Christmas: God’s Treasure Map to the Messiah
Imagine being handed a treasure map—one that tells you exactly who you’re looking for, where the treasure is buried, and when you need to show up to find it.
Christmas is kind of like that.
But the treasure isn’t gold or cash—it’s a Person. The Messiah. The Christ. The promised Savior of the world and King of righteousness.
And the map leading to Him was drawn centuries before Jesus was born. Every detail—His identity, His birthplace, the timing of His arrival—was marked out long before angels filled the sky outside Bethlehem.
Why? Because God wanted us to know exactly who He is. So that when He arrived, we’d know: This is He. The Christ. The Savior-King.
WHO: Before Bethlehem, Before Genesis, Before Time
To understand Christmas, we have to start before the manger—before even the beginning.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” —Genesis 1:1
Before anything existed—angels, galaxies, light, darkness—God already was.
Now listen to John’s Gospel:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” —John 1:1
John takes the very first verse of the Bible (“In the beginning”) and places Jesus in the center of it.
What do we learn about the Word from this single verse?
- The Word existed before the beginning.
- The Word was with God.
- The Word was God.
John later tells us that this eternal Word became flesh. His name is Jesus.
Paul makes it unmistakable:
“All things came into being through Him… and in Him all things hold together.” —Colossians 1:16–17
Jesus is the reason for the universe, its goal, and the One holding it all together. If He loosened His grip for one millisecond, atoms would fly apart, and galaxies would collapse.
And yet—this same God chose to enter His own creation as a baby.
Immanuel—God with us.
WHERE: Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth—Every Detail Marked Out
God didn’t just tell us who the Messiah would be. He told us where He would appear.
Born in Bethlehem
Micah 5:2, written 700 years before Jesus’ birth, puts a pinpoint on the map:
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah… from you One will go forth for Me… whose goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.”
Sent to Egypt
God gave another clue:
“Out of Egypt I called My Son.” —Hosea 11:1
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but Joseph fled to Egypt with Mary and Jesus to escape Herod. Matthew says this was to fulfill Hosea’s prophecy.
Raised in Nazareth
When they returned, they settled in Nazareth:
“He shall be called a Nazarene.” —Matthew 2:23
Bethlehem → Egypt → Nazareth. Nothing about this is random. Nothing is improvised.
Everything is scripted by God.
Christmas is the shockwave of eternity hitting Earth, and God mapped out the Messiah’s movements so the world wouldn’t miss Him.
WHEN: God Even Told Us the Timing
God didn’t stop with the who and the where. He also revealed when the Messiah would arrive.
In Daniel 9, the angel Gabriel tells Daniel there will be “seventy sevens”—a divine timeline. The countdown begins with a decree to rebuild Jerusalem issued by King Artaxerxes of Persia in 444 BC (Nehemiah 2).
From that decree to the arrival of Messiah the Prince would be:
69 “sevens” — 483 years.
When you run the dates using the Jewish prophetic calendar, those 483 years land right at Jesus’ triumphal entry—His public presentation as King.
And Daniel even predicted what would happen after the 69th “seven”:
“The Messiah will be cut off…” —Daniel 9:26
Crucified.
God told the world when the Christ would come.
The Map Points to One Person
Taken together, God leaves us no excuse not to believe. God laid out:
- WHO He is: The eternal Word, God the Son, Creator of all things. Immanuel.
- WHERE He’d be: Born in Bethlehem, sent to Egypt, raised in Nazareth—exactly as foretold.
- WHEN He’d show: Arriving precisely on schedule, just as Daniel prophesied.
The treasure map leads to one Person: Jesus Christ, eternal God, born to a virgin, born in Bethlehem, arriving right on time.
Why This Fills Us With Excitement
If God kept every promise about Jesus’ first coming…
- We can trust Him today.
- We can serve Him with joy.
- We can live with unshakable hope.
- We can look forward to His return with confidence—not fear.
God’s sovereign plan is unstoppable. He used angels, empires, kings, a census, a virgin, and even a madman king to bring about Jesus’ birth. And since He fulfilled every prophecy the first time, we know He will fulfill every promise about His return.
No wonder the angels couldn’t stay silent.
Glory to God in the Highest.
That’s the heartbeat of Christmas—and the joy we get to carry into the world.