Around December each year we often turn to the first few
chapters of Matthew and Luke, as well as John 1, Galatians 4, and various
portions in the Old Testament that speak of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But these few verses at the beginning of Luke's gospel in between the birth of
John the baptist and the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ rarely get much
attention. During the Christmas season our hearts and minds are filled with the
wonder of the incarnation, God becoming man. "The Word became flesh, and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth." This truth is indeed wonderful. It is
something that we will never be able to wrap our minds around, that the eternal
Creator God stepped into His creation and became something that He never was
for all eternity past, a human being. He became like us, even to the point of
being born as a little baby in Bethlehem. The mystery of the incarnation is a
truth, not for the head, but for the heart. Here reason must submit to the
truth of Gods Word and kneel in reverence to a God who is beyond understanding
and past finding out.
But for now I want to turn our attention to the first three
verses of Luke chapter 2, and rather than focusing primarily on the birth of
Christ I want to look at Divine Providence and the Sovereignty of God as seen
in the Christmas story. In Luke chapter 2 verse 1 we are told that "It
came about in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census
be taken of all the inhabited earth." When this verse says "all the
inhabited earth" it's talking about the Roman Empire. It was at this time
in world history that Rome was the world power. Through war the Roman army had
forced many nations in submission to Rome, but now there was peace on the
earth. However, the peace at this time was an inforced peace. Those nations,
including Israel, that were under Roman control didn't dare speak out or rise
up against this ruler out of fear. This was a mere cessation of war, not what
we know to be true peace, but it was at this dark time that the Prince of Peace
was born into the world. It was at this time of the pax Romana that the
supreme world leader, Caesar Augustus, issued a decree that a census be taken
of all his empire. The reason for the census or the enrollment, no doubt, was
for taxing purposes. Each person would have to travel to their hometown, no
matter how far it may be, in order to meet the demands that the government was
placing upon them. It would have been little concern to this world leader that
his command would inconvenience the masses. I'm sure he had sufficient reasons
in his own mind for his decree, but he didn't know and didn't care what effect
this decree was going to have on millions. Among those who were inconvenienced
by the decrees of earths governments were Mary and Joseph. In verses 4-5 we
read - "Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to
Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the
house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was
engaged to him, and was with child." This young couple had to travel some
seventy miles in order to meet the governments demands that they enroll in
order that might be taxed. What they may not have realized and what Caesar
certainly didn't realize is that God was orchestrating all of these events in
order to fulfill His perfect plan. The issuing of this decree by this
government didn't catch God by surprise. Back in the second chapter of the book
of Daniel, king Nebuchadnezzar had a dream concerning a statue. The head of the
statue was made of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and
thighs of bronze, its legs of iron and its feet partly of iron and partly of
clay. In interpreting this dream to Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel said to him
"You are the head of gold. After you there will arise another kingdom
inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all
the earth. Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as
iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it
will crush and break all these in pieces." This fourth kingdom is Rome.
Hundreds of years before Rome even came into power God declared that they
would. And in Micah 5:2 the Scriptures prophesy - "But as for you,
Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One
will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago,
from the days of eternity." Christs birth in Bethlehem was also predicted
hundreds of years before He was born. From all outward appearance it would have
seemed that Caesar was the most important person in the world at that time.
Millions moved and his decree. And it would also seem that Joseph and Mary were
just humble, insignificant people. And yet it can now be easily seen that in
reality, Caesar was the insignificant person, merely a pawn in the plan of God
and Joseph and Mary were by far the most important people on earth at that moment
because Mary had within her womb the Savior of the world. Proverbs 21:1
says - "The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He
wishes." The Lord used the uncomfortable and inconvenient decree of a
pagan king in a crushing empire to accomplish His purpose and fulfill His Word.
We can't say for certain whether or not Joseph and Mary knew that the Christ
had to be born in Bethlehem. We don't read of them knowing or not knowing. I
imagine that making a journey of seventy miles at that stage of pregnancy in
order to be enrolled to be taxed couldn't have been very comfortable. And I
imagine that if Mary and Joseph were anything like me they must have been
wondering why God was allowing all this to happen. They knew for certain that
she was carrying the Son of God, how could God allow all this to happen so
close to the time of His birth? "While they were there, the days were
completed for her to give birth." The uncomfortable, unfair taxing decreed
by earths government was used by God to fulfill His plan and purpose. We may
not understand what is going on in the world, and the decrees of earths
governments may discourage and perplex us, but God is in control and He is
using these things to fulfill His plan and to accomplish His ultimate purpose.
No comments:
Post a Comment