The Dark Night of Jesus’ Birth?

By Warren Smith

In Jesus Calling, “Jesus” states that he was born in a “filthy stable” “under the most appalling conditions.” He says that the night of his birth was a “dark night” for him.

In what can only be described as the ultimate revisionist description of the night of Jesus’ birth, Sarah Young’s “Jesus” openly bemoans what he describes as that “dark night for Me.” He states in Jesus Calling:

Try to imagine what I gave up when I came into your world as a baby. I set aside My Glory, so that I could identify with mankind. I accepted the limitations of infancy under the most appalling conditions—a filthy stable. That was a dark night for Me, even though angels lit up the sky proclaiming “Glory!” to awe-struck shepherds.¹ (emphasis added)

This doesn’t sound like the voice of our Savior—it sounds instead like the voice of a stranger (John 10:5). And when you really think about it, wouldn’t it be more likely that Satan himself would be the one to describe the night of Jesus’ birth as that “dark night for me”?

As to the bemoaning of this “Jesus,” Scripture tells us to be content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves:

 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. (Philippians 4:11)

In whatever way this devotion in Jesus Calling is looked at, it is a very unbiblical message. The conditions of His birth were not “appalling” but, rather, God’s “sign” to the shepherds, and then they, after seeing “the babe lying in a manger,” glorified and praised God for “all” they had “seen“:

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. . . .  And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. . . . And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. (Luke 2:11-20) (emphasis added)

(From Part II, chapter 9 of “Another Jesus” Calling)