(Luke) 07 - Greatness of His Coming — Ed Miller

And for the purpose to focus in a living way our hearts upon the Lord Jesus. We thank you for the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts, whose ministry it is to ever take the veil off of our Lord Jesus, to open our eyes and to give us a transforming revelation of Him.

And so we commit our meditation unto you as we share together in your word and around your word. We pray that you'd lift our hearts unto your greatness and that we might see you. Deliver us from cold academics and we just pray that you might speak a living word to our heart.

You know where we are, you know our needs, our hungers, our capacities. Meet us where we are and take us where you'd have us. We ask in the all-prevailing name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. I'll ask you to turn in your Bibles please to the Gospel of Luke and chapter 2.

Luke’s Emphasis: Jesus as the Son of All Mankind

Luke chapter 2. For those that are just with us for the first time or just for a couple of times, let me just say this much by way of our approach to the Bible. We pray that every lesson will be a study in itself and will stand on its own two feet.

In other words, we do build. Lesson 1 leads into lesson 2 and lesson 2 into lesson 3. For example, we're in lesson 7 and I think if you had the first 6, then lesson 7 might mean a little more to you. However, if you only have lesson 13 or lesson 9 or lesson 7, don't think you'll be lost because our focus is the Lord and when you see the Lord, you can come in anywhere and leave anywhere and still be blessed because we're trying to see Him.

So I pray you don't feel lost. We welcome you and we're in chapter 2. Let me just give this much by way of review. The Gospel of Luke presents our Lord Jesus as the Son of all mankind. It's a unique emphasis and it just shows how humble and how low our Lord Jesus did stoop in order to reach us.

And Luke emphasizes that all the way through. Now, for several weeks we've been looking at chapter 1, certainty through faith. And the chapter was outlined this way. First, God gave us an illustration of unbelief.

Zacharias, the father of John the baptizer, he did not believe. And then he gave us a picture of faith. Mary was the great picture of faith. And then at the end of the chapter, he shows us unbelief turned into faith.

When Zacharias finally came to believe. After our discussion of the main theme of chapter 1, certainty through faith, we picked up a few ideas that we hadn't touched on that development. Namely, that Luke has an unusual emphasis on the Holy Spirit.

And we talked a little bit about that. And then we looked last time at the two great hymns in chapter 1. Mary's Magnificat and then the great song of Zacharias. Now, there's one more thing I'd like to look at in chapter 1, but not today.

I had planned to do it today. The prophecy and the relationship between John the baptizer and that prophecy that Elijah was going to come. The Lord Jesus compares John to Elijah. And I want to show you that.

I want to trace that out with you. But since the ministry of John the baptizer begins in chapter 3, I think I'll just save that until we come to chapter 3 and then take it as a package. So that we'll be able to just focus then on the revelation of Christ given through John the baptizer.

What that means practically is that this morning I'd like to begin to introduce to you chapter 2 of Luke. So if you'll turn to chapter 2, you'll recognize, if you just glance at the chapter, you'll recognize this as the Christmas story, this wonderful, wonderful chapter.

We're sort of in the right season for it too, getting ready for the Advent and all. A quick glance at this chapter, you see his birth there in the manger at Bethlehem. And you see the angels appearing to the shepherds.

You see the baby, 8 days old, being brought by his parents for circumcision. And the whole record there of Simeon and Anna in the temple. And then it ends up when our Lord Jesus was 12 years old. And so you remember chapter 2.

It's a very familiar chapter. From the teaching standpoint, there's sort of a problem with coming to a chapter like this. And you can guess what it is. And the problem is that it's such a familiar chapter.

My guess is that probably the average Sunday school student is more familiar with Luke chapter 2 than any other single chapter in the New Testament. Everybody seems to know this particular chapter. And the problem I have as one who's going to try to teach that is that, don't get this wrong, but we're not looking at the Christmas story.

We're looking at the Gospel of Luke. Now, yes, the Gospel of Luke does touch on the Christmas story. But most of the time, we just take it out of its context and look at the Christmas story. And it's wonderful out of context.

