Dec 26, 2023
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. (Luke 2:1-4)
Jesus would be born the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The
Royal King who would sit on the throne of David. But first he
and his family would be subjects, and not of the Kingdom of
God.
The Romans taxed subject peoples. And the way of determining that tax was through a census. The census therefore was a pretty unpopular thing that led to a lot of political tension and unrest, much like the tax itself. It also led to a lot of upheaval as people had to organize themselves according to the dictates of the bureaucracy that intended to count them.
In Joseph and Mary’s case, that meant a move to Bethlehem. It didn’t matter that Mary was pregnant or about to give birth. It didn’t matter whether there was room for them in Bethlehem or not. Nothing personal or humane mattered at all. They were just marginal, inanimate pawns being moved around the chess board by the powerful whims of an emperor leagues away.
And yet, despite that emperor and his whims, God was at work anyway. Even though this subjugation of the Jews by the Romans was unfair and the tax and the means used to assess it were unjust—even though it was impersonal and inhumane—even still, God used it for his purposes: bent it toward his will.
Everyone knew the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of the house and line of David. So how did a young girl in Nazareth get the nod to become the mother of the Saviour, and that even before she was technically married to a descendant of David? Well, through the movements of kings and emperors, through the work of righteous men like Joseph and angel messengers, God worked out his plan.
His boy would be born in Bethlehem, sure enough. Joseph had to go there. The emperor had said. He would bring Mary with him and he would adopt her child, making Jesus, born in the town of David, an adopted son of the house and line of David. Human impossibilities and corrupt systems bent all together to the will of God who in Jesus would redeem them both.
Whatever forces may be pressing on your life today—may you remember that God can and does still work through such things. Though forces may be outside of our control, they are never outside of his.
Take heart and hope: for our King of Kings, Jesus of Nazareth was born, not in Nazareth, but in Bethlehem of David. A testament to God’s Sovereign ability to knit his work and will through even the strongest forces of our world.