I am writing this due to my own personal circumstance.
A decree went out from Caesar …
We do not know of the ingredients of the decision to obey, but we do know of the circumstances that surrounded the decision. The woman was with Child not of his flesh, but the woman he had chosen as his wife, who had become controversial almost from the beginning. The controversy had its compensating moments, dreams ~ visitations of angels ~ likely mundane moments with small significant events that confirmed each and every step that indeed God was with him … with them, the woman and the Child in her womb.
The requirement? A tax. Not a war, a cause, a moral principle, or a religious festival, but a tax on top of all the other taxes that were and could be imposed, requiring a consensus journey to a verifiable source of family history. The woman was in the last stages of her term; we know this because almost immediately after the arrival, she gave birth; not the time to be traveling what were likely unfamiliar roads with a whole populace that was on the move, as “the whole world was to be taxed.” It is certain that though Joseph was from Bethlehem, he had no present family there, or there would have been a different, more accommodating place to stay for he and his wife and the One coming. There is no record of an angels visit assuring a safe passage, no dangers to occur. Discussions that surrounded the decision are unknown, whether options were considered such as “We will not comply, it is too risky, it is God’s Son we are subjecting to this journey also.” (with the tempting thought of “Why are we being tempted this way? Does not God know and understand our circumstances?”)
Was there simply a blind obedience to Caesar’s command. I cannot see such an unreasoned course of action. The God that had set all the other things in motion was still in control of these circumstances also, and though at this moment there were no angelic visits or reassuring dreams, God was still God. The woman who had the most personal charge of the Treasure, surely she took part in the decision; we cannot picture her whining about the “injustice and unfairness” of it; she possibly knew God better than anyone else of the whole human race in that season. Other relatives likely had their affirmations or doubts, but we do not know.
We do know that a government of questionable motives and actions was seemingly controlling the circumstances of God’s agenda; how could God allow such circumstances. We now of course know that this Child was to be born in Bethlehem, the City of David, as the prophet had declared and the star would affirm, and then the angels, the shepherds, the wise men, and the subsequent protective dreams. It was all part of a plan whose whole was much greater than the parts; (with God this is possible).
Today we are confronted with circumstances that challenge us, but surely none of them are quite on the same scale and complexity. We have a government being a government, going about its business in some ways almost as if no one else’s business matters, setting policies in place that complicate our personal lives to a point of distraction – and some other institutions as well. God …?
Another prophet wrote “Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD …” We can.
