7. When God Used Caesar

Luke 2:1-7; Ruth 1; 1 Samuel 16

We’re still thinking about Bethlehem and the story recorded in the little book of Ruth. God has a purpose for Ruth, which involves her children. But remember, Ruth doesn’t have any children and Ruth is a widow…

To fulfil this purpose, God has to get a couple of people [Ruth and Naomi] to the right place (Bethlehem) at the right time (barley harvest) for her to get a job working in the fields of the right man (Boaz) with whom she will eventually have a child. Complicated.

In case you missed it, God has to get a couple of people to Bethlehem at just the right time.

Sound familiar?

God has an uncanny ability to get people in the right place at the right time to fulfil His purposes. And He can use all sorts of circumstances (famine and tragedy) and all sorts of people to do it.

In Luke 2 God wanted to get another young woman called Mary to Bethlehem, along with her husband Joseph. How will He make this happen? Who will He use?

A prophet? Too predictable.

An angel? We’ve used angels a lot in this one – let’s freshen things up a bit…

Let’s use Caesar. That’ll be funny.

Augustus was declared by Rome to be their ‘saviour’ and his birth was heralded as ‘good news’ (gospel).

After the death of his father (Julius Caesar) Augustus Caesar saw a comet in the skies and claimed it was his father becoming a god, which in turn meant Augustus was the ‘son of a god’. Tyrants have a knack for coming up with convenient roles for themselves to assist in the oppression of others.

God needs to get a poor couple from Nazareth to Bethlehem in time for His Son to be born.

How about using a narcissistic tyrant who claimed to be the son of the gods and the saviour of the world? That’ll do nicely.

Caesar’s call for a census meant Joseph had to get to Bethlehem (his hometown) and bring his heavily pregnant wife with him. God can use tyrants to achieve His purposes. If He needs to get a poor young couple to Bethlehem then He will get them there, and make a fool of Caesar for good measure.

But why was it so important to get them to Bethlehem? We’ve already seen the prophecy given by Micah hundreds of years earlier (Micah 5:2) - that’s one of the reasons why.

Ruth’s story ends with her having a son with Boaz. And they all live happily ever.

And the credits roll (yawn).

And you should never leave the cinema before the end of the credits…

Boaz was the father of Obed (yawn)

Obed was the father of Jesse (yawn)

Jesse was the father of David!

Ruth 4

Not many years later, the prophet Samuel is sent to Bethlehem to anoint a new king (1 Samuel 16:1).

Bethlehem is the birthplace of a king.

It’s David, Jesse’s youngest son (1 Samuel 16:11). Literally, in Hebrew, the little one.

Overlooked by others. But that is who God wants.

The little one in the little town.

When God says, “I have chosen one of his sons to be king,” I reckon there is a short-term and long-term view. Sons refers to all male descendents, not just Jesse’s own boys. I think God is looking beyond the immediate situation of Jesse’s eight boys in Bethlehem to a future male descendant of Jesse who would be King of kings.

David himself, and Bethlehem, were seen as little and insignificant. But from the Bethlehem incident where David is anointed by Samuel, he goes on to defeat Goliath (1 Samuel 17).

Likewise, the early chapters of Luke move quickly from Bethlehem to Jesus’ baptism and Spirit-anointing, then to the wilderness where He defeats Satan.

Bethlehem is a threat to tyrants like Goliath, and Caesar, and Herod, and Satan, because Bethlehem is the birthplace of the king and the birthplace of hope.

Ponder

Where are you now? As you look back at the path to get here, do you just see coincidences? Or do you see God’s hand in getting you to where He wants you?

Consider how God can pick up and use the tyrants of this world in order to get the overlooked people to the little towns where He wants to do great things.

God has the final word. The mighty Caesar, who claimed to be a son of the gods and a saviour, is now honoured in the fact that we have named two things after him - salad and dog food :)