After [the Magi] had heard [King Herod], they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. (Matthew 2:9-10)

Today concludes our series exploring the vocations of some of the characters in the Christmas narrative and what they can teach us about our own work today. Today, we end with the famed Star of Bethlehem.

Now, I know it’s a stretch to say that a star has a “vocation,” but hear me out. Because this star plays a huge part in the Christmas narrative, leading the Magi to find and worship Christ the King.

But Scripture makes clear that it’s not just this star that does the work of glorifying God. Psalm 19:1-3 says that all “the heavens declare the glory of God…day after day they pour forth speech,” even though “they use no words.”

Believer, if inanimate stars can glorify God and give testimony to...

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham…Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah. (Matthew 1:1,17)

Matthew has many vocations in the gospels. But in the first chapter of his gospel, we see him playing the role of a genealogist who takes his readers all the way back to Abraham to trace Jesus’s family tree, so that we can be confident he is the Messiah. 

I’d encourage you to read Matthew’s genealogical work in full in Matthew 1:1-17. But there are two profound insights we can glean just from the excerpt I shared above. 

First, God is always faithful, but he is rarely fast—at least by human standards. The Jewish people had been waiting thousands of years for God’s promised Messiah. Some had surely given up hope. But Matthew goes through painstaking genealogical detail to show God’s...

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (Luke 2:1)

We’re in a series exploring the vocations of some of the characters in the Christmas narrative and what they can teach us about our own work today. Today we come to Caesar Augustus.

This secular leader has a mixed legacy including brutal tales of how he came to rule over the Roman Empire. And yet, God chose to work through Augustus and his census to bring Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Micah 5:2 that God’s chosen Messiah would be born in the town of David.

This reminds us of a remarkable truth we see all throughout Scripture—namely that God works in this world through non-believers and believers alike. This is one element of “common grace” which my friend Mike Kelsey (lead pastor at McLean Bible Church) defines as “the reality that God extends his goodness to and through people apart from a saving...

And you, my child…will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him. (Luke 1:76)

Today we’re starting a new series here on The Word Before Work—a third installment of my semi-annual Christmas Vocations series where we explore the jobs of some of the characters of the Christmas narrative and what they can teach us about our own work today.

We begin with John the Baptist whose role was to “prepare the way” for Christ as we see in today’s passage—an excerpt from Zecharaiah’s prayer after John’s birth. 

Right from the get go, John was told he would never be top dog. His purpose in life was to play the proverbial second fiddle to his cousin Jesus. 

And all throughout the gospels, we see John joyfully embracing his secondary role. Referring to Jesus, John famously said, “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30).

John knew his place in God’s cosmic drama. The question is do we? Sure we do...