Luke 2:1-7 | I Samuel 16:1
Luke is living up to his promise: this is a well-researched, well-ordered account of Jesus’ life. The details concerning a census, where to go, who ordered it…all accounted for.
But the details mattered to Luke and to Mary, who is presumed to have given Luke this information.
What’s up with the guest room, anyway? Who was so important that they pre-empted a pregnant lady? Perhaps “no room” was simply the factor of several extended family members taking up that guest room, and it was not sensible to have the possibility of a neonatal occurrence in that crowd. Maybe Mary herself preferred it.
Regardless, the savior of the world was born and laid in a feeding trough in Bethlehem.
Luke 2:1-7
In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea. He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom.
I Samuel 16:1
The Lord said to Samuel, “How long are you going to grieve over Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and get going. I’m sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem because I have found my next king among his sons.”
Prayer
God,
Thank you for Saturdays. Thank you for sabbath. Help me use this day well.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.