Anchor My Faith

An Untimely Decree

Scripture: Luke 2:1-2

Our journey through the gospels has progressed to the birth of Jesus Christ. In this section we will study Luke 2:1 – 7 and learn about the humble setting of his birth. The birth of John was described in just two verses in Luke; Luke 1:57 – 58. Luke uses 20 verses to cover the birth of Jesus, which we will cover in two sections. We will begin with: “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered” (Luke 2:1 ESV).

At the time of Mary’s pregnancy, she and Joseph lived in Nazareth in the area of Galilee, but because of a decree that went out from Caesar Augustus, Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem and while there Mary gave birth to Jesus. This decree was issued just before it was time for Mary to deliver and is referred to as “In those days” probably because Luke didn’t remember the exact year. This decree was an imperial edict or proclamation issued by Caesar Augustus, who reigned from 31 B.C. to A.D. 14. His first name was Octavianus and was the nephew of Julius Caesar and obtained the empire after his death. As a compliment to his own greatness, he took the name Augustus, which means honorable; and from him comes the month named August.  

That decree was sent out to “all the world”, has caused great difficulty in respecting this verse. It is a figure of speech to indicate an area of land that was large enough to cause Mary and Joseph to travel 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. They were required to go to be registered in the sense of taking a census. From this would come a basis for tax assessment.

“This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria” (Luke 2:2 ESV). It would have been better if Luke had left out this statement because it is not understood today what he was referring to. History reports that Quirinius was not governor of Syria until after the birth of Jesus. We will leave this as an unresolved issue coming from our lack of understanding of what Luke was referring to.

Prayer

Father, this lesson points out that events occur that we have no control over that affect our lives in various ways. Some of these events can turn out to be a blessing, but others can be devastating and even life changing. Regardless of how bad they are they do not take you by surprise and can be used by you to actually accomplish good. I think of the current persecution of Christians caused by governments creating laws that hinder their freedom but realize that here we find the spread of Christianity. What the government wanted to hinder, you are using for growth.