We can learn from those who witnessed Jesus’ birth.

The Christmas season is an opportunity for us to think about and celebrate the first Christmas.

Our Christmas tradition includes, in the lighting of the Advent candles, a celebration of love, joy, peace and hope. This year, as I thought about that first Christmas, my mind turned toward hope. And not just any hope but the divine promise of fulfilled hope. I remembered that the hopes fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ had their origins hundreds of years before the advent of the Messiah, among the children of Israel.

Israel, as God’s chosen people, was a proud though not always obedient people. Because of Israel’s disobedience, God showed sovereignty through the strength of Israel’s enemies rather than through Israel. First the nation of Israel became a nation divided in itself between the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Not long after, the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian empire, and portions of the Israelite kingdom were deported and redistributed among the Assyrian territories. The northern territory of Israel thus became known as Samaria.

The southern kingdom of Judah also soon fell. Finding themselves caught between the two greater powers of Egypt and Babylon, the people of Judah decided to ally themselves with Egypt rather than with God. Since Egypt was the weaker power, both soon fell to Babylon.

Jerusalem, the heart of the Judean kingdom, was conquered, and the most important part of Judah’s relationship with God, the Temple, was destroyed. The rulers and artisans of the Judean kingdom were also deported and redistributed among the empire of Babylon, which had grown to swallow even the Assyrian empire to the north.

Not long after the devastation of the Babylonian exile, the Persian Empire conquered and subdued Babylon. The Persian king, Cyrus, allowed Jews exiled during Babylonian rule to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple. However, Judah continued to struggle with political conflict and economic hardship. Soon the Persians were conquered by invading Greeks, led by Alexander the Great, and occupation of the land of Israel changed hands yet again.

Although the later Maccabean revolt temporarily expelled the crumbling and conflict-weakened Greek establishment in Judea, the subsequent Jewish Hasmonean dynasty was eventually conquered by the expanding Roman Empire.

Israel experienced a long history of division, subjugation, deportation and occupation, first at the hands of the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Persians, followed by the Greeks and finally the Roman Empire. During this period, it was not Israel’s kings but its prophets who led Israel toward obedience to God. The prophets mediated God’s word to the people, warning against faulty alliances and hope in sources weaker than God. Conversely, the prophets also mediated the desperate hopes of a conquered and broken people to God through prayer and supplication.

Also during this period, different groups emerged within Judaism, each with hopes for God’s deliverance uniquely placed. The Jewish ruling class, the Herodians, placed their hope in a successful alliance with the powers of Rome. The Sadduccees, a class of Temple priests who did not believe in the resurrection, placed their hopes in all the power and prestige that can be gained in this life. The Pharisees’ hope was in a kingdom of God established on the wholly and correctly interpreted Mosaic laws. The hope of the Zealots lay in militant rebellion and guerrilla warfare. The Essenes withdrew to the wilderness in hopes that God would send both a political king and a spiritual savior who would establish God’s kingdom on earth together.

It was under the terrifying force of the Pax Romana and the watchful eye of the Roman Caesar’s vassal, King Herod of Judea, that the hopes and fears of all those years were finally met one starry night in Bethlehem.

But Israel’s hopes for deliverance were not met in a way anyone expected. Suddenly, those who thought they were within the inner circle of God’s kingdom found themselves on the edges, and those who had been abandoned to the edges of the kingdom found themselves in the center of it. The weak were cared for, and the Herodians missed it because their hope was in the power of Rome. The poor were blessed, and the hungry fed, and the Sadducees missed it because their hope was in the comfort of this life. The sick and lame were healed, and the Pharisees missed it because their hope was in the purity laws of Moses. Peace came to Israel, and the Zealots missed it because their hope was in the sword. The kingdom of God burst forth in our world, and the Essenes missed it because they had withdrawn to the desert.

As I thought about all the people who missed the miracle of Jesus’ birth, I grew weary and sad. Then I remembered that the miracle was not totally missed, that those who did make it to Bethlehem caught a glimpse of hope fulfilled. A handful of shepherds were there because they came obediently when called. A few foreign scholars made it there because they patiently studied and obediently followed the signs God provided. I also remembered that the miracle was not a one-time deal. I realized the kingdom of God, inaugurated on that special night, continues to pierce the fabric of our time and space in little Christmas moments wherever the foreigner is welcomed, the sick are healed, the hungry are fed and the needy cared for in Christ’s name.

Every year the holiday season provides an opportunity to reflect on these Christmas moments and to ask ourselves, each other and our church if we are missing these Christmas moments because our hope is in the government or in the opulence of this life? Is our hope misplaced in the law, the sword or sectarian withdrawal? Or are we present to bear witness to and participate in these Christmas moments because we come obediently when called? Because we observe and obediently follow the signs that God provides?

Matthew Yoder is a student at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.