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In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. (Luke 2:1-4)

Jesus would be born the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. \\xa0The Royal King who would sit on the throne of David. \\xa0But first he and his family would be subjects, and not of the Kingdom of God.

The Romans taxed subject peoples. \\xa0And the way of determining that tax was through a census. \\xa0The census therefore was a pretty unpopular thing that led to a lot of political tension and unrest, much like the tax itself. \\xa0It also led to a lot of upheaval as people had to organize themselves according to the dictates of the bureaucracy that intended to count them.

In Joseph and Mary\\u2019s case, that meant a move to Bethlehem. \\xa0It didn\\u2019t matter that Mary was pregnant or about to give birth. \\xa0It didn\\u2019t matter whether there was room for them in Bethlehem or not. \\xa0Nothing personal or humane mattered at all. \\xa0They were just marginal, inanimate pawns being moved around the chess board by the powerful whims of an emperor leagues away. \\xa0

And yet, despite that emperor and his whims, God was at work anyway. \\xa0Even though this subjugation of the Jews by the Romans was unfair and the tax and the means used to assess it were unjust\\u2014even though it was impersonal and inhumane\\u2014even still, God used it for his purposes: bent it toward his will.

Everyone knew the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of the house and line of David. \\xa0So how did a young girl in Nazareth get the nod to become the mother of the Saviour, and that even before she was technically married to a descendant of David? \\xa0Well, through the movements of kings and emperors, through the work of righteous men like Joseph and angel messengers, God worked out his plan.

His boy would be born in Bethlehem, sure enough. \\xa0Joseph had to go there. \\xa0The emperor had said. \\xa0He would bring Mary with him and he would adopt her child, making Jesus, born in the town of David, an adopted son of the house and line of David. \\xa0Human impossibilities and corrupt systems bent all together to the will of God who in Jesus would redeem them both. \\xa0

Whatever forces may be pressing on your life today\\u2014may you remember that God can and does still work through such things. \\xa0Though forces may be outside of our control, they are never outside of his. \\xa0

Take heart and hope: for our King of Kings, Jesus of Nazareth was born, not in Nazareth, but in Bethlehem of David. \\xa0A testament to God\\u2019s Sovereign ability to knit his work and will through even the strongest forces of our world.

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