Reflection
The Lord uses unexpected means to achieve his ends, including bureaucracy. The bureaucratic desire to count and add up numbers is here used by God to fulfill the prophesy of Micah 5:2: “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.”
While Caesar Augustus measured and counted the expanse of the Roman Empire, the Lord used the census as part of his preparation for Jesus’ birth, and the fulfilment of his promises. In the sovereign plans of God, even Augustus helped prepare Christ room, no matter how slight and spare that room was to be.
In verse one, the focus was on the census, the government’s desire to count and measure its own greatness. The point of a census is to reflect a society back to itself. To hold a mirror up to itself and say, ‘so this is what we look like’. God left the reflection of the Roman world aside (we do not learn the results of that census) and with a magnifying glass showed us the true reason for the census, the reason that Caesar couldn’t know.
In obedience to the Roman law, Joseph brought Mary to Bethlehem to be counted, and as it happened, for Jesus to be born. She wrapped him in the strips of cloth at hand, she laid him down in a makeshift bed. In a place so slight and spare, she and Joseph welcomed Jesus, the One who was promised. The results of the census are in…and the only number we need to know is ‘One’.
Prayer
Dear Father, you use surprising means to accomplish your will. May we never forget that all the powers that be will, in the end, bend to your will and yield to the end that you determine. Bend the will of our own hearts to yours. Amen.