June 28, 2000

• Luke 2:1-7

  

  By John MacArthur 

  Jesus' Birth in Bethlehem, Part 1 

  Luke 2:1-7 
  
  

  Two thousand years ago the creator of the universe, the eternal God entered human society as a baby.  The creator of the universe put on humanity.  The Lord of heaven came to live on earth.  On a night like every other night in Israel with no fanfare, no celebration by anybody, a child was born.  It was a night like any other night but it wasn't a child like any other child.  This child was the Lord Jesus Christ, God and man fused together in indivisible oneness.  This birth was so monumental that it became the high point of history, the peak, the apex.  All history before this birth is B.C., Before Christ.  All history since is A.D., Anno Domini, Latin for "the year of our Lord."

  "Now it came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.  This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.  And all were proceeding to register for the census everyone to his own city, and Joseph also went up from Galilee from or out of the city of Nazareth to Judea, the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and family of David in order to register, along with Mary who was engaged to him and was with child.  And it came about that while they were there the days were completed for her to give birth.  And she gave birth to her firstborn son and she wrapped Him in cloths and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn."

  Very familiar words.  Behind these simple, straightforward, unembellished words of narrative offered with delicacy and reserve, unmistakable meaning and significance there is the profoundest event in the history of the world.   The world celebrates the birth of Jesus in December for all the wrong reasons for the expression of self-indulgence, materialism, partying, social events of all kinds, but largely misses the point.

  About the middle of the fourth century right at the time of the establishing of the great world empire of Rome under Constantine, the Bishop of Jerusalem wrote to the Bishop of Rome and he asked him to determine the actual date of Christ's birth.  Well, no one knows the actual date of Christ's birth, the fact of the matter is we don't even know for sure the actual year of His birth.  But the Bishop of Rome sent word back to the Bishop of Jerusalem that it occurred on December 25.  By the end of the fourth century that had been accepted by the church, was really put into church fiat, or church law, it became the regularly accepted day to celebrate the birth of Christ.

  The bishop didn't know the date of Christ's birth because we don't know the date of Christ's birth.  December 25 is purely arbitrary.  But he didn't do it for purely arbitrary reasons.  He was a fairly shrewd guy and he had a reason for putting the celebration of the birth of Christ on December 25.  Most boisterous pagan revelries were celebrated in December.  It marked the winter and great celebration was held in anticipation of the coming spring.  Everything around was dark and dreary and trees were without leaves and things didn't grow.  And in the midst of winter they put on these great celebrations for the hope of the return of the sun, the return of the strength of the sun to bring back the spring and make things grow and warm up the cold.  Feasting was part of it.  Parties were part of it.  Adorning your house with evergreens anticipating those deciduous trees and plants that would soon bloom, they even adorned their houses with mistletoe.  The exchanged gifts, there was a general merry making held at that time of the year held by the pagans.

  The bishop's idea was to take the birth of Christ and put it on the same day around the same time to coincide with all the ancient festivals and all the wild winter revelries, in that way we will bring a sanctifying influence into this celebration and draw the attention of the people away from those things that they're engaged in into more spiritual pursuits and start making them think about the fact that God came into the world in human form. 

  While the old bishop might have had a good motive for what he did, but it didn't help.  Putting the birth of Jesus Christ on the same day as all the rest of this only served to clutter the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ with a whole lot of unrelated pagan elements.  That's why I say it's kind of refreshing to do this in June, to study the birth of Christ, because at least we're not in the middle of all of that stuff, we can just go through the faithful and true account of Luke and the simple unembellished, uncluttered story of the birth of Jesus.

  Let's return to Luke's account.  Luke does a wonderful thing here, simple, straightforward, unembellished language...that's important, it's uncluttered, it's marvelous and it's clear.  And as clear as it is and as simple as the language is, what's going on here is profound and far-reaching.  Now everybody in Israel knew some things about Messiah.  Everybody in Israel knew the Messiah would come and be King, that He would come and He would be in the line of David and He would reign on the throne in Jerusalem and He would establish the glorious kingdom for Israel.  They knew that He would come with a rod of iron, the psalmist has said as I read in Psalm 2 this morning, they knew some things about Messiah.  And one thing that was absolutely explicit about Messiah was recorded by the prophet Micah, in the little book of Micah, chapter 5 verse 2, the prophet Micah said, "The Messiah would be born in a village called Bethlehem," originally in Genesis 35 called Ephratah(?) but came to be known as Bethlehem which means "house of bread."  The Jews all knew that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem...at least that's what the Old Testament said.

  Luke in writing this passage never quotes Micah.  He doesn't refer to Micah.  But he shows us how God orchestrated the birth of Messiah in Bethlehem in explicit fulfillment of that prophecy in what really was an amazing work of God.  Because if things had just gone on normally, Jesus never would have been born in Bethlehem.  He had to be by word of the prophet and the veracity of the Word of the Bible was at stake, but God did some mighty working to make it happen and exactly and precisely on time.  Joseph and Mary were only in Bethlehem for a matter of days.  It had to be exactly the days when that child was born.  Luke makes us understand this without ever quoting Micah because he knows his readers know that passage.  He gives us here some profound insight into the fulfillment of Micah 5:2 that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

  Now as we come to these seven verses, Luke gives us three settings.  He gives us a world setting.  He gives us a national setting with Israel. And he gives us a personal setting.  And all three of these are very important in identifying the nature of Messiah, in identifying the fulfillment of prophecy and identifying His role to the world.  He is to be the Savior of the world and it's important to understand the setting in the world when He comes.  He is coming as the Messiah to Israel, it's important to understand the prophetic scriptures that relate it to Israel.  And He is coming as the Savior of every individual who puts their trust in Him and it's therefore important to understand something of the personal circumstances of Joseph and Mary.  So we're going to see the setting for the birth of Christ. 

  The whole story of the birth of Christ is in verse 7, the first part, "She gave birth."  That's all it says...that's all it says, "She gave birth."  Unembellished.  But what is coming together at that moment involves the world, the nation and Joseph and Mary personally.  It's wonderful to see the Savior who came to save the world and how He in His own birth is literally involving the world.  He came as the fulfillment of Jewish scriptures and it shows here how He fits in to the Jewish anticipation because of the Old Testament prophecies.  He comes to redeem individuals who for the most part are common and humble, like Joseph and Mary.  We see that in the personal setting.  So the world setting, the national setting, the personal setting.

  The world setting is in verses 1, 2 and 3.  "Now it came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.  This was the first census that was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria and all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone to his own city." Critical that everyone go to his own city.  Critical that Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem which was their own city so that they would be there when the Messiah was born so the prophecy of Micah would come to pass...absolutely critical.  Little did Caesar Augustus know that he was being moved by the Spirit of God to do exactly what he did on time, on schedule to effect exactly the result God wanted. There was a few days in which Joseph and Mary had to be in Bethlehem, right at the very time of the birth of the child God knew exactly when that moment was, exactly when that day was.  He knew when they had to be there and He had planned for that to happen under the authority and the power of a Caesar who was far removed from the little village Bethlehem and utterly removed from the purposes of God and utterly ignorant of the Word of God.  But nonetheless he was a main player in bringing the prophecy to pass which shows the mighty, incomprehensible, providential work of Almighty God.