But it's also wonderful in context. And so we're going to try to look at the Christmas story in terms of the message of Luke. Luke is presenting our Lord Jesus as the Son of all mankind. Now, trust the Lord with me as we go through these marvelous stories to hone in on that great message of Luke.

Before our Lord can present Himself as the Son of all mankind, He's got to become the Son of all mankind. And Luke chapter 2 shows us God becoming man. It shows us, and that's why it's at the beginning, because He's now going to become the Son of all mankind in order that He might be the Son of all mankind.

In my Bible, right over this chapter, I've just written the word Emmanuel, God with us, because that's what this chapter's about. In order to get the maximum benefit from Luke chapter 2, here's the outline we're going to follow.

I'm going to give you three points, divisions of how we're going to look at the chapter. And then having said that, we'll only begin to look at the first one this morning. In no way are we going to finish this this morning.

The Greatness of Christ’s Coming

First of all, all through this chapter we see the greatness of the Son of all mankind. And I want to show you the greatness of how He came. And that's what we'll begin to look at this morning. Just the method that He came shows His greatness.

And then I want to show you for whom He came. And His greatness is revealed in for whom He came. And then I want to show you why He came, the purpose for which He came. And that's also illustrated in chapter 2 through the shepherds, through Simeon the priest, and through Anna the prophetess.

And so we'll look at it, we'll break it down that way. So this morning, I just want to show you the greatness of the Son of all mankind in the method by which He came. Now, since we're in Luke chapter 2, let me just say right at the start, we're on familiar ground.

I am not going to tell you this morning anything that you haven't heard before. The truth is wonderful not because it's new, but because it's true. And so I just pray God will quicken our hearts to old truth.

We don't have to see anything novel. So what we're going to do is just sort of look at what we already know and ask God to deliver us from la, la, la. Sometimes we just read the Bible, la, la, la, and those facts just seem to get by us.

These are tremendous facts, and they ought to thrill our hearts. And so I just pray as we look at this that it will thrill our hearts. If you just think of the content of chapter 2, you already know what a tremendous thing it is.

And apart from the revelation of God to your heart, you'll never catch it. In other words, God became man. If you want to try to get the idea what a great step it was for God to become man, think of it the other way around.

What kind of a step would it be for you to become God? I think sometimes if you think of it that way, you realize what a step he took when he became man. Let me give some illustrations of the stooping love of God illustrated in these chapters.

Christ’s Birth to the Virgin and the Poor

I'll give you about five or six or seven or eight illustrations that Luke calls attention to. The first is that he came to the Jewish virgin of Nazareth. Let me read a couple of verses. First, I'm going to go back in chapter 1, verse 26 and 27.

Glance at that, please. Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.

And then if you look at chapter 2, beginning at verse 5, speaking about this taxation, along with Mary who was engaged to him and was with child. And it came about while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in cloths, laid him in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn. It was a tremendous thing for our Lord Jesus to leave the bosom of his father God and enter the bosom of this virgin from Nazareth.

I know there's a lot of mystery in the Trinity. We believe in God the Father and in God the Son and in God the Holy Spirit. And some folks try to explain that. It's very mysterious to explain that. But some things are clear.

For example, do you know which member of the Godhead was the Creator? Did God the Father create the universe? Did God the Son create the universe? Who was the agent of creation? Did God the Holy Spirit create the universe?

See, the Bible spells it out. We have no doubt about it. It was God the Son that created the universe. It was Jesus. In John chapter 1, we read, in the beginning was the Word. Remember, the Word became flesh.

The Word is Jesus. In the beginning was the Word. And then in John chapter 1 and verse 3, it says, all things came into being by Him. And apart from Him was not anything made that was made. Now, one other verse.

Listen to Colossians 1, 15, talking about the Lord Jesus. It says, Whether thrones or dominions, whether rulers or authorities, all things have been created by Him and for Him. Why do I call attention to that?

I call attention to that because Jesus created Mary. He's the Creator. He created His mother. And then He entered into her womb. It's an amazing thing. The Lord Jesus chose His mother. When any baby chooses the place he's going to be born and chooses his own mother, you better listen to that baby because that's someone very, very special.

