Timely Birth

I learned something this week in our history lesson that I had never considered.  I learn something new all the time when teaching the boys, especially in history.  For some reason, my history education was lacking.  It's hard to cram all of World History into one semester.  Also, World History and Biblical History were two separate entities.  I love that my children get to learn it all as one and don't have to figure that out later for themselves like I am doing now.

We are finishing up our Early Egyptian History and we are currently studying about the Roman Empire.  This was in our lesson this week that I wanted to share:

"Jesus' birth was timely.  As a result of Hellenization, almost everyone in the Roman Empire spoke Greek.  This made it easier for the teachings of Jesus to spread throughout the empire.  Another thing that helped Christianity to spread was the Pax Romana  Throughout the Roman Empire a peace existed that the world had never known.  Travelers were able to go anywhere in the empire on the sturdy Roman highways without fear of bandits.

If Jesus had been born before Augustus' rule, the world would have been at war, and it is doubtful that His teachings would have spread very far.  If Jesus had been born a few years later, the political situation in Palestine would have lessened the impact of His teachings.  Approximately 40 years after His death, the city of Jerusalem was completely destroyed and many people were killed.  Roman troops swept throughout the province, taking almost every able-bodied person out of the country as a slave.  When the massacre was over, there were few people to teach."  (from Streams of Civilization, Volume 1 by Mary Stanton and Albert Hyma). 

I believe that God can change history and He could have made it work however He wanted, but the timing of the events made it the best possible time for His gospel to be spread.   I just found it interesting to consider how He can see everything from beginning to end.