  Verse 1 says, "Now it came about in those days."  What days?  Well, the days just spoken of...the days of chapter 1.  Go back to chapter 1 verse 5, "In the days of Herod king of Judea," in those days.  Herod, by the way, was still on the throne and he was on the throne when Jesus was born and for a little while afterwards.  We know a little about him, don't we?  We know about his animosity toward the birth of one who might take his throne and how he slaughtered all the babies in that region hoping that he would kill a rival king who had been born.  So we know about Herod.  It was in those days, the same days when Gabriel came to Zacharias and Elizabeth, the same days when Gabriel came to Mary, same days when John was born, the days of Herod.  Herod is still alive though he died soon after the birth of Jesus.   These were the days not only of Herod ruling in Israel, Herod wasn't even a Jew, by the way, he was an Idumaean, he was an Edomite and the Edomites were despised by the Israelites.  They had been cursed because of the way they treated Israel and God.  But nonetheless they had an Idumaean king by the name of Herod.  He was a vassal king under Rome.  He was allowed to have a measure of power in Israel.  Caesar Augustus was a wise man.  He was a brilliant and an astute man and he gave the nations and the provinces under the authority of Rome in the Roman Empire some freedom to operate their own government to lessen the tension a little bit and that was the reason Herod still had some authority in Israel.  Herod was still alive, as I said.

  These were the days though of Roman occupation in Israel.  These were the days not only of Roman occupation but that dreaded Roman taxation.  Those two things really bothered the Jews greatly.  They hated Rome and occupation because Romans were Gentiles.  They didn't like Gentiles.  They felt that Gentiles were outside the covenant.  They felt that Gentiles were unclean.  A Jew rarely if he was committed to his Judaistic tradition wouldn't go into the home of a Gentile because he would be defiled by even entering that place.  He wouldn't eat on utensils prepared by Gentiles because they would be unclean and defiled.  If he had to leave the borders of Israel and travel in a Gentile land, he would come back and he would do what's become a familiar phrase, he would shake the dust off before entering Israel lest he bring Gentile dirt in and pollute his nation.  They had no love for Gentiles.  And they had no love particularly for the Romans because they had these many gods and they were...they were a multi-god nation, they were polytheistic, they had all these idols which, of course, were distasteful to the Jews at that time as well...and had been ever since the Babylonian captivity many years before.  They brought their idols in on the banners that they wave, on the suits of armor and they had the image of Caesar.  They brought their idols in when they put Caesar's image on a coin and they believe Caesar to be a god...so they saw the coinage of Rome as idols.  They hated those expressions of idolatry in Gentile disbelief in the true God.

  And secondly, they despised Roman taxation.  They didn't think the Romans had any right to be in their land, they certainly didn't think they had any right to exact taxes from them.  And mostly they hated more severely the Jews who bought franchises to collect taxes for Rome, they were the ultimate outcasts, the ultimate defectors, the ultimate traitors, people like Matthew and Zaccheus...you meet them in the New Testament.  When somebody really wanted to call you an outcast, he would call you a tax collector. 

  So they hated Roman taxation.  They hated Roman occupation.  Now the best we can do in dating the birth of Christ is this, "It came about in those days..."  Some time in those days during the time of Caesar a decree went out.  Sometimes, by the way, Luke is very precise.  Chapter 3 verse 1, "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene...boy, that is really specific stuff.  Sometimes he's very, very specific, but sometimes he's very general.  For example, chapter 3 verse 23 when He began his ministry Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age.

  Now here he's not very specific.  He just says "in those days...in those days, a decree went out."  A decree is an imperial edict, the same is used in Acts 17:7, you can use that as a comparative.  Now this is common.  The emperor, that's what imperial means, the emperor made an edict, he would pass a law, a mandate, a given order. And it would come from Rome from the throne and it would be addressed to all the subjects and it would have certain requirements.  This edict went from the emperor right out of Rome, was carried to far off Judea and had critical bearing on the birth of Jesus Christ, critical bearing.

  Now let's look at the edict.  This edict that came out of Rome went out from the reigning Caesar of the day, Caesar Augustus. This versatile, able ruler of the Roman Empire was born September 23 of 63 B.C.  His name when he was born was Gaius Octavius.  Later on he became and is often referred to as Octavian.  Now Gaius Octavius born in 63 B.C., His mother, Atia, was the daughter of Julia and Julia was the sister of Julius Caesar.  Now this made Gaius Octavius the grand-nephew to Julius Caesar.  So he was born in high places.  For whatever reasons Julius Caesar took a tremendous affinity to this boy.  He adored little Gaius Octavius.  He lavished him with gifts and he honored him.

  Gaius Octavius had reached the age of twenty.  Julius adopted him as his own son and declared him to be the heir to the throne of the Roman Empire, literally established his future at that point.  One year later, it was one year later that Julius Caesar was murdered and when he was murdered at that point Gaius Octavius learned of his choice as Julius Caesar's heir.  At that point he changed his name to Gaius Julius Caesar in honor of his adopted father.  So he's really got a silver spoon in his mouth, he's headed for the throne.  Caesar, you remember, was murdered by his friends, namely the familiar Brutus.  One of his sisters married Mark Antony.  Mark Antony is a very, very dominant figure in Roman history as you know. 

  So here he was, the grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, adopted as a son and heir.  His sister married to Mark Antony who was a powerful person.  At the death of Julius Caesar three people reigned in Rome.  It wasn't that immediately Octavian was pushed into that place, there were three...there was Lepodus(?), there was Octavian and there was Mark Antony, a triumvirate who ruled Rome.  It wasn't long until Lepodus fell out and the rule of Rome was left with Octavian and with Mark Antony.  They ruled together for a while until Mark Antony began to do things that bothered Octavian.  First thing he did was he left his wife and his wife, as I told you, was the sister of Octavian.  He didn't like that.  He left his wife because he became infatuated with the legendary and bewitching Cleopatra, queen of Egypt who really is legendary as to her powers of seduction and ability to bewitch.  Well she bewitched Mark Antony successfully. 

  Mark Antony was drawn to Cleopatra.  Eventually he began to show more concern for Egypt, more concern for the successes of Cleopatra, more concern for her personally and his own welfare than he did for Rome. And so the irritation to Octavian began to escalate.  After all, he had divorced his sister and now he was turning his heart away from Rome. The result of all of this was tremendous conflict between Mark Antony and Octavian which ultimately brought them to a great battle, a battle that the Egyptians never should have gotten involved in because it was a sea battle, or it was a battle on water in which the Egyptian navy tried to fight the great Roman nave and was soundly defeated...it was called the battle of Actium(?), it was in 31 B.C. and at that battle Octavian literally devastated and destroyed the power of Mark Antony and Cleopatra and became sole ruler of the Roman Empire, 31 B.C. is when that occurred.  Both Mark Antony and Cleopatra soon after that committed suicide together and Octavian was left to rule. 

  Officially then his rule ran to 14 A.D....45 years this remarkable man was the absolute monarch to the Roman Empire.  Great military skill, great political skill, great social skill, he put an end to all civil wars, literally extended the Roman Empire from the west of Europe deep into the Middle East, as far east as the desert region of Iraq today, vastly dominating the entire inhabited known world at that time...at least known to those people. 

