When Life Yanks Us Around

November 28

(Luke 2:1-4 NIV) “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. {2} (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) {3} And everyone went to his own town to register. {4} 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.”

(Matthew 2:1-6 NIV) ““After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem {2} and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." {3} When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. {4} When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. {5} "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: {6} "'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.””

(Micah 5:2 NIV) “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

(Romans 13:1 NIV) “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”

Ironically, the story of Christ’s birth begins with a government decree. It would appear that there is no separation of church and state where God is concerned. Caesar ordered that a census be taken -- a sovereign emperor, unknowingly working in concert with the most sovereign God -- a God he did not know, or acknowledge. Everyone had to return to their hometown to be counted, which took Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. Had it not been for Caesar’s decree, it is unlikely that Jesus would have been born in Bethlehem, fulfilling God’s prophecy regarding the Messiah. Sometimes when life yanks us around, it yanks us right smack into the middle of God’s sovereign will. Christ’s earthly parents submitted to God, and to the state, which took them to the place where God would begin the greatest story ever told. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day