Bible Verse of the Day Monday December 24th 2018 Christmas Eve

Luke 2:1-4 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.

The name Caesar Augustus means “revered or exalted one” and he was hailed as the prince of peace and the savior of the world because of the existence of Pax Romana, or Roman peace. He brought about peace to the world by suppressing human rights and murdering all dissenters. So, the so-called Roman peace came through a totalitarian rule and peace that comes through coercion and oppression is not a real peace. 

This census was carried out so that taxes could be collected from the conquered peoples of the entire Roman world. Mary, who was in the last days of her pregnancy, along with her husband Joseph traveled from their home in Nazareth of Galilee to Bethlehem since it was Joseph’s ancestral home.

Hundreds of years before this Samuel had made the journey to Bethlehem to anoint a young Shepard boy named David to be the King of Israel while King Saul was still on the throne. At this time in the City of David, a child is about ready to be born who is the true Savior of the World and the true Prince of Peace, while Caesar Augustus still sits on the world’s throne.

All those many years ago a Savior was born to the world and still today his birth is good news for all people in the world. He came to bring about a peace that the world can’t even comprehend, a peace that reconciles us with God and with one another. He did this through a never-ending, unconditional, and eternal love that can’t be reproduced by any worldly processes. We are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus in this season, and we look forward to the day when his reign of righteousness, compassion, and peace will come in its completeness and richness.