  He brought in the amazing Pax Romana, the Roman Peace which was often called the Pax Augusta in tribute to this man. He literally not only conquered the world, as it were, but he brought peace to all that realm by the skill that he had as a leader.  This Roman Peace literally made soft borders everywhere.  Then he built massive Roman roads and affected transportation systems in all directions for the extent of this great power of Rome in the world. And what it did was it facilitated the easy spread, the rapid spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was perfect timing.  Galatians 4 says, "In the fullness of time God sent His Son," one of the elements of the fullness of time was into a world where you had the most rapid, easy-access to take the gospel everywhere.  And because Rome controlled it all, there were no borders, there were no points to stop, there was just fluidity and facility and the gospel spread rapidly and fast and it went largely along Roman roads and Roman trade routes by sea and by land.  The Pax Romana brought an unheard of in human history, an unheard of period of peace at the hand of this great, great leader.

  In 14 A.D. he died.  He was succeeded by Caesar Tiberius, a familiar name to anybody who studies the New Testament because Tiberius taking the throne in 14 was the Caesar through the latter life of Jesus Christ.  He is the Caesar that we read about in the gospels during the ministry of Jesus Christ.  He ruled Rome during that time. 

  Now in the year 27 B.C., the Roman Senate gave him the title of Augustus which means majestic one, highly honored one, as I said.  From then on he became known as the Caesar who was called Augustus, thus Caesar Augustus.  August one could mean holy one, it was a term reserved for the gods.  It was used to refer to the gods and always referred to the gods before this man but now it was being used to refer to him because he was viewed as if he were a god, then it began to be used for Julius Caesar who himself had wanted to be treated as a god.  But it was after that 27 B.C. titling of Caesar Augustus that the idea that the Caesar was a god took root.

  At the time Luke wrote many Greek cities had identified September 23 which was the birthday of Caesar Augustus in 63 B.C., they had identified September 23 as such an important holiday that they made it the first day of the new year.  So their year actually started on his birthday...and this decades after he had died in celebration of this great man.  He became known and even during his reign was known...listen to this...as the savior. 

  There is a place called Halacarnasis in the Mediterranean.  Halacarnasis was the hometown of Heroditus, a famous Greek writer.  That Halacarnasis there is an inscription, it is inscribed to Caesar Augustus and it says, "Caesar Augustus, savior of the world."  At the very time a false savior of the world was riding high on the throne of his own glory the true Savior of the world was born in obscurity.  The false savior was on the world stage.  He dominated it in full honor and privilege.  The true Savior was born without honor, without privilege in humble obscurity.  The false savior was sitting on the highest pinnacle of the highest throne in the dominant city of Rome.  The true Savior was born in the humble non-descript village of Bethlehem.  The false savior made it clear who he was.  The true Savior couldn't even speak.

  Caesar Augustus, was a remarkable man.  He literally created the world that facilitated the spread of the gospel.  Not only did he do that in general but in specific he made an edict that caused Joseph and Mary to have to go by a certain date to Bethlehem where they would have their baby and fulfill prophecy.

  To sum up the character of this man we could say once you look at him in the beginning of his rule, he was ruthless.  I suppose he had to be to effect what he did.  He mellowed out later.  He became a wise administrator, a famous organizer, specially confident in the organization of the military and his own bodyguard which are referred to in Philippians 1:13.  He chose his general wisely, consequently he won many, many great battles.  He had many generals.  He had tremendous skill in dealing with his subjects.  He gave them autonomy.  He gave them freedom.  He allowed the conquered provinces...Rome had conquered them all...he allowed them to retain some of their own independent rule and self-rule.  He respected their customs, their religions, all of that.  He stimulated the arts.  He encouraged cleaning up literature and making it more noble.  He was a great builder.  Amazing man humanly speaking.

  Although he did pass a law that made adultery a crime, his own personal life really did undermine the sanctity of marriage.  He had a wife by the name of Scrubonia(?) who didn't produce a son. That was a bad thing in ancient times.  She did give birth to a daughter, Julia, so he had a daughter named Julia.  But he divorced Scrubonia because she couldn't give him a son, and he married Lybia, some lady he supposedly had fallen in love with.  And Lybia already had a son by a former marriage.  Her son's name was Tiberius.  So he forced Tiberius to marry his daughter Julia and therefore Tiberius sort of became a son-in-law and passed to him the right to become the next Caesar.  Tiberius, by the way, was married at the time so he had him divorce his wife to marry his daughter.  Soap operas are not new, folks, and they've always existed in courts of royalty.

  Let's look at his edict.  The census was to be taken of all the inhabited earth.  All the inhabited earth would be another way to say all the known world which would be all the Roman Empire which covered the known world in that area.  A census, apographe, simply a registration, to write something.  This was done for two reasons.  It was done to draw people into the military service, to find out who all the military-age young men were.  But the Jews had been exempted from that.  In wisdom, as I said, Caesar Augustus had given a little in to some of these nations and some of their quirks and religious convictions and the Jews were freed from providing military forces to Rome. The census on this occasion was not for that, we know what it was for because Joseph and Mary were involved in it.  It was for the registration of a census for the purpose of taxation.  This was the other reason they took a census.  And they were to go and register their name, their occupation, their property, their family...enter it into the Rome IRS agency for the purpose of taxation.  This was to happen everywhere in the entire Roman world.

  Now I want to give you some history on this, very important.  This census is called "the first census" in verse 2...the first census.  Now that's important because Caesar Augustus didn't just call for one census, he called for a series of censuses apparently at 14-year intervals.  Now you can track these series of censuses every 14 years, all the way, I think it's to the year 270 A.D.  Every 14 years there was a census.  And he was big on this.  He was very careful, very thoughtful and very statistical.  When he died he left in his own handwriting rather copious statistics on taxation which were derived from the census that had been taken during his reign.  We do read some literature that's existing today from antiquity out of Egypt that indicates that Egypt was committed to census every 14 years.  And so that supports the idea because Egypt at the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra came under the power of Rome and apparently went on to carry out these every 14 year census events. That would have been similar to what Syria would have done.  Syria was the region in which Judea exists. So when it says Quirinius was the governor of Syria, that would include Judea was a component of Syria large.

  Rome then passed this edict on that everybody had to go and register because of the census.  The Jews hated this.  It was alien to them.  It was a pagan thing.  It was intruding into their life distastefully.  They wanted nothing to do with it.  But God was at work.  Just like He had been at work in the decree of Cyrus that liberated Israel, send them back to reestablish their nation after the captivity, just as He was at work in the case of Nebuchadnezzar who ended up doing exactly what God wanted him to do for His own purposes, God takes pagan kings, pagan rulers and uses them as His own servants for His own purposes.  Don't you think for one minute that God isn't sovereign in all the palaces of the world...He is.  And He was in the palace of Caesar Augustus.

