AMAZING THINGS. (8)

Every time I read the story in Luke 2, I have to smile. Here is this mighty man, Caesar Augustus, the most powerful man in the then known world and he issues a degree that everyone in his ‘kingdom’, the Roman Empire should be registered. The poor man must have felt pretty important but did not realize that he was just a pawn in God’s hand. Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.” He did not realize that it was almighty God who had put the thought in his mind to issue this degree. And why had God done that? Because more than 700 years earlier the prophet Micah had written, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.” Micha 5:2. There are two Bethlehem’s in Israel, but Micah pointed to the right one, imagine, 700 years earlier. And now, according to God’s schedule, the time had come for the fulfillment of this wonderful prophecy. However, there was a problem because the parents of this yet unborn Ruler lived in Nazareth and not Bethlehem, so God had to do something to get them to Bethlehem. He could have sent an angel to Joseph, as He had done before, but He chose to touch Caesar’s heart and mind, AMAZING. Not only that, but it says in Luke 2, “So all went to be registered, every one to his own city. “ In other words, the whole Roman empire came in motion, all these people, and none had any idea of what was really going on. And all this because a prophecy had to be fulfilled, God’ Son was to be born. Again, AMAZING. It must have taken quite some time for Joseph and Mary to make that 90-mile gruesome journey on foot and with a donkey, but they arrived right on schedule, at the right moment and at the right place, for the Son of God to be born. God had planned it so, that they did not have to travel in de summer, the hottest time of the year, neither in the winter, the coldest time, but in the Spring, right at the time that shepherds were out in the fields watching for lambs to be born. And now God`s Lamb was also going to be born, and these shepherds who were looking for newborn lambs were the first to see God`s newborn Lamb, absolutely AMAZING. I just praise God. Luke wrote that “all had to be registered.” Why not let this Christmas season be special and open your heart to that Ruler who died for you, and you also will be registered,…… in His book.