Luke 2:1-7 English Standard Version The Birth of Jesus Christ 2 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. The stage was set in chapter 1. We saw the angelic announcements, the birth of the Messiahs herald (John the Baptist) and we saw the prophecy of Zechariah about the ministry that Jesus would have and the part that John would play to get the people ready for it. The one thing that seems out of place is that if we know the Old Testament prophecies, the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, the City of David, but Mary returned to Nazareth at the end of chapter 1. So how are Mary and Joseph going to get down to Bethlehem? The first verse of Luke 2 tells us that God uses even the pagan authorities who we would call "godless" to accomplish His good purposes.
Caesar Augustus put out a decree that a census of all the people of the Roman Empire ("the whole world" that they knew at that time) should be counted and taxed, but to do so, he required that ever person be registered and taxed in their home town. Joseph was born of the family and line of David, so both he and Mary travelled to his hometown of Bethlehem for taxation, since Mary was already considered part of Joseph's family at this point. Luke, being a historian, was very specific about the timing of this census and tax because more than one such census and tax took place, so this was the first to take place when Quirinius was governor of Syria. That tells us exactly when this event happened historically (they missed it by a little bit when they made the designations of B.C. and A.D., but we're fairly confident that this happened in the year we would call 4 B.C.) So, we've gotten the right people to the right place at the right time, not because of anything that we have done, but because the LORD has orchestrated everything to occur "in the fullness of time" because He knows exactly when Jesus needed to be born so that He could fulfill His mission and so that the gospel could go out to the whole world. The word "gospel" has already been used a couple times by the angels bringing "good news" to Zachariah and Mary, but we are about to see it again in Luke 2 where they will say they are bringing "Good news of great joy that will be for all the people." In this way we are going to see, along with Zachariah's prophecy, that the salvation that Jesus would bring is not just for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles (the whole world). When Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem, there was no room for them to stay in the inn because there were so many people there for the census, so they had to stay somewhere close to where the animals were fed (a manger is a feeding trough). We don't know if this was actually in a cave or a stable like we usually see in nativity scenes or if they were out in the city square or somewhere else, all we can assume is that they were not somewhere comfortable and probably were with some animals, making for pretty unfavorable, and probably unsanitary conditions for this birth. Yet, this was the plan all along for Jesus to be born without comforts and privileges that would typically be afforded to a king, and here is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords having to be humbled even at His birth not only by taking the form a human--the Creator God taking the form of a creature in His creation--but that He was born to a poor family of no means (we'll see that shortly by the sacrifice they bring for purification on the eighth day). Everyone should have been ready for Him, yet we see that most everyone missed it--just a few select people were told in advance and a few others were invited to participate, and even those who were invited were invited for the reason of showing that Jesus was there for those that were the outcasts and considered to be unclean (the shepherds, and later some Gentiles of the Chaldeans called Magi--we see them mostly in the book of Daniel). When Jesus was born, he was wrapped in swaddling clothes, which are the strips of linen cloths the would use to wrap up a dead body (like what you see a mummy wrapped in). They always had these with them because they never knew when someone was going to die, and in some ways this is a sign that Jesus was born to die for all of us, but this is also a symbol of how poor they were and the conditions they were in that they had no blanket or extra clothes to wrap the baby in to keep Him warm, the best thing they had for Him was grave clothes. We'll look next time at some of the other events surrounding the birth of Jesus, specifically the angels appearing to the shepherds (probably the very shepherds that raised the sheep for sacrifice in Jerusalem). Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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