  Verse 2 says this was the first census...the first of the cycle of 14-year censuses which Caesar Augustus had set in motion.  Now we get a further input here.  When was the first one?  Well it was taken while a man named Quirinius was governor of Syria.  Syria again is that large area in which Judea would exist.  And over that area this man, Quirinius, had some responsibility.  Let me take the word "governor" for a minute, it's a non-technical word.  It doesn't mean he was the number-one man.  It doesn't define for us the nature of his leadership.  It's a word like leader.  It's a word like ruler, person in authority.  It's not specific, it's non-technical.  The Romans had technical titles which you can see in a pecking order in a hierarchy.  There were legates.  There were proconsuls.  There were prefects.  There were procurators.  And those are identifiable connected roles in the hierarchy of Rome.  Governor is a generic for leader.  So this was the first census taken and it was taken at a time while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

  Now the reason Luke is telling us this, to help us pinpoint the time of the birth of Christ.  This is a historical event.  This isn't a figment of somebody's imagination.  It was in that first census that occurred under the authority of Caesar Augustus and it occurred at the time that there was a ruler in Syria by the name of Quirinius.  This helps us get a little closer to when this happened.

  The people who read Luke in Luke's day would know exactly when it was.  We don't anymore because so much time has passed, very hard for us to be precise about this.  His name was Publius Sulpicius Quirinius.  He was known to have governed Syria, listen carefully, A.D. 6 to 9...A.D. 6 to 9.  A well-known census was taken in Palestine in A.D. 6.  Josephus, the great Jewish historian, records that it sparked a violent Jewish revolt which is mentioned by Luke who quotes Gamaliel and it's mentioned by Luke in Acts 5:37.  So Luke even refers to this census which provoked a revolt which occurred in A.D. 6.  Quirinius was responsible for administering that census.  He also paid a major role in quelling the subsequent rebellion.  However, listen very carefully, that census can't be the census Luke has in mind here because it occurred about a decade after the death of Herod.  I have a note on that in Matthew 2:1.  It's much too late to fit here.

  So we know there was a census in A.D. 6.  We know that Quirinius at that point was a leader in Syria.  But here you have a little indication that that was not that one, verse 2, "this is the first census."  So if that one occurred in 6 A.D. and they were normally at 14-year intervals, all we need to do to find the first one is back up how many years?  Fourteen years, that would take us to 8 B.C...8 B.C.  Now in my note I say in light of Luke's meticulous care as a historian, it would be unreasonable to charge him with an obvious anachronism or an error.  Indeed archeology has vindicated Luke.  A fragment of stone discovered at Tivoli, which is near Rome, in A.D. 1764, a fragment of stone discovered, it contains an inscription in honor of a Roman official who it states was twice governor of Syria and Phoenicia during the reign of Augustus.  Now we're starting to make sense.  Somebody was governor twice.  That could be just what we need.  Once in A.D. 6 to 9 and another time previously back in the B.C. time when that first census took place as what Luke says.  The name of the official is not given on that fragment, but among his accomplishments are listed details that as far as is known can fit no one other than Quirinius...and we do have some historical records about him.

  Isn't that wonderful?  We had to wait until 1764 to have the Bible verified.  The Bible is true.  Whenever there is something found like that, it always verifies it.  Thus he must have served as governor of Syria twice.  He may have been a military ruler or leader at the same time that history records Varus(?) was the civil governor there.  With regard to the dating of the census taking it a step further, some ancient records found in Egypt mention a worldwide census ordered in 8 B.C.  That would be exactly right.  Now we've got Egyptian material saying there was one in 8, that fits the fourteen-year pattern exactly. 

  That has some problems though because when you put all the chronology of the book of Christ together, you can't have it any earlier than 6 B.C. and probably even 4 B.C. is better.  How do you solve that problem?  Pretty simple really.  Augustus probably made the decree in 8 B.C. but Judea didn't comply with it until two to four years later and that's what I put in the note.  It was actually carried out in Palestine two to four years later, most likely because of political difficulties between Rome and Herod and conflicts.

  Why else would Joseph and Mary go down to Bethlehem in the dead of winter, sometime in the late part of the year any way, when it could be cold, when it could be rainy, when it could be snowy, why would she nine months pregnant be bumping on a mule or walking 85 or 90 miles from the north down...really upward to Bethlehem because it's ascent in terms of terrain?  Why would she do that at the very end of her pregnancy unless there had been a deadline dropped ala April 15?  It must have gotten to the place where perhaps non-compliance on the part of Israel had reached its limit and Caesar had said...that's it, this is the deadline and you have to be there by then.  Otherwise it would seem reasonable that they would have waited until the child was born at some later time, Joseph could have gone on his own and taken care of the matter.  It may be an indication that there was some extremity that had been perpetuated by the reluctance of Israel to comply.  And after all, Judea was a faraway land from Rome and certainly loved to exercise its independence.  Therefore the precise year of Christ's birth can't be known with certainty.  We don't know.  The people who read Luke originally probably had a good idea, may have known exactly.  It was probably no earlier than 6 B.C. and certainly no later than 4 B.C. by our dating.  As I said, Luke's readers would have known.

  So this is the best we can do at setting the time by our calendar, somewhere by what we call...they didn't call it dating that we do cause that came later when we dated B.C. and A.D....but somewhere in what we call 4 to 6 to 4 B.C. this birth of Christ took place.  It says in verse 3, and here's the point, "And all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone to his own city."  That sets the scene...that sets the scene.  There's no other reason they're going to travel at a time like this.

  The Romans would normally register people in their own place of residence. They didn't make them go back to some initial homeland.  That must have been a Jewish custom or something that Herod required.  And the Jews we know where big on ancestry.  You remember when they came in to the land of Canaan, the whole land of Canaan, you remember, was divided into tribal areas and every tribe had their own area.  And within those tribal areas there were towns and villages that belonged to certain families.  And through the years those families were connected to those villages and they owned the land.  You remember every seven years the land would go back to the original owner so that genealogies were very, very important.  They kept very careful, very detailed records of families.  And so they would go back to their tribal area, back to their family home area, back to their father's village, that's where they went to register.  And that sets the scene perfectly to put Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem where the baby is born in specific fulfillment of Micah 5:2, this by virtue of a decree from a pagan, godless monarch who had no idea of any word of any Hebrew prophet or any of its significance.

  This was the world setting.  This was how God was controlling the world events crucial to the birth of Christ.  It set everything in motion for what for that little couple must have been a miserable trip physically, distressing her to go far from home, far from her mother, far from her family, far from everybody who knew her and loved her and cared about her to have a baby on the road, as it were, in an obscure place.  And remember, she was thirteen, or fourteen and her husband was fifteen.  But it was essential and they must have gone because they didn't have a choice.

  There are no accidental occurrences in the realm of the Holy Spirit.  Had the Emperor Augustus made his decision three months earlier, or three months later, or one month earlier or one month later, or maybe one week earlier, or one week later, Jesus wouldn't have been born in Bethlehem.  But He was.  God knew how long it would take to get the registration machinery in place.  God knew how long Herod would resist it.  God knew how long it would take for that little couple to trek those 85 to 90 miles in the winter.  God knew exactly how long it would take so that they would be there for just a few days, but in those days the baby would be born.  Every single detail was in the hand of Almighty God.  And God still directs history and He still holds every king, every monarch, every ruler in His hand for His own purposes.

  So there's the world setting.  It sets the scene for the coming of Messiah.  Next time we're going to look at the national setting in Israel and the personal setting with Joseph and Mary. 

