Battles and Babies?

I have been doing a Christmas series about the Invasion of God. As I have thought about the original Christmas story and the whole invasion thing I am struck by how Jesus came. All the talk about a military conquest in Isaiah 9 sandwiched around the story of a baby being born is really strange. I have seen a few shows blend their casts and stories but this combo in Isaish 9 is like blending The Military Channel's, Weaponology with TLC's, A Baby Story. Battles and babies...can they actually go together? They did then.

Jesus birth was actually a logical military tactic much like the Trojan horse (above), used by the Greeks to defeat the Trojans centuries ago. The horse appeared to be a large idol left to appease the gods of the Trojans and apologize for the war the Greeks had started. The Trojans’ strength was a massive wall that the Greeks could not breach and it appeared that they had abandoned their efforts to take Troy when they left the horse outside the city walls. But after the men of Troy brought the Trojan horse inside the city they discovered to their horror that several Greeks were hiding in the horse. They broke out and opened the massive gates, allowing the hiding Greek army to enter Troy and destroy it.

God came to earth not in the disguise of horse shaped idol but in the shape of a baby. He did not come as one would expect the ruler of the universe to come...with power, pomp, and coerciveness. Coming as a baby in a borrowed stable was about as below the radar as you could be. He chose not the route of power, though he had all the power one could have. He came not with cleverness to trick people into following him though he has all knowledge and could have easily done so. He laid down all he was and had and became the lowest and most humble thing he could be to reach us.

I think this is very instructive for all of us. Over whom do you hope and maybe even need to have influence? Your...spouse, neighbors, co-workers, customers, or kids? Aspire to wrap your efforts in the most humble, Christlike package you can muster. Forget who you are and what you have and humble yourself to those you really care about. And then watch how God uses that seemingly weak approach in a very powerful way! That was God's approach in sending Jesus to a broken world. Though having power through humility seems to go together like battles and babies somehow it works.