Daily devotion – our journey to Bethlehem
Luke 2: 1 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He travelled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5 He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant.
The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was some 90 miles or 140 kms. For Mary, being in the last stages of her pregnancy, it must have been a most brutal journey – backbreaking in more ways than one.
For Joseph her husband it must have been a different kind of anguish. Seeing his young pregnant wife, carrying the Son of God in her womb, watching her grimace and sigh when the days travel came to a halt for a time of rest.
This journey was not on a freeway or nice walking path. It was by track and trail and other dangers lay in waiting for a young couple heading to Bethlehem to fulfil the census by order of Rome.
There are times in all our lives that we often wonder or ask God why. Why did this happen now? Why am I feeling like this now? Why is He allowing this to play out in my life causing discomfort and weariness? Why are we heading to Bethlehem?
What did Joseph and Mary talk about all that time on the road to Bethlehem? We are not told. But the Bible tells us that God does not allow things to be wasted when we are in His will.
Job, through great ordeal and loss, came to know God in a most intimate way, far beyond the relationship he had with Him prior.
Joseph’s ill treatment by his brothers and being imprisoned when completely innocent, moulded Joseph in a one of the most godly men in the Bible.
We won’t know the answer to many of our ‘journeys to Bethlehem’ this side of Heaven, but some are answered much later when the time is over. As we look back over our life. As they say, everyone has a PHD in hindsight!
The Apostle Paul summarised life’s tough events, journeys and struggles, giving us a kind of formula that goes some way to easing that long trip that He set us on to fulfill His will.
Rom 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Rom 8:29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Rom 8:30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
We usually just read verse 28, but the following two verses provide a depth and colour to our Bethlehem travels.
We can now, knowing God and accepting God is in complete control, rest in God’s grace, that the road we have travelled had far more input into our lives that we could ever know.
With this understanding and trust in the Lord, I can accept much more readily being sent on an arduous Bethlehem trip with the knowledge that at the end of it God’s perfect will, will be done!
Jesus was born in Bethlehem just as God had ordained Him to be, because He was to rule on David’s throne forever.
This week if you find yourself being directed by God on a difficult path, I pray you find God’s grace both a compass, a comfort and cloak of strength in and on your life.
Christmas is coming!