  ---

  

  Jesus' Birth in Bethlehem, Part 2

  Luke 2:1-7

  "Now it came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria and all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee from the city of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and family of David and in order to register along with Mary who was engaged to him and was with child. And it came about that while they were there the days were completed for her to give birth and she gave birth to her firstborn son and she wrapped him in cloths and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn."

  That last statement, "there was no room for them at the inn," has become a very familiar part of Christmas lore. And it really is not legend, it is fact as that text indicates.  The kids were in need of a place to sleep and the town was crowded and the "no vacancy" sign spelled for us a very serious potential situation.  Their circumstances made the "no vacancy" sign in Bethlehem all the more severe since Mary was about to deliver a baby. This young couple, Joseph probably being 14- or 15-, Mary 13- or 14-years of age, the two of them had journeyed about 85 to 90 miles from their home in Nazareth.

  And when they came to Bethlehem, it says in verse 7, there was no room for them. Nine months pregnant, in a matter of a few days to deliver a baby, and no place to stay. No relatives awaiting with a warm home. It was late fall or early winter. Nobody to care for this little couple, no room for them. And that note certainly is symbolic of the future for Jesus. It seems to me that as far as Jesus is concerned there's still a "no vacancy" sign hanging on the world.

  The promise had come to this young girl that she was going to be the mother of a baby, even though she was a virgin. The baby would be miraculously conceived by God. The baby would be the Son of God in human flesh. When Mary appeared soon after this to be pregnant and Joseph to whom she was engaged found out about it, he was shocked, he was stunned because there was no explanation for her pregnancy humanly then that she had had a relationship with someone else. Joseph knew her to be a godly young girl, a righteous young girl. He was shaken by the fact that she was pregnant and was trying to decide what to do, whether to divorce her, whether to break the engagement covenant or whether to stone her to death for this sin when an angel appeared to him, as recorded in Matthew chapter 1, and said to him, "Don't be afraid to take her as your wife because that which is conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit and she's going to bring forth a child named Jesus and this child is going to be Jesus because He will save His people from their sins. And further, His name will be immanuel which means God with us." And Joseph got the message from the angel that she was with child by the Holy Spirit to bring into the world the King, the Savior, God in human flesh.

  Nine months have passed since Gabriel's announcement. And Mary is full term and she in this passage gives birth to the baby Jesus. Now as Luke tells us the story of the birth, which is very simply told, the beginning of verse 7, "And she gave birth." That's it. Another one of those classic understatements...And she gave birth. Nothing particular about that birth of note. It was like any other and every other birth. The child was not like any other child, the birth was like every other birth.

  First of all, the world setting...and I gave it to you last week, we'll just mention it...is in verses 1 to 3, "It came about in those days," that is the days when Herod was reigning as an Idumaean king in Israel, the days when Gabriel came to Elizabeth and Zacharias, the days when John the prophet and forerunner of Messiah was born, those very same days, "It came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria and all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone to his own city."

  It's amazing how God orchestrates everything. Whether He has willing or unwilling subject, whether He has a knowing or unknowing subject, part of God bringing together the details and all the components of the birth of Messiah, right time, right place, was to move on the mind of a pagan, godless Caesar who knew nothing about the Old Testament, nothing about the coming of Messiah, nothing about God whatsoever. He was in every sense a pagan and yet he paid a critical role in the fulfillment of prophecy at the birth of the God/Man, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And it was because he made a decree.

  His name was Caesar Augustus.  He was such a remarkable man that he was called, and it's inscribed in stone, "the savior of the world." That's how highly he was revered. He was worshiped as a god and as a deity.

  This one who was the false savior of the world knew absolutely nothing about the birth of the true Savior of the world. But in the normal course of his rule he determined that a census needed to be taken in the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was vast and he used census basically for taxation. That's the same reason we have census today in our own country, to identify all the citizens so they can be taxed. And that's exactly what was happening in that day. He wanted to tax the full extent of the Roman Empire because he was providing services for all of these nations which had become vassals to the great power of Rome. And so he made a decree that the whole of the inhabited earth, just a way of saying the whole known world which would be all the known world in the Roman Empire at that time, that they all would be registered literally. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And I told you last Sunday that would have been in 8 B.C. You work all the chronology backwards of the years, you would have a known census in the year 6 A.D. and they were at 14-year intervals, as history tells us, so 14 years before that, the first census would have been 8 B.C., the second one in 6 A.D., fourteen years later. The census was made in 8 B.C. However, there was not compliance with that census apparently in Judah until two to four years later. The Jews did not like to pay taxes to Rome and apparently Herod was able to stall it off as long as possible. Finally in somewhere around 6 to 4 B.C. they were forced to comply. In fact they were forced to comply with such specificity that there was evidently a deadline like an April 15 deadline that we have in which you had to be registered. And that's why Joseph and the very pregnant Mary had to make a 90-mile journey walking or riding a bumpy donkey over very rough terrain in late fall or winter to do this thing and couldn't have put it off any longer. And all of that fit into the purposes of God to be sure that they were there in Bethlehem when that child was born because that was God's plan.

  Caesar didn't know anything about this. Herod didn't know anything about the purposes and plan of God. But God was working all the details on a world setting. From Caesar's standpoint he was taxing. It was at a time when a man named Quirinius was governor of Syria. It was the first of two periods in which he exercised some official duty. He was also a ruler at the second census that came along in 6 A.D. Now we don't know anymore than somewhere around 6 to 4 B.C. is when Jesus was born. The people who read Luke originally would know more specifically. But we don't have any records as to anything more specific than in that general time frame when Jesus was born. So He wasn't actually born in say zero A.D., but rather somewhere between 6 and 4 B.C., six at the earliest, four at the latest He was born and He was born literally in Bethlehem as a result of the political strategies of a godless, pagan Caesar.

  Verse 3, everybody had to register for the census and it says, "Everyone to his own city." Now that was not a Roman stipulation as far as we know. The Romans would have been happy for people to register in the town they lived in. So it's most likely that the fact that they went back to the city of their ancestry that there was a Jewish stipulation, either by Herod or by some stipulation. Since this is the first census the Romans had, there wouldn't have been any tradition in censuses since there hadn't been any prior censuses by the Roman government. So it most likely was a Jewish prescription. The Jews decided that everybody should go back to the place where the records were kept. You remember when the children of Israel came to the land of Canaan the whole land was divided into sections and tribes were given sections. And in those tribal sections families were given areas and among those families there would be certain areas they would live in and certain villages their ancestors would have settled in. And that's where they would go. They were fastidious about keeping genealogical records. By the way, the Romans in 70 A.D. when they destroyed Jerusalem, they destroyed all the Jewish records, all of them. But at the time that the census were taken, those records would have been carefully kept by scribes in all the local areas. And so I'm sure by Jewish demand they were to go back to the place of their original ancestry.

  That was all very, very critical to the purposes of God so that the Messiah would be born in the place that God had determined. Had Caesar Augustus made his decree earlier or later, had Herod resisted shorter or longer, the child would have been born in Nazareth and not have fulfilled prophecy and we could conclude that God couldn't control circumstances. But that didn't happen and never happens because God controls everything. God literally writes history as His story.

