More On Hustle And Bustle

And everyone went to their own town to register. Luke 2: 3

I am quick and willing to confess upfront, that what we are about to receive is new to me and I truly want to hear more, learn more and know more. And everyone went to their own town to register. This is what I offer you. May the Holy Spirit endue you with the wisdom of discernment as you read these three statements.

Nativity is centered in human hustle and bustle.
Nativity is circumscribed around human preparations.
Nativity is contained in human responses.

Just listening to them, what is our Lord doing in your heart and mind, in the midst of our human affairs, practices, ceremony, bustle and more? However, before we delve into any one of those three, mind-exercising statements, let me highlight a few things which many are experiencing at this time. Friends are telling me, actually warning me about the horrendous traffic jams in the city, with people doing Christmas shopping, I presume, especially as shops and stores are opened later than usual and sales are wide and wild.

I heard the Minister of a Church in the City make this announcement concerning their evening Bible Study Classes and other activities. He said that because of the Christmas Traffic, which is unbelievably horrendous on evenings, their Bible Study classes will be held on Zoom, and other evening actives shelved, until the end of the Christmas season. I am sure you know of changes, which must be implemented at this Christmas Time, due to the ever increasing commercialism of Christmas.

This and other factors, cause many a believer to become all upset, full of sadness and even angry, complaining and fretting about, “what Christmas is coming to?” However, as we continue throughout this remaining week, we shall be given pictures and portraits of circumstances that occurred long ago, which became all part of the tapestry through which Nativity was woven.

First statement of interest - Nativity is centered in human hustle and bustle.

How can this be? Ponder this. It is census time. It's no ordinary time, for the entire Roman world was in a state of being registered. 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).

What is taking place all over the Roman ruled world is not an order which has come down from heaven. In other words, what is happening, has not been decreed by God, or any servant of Almighty God, under His direction. The Roman leader, Caesar Augustus, who really is no worshipper of the One Triune God, Yahweh, God of the Jews, and has no reverence for this God or the people of this God, has ordered this movement. What do I mean by movement? Since Rome ruled the world, as it were, in those days, Jewish nations were also under the Roman rule. When the order was announced that a census had to take place, all people under Roman Rule had to obey.

How do we know this? We know this from what the Scriptures tell us, through Joseph. 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: 4. There is hustle and bustle - much excited, anxious and curious movement - as people like Joseph are moving about excitedly, anxiously and curiously even. We need to understand a few household facts; facts which may seem ordinary to us, but were big to people, especially the Jewish people under Roman rule. Roman rule and leadership, were most oppressive, tyrannical and absolutely vulgar for the Jewish people at that time. We know this because the Jews were waiting on Messiah, a Jewish King and Ruler promised by Yahweh, to save His people. Just only considering the Jewish population and they were many, the hustle and bustle of movement would be tremendous, as no Jew would want to rock the cradle, as it were, and upset Caesar Augustus. In addition, the movement would have been massive and even disruptive in places, for many would have to leave where they lived, as Joseph had to do, to go to their places of birth to be registered.