I can only state it for you because it's too big for anything but faith. But here's the amazing step. When Jesus came to this virgin, the infinite became infinite. And He who was the source, the fountain of all creation, is now drawing nourishment from the breast of the creature.

This is an amazing thing. And Luke calls attention to this because He's going to be the Son of all mankind. He had to be made like one of us. You can use your strongest mental powers and meditate on what a step it was.

Luke calls attention to this great step. Now we're going to do more on the virgin birth when we come to chapter 3 and the great genealogy that Luke gives so different than Matthew. So I'm going to sort of leave it there for now.

Glance at chapter 2, verse 21, please. Our Lord Jesus not only came to this virgin Mary, but verse 21 says,. And when eight days were completed before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.

And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

Glance at verse 24, please. A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. And the Lord not only condescended to a virgin of Nazareth, but the Bible shows she was a poor woman. And it's illustrated by these two turtledoves or these two pigeons.

Now you know He could have been born to a queen. He could have been born to a princess. He could have been born in a palace. Why does Luke call attention to her poverty? You see, in chapter 12, verse 8 of Leviticus, God lays down a law.

He said if a sinner is going to come to God, he must bring a lamb. Chapter 12, verse 8 says you've got to bring a lamb. But then the problem came, what if you can't afford a lamb? What if you don't have the money to buy a lamb?

And the answer is, if you can't afford a lamb, you can bring two birds, two turtledoves or two pigeons, which were almost free. Almost anyone could afford the turtledoves or the pigeons. You say, what if someone was so poor they couldn't afford two turtledoves or two pigeons, which were almost free?

Is it possible that some were that poor? And the answer is yes. And Leviticus 5 .11 says, if you can't bring a lamb, bring the birds. If you can't bring the birds, bring a pinch of flour, but come. Don't stay away.

And so God made provision for everybody to come. There was no excuse not to come to the Lord. Now Mary's sort of in the middle. The Bible teaches that she was poor. She couldn't afford a lamb, but she could afford the two birds, and so she came with the two birds.

There were some even more poor than Mary and Joseph, and they had to bring the pinch of flour. Luke presents the fact that our Lord Jesus stepped down to this virgin, this maiden of Nazareth, and then the fact that she was poor.

Christ’s Birth in Bethlehem

Glance at verse 4, please. It says, Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David.

The Lord not only came down to a woman, not only came down to a poor woman, but Bethlehem. Now I think you know there are two Bethlehems in the Bible. One Bethlehem is a larger Bethlehem. It was in the territory of the tribe of Zebulon.

But this Bethlehem was the smaller one, Ephrata. Bethlehem, Ephrata. In the book of Joshua, remember when they were going in to claim the land of Canaan? Joshua divided up the land, and in order that there wouldn't be any fights, he named all the towns.

You take this town, you take this town, and he divided it all up, and he named all the towns. Did he name Bethlehem Ephrata? No, because the Bible says that was too small to be named. And even when he divided the town, this one was not mentioned by name.

You know it was prophesied in Micah that our Lord Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. When Micah wrote the prophecy, listen to Micah 5 .2, it says,. But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrata, too little to be among the clans of Judah.

That's how small it was. From you one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. You see, Luke only tells you Jesus came forth from Mary. The Bethlehem prophecy said Jesus came forth from eternity. So he came from eternity through Mary.

But Luke is calling attention to this little place in Bethlehem, an insignificant place. We know from chapter 2, verse 7, they only had one inn. It's not plural. There was no room for them in the inn.

And by the way, when you think of inn, and you read in the Bible, Luke chapter 2, don't think of quality inn or holiday inn. It wasn't like that at all. In fact, there is a Greek word for inn that is motel or hotel, a guest house.

There's a Greek word for that. Not in Luke. It's not used here. That's not the word that's used. This isn't the ordinary place where you'd say, we're on vacation, let's stop at the inn in Bethlehem. No, the Greek word that's used here has to do with a shelter, more than a hotel or something like that.

It's like a shelter. In fact, in chapter 10, when we come there and do the story of the Samaritan, remember the good Samaritan? And remember that robber that was all beat up? And he was brought over to the shelter.

And he said, now I'll pay whatever's left over. That's the same word that's used for the inn here. The word comes from two words. One means all. And the other word means received. And all were received at the inn.

And there's a good chance it was not expensive. This idea that they didn't have the money to stay there, I'm not sure that's true. I think if they had gotten there in time, they could have been in there.

There was no room. You could have got in for free. That's what this inn was. And it's one thing not to have room in the holiday inn. It's another thing not to have room in the shelter and to be put out.

In our Lord Jesus, there was no room for Him even in this inn. And so you see Luke's emphasis. God comes down. He comes to a virgin woman. And He comes to poverty and homeless almost. And then He comes to an insignificant place called Bethlehem.

I love to meditate on how God got Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. You know they had to go there. Because the prophecy said that Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem. If I were Gabriel, I would have leaked it out when I gave the news.

I'd say, now the Holy Spirit's going to come upon you and you're going to have a son and He's going to be the son of David and you're going to call His name Jesus. And by the way, He has to be born in Bethlehem.

And you're 70 miles north. Now you're going to have to move down there before the time comes. See, if I was Gabriel, I would have told them that. But the Bible doesn't say that Gabriel told them that.

I think it would have been, and I speak as a fool, more spiritual to read. Remember when the angel came to Joseph and had to convince him. Because you need convincing if your wife shows up pregnant and you say, it's not from another man.

And so an angel came to Joseph in order to convince him. And you would think it would be more spiritual if it read something like this. And after he knew that his wife was carrying Messiah, he began to study the Scriptures.

It would have sounded spiritual if the Bible read. And now, knowing that his wife was carrying Messiah, he began to study the Scriptures. And as he studied the Scriptures, he came upon Micah 5. And Micah 5 says Jesus was going to be born in Bethlehem.

And so he said, Mary, we've got to go to Bethlehem. That would have been better. But that's not how it happened. There are many ways he could have gone to Bethlehem. He could have gone there on a honeymoon.

He could have gone there just to visit or trace out his family tree. But what we read is chapter 2, verse 1. It came about in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of the inhabited earth.

This was the first census taken while Cornelius was governor of Syria. And all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone in his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee from the city of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David called Bethlehem because he was of the house and of the family of David.

And so God didn't take them to Bethlehem because they knew the prophecy or because God could have raptured them there. Just lifted them up and taken them to Bethlehem. But in this wonderful way God controlled Caesar and politics and the government.

Caesar was not trying to fulfill Micah 5. He was trying to fill his coffers. A new way to get more money taxes. Somebody's getting away with it. Let's get everybody to pay taxes. And so everyone had to go and register.

Caesar didn't have a clue that he was being used by God. God was determined that the Scripture would be fulfilled. And so he overruled everything to fulfill his purposes. Not the first time he did that.

He did that with Pharaoh, remember? How he used Pharaoh in order to accomplish his purposes. My favorite reference to it is in Isaiah 10. Isaiah 10 tells about Assyria. That wicked, wicked nation, Assyria.

And they were out plundering the world. And the Bible says that God needed them so God whistled for them. And I can just picture like a dog whistle. And God whistled and Assyria came running. And Isaiah 10 describes it and calls Assyria the rod of his anger.

Listen to chapter 10, 6. I sent it against the godless nation. I commissioned it against the people of my fury to capture booty, to seize, to plunder, trample them down like mud in the streets. Now here's the verse.

Yet it does not so intend, nor does it plan so in its heart. Rather its purpose was to destroy and to cut off many nations. So the king of Assyria, Sennacherib, he just said, let's go kill another nation.

He didn't know God whistled for him. He didn't know God was using him. So they did not intend it. And so you can see Jeremiah 1, 12. Jeremiah 1, 12. I love that verse. It says, I am watching over my word to perform it.

Isn't that a great verse? Watching over my word to perform it. When you start claiming promises in the Bible, claim them with other verses. Take a Bible verse, like he'll provide all your needs, and then Jeremiah and chapter 1, 12.

I'm watching over my word to perform it. I'll never leave you or forsake you. I'm watching over my word to perform it. And so on. Claim one verse and claim it with another verse. I love to do that kind of thing.

The Manger and the Humility of the Incarnation

Let's get back to Luke. The point is that he's presenting Jesus becoming the Son of All Mankind. And he stepped down to a woman. And he stepped down to poverty. And he went into a place of insignificance.

Of course, the reality, even if he had come to a palace, it would have been an infinite step of condescension. In my Bible, for manger, it says, feeding trough. Again, we don't want to read that la, la, la.

This is the same God that Solomon wrote about. The heavens of heaven cannot contain him. And now we see this Lord Jesus in a manger. What's a manger? It's a cow ditch. It's a place where they put food, fodder, for the animals.

In my own heart, I see more grandeur in the Lord of heaven being laid in a manger than in all of the galaxies spinning around in space. This is a tremendous thing. God has honored that manger more than a thousand thrones.

This is a tremendous thing. So much has been said and written and sung about the manger. We're apt to lose the wonder of what took place here. Again, I don't think that I'm going to say anything that you haven't heard before.

But just consider the fact that our Lord was laid in a manger. Everybody was welcome here. That's one of Luke's emphases. He comes for everybody. Sometimes you go to a place and you see a sign on the door, No animals allowed.

No pets allowed. I have an idea where animals are welcome. Anybody's welcome. And that's why he came there. He came there on purpose in order to show that he's the son of all mankind. In a manger, I doubt if you'd have any class distinction.

I think everybody's on level ground at a manger. You know what the word Bethlehem means? What's the word Bethlehem mean? Anybody know? House of bread. Isn't it wonderful that our Lord Jesus was born in the house of bread?

He's called the bread of life. The bread of life in the house of bread and the first time you see him, he's on a supper dish. He's in a manger. He's in a feeding trough. That's not a mistake. God is writing a Bible and God is saying he came down to a virgin.

He came down to poverty. He came down to insignificance. He was laid in a manger. He was born in the house of bread as the bread of life and laid on a dish so that anyone could come. This is a marvelous revelation of God.

You see, the manger was God's provision for his son. The inn was man's provision. There was no room in man's provision for him. And so God's provision always lies outside of man's arrangement, by the way.

And there are times that God's going to just deliver us from the inn and bring us to the manger. Matthew presents the Christmas story too, but Matthew presents the other side. In Matthew, he's a king.

In Matthew, we see the star shining over the Gentile world. In Matthew, we see the wise men, the mad guy. We see the gold, the frankincense, the myrrh. Matthew presents that. Luke says, and they laid him in swaddling clothes and put him in a manger.

You don't have this kingly emphasis in the gospel of Luke. In verse 12, it says, this will be a sign for you. You'll find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger. The idea of swaddling clothes, that's sort of strange in our culture.

It's a little bit obscure. We don't swaddle children like they used to swaddle children. This week, I saw my grandson for the first time. He's two weeks old and he's super. But he was laying on the floor and I went to pick him up and I got in trouble by my mother-in-law.

And she said, don't pick him up. He wants to stretch. And I thought about this. If they had swaddling clothes, he couldn't stretch. Because you know what the swaddling clothes were? Like a straitjacket.

They would just wrap them up so that they could not move their member. Spiral after spiral of convoluted bandages they'd put around this little child. And he would just be... The closest thing in our culture, I think, is a papoose where they're just sort of tied to the board, you know.

But that's what they used to do. And I believe this is also a picture. The God of Heaven, the first time you see Him, He is swaddled. He's limited. He's tied up. When you come to the end of the chapter, you're going to see it in verse 40.

It says,. The child continued to grow, become strong, increasing in wisdom. The grace of God was upon him. Verse 52, the last verse, it says,. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

One of the ways that the greatness of God is seen in His condescension is in His limitation. Doesn't it strike you in an amazing way that our Lord Jesus had to grow? He had to learn how to walk. He had to learn how to talk, learn how to add, learn how to read.

He's presented as asking questions, trying to inquire, growing in stature and wisdom and knowledge. How an uncreated, omnipotent being, boundless in every way, could be contracted to a span and then swaddled in such a way that He had to be confined within the circumference of human life.