  Let's turn to the second setting, the national setting. Luke is concerned now to move from the world scene to the land of Israel itself. And so in verses 4 and 5 he says, "And Joseph also went up from Galilee from, or literally in the Greek, ek, out of, the city of Nazareth where they lived to Judea, that's the lower portion of Israel, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, probably a term meaning house of bread. And he went there because he was of the house and family of David in order to register along with Mary who was engaged to him and was with child."

  Now this gets us into the context of the land of Israel. We're out of the Roman Empire. We're away from Quirinius and Caesar Augustus, we're now talking about Galilee, Nazareth, Judea and the city of David, Bethlehem, etc. We're now looking at the nation Israel. And the nation Israel is connected to Scripture. God gave to the Jews the Scripture. And the Scripture was very, very specific about where the Messiah was to be born.

  There was a prophet by the name of Micah and in his prophecy Micah chapter 5 and verse 2, this is what we read, "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah." If you go back to Genesis 35:19, you will find this village was called Ephrathah originally, later became known as Bethlehem. And so the prophet identifies it by both names, Bethlehem Ephrathah. He says you are little among the clans of Judah, or too little to be among the clans of Judah...there's a couple of ways to translate that. In other words, it's insignificant... It was always a very small place...insignificant, "But from you...Micah 5:2...one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel." You're going to give birth to a ruler.

  It can't be David that he's talking about, even though David was born there, because David had been born 300 years before this. David was born a thousand years before the Messiah. Micah's prophecy was 700 years before the Messiah. So here we are, Micah is talking 700 years before the birth of Messiah. He says, "One will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel."

  You say, "How do you know it's the Messiah?" Because the next line says, "His goings forth are from long ago from the days of eternity." He is an eternal being. There will be a ruler born in Bethlehem who has been alive forever. That is a very specific prophecy. His appearances are from long ago, from eternity. An eternal existing one will become ruler born in Bethlehem...born in Bethlehem. So Luke wants us to understand this. He never...interestingly enough...he never mentions the prophecy of Micah. Luke never refers to the prophecy of Micah. Doesn't say anything about it. But every Jew who was waiting for the Messiah knew the prophecy of Micah. It was an unmistakable prophecy, unmistakable. And Matthew does mention it. In Matthew chapter 2 Matthew says, "It has been written by the prophet, "And you Bethlehem...'" and so forth, "Out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd My people Israel."

  They knew that Bethlehem would be the place of Messiah, they who knew their Old Testament and waited for the redemption of Israel. Luke doesn't need to mention it, it was crystal clear. Besides Matthew specifically mentions it. But it becomes very important because when Caesar Augustus put the census in motion, the end result of that was this young couple were going to be in Bethlehem and because of the date established, they were going to be there at the very moment when that child was born. They went there in the ninth month of her pregnancy.

  So, Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth to Judea. By the way, going up...you look at a map, you see Galilee appear, you see Judea down here, you think that's up. Well it's up on the page on the map, but geographically Galilee is lower than Bethlehem. In fact, Nazareth sits up on a hill on the north part of the Plain of Esdraelon, the Valley of Migiddo, and you would go down into the valley or the plain and you would start a slow climb to about 2564 feet or so to where Bethlehem is, almost on the same hill as Jerusalem. So that's why it says he went up.

  He went up to the city of David, it says. Up to the city of David. Judea is the southern region. The city of David is called Bethlehem, it says. And I want to tell you something here that...because I don't want you to be mistaken about your understanding of this...the city of David which is called Bethlehem. If you go to the Old Testament and you read the city of David...if you're looking, for example, in 2 Samuel chapter 5 and elsewhere, you'll read about the city of David. In the Old Testament the city of David refers to the hill of Zion in Jerusalem where David sat as king. In fact, you will...if you talk to a historian or a guide in Israel, they even call this section of Mount Zion which is a little bit to the south of the temple mount in Jerusalem, they call that hill of Zion the city of David. The city of Jerusalem was the larger city, the city of David was the place where David reigned and ruled on Mount Zion. It was the city of David within the city of Jerusalem. So when you're reading in the Old Testament about the city of David, it's referring to the Mount Zion where David reigned. But here he tells us the city of David he's referring to is called Bethlehem. That also is a city of David, it's not the city where he reigned, it's the city where he was born. That too is a city of David. He was born in Bethlehem.

  Bethlehem was a pretty obscure place. But there was a man living there identified in 1 Samuel 16 as Jesse the Bethlehemite. And in 1 Samuel 16 God goes to Samuel and He says...Look, I've had it with Saul, he's history. Saul's out, I have pronounced a curse on his line...and so forth. And He says to Samuel...So we're going to have to get a new king. I want you to go to Bethlehem because there's a man there by the name of Jesse, a Bethlehemite, and I'm going to pick one of his sons.

  As it turned out, now you've got everybody all shined up and polished and all the sons stood in line and God picked the most unlikely one. He picked the baby boy of the family, David. But he was a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, 1 Samuel 16.

  Now it's important then since Micah said the Messiah is going to be born in Bethlehem that the Messiah be born in Bethlehem. And so, God uses Caesar Augustus, uses Herod, all the political machinations work together and here comes Joseph down to the city of David which is called Bethlehem and he goes there because he was of the house and family of David. As we learned earlier in chapter 1 verses 25 and 26, he was a descendant of David. As we'll find out in chapter 3, Mary was also a descendant of David. And that's important through Mary and Jesus got royal blood through His father, Joseph, who was His...who was not His physical father but was His earthly father, He got the right to be the ruler. And so they went down to register because they were supposed to register in the house of their ancestors.

  And again I remind you, all of this is perfect in the plan of God. Providentially getting them exactly where they need to be because the Messiah was a son of David and was to be born in the city of David. The prophet said so. In order to fulfill that prophecy, that couple had to be there and God made sure they were.

  Verse 5 says they went to register for the census, along with Mary who was engaged to him and was with child. Really a fearful thing for a 15-year old and a 13-year old or so to take such a trip under such circumstances.

  Now historians have struggled over this issue of "along with Mary." Was it required that she go there to register? Wouldn't it have been enough for a father to register for his...his wife and his family? We really don't know the answer to that. We don't know whether she needed to register or not. We don't know whether it was required to have her signature, or whether it was required to have her indicate some properties or some ancestry or whatever...we don't know that. But we do know this, that upon being pregnant she knew there was only one person in the world who would understand her condition. It must have been difficult to explain to her mother and her father how all of a sudden a 13-year old girl appears pregnant and she's never had a relationship with a man. And everybody is suspicious that she is lying. It would have been hard enough for her parents to understand that, let alone strangers and outsiders. One can only imagine the gossip which must have gone on, a certain amount of shame that she must have had to bear.

  We also know that she perhaps went to visit Elizabeth for those three months as a way not only to connect to somebody who would understand a conception miracle because she had been allowed to conceive John in her old age, but to get her out of that environment where she was exposed to so much potential shame because she was pregnant. If in fact she had gone to be with Elizabeth for the three months and now she was so obviously pregnant and having arrived in her ninth month she would have been exposed to more gossip, more scorn...I don't think there's any way in the world that Joseph who had to make the trip to register would ever have gone without her. I mean, it was a way for him to take her out of that environment which was very difficult for her and it's also for certain that he wanted to be there when that little life came into the world.

