It’s clear why that detail is important, right? God promised the Messiah would be a descendant of David. Both Joseph and Mary were part of that larger family. Both of them were qualified to receive the fulfillment of God’s promise.
But notice how God brought about that fulfillment. A pagan emperor issued a decree, thinking he was merely counting his subjects for taxation purposes—and in doing so he unwittingly opened the door for a seven-hundred-year-old prophecy concerning the village of the Savior’s birth. Joseph, a descendant of David living in Nazareth, was forced to return to his ancestral home. And there in David’s city, David’s greater Son was born—the eternal King who will one day sit on David’s throne forever.
We tend to skip over them, but the genealogies in our Bibles matter more than we realize. Matthew opened his Gospel not with a dramatic miracle or a profound teaching but with a list of names—a genealogy tracing Jesus’ lineage from Abraham through David to Joseph. Why? Because Matthew was announcing something astonishing to his Jewish readers: This is the One. This is the promised Messiah. This is the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.
Every link in that chain—from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Judah, through the generations to Jesse to David, through the kings of Judah and the quiet centuries that followed—was preserved by God’s providential hand to one day bring Christ into the world. Wars, famines, exiles, and persecutions threatened to break that chain. But God watched over His people, and He guarded His promise.
The Good News Was Announced in Israel
Nine months later, on the night of Jesus’ birth, the first public announcement was given not to Roman emperors, not to Greek philosophers, and not to the religious elite in Jerusalem. It was given to Jewish shepherds watching their flocks in those same fields near Bethlehem.
Think about that. God chose shepherds—working-class men doing their ordinary jobs on an ordinary night—to be the first to hear the greatest news ever announced. The angels rejoiced, the shepherds rejoiced, and Luke records what they heard: “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).
Look carefully at what the angel said: The Good News was announced on Israel’s soil to Israel’s people concerning Israel’s long-awaited Messiah. “Born to you,” the angel said to these Jewish shepherds, “in the city of David.” And yet this isn’t just a local story. No, this is Good News “for all people.” The blessing promised to Abraham that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3) found its fulfillment that very night.
In a stable in the shepherds’ hometown, the Savior of the world arrived. And they were invited to be the first witnesses! Not because of their importance but because of God’s grace. The One born that night would one day be proclaimed by John the Baptist to be “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
God With Us
Quoting Isaiah 7:14, Matthew tells us that Jesus’ birth fulfilled yet another ancient prophecy: “‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23).
Immanuel. “God with us.” This is Israel’s ultimate gift to the world—not merely a teacher or a prophet or a moral example or a religious founder but God Himself taking on human flesh, entering His own creation, and dwelling among His people.
Every detail of Jesus’ life was rooted in Israel’s story, shaped by Israel’s faith, and connected to Israel’s destiny. God ordained Israel to be His instrument to reveal His Son and bring salvation to the entire world.
If we are to understand why Israel should have a place in our hearts, we must first comprehend the magnitude of what flowed to us through this people. Today we are able to experience the blessings of the Christian faith because of the Jews. If we don’t understand that, we will never have the proper attitude toward God’s plan for His chosen people as revealed in His Word.
In the Old Testament, there are more than three hundred prophecies regarding the first coming of Christ. These passages predicted His birthplace, His lineage, His ministry, His suffering, and His death. Jesus fulfilled them all when He came through the Jewish people in the land of Israel as the Savior of the world.
Through Israel Came the Messiah
Yes, Christianity has emphasized the biblical message of grace for two thousand years, and the spread of the Church has been extraordinary. But that message is ours because it was passed down from the Jewish people. The Gospel was born in Israel. It was nursed and cradled by the Hebrew nation in the land promised to their ancestors. It was Jewish apostles who carried the Gospel to the ends of the earth. The first churches were established by Jewish missionaries. Our faith—from beginning to end—flows through Israel.
Do you see now why Israel should have a place in your heart? Through Israel came the law. Through Israel came the Scriptures. Through Israel came the Messiah—born in Bethlehem, of the house of David. Through Israel came the Church, carrying the Gospel to every nation. Through Israel came our salvation.
In a sense, all Christians are sons and daughters of Abraham. Did you know that? You might be thinking: Me? A son or daughter of Abraham? That’s ridiculous. But it’s the truth. Galatians spells it out plainly:
“Know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (Galatians 3:7-9).
In verse 29, Paul continued, “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Israel’s Greatest Gift to the World
All of Israel’s history was moving toward a single, culminating moment when God would bring forth His Son, Jesus Christ, through the people of Israel. Everything God accomplished through His chosen people was building toward this one climactic event.
The giving of the law at Sinai? It pointed to One who would fulfill it perfectly. The sacrificial system in the tabernacle and temple? It foreshadowed the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. The throne of David? It awaited its eternal King. The prophets? They spoke of One who was coming.
Israel’s ultimate gift to the world is not a code of laws—as transformative as those laws are. It is not even the Holy Scriptures, as precious as they remain. Israel’s most precious gift to the world is a Person. Through the Jewish people came the Messiah—the Lord Jesus Christ.
Abraham could not see down the road. He could not have known that out of his lineage, from his children’s children’s children’s children, would come the Messiah, the Savior of the whole world. He died not having seen the promises fully realized, but he lived by faith because God had spoken (Hebrews 11:8-10).
Yet God saw it all from the beginning. When He told Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3), God had you and me in mind. He had every tribe and tongue and nation in view. The “Seed” promised to Abraham—that singular descendant through whom blessing would come to all peoples—was Jesus. All the promises of the covenant are in support of this one supreme purpose.
A Debt We Can Never Repay
So where does all of this leave us? With a debt we can never fully repay but one we should humbly acknowledge. Through the Jewish people came the very One in whose name we pray, the One whose blood purchased our redemption, and the One who sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for us.
We are blessed as Christians today because of that day when God spoke to Abraham and said, “Abraham, through you, I’m going to bless all the nations of the world.” He did, He has, and He is still doing so. As Paul wrote, “The blessing of Abraham [came] upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14).
Every time you open your Bible, you hold Israel’s gift in your hands. Every time you pray in Jesus’ Name, you access the Father through Israel’s Messiah. Every time you gather with fellow believers, you are carrying on a story that began in Israel. Every promise in the covenant pointed toward this one supreme gift. Every patriarch and prophet, every priest and king, every sacrifice and feast day was preparing the way for Him. And now He has come. Israel delivered the Messiah to the world.
Israel gave us Jesus.
