The Birth Of Jesus And The Supernatural Battle

The devil knows what’s going on. So he tries to stay a step ahead of everything in an attempt to stop the inevitable. It was not by accident or coincidence that the devil appears when he did after everything was created, everything established and Adam and Eve were set. Once there was the tree of knowledge of good and evil in which man could condemn himself, the devil appears on the scene.

Neither was it by accident or coincidence that the devil showed up immediately after Jesus was filled with the Holy Ghost and God said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

The devil knows what is going on and interjects himself at key points in time in an effort to thwart God’s plans and promises.

I think there is sufficient evidence that the devil attempted to interject himself at the birth of Jesus. We aren’t told about it and the possible battle that ensued as a result, but look at scripture. There very well could have been a huge spiritual war surrounding the birth of our Lord and Savior.

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:13-14)

The word, “host” comes from the Greek, “stratia”. It means an army, a band of soldiers, and specifically in this verse, troops of angels.

How many is a “multitude”? It’s truly innumerable, but we do have an inkling of an idea of a number. In Revelations we discover that the number of angels round around the throne was, “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” (Revelations 5:11).

When Jesus was born it was not only the heavenly host that praised Him, but all the angels worshipped the new born King.

“And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.” (Hebrews 1:6)

There is an obvious distinction drawn between a “heavenly host”, or the army of heavenly soldiers in the Book of Luke and “angels” in the Book of Hebrews.

The Geneva Bible, the first all English translation of the entire Bible as well as first study Bible notes, “Whole armies of Angels, which compass the Majesty of God round about, as it were soldiers.”

It wasn’t just angels that were present at the birth of Christ. It was soldiers, heavenly warriors.

Vines Expository Dictionary says of “stratia”, that it “came to denote "a warfare," and is used of spiritual "conflict". Examples of this can be found in Corinthians 10:4 and 1Timothy 1:18.

So, we have a heavenly army, a band of soldiers, not just angels, with implied spiritual warfare, praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Does this not lead one to believe that there was a fight, a supernatural war over the birth of Jesus? Better put of birth, the “bring forth” (Matthew 1:23) of Jesus, for Jesus was not born, rather He was brought forth from the supernatural realm to the natural realm, for Jesus always has been. But doesn’t it sound like there was some great battle between Heaven and Hell over the arrival of Jesus, with God and His Heavenly Host prevailing? Doesn’t this scene in Luke 1:13-14 appear more like troops celebrating their great victory over evil? The devil tried to stop the arrival of Jesus, but the Heavenly Host fought and won instead!

The message of this divine army after praising and giving all glory to God was very specific. “…on earth peace”. This is what they were fighting for. Peace on earth, which can only happen when the will of man is motivated and directed towards his highest good, Jesus Christ.

But The devil couldn’t stop the arrival of Christ, so he immediately turned his efforts towards killing Him.

The three wise men who sought and eventually found Jesus were asked by King Herod to tell him where Jesus was. Herod did so under the pretense that he wanted to, “come and worship him also” (Matthew 2:8).

But in reality, the devil through Herod just wanted to find out where Jesus was so as to kill Jesus.

God warned the wise men in a dream not to return to Herod, so they departed unto their own country. When Herod found out that his plot to murder Christ was discovered, Herod, “slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.” (Matthew 2:16).

The Holy War rages on, even today. The devil tries to kill and destroy anything to do with Jesus as well as man, who was made in the image of God. It is a fight in the spirit, not always obvious in the physical.

Bill Hitchcock