Luke 2:4

Our city and country is the resting-place of the blessed, to which we ought to be travelling with daily increasing virtues. But day by day does Holy Church wait upon her Teacher, and going up from the course of worldly business (which the name of Galilee signifies) to the city of Judah, i. e. the city of confession and praise, make returns of her devotion to the Eternal King. She, after the example of the blessed Virgin Mary, a Virgin has conceived us of the Spirit. Though espoused to another, she is made fruitful by Him; and while visibly joined to the Pontiff who is placed over her, is invisibly filled with the graces of the Spirit. And hence Joseph is well interpreted increased, declaring by his very name, that the earnestness of the master speaking is of no avail, except he receive increasing help from above, that he may be heard.

But Joseph also went up, etc. After he described the due time, he here describes the fitting place, and this because that place was suitable to the prophetic oracle, suitable to the divine promise, and suitable also to the imperial edict. It is shown therefore …

We were become by sin like an out-cast infant, helpless and forlorn; and such a one Christ was. Thus he would answer the type of Moses, the great prophet and lawgiver of the Old Testament, who was in his infancy cast out in an ark of bulrushes, as Christ in a manger.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee,....

The city of David - Bethlehem, called the city of David because it was the place of his birth. See the notes at Mat 2:1. Because he was of the house - Of the family. And lineage - The “lineage” denotes that he was descended from David as his father or ancestor. In taking a Jewish census, families were kept distinct; hence, all went to the “place” where their family had resided. Joseph was of the “family” of David, and hence he went up to the city of David.

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!

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.