This, to me, is one of the most amazing things about the Incarnation. As God, He numbered the stars and called them all by their name, measured the dust of the earth in a measure. And yet, as man, He had to learn gradually.

He had to grow up and so on. And I think the swaddling band just illustrates that. Some say the Greek word used for swaddling band is the same word used when they wrap Lazarus. And some say there might be a picture here that these are death bands.

And it wouldn't be surprising if they're in the manger. You have a baby wrapped in death bands because you know He came in order to die. But I want you to see the condescension. God was becoming man, the Son of all mankind.

And so He had to do it in such a way that He wouldn't frighten us away. So that He would be a Savior for all, not some. And so He comes to a virgin. He comes to a humble and poor family. He comes to an insignificant place.

He comes outside of man's arrangement. He comes as the bread of life to the house of bread in order and is on a supper dish. You know He's transformed the cracks. He's transformed the manger. Every time the presence of the Lord touches anything, it transforms it.

The original cracks, the original manger is not what you see in the stores today. They're quite beautiful. It wasn't like that at all. Let me just say this in passing. I don't know your opinion about that poor innkeeper.

He sort of takes a rap. No room in the inn. Oh, that innkeeper. I don't know whether he's to blame or not. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. I know this. When Christ first appeared to him, He appeared to him unborn.

In other words, that innkeeper, I don't think he had a clue. He wasn't saying, I don't have room for Messiah. Get out of here. I don't even think he had a clue. He just saw a pregnant woman and a man.

And I don't think he was rejecting Christ when he said no room. I know I'm convicted by the innkeeper because Christ appeared to him unborn and there was no room. Christ appears to me born and sometimes there's no room.

And so it's us that gets condemned. Whether he's to blame or not, I know this is clear. I don't think he was rejecting Christ. But I know that the way there was no room was that Christ was crowded out.

And I think that's true today. There's just this preoccupation. The reason there was no room for Christ was there were other things in place and the rooms were filled with other things. And I think of the treatment he received then when he first came into the world is very much repeated over and over again.

He's just sort of crowded out. It's a busy time and there's no room and there's other things and so on. But all through this, I hope you see the Lord stooping and stooping and stooping, coming to a virgin, coming to poverty, coming to homelessness, coming to insignificance.

And then the shepherds were given this sign and the sign is really humility. Wrapped in swaddling clothes, laying in a manger. Down, down, down, down, down. He came. Now this is so opposite of our thinking.

We think if someone's great, then they ought to be given the greatest pleasure. God is the one who stoops. Man soars. Ambition is human. Condescension is divine. And all through this record, we see our Lord coming down, down, down, down, down.

You know at this time, the heathen also had their views of Messiah and they were writing it in their myths. And they said, we have signs too. Now listen to some of the men. They said, how are you going to know Messiah when He comes?

He said, you'll know Him by the swarm of bees that gather honey at His lips. That's not how He came, with a swarm of bees gathering honey. They said, how are you going to know Him? They said, because there will be strangled serpents all around His cradle.

Well I suppose the spiritual fact of that is true. How are you going to know Him? Because there's going to be a nimbus around His head, a glowing light. And the artists have picked this up, you know, to show the deity.

There'll be this light. Now what does Luke say? Luke says, you'll find Him wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. How humble. How condescending. He's the Son of all mankind. Let me call attention to another step in this condescension.

Christ Became Man Rather Than an Angel

Actually, I probably should have mentioned this one earlier. You notice all of the emphasis given on angels in these first two chapters. Chapter 1, verse 11 and 12, Gabriel appears to Zechariah. And then in verse 26 to 30, he appears to Mary.

And then in verses 8 and 9 of this chapter, we haven't touched it yet, but they appear to the shepherds. The angels appear to the shepherds. In chapter 13, or verse 13 and 14, they begin to praise God, this choir of angels in the sky.

I believe Luke is calling attention to the fact that God stepped by the angels. He didn't become an angel. He became a man. It would have been a step of infinite condescension if he had become an angel.

Hebrews 1, 6. I love that verse and this connection. Hebrews 1, 6 says, Let all... Now, how many angels are there? The Bible says an innumerable host. I know this. There were 100 million angels on Mount Sinai.