  He knew what was going on. He knew she was pregnant with the Son of God. He wasn't about to say...You know, I've got a business trip, you might have the Son of God while I'm gone...I don't think so. I really don't think so. I think this is one you don't want to miss. He knew. He knew this was Jesus to save His people from their sins because the angel told him that. He knew this was Immanuel, God with us. He knew what Gabriel had told Mary. How many times had Mary rehearsed that conversation? I can imagine when he first found out she was pregnant and she said...Well it's like this, Joseph, Gabriel came and told me I was going to be impregnated by God. Sure. How many times did she have to tell him that? Well probably a lot of times until the angel finally appeared to him and told him the story and now he knew exactly what was going on. They had to go, worldly conditions pressed them to go. There wasn't any way he was going without her.

  So a forced journey to Bethlehem was necessary for the Word of God to be fulfilled. Bethlehem was the place because that was their lineage, that was the place they needed to be cause that was the home of David the great king. And that again would insure by virtue of Scripture not only the decree of Caesar but by virtue of Scripture God moved them there to fulfill the clear statement of the prophet Micah.

  Now a little note here. It says Mary was engaged to him. That's interesting because in Matthew 1:24 it says they had married. In fact it says Joseph arose from his sleep after the angel came and told him that she was a virgin, yes, and that she had been given a child by God and that he could go ahead and take her as his wife because she was pure. This was a divine miracle. He arose from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, he took her as his wife and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son. He took her as a wife. He took her as his wife.

  What that indicates is there was a marriage ceremony. It think he actually married her at that point, it's pretty clear in that text. That would have been the right thing to do. That would have quelled a lot of questions, at least you could introduce her as your wife and not...well, this is my betrothed who is with child. He covered her in kindness by going ahead with the ceremony. So they were actually...there actually was a ceremony, there actually was a wedding, I believe a marriage did legally take place.

  But what Luke tells us here is quite interesting and it's very, I think, carefully put together where you have the marriage indicated in Matthew and yet here it says "who was engaged to him." And what Luke is telling us by backing off from that marriage and there was really only a thin line between being betrothed and being married. The betrothal was a binding contract. Luke is telling us...yes, there was a ceremony but they were conducting themselves as though they were only engaged. And it says in Matthew 1:25 that he kept her a virgin until the child was born.

  So both Matthew who identifies the ceremony which would have been the right thing to do because she did have a child in her womb and Luke who tells us that they were in a relationship that in effect was a betrothal or an engagement, give us both sides so that we can understand the situation. She was with child.

  So the world setting and the national setting. All fitting in with Roman strategy and Old Testament prophecy. Now we come to the personal setting, and this is where the charm of the story comes. The personal setting...Luke's focus now is not on the world scene, it's not on the national scene, it's on the personal circumstances that are so interesting. "It came about," verse 6, "that while they were there." I stop there and I say...Okay, where? Bethlehem. Where in Bethlehem? We have no idea. We have no idea, they were just there. We don't know how long they were there. They were there days because the days were completed for her to give birth. They were there. We don't know where. For how long we don't know. Some days, maybe three, maybe four, maybe six, maybe seven...I don't know, maybe eight. I...we don't know. They were there.

  It doesn't tell us where they were. But it does tell us at the end of verse 7, "There was no room for them in the inn." And I'll tell you this, if there had been room in an inn for the prior days, nobody in their right mind would have kicked them out when she was about to deliver the baby. And some have suggested that for the first few days they were there they stayed with relatives. Well what relatives in the world is going to kick them out on the day of the birth of the child? The fact of the matter is wherever they were when the baby was born was where they had been the whole time they were there. They just were there for an unstated time in an undesignated place.

  Simple words which excite profound imagination. They were the homeless. There were certain shelters, as there are today, provided for people who were homeless. Public shelters. And you can be sure of this, the Roman soldiers, the Roman registrars who were doing the registration of the people, all the Roman dignitaries, believe me, occupied whatever few guest rooms existed in a little tiny place like Bethlehem which probably, when you think of an inn you think of some kind of three-story motel. No such thing existed. Whatever accommodations there were would have been taken by the officials, the Roman officials or the Jewish officials who were running this whole thing.

  So they were there and the days were completed for her to give birth. Nine months were up. Absolutely nothing said about the details...nothing. And she, verse 7, gave birth. That's all it says. I just wish there was more than that. Can I indulge in a little sanctified imagination? Not stretching the point, I hope. I can imagine Joseph just almost beside himself with curiosity. I mean, if you knew that your wife was going to give birth to the God/Man you might have a few imaginations about what this child might be like, probably holding her hand through the long silent night of her labor. Perhaps smoothing her forehead with a cooling cloth. Perhaps speaking sweet comfort to his dear young wife as she spent hours in labor in a place that offered no comforts, no doctors, no nurses, no mother. Every girl would want her mother there. No family, just a 13-year old and a 15-year old. Hours of labor, just a teen-aged husband to help. And finally she at the culmination of the labor, at the glorious moment pushes one more time and pushes out the Son of God. And He cried the cry of life.

  In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son born of a woman, Immanuel, the God of eternity stepped in to time and space. The Lord of immensity, the Lord of omnipresence was confined to a body about ten pounds in weight and under two feet in length. That little life came out into the arms of that young father. And neither of them could fathom what was going on. And they had been told by an angel. And everybody around them had absolutely no idea.

  Luke is careful to tell us that she gave birth to her firstborn son, prototokon, firstborn. He does not use monogenes, only son. The Roman Catholic Church would have you believe she had only one child and she was a perpetual virgin till her death. That is not true. She had many sons and daughters. It says, I read you a little bit ago in Matthew 1:24-25 that he kept her a virgin until Jesus was born. After that Joseph and Mary had normal relationships as any other husband and wife would and they had boys and they had girls. In Matthew's gospel chapter 12 we are introduced to Jesus' brothers. In chapter 13 they're even named for us. Jesus' brothers who were born to Joseph and Mary, half brothers actually, James, Joseph, Simon, Judas. Verse 56, and His sisters are mentioned as well. You know, the crowd at that point was incredulous. They were saying...You know, Jesus...this is nobody special. They said...This is just a carpenter's son. His mother is Mary, His brothers are James and Joseph and Simon and Judas, and His sisters, they're all with us. They just looked at that family as an ordinary family. They've got a whole family full of kids. We meet His brothers again later on. Luke records their appearance in chapter 8. We read about His brothers in John 2, John 7, that they didn't believe. We read about His brothers again in Acts 1. Jesus was not the only son Mary had, Jesus was not the monogenes, the only begotten, He was prototokon, the firstborn.

  And, you see, that's very important because not only is He the firstborn which, of course, means that she was a virgin but He is the firstborn which, of course, means that He has the right to the inheritance, He is the primogenitor, as it was called. The primary right to the family inheritance. Frankly, Joseph didn't have a lot to leave Him, he was a tradesman, he was a carpenter. Mary didn't have any great estate, as far as we know, to leave Him. But what He did have was the right to the throne of Israel. There hadn't been a king in a long time in Israel...a long time. And the Babylonians had devastated that whole thing and they were followed by the Medo-Persians and they were followed by the Greeks and they were followed by the Romans. And somebody was always ruling in Israel but it wasn't in the royal line of David, but the royal line was still there and it was there in the life of Joseph and in the life of Mary. And what they passed on to Jesus was the right to rule on the throne of David. He was the firstborn. If you study the Old Testament you find how important that firstborn inheritance was.

