PERCEPTIONS OF FAITH Fingerprint of God
What does baby Jesus have in common with the Brokenwood mysteries, My Life is Murder and Midsomer Murders? The answer is fingerprints. When detectives look for evidence, fingerprints are essential. When we look at the birth of Jesus Christ, we can see the fingerprints of God.
Fingerprinting for evidence didn’t come into existence as a forensic tool for detective work until 1911 after an attempted burglary and the murder of Mr Hiller in Chicago.
The murderer had left fresh fingerprints on the window sill that Mr Hiller had the day before applied to the house. The evidence was used in court to convict Thomas Jennings of burglary and murder.
This talk of burglary and murder is rather “out of season stuff” as we approach Christmas in two weeks, although if you know the story, King Herod had all the baby boys under the age of two in Bethlehem murdered as he feared being usurped by a child born to be King of the Jews (Jesus).
Christmas celebrates the birth of The Son of God,. and we can be left in no doubt this has God’s fingerprints all over it. What do I mean? Well, so many in our society have rejected Jesus, and Christmas itself can lose its significance, awe and wonder. Some I talk to say “prove that Jesus is the Son of God, then I might believe”.
The Bible, the most read and published book of all time, contains within it God’s fingerprint. There are more than 48 major predictions of Jesus coming, many of them more than 500 years before they happened. Isaiah reveals the manner of His birth — by a virgin; Micah pinpointed the exact place of His birth — Bethlehem; Moses (Genesis) and Jeremiah specified his ancestry (a descendant of Abraham and in the line of King David); The psalms foretell his betrayal, his false accusers, his manner of death (pierced hands and feet — even though crucifixion hadn’t been “invented” at the time!); and also Hosea speaks of his resurrection three days later.
Fingerprints . . . the probability of two people having the same print is inconceivable and therefore can prove someone’s identity.
The fingerprint of God . . . prophecies of Jesus’ coming and being the Son of God . . . proves his unique identity. For those who like statistics, the likelihood of just eight of the prophecies being fulfilled in one person (and remember Jesus fulfilled 48!) is one in a hundred million billion. As a visual illustration it would be like taking New Zealand, and covering it with 50c pieces 4 feet deep with just one that is marked with permanent black ink — then blindfolding someone and asking them to walk around the country and pick up the one marked coin!
The mathematician Peter Stoner says that the odds of all 48 being fulfilled in one person is one in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion!
But even the greatest sceptic reading this right now might say, well, why trust the Bible anyway? Well that’s another story for another day!
As I close, the prophet Isaiah said of Jesus some 700 years before his birth “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6.
May you take time out this Christmas to consider the fingerprint of God as you reflect on the birth of the Christ child.