Anchor My Faith

God Is in Control

Scripture: Luke 2:3-5

The decree from Caesar Augustus required everyone to go to particular locations and register: “And all went to be registered, each to his own town” (Luke 2:3 ESV).  The Roman government wanted to establish a basis for taxation and required people to return to their town of origin and under oath to register the monetary value of their estates and to give the names of their parents, their own age, the names of their wives and children and where they currently live.

This clearly applied to Joseph: “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, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child” (Luke 2:4 – 5 ESV). At the time of the decree, Joseph and Mary were living in Nazareth of Galilee and since Joseph was of the house and lineage of David, his ancestral home was located in Judea, requiring he and Mary to traveled there to the city of David, which was called Bethlehem.

There was no necessity for Mary to have gone with Joseph since Joseph could have provided the necessary information for her, but in order to fulfill a prophecy found in Micah 5:2, God required Mary to be there with Joseph so that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. That prophecy was: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days” (Micah 5:2 ESV). Many years ago, God spoke through Micah and said that a king, whose roots extend back into eternity, would rise in Israel as their Messiah. This prophesied King and Messiah was this baby that Mary carried in her womb. She had to be in Bethlehem to give birth and so God had Caesar issue a decree to ensure that she be there with Joseph.

There are two more verses in this section, but we will leave them for the next lesson and have a short lesson today. Verse 7 will require more space than we have left here in this lesson.

Prayer

Father, how clear it is that you are in control of events, to ensure that every detail falls into place as we continue on our journey. If just one prophecy given by you in the past failed to be met, that would be enough to prove that you were not God. It takes just one fault to result in sin. To be holy is to be perfect, to be sinless, and just one unfilled prophecy is all that is needed to dethrone God. In fact, only one uncontrolled molecule in the universe removes the sovereignty of God. Father, thank you that Mary was in Bethlehem to give birth to Jesus.