  And then some simple details that I find amazing. "She wrapped Him in cloths." You ever ask...Why is that there? Because that was normal, that was routine. This is just a birth like every other birth. And a Jewish mother did this typically. You can find this in all the indications in history about babies that are born, they would wrap them in cloths. The Greek word is "She swaddled Him." Swaddled Him. That's why we talk about swaddling cloths. Swaddling is an Old English word to describe wrapping. And here's what they would do. The custom was, take long strips of cloth and wrap the arms and wrap the legs and then wrap the little body tightly. This was for warmth. This was for security. I mean, that little baby in the womb is in there all cuddled and nestled tightly in there and all of a sudden comes out into this stark hospital room, nothing touching it, his little extremities flailing in every way. No wonder they're screaming. This is a violent experience.

  They would just take that little baby immediately and they also believed that wrapping up those limbs and wrapping up that little body protected that little child. Also believed that it helped to keep their bones straight when they grew in early life.

  The point is, she treated the baby like any other baby. This is just a normal little baby. This is just a baby like other babies. Physically looked like any other child. Physically treated like any other child. No royal robes, no fancy clothing, didn't come out with a little halo over His head. He came out like everybody else comes out, same exact way. No doubt kissing that little boy as she wrapped him tightly and warmly and caressed Him, nursed Him.

  And then it says, most interestingly, "And laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn." Manger is the word phatne...phatne in Greek, it means a feeding trough. By the way, it never says in the Bible Jesus was born in a stable. It's not in there, so if you've been looking for it you won't find it. It doesn't say He was born in a stable, doesn't use the word "stable." Tradition...old tradition is that He was born in a cave, it doesn't say He was born in a cave. All it does say is He was laid in a manger and from that we can deduce that it was a stable because that's an animal feeding trough and it says there was no room for them in the inn. And that indicates that they couldn't get in to the facility for people and so in every facility for people in ancient times there was an adjacent facility for the animals which they had with them when they traveled. You see a motel and immediately outside a motel what do you see? A parking lot. Well the means of transportation in ancient times was animals and so they carried goods on their animals. If you were a traveling salesman, you had a beast of burden to carry your goods. That's how it was. If you were a traveling family, you had a beast of burden to carry the women and children. So there would be adjacent to every place to stay, a place for the animals and a feed trough as well. The indication was there was no room for them in the guest house and they were outside and the little one was laid in a feeding trough.

  Down in verse 16 it refers to that again. When the shepherds finally came to see Him, they found the baby as He lay in the feed trough. There have been a lot of things said about the poor inn keeper but as far as we know there wasn't one.  Inn is the word kataluma. But it's not the normal Greek word for inn. There's a different word for inn in the Greek used in, for example, chapter 10 of Luke verse 34. This word simply means shelter. It means a place of lodging. It means just guest facilities, or guest quarters. It doesn't refer to an actual inn being operated for feeding and housing guests as such, it's a very, very broad word. It's a lodging place and probably refers to a place of public shelter, more like a camp ground. It's very unlikely that there would have been an actual commercial inn in this little village. But they would have some kind of public area. Typically they would build it on four sides, two floors. It would be like a shelter, the top part being like a loft in a barn. One part of it might even be inclosed, or it might have some rather primitive ability to close the doors but it would be very, very primitive kind of places where people in transit could stay and they would perhaps have four sides and in the middle the animals would be kept where they would be protected and kept from people who would steal. And then their goods would be kept there as well. And perhaps such a caravan stopping station or a public guest facility would have as well places on the second floor and the first floor for the people to stay where they could keep their animals close by.

  This would have been an overcrowded situation, I already told you the Romans would have probably taken up most of the spots, as well as some Jewish officials. And then the people coming back to their hometown to register, the place became very, very crowded. The rooms were all taken. Again it was probably, as I said, public shelter. They wound up, this little couple, just staying with the animals outside the appropriate quarters.

  Now if you were in that condition you probably had to carry your own bedding. If there was no place for you in the guest room, they might have provided some, you know, rough place to lie on a straw mattress and maybe a straw pillow or a blanket. But if you were on the outside, you had to have your own blanket and your own pillow. And if you had no blanket, you'd wind up wrapping yourself in your own robe and trying to find a place out of the wind cause it could be very cold. You would be down there probably on the ground floor where the animals were kept in the middle, pack animals, camels, donkeys. Here you would find your rest for the night. For days, we don't know how many days, Joseph and Mary were huddled in that kind of a place. We don't know when they registered or if they had to wait a long time to get to the head of the line to register. We don't know whether they had already registered and Joseph didn't want to take her back because he knew she was going to give birth at any day. They were going to wait there until the birth came. It may well have been that they even knew the prophet Micah had said Bethlehem and they wanted to be sure they stayed there. None of those details are given for us. The downstairs guest rooms, the upstairs loft, whatever kind of facility it was to house these people was full and they were bedded down with the animals.

  When Jesus came into the world then He came in the most comfortless conditions...smelly, filthy...this is the wonder of grace though, isn't it? And this is part of the story that when God came down He came all the way down. He thought His equality with God not something to be held on to but He gave it up and humbled Himself and He humbled Himself all the way down...not just to a stinking stable but to become a substitute for stinking sinners and bear the stench of our guilt in His own body. He came down to the poor and the lowly and the humble and the base and the wicked. He came down to the common people to bring His glorious salvation. It was fitting, in a sense, then that He was born in a stinking, smelly stable because what was smelled far worse to the nostrils of God than the odor of animals is the odor of sinners. He sent the Savior all the way down into the lives of the lowly and the whole picture of that scene is a metaphor for the stench of sin which Jesus bore in His own body.

  His little cloths wrapped and His little body must have collected the smell. It would have been the smell of animals, the stench of animals, the smell of fires burning there to keep people warm, the smell of the humanity that milled around in that place, the filthiest place imaginable. Unthinkable entrance for the...into the world for God's Son...sweat and pain and blood and coldness and manure and straw and odors...but He came all the way down to the stench of sin to bear in His own body our sins on the cross. And this was a picture and metaphor of the condescension of God. He came all the way down, all the way down...all the way down to the smell of a stable, all the way down to the smell of a sinner like you and like me. They had no room for Him then, they still don't have any room for Him.

  The writer John says He was in the world, the world was made by Him, the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, His own received Him not. But He came for sinners. He came all the way down to bear in His own body the wretched, wicked sin that belongs to us. The smelly stable was simply a metaphor for sin and its wretchedness. What a picture.

  So we come from the world's setting to the national setting and the fulfillment of a Hebrew prophet's statement that He would be born in Bethlehem...all the way down to the circumstances of His birth which speak of His lowliness. He controls, does God, the great kings of the world. He fulfills the prophecies of Scripture and He comes all the way to the lowly sinner. Sovereign God, God of Scripture, God of the humble sinner coming all the way down.

  Well, it was in some ways a sad moment because of the obscurity of it all. But that didn't last. At that same time some angels began to tell what was going on to some shepherds, and we'll look at that next time.

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