Luke 2:3

went . . . to his own city--the city of his extraction, according to the Jewish custom, not of his abode, which was the usual Roman method. Not only does Joseph, who was of the royal line, go to Bethlehem (1Sa 16:1), but Mary too--not from choice surely in her condition, but, probably, for personal enrollment, as herself an heiress.

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We have, in these verses, the story of a birth — the birth of the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every birth of a living child is a marvelous event. It brings into being a soul that will never die. But never since the world began, was a birth so marvelous as the birth of Christ. In itself it was a miracle — "God was manifest in the flesh!" The blessings it brought into the world were unspeakable — it opened to man the door of everlasting life! In reading these verses, let us first notice — the TIMES when Christ was born. It was in the days when Augustus, the first Roman emperor, made "a decree that all the world should be taxed." The wisdom of God appears in this simple fact. The scepter was practically departing from Judah. (Genesis 49:10.) The Jews were coming under the dominion and taxation of a foreign power. Strangers were beginning to rule over them. They no longer had a really independent government of their own. The "due time" had come for the promised Messiah to appear. Augustus taxes "the world" — and at once Christ is born. It was a time peculiarly suitable for the introduction of Christ's Gospel. The whole civilized earth was at length governed by one master. There was nothing to prevent the preacher of a new faith going from city to city, and country to country. The princes and priests of the heathen world had been weighed in the balances, and found lacking. Egypt, and Assyria, and Babylon, and Persia, and Greece, and Rome — had all successively proved that "the world by wisdom knew not God." (1 Corinthians 1:21.) Notwithstanding their mighty conquerors, and poets, and historians, and architects, and philosophers — the kingdoms of the world were full of dark idolatry. It was indeed "due time" for God to interpose from Heaven, and send down an almighty Savior! It was "due time" for Christ to be born.

We have, in these verses, the story of a birth — the birth of the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every birth of a living child is a marvelous event. It brings into being a soul that will never die. But never since the world began, was a birth so marvelous as the birth of Christ. In itself it was a miracle — "God was manifest in the flesh!" The blessings it brought into the world were unspeakable — it opened to man the door of everlasting life!