GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 2:4
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the town of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was from the house and line of David.
Luke turns now to the departure of Joseph. We have already been told that Mary lived in the Galilean town of Nazareth. Undoubtedly this is where the couple met. But now Luke tells Theophilus that Joseph was required to travel from Galilee down to Bethlehem. Even someone as distant as Theophilus would understand that the travel from Galilee in the north to Judea in the south would have taken some time. Mary’s pregnancy adds another note to the difficulty. The detail that Bethlehem was located is Judea is necessary because of another Bethlehem in Galilee, within the territory of Zebulun (Joshua 19:15).
The reason for the trip was due to the relationship of Joseph with the ancient Israelite king David, who was from Bethlehem (1 Samuel 16:4-13). But if David was king, and Solomon after him, and twenty other kings of Judah after that (1 Chronicles 3:10-16), why didn’t Joseph reckon his lineage from Jerusalem, the capital city of Judea, where the kings lived? The Law of Moses required a family to retain its possession of territory, even if land had been sold. Every fifty years, the entire nation was supposed to reset, with land that had been sold returning to the original family, in the Jubilee (Leviticus 25:13-15). We sometimes wonder whether the Law of Moses was kept very carefully following the exile, especially since Israel had so much trouble keeping it before the exile. However, passages like this one and Zechariah’s service in the temple according to custom shows that the law was still being carried out in many, perhaps most, respects. More than that, God’s own judgment of Elizabeth and Zechariah show that there were priests whose service to God was acceptable and pleasing to the Lord.
The law and gospel focus in this passage continues from the previous one: Joseph was commanded to go, and he obeyed; an example for us of faithful Christian obedience that comes from faith. But at the same time, we see here the fulfillment of a prophecy (“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah…” Micah 5:2) which was given because of the complete corruption of mankind through the fall, and the coming of the Savior to forgive us. “You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins” (Psalm 85:2). If we lose sight of this, the reason Christ came, then we will fail to understand anything at all in the Gospel. Blessed are those who read and believe.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota