The Christmas story of the birth of our Savior is an amazing one that fulfilled many prophecies. That’s because God always has His hand shaping the course of human history. He does this in a way that often provides prophecies as to what the future will bring. In Luke’s Nativity Story, two words—“BETHLEHEM” and “CENSUS”—point us to four distinct prophecies of the Old Testament. One of these prophecies related to the place where Jesus would be born. Another prophecy pointed to things that Jesus would teach during His earthly ministry. In addition, a vital prophecy points to a promise we can rely upon today relating to Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross. And, finally, an extremely important prophecy tells us of something that is going to happen very soon in the future. This morning, let’s unravel these prophecies as we read Luke’s Gospel which tells us:
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a CENSUS should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register. 4 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. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:1-7 (NIV)
Again, let’s focus our attention on the words “BETHLEHEM” and “CENSUS.” These two things are related, of course, because it was the Roman census that caused Joseph and Mary to go to Bethlehem. This, in and of itself, is amazing. It shows us that God can use even something like a pagan census to fulfill a prophecy that had been given seven centuries before Jesus’ birth. It was through the Prophet Micah that God promised where the Messiah would be born. It wouldn’t be in the huge palace of Herod or in the beautiful Temple in the prestigious city of Jerusalem. No, the Messiah would be born in a little insignificant village located about five miles south of the Holy City. Micah prophesied this promise of God when he said: “But you, O BETHLEHEM EPHRATHAH, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a RULER of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.” Micah 5:2 (NLT2)
Three prophecies pop up out this one verse in the Book of Micah. As I mentioned, the first prophecy confirms that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. What an amazing thing it was for this prophecy to come true. What were the odds of the Messiah being born in the humble, little village of Bethlehem, when the Savior of the world could have been born in one of the many beautiful, dazzling and huge cities of the world? God may have chosen Bethlehem for many reasons. But, one of those reasons is embodied in its full name.
Micah identified this small village as “Bethlehem Ephrathah” [pronounced, EF-rah-thaw]. Both words of this town’s name are significant and provide the second prophecy. Together, these two words predict a core teaching that Jesus would give to His disciples (and to us) that are essential to gaining eternal life. In this regard, the word “Bethlehem” means “house of bread.” Mary’s baby born in the Bethlehem stable would grow into a man and teach us about Living Bread, when He proclaimed: 48 “Yes, I am the Bread of Life! 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. 50 Anyone who eats the Bread from Heaven, however, will never die. 51 I am the Living Bread that came down from Heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live forever; and this Bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is My flesh.” John 6:48-51 (NLT2)
And, when we say “Bethlehem Ephrathah” what does the “Ephrathah” part mean? It is associated with our English word for “fruitfulness.”[1] Again, this foretells another of Jesus’ central teachings. For in John 15, Jesus said: “5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much FRUIT. For apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in Me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you remain in Me and My words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much FRUIT, you are My true disciples. This brings great glory to My Father.” John 15:5-8 (NLT2) When you surrender your life to Jesus and consume a steady diet of His Living Bread, you will naturally produce good “fruit” that will satisfy the starving hearts of those who have not yet come to know Him. The name “Bethlehem Ephrathah” points us to this great truth.
We can also find a third prophecy in these words from Micah. Not only is Jesus the “Bread of Life” who demands His followers to bear the “fruits” of love, mercy and grace to share with others, but Micah also prophesied that He would be a “RULER.” A “RULER” is someone who reigns with great dominion over his kingdom. The Hebrew word for “RULER” emphasizes immense “POWER” beyond the political understanding of the word. Jesus Christ is the RULER OF THE UNIVERSE. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.[2] He is also the Word made flesh.[3] In Jesus and the words of His teachings exist the greatest life-giving power we could ever know. It is the power of Christ that gives those who believe in Him the gift of eternal life.[4] But, on that first Advent in Bethlehem, Jesus came as a little, helpless baby who was laid in an animal trough. Except for a few shepherds, hardly anyone at all took notice on that cold winter’s night. But, the fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy of Him coming as RULER is yet to take place. And, when it does take place, it’s going to be radically different. Jesus is coming again very soon and when He does “every eye will see Him.”[5] The Scriptures tell us that, when He does come, it’s going to shake the foundations of this sinful world. Matthew’s Gospel reveals: “Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with POWER and GREAT GLORY.” Matthew 24:30 (ESV) “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Matthew 24:42 ESV
And so, little did Caesar Augustus know that God was using him as a mere pawn to initiate the Roman census that would bring Mary and Joseph to “Bethlehem Ephrathah” where Jesus would be born. We can’t miss the irony in the fact that while Caesar thought he was exercising the mighty power of the Roman Empire by ordering this census, God was actually using him as a puppet to further the plans of His Heavenly Kingdom.
Notice the linkage here in the Gospel of Luke. Luke’s mention of Bethlehem puts us on to Micah’s three prophecies. And, Luke linked how Joseph and Mary happened to travel to Bethlehem with the requirements of the Roman census. The fact that a census prompted them to make the 90-mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem should not be overlooked. The Roman census is connected to that fourth prophecy that we need to be mindful of. So, what do we know about a Roman census?
Well, the Romans normally would conduct a census once every five years.[6] They found it easier from an administrative standpoint to have every man and his immediate family to go back to the man’s hometown to register. But, when I say “register,” it meant something more than just showing up and giving the Roman census-taker your name. Rather, the Romans obtained information relating to each person’s marital status, age, occupation, lineage, the number of people in his household, as well as the extent of his property holdings. They used this information to decide how much to tax the people and to shape their policies within the various Roman provinces. The Romans also felt that an empire-wide census served to instill a sense of unity among the people who were subjected to their rule.[7]
Now, while it may have been true that some outlying provinces felt honored to be part of a Roman census, the Roman province of Judea was not one of them. Judea included Galilee, Perea and a large area around Jerusalem that was occupied by the Jews. These Jews were not at all enamored with the idea of a Roman census. For one thing, they were not happy about the inconvenience of having to travel back to their hometowns to register as part of the census. They were even less pleased with the idea that their participation in a census aided the Romans in taxing them. But, those were not the biggest reason that the Jews hated any census.
Their opposition went back in history to a census that caused their ancestors an extremely painful time during King David’s reign. In 2nd Samuel 24, we are told about a census that David conducted about 900 years before this Roman census was ever conceived. David desired to count the people of his kingdom in order to see how many men were available to serve in his army. He was feeling quite proud of himself as a warrior-king and wanted to make sure of his military assets before venturing out to conquer the neighboring kingdoms. The problem was God never told him to go to war at that point in time, and He certainly never authorized David to conduct a census. The LORD could see that David’s motivations were purely to bring glory to himself apart from God. More importantly, there was another problem with how David went about his census. He failed to go about it according to God’s Word. And when God gives specific instructions regarding how to do things, He means exactly what He says. Like David, a lot of people today don’t seem to understand that either. So, what command of God did David ignore regarding his census?
This gets us to a passage in Exodus 30 when Moses gave the Israelites God’s rules on census-taking. Any census that the Israelites initiated was supposed to be governed by these instructions:
11 Then the LORD said to Moses, 12 “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the LORD a RANSOM FOR HIS LIFE at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them. 13 Each one who crosses over to those already counted is to give a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the LORD. 14 All who cross over, those twenty years old or more, are to give an offering to the LORD. 15 The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the LORD to atone for your lives. 16 Receive THE ATONEMENT MONEY from the Israelites and use it for the service of the Tent of Meeting. It will be a memorial for the Israelites before the LORD, making atonement for your lives.” Exodus 30:11-16 (NIV)
Under God’s formula for taking a census, each Israelite “registered” by paying a half shekel (or a small coin weighing about one-fifth of an ounce of silver).[8] But, the funds weren’t collected in order to finance an army. Rather, they were used to maintain the place of worship—which was the “Tent of Meeting,” otherwise known as the Tabernacle. Interestingly, the payment was also important to each person because it amounted to a “ransom for their life” at the time the person registered as part of the census. In other words, this “atonement money” guaranteed God’s protection against any plague that might come along. It was also critically important because it served as an atonement that covered a person’s sins.[9]
But, when King David conducted his census, he didn’t follow any of these instructions that God had laid out for Moses and the Jewish people. His attention was on military conquest and not in complying with the LORD’s demands. If you read 2nd Samuel 24, you will find that 1.3 million Israelites were counted in that unauthorized census. Apparently, not a one of them paid any “atonement money” for the reason that David never required it as part of the census. All 1.3 million were thus subject to death by plague. As it turned out, God, in his mercy, didn’t bring such a deadly judgment on all of them. But still, their sin had consequences. The terrible consequence was that 70,000 Israelites did die from a plague—all due to David’s arrogance and sinful disobedience.
This tragedy was etched upon the memories of the Jewish people. So, any time the Romans conducted a census, it was a touchy subject for these Jews in the Province of Judea. But, when we read the Gospel accounts of Joseph’s and Mary’s trip to Bethlehem to register for the Roman census, nobody paid any money in a manner consistent with Exodus 30. That’s because God planned another method for “payment of sins.” We can see this in something the angel told Joseph in a dream. The angel assured him: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, FOR HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS.” Matthew 1:20-21 (NASB) NO MORE EARTHLY ½ SHEKELS WOULD BE REQUIRED!
This brings us back to that first verse in Luke, chapter 2: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a CENSUS should be taken of the entire Roman world.” This wasn’t just a chance happening. Rather, this was all part of God’s plan. You see, this Roman census came about at the time of Jesus’ birth for a reason. God arranged the timing of this census to once again point to the future action of this baby who lay in the hay of the manger in Bethlehem. Under the Old Covenant of the Law of Moses, a “ransom” was paid again and again to “cover” a person’s sin. This was not only true of the “atonement money” paid during a census, but it was also applicable to the priests’ daily sacrifices of lambs and other animals whose blood was spilled to cover the Israelites’ sins. But, with the coming of this child born of Mary, a ransom didn’t need to be paid repeatedly anymore. The baby lying in a wooden manger would one day die on a wooden cross to pay the ransom once and for all. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.[10] He paid the ransom with His blood; and, by His wounds, we are healed from the plague of sin.[11]
Yes, the Roman Emperor thought his census would provide a sense of unity and security for all people. As one archaeological writer put it, a Roman census made the many different peoples and ethnic groups “feel that they belonged within the greater Roman Empire”—for “to be counted” made each citizen feel as if he counted for something.[12] And because of that, Caesar believed his census would bring “peace” among all people. But, like so many worldly people who rely upon worldly things to bring them “peace,” Caesar was wrong. Only Jesus Christ can do that in a lasting way—for as the Prophet Isaiah said: 6 “For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. These will be his royal titles: ‘Wonderful,’ ‘Counselor,’ ‘The Mighty God,’ ‘The Everlasting Father,’ ‘THE PRINCE OF PEACE.’” Isaiah 9:6 (TLB).
There is a Heavenly Census that’s going to be taken very soon. And, all those who are “registered” in the “LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE”[13] are going to be counted as eternal members of God’s Kingdom. Don’t you want to be counted in that “CENSUS”? If you haven’t already done so, you can registered today. You won’t have to pay one small silver coin, but you must still “count the cost.”[14] That baby in a manger, who is now Lord of all things, looks upon you this morning and gives it to you straight about that cost. It all comes down to this when Jesus said: “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Mark 8:34 (NIV) Mary and Joseph started following that road when they left Nazareth and headed to Bethlehem. If you are on a different path, you need to get on that road today! If you are already on that straight and narrow road,[15] don’t ever stop. Keep on walking. At the end of that road leading to God’s Heavenly Census, you’ll find the Good Innkeeper, Jesus Christ, who will never turn you away. For in His Father’s House are many rooms.[16] One is being prepared for you—make sure you register today!
Let us pray.
Darvin Satterwhite, Pastor
Forest Hill Baptist Church
December 8, 2024
©2024 All Rights Reserved as follows:
Anyone is at liberty to use this sermon or any portions thereof for educational or religious purposes, with or without credit. The pastor believes the material presented herein to be true to the teaching of Scripture, and desires to further, not restrict, its potential use as an aid in the study of God’s Word. The publication of this material is a grace ministry of Forest Hill Baptist Church in Louisa, Virginia.
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[1] David Jeremiah, “Why was Jesus Born in Bethlehem?” David Jeremiah Blog, https://davidjeremiah.blog/why-was-jesus-born-in-bethlehem/ [Accessed December 4, 2024].
[2] 1st Timothy 6:15 “God will bring this about in his own time. He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords.” (CSB)
[3] John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (NIV)
[4] John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (NASB)
[5] Revelation 1:7 “BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.” (NASB)
[6] “Census-taking in the ancient world,” UK Office of National Statistics, https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011census/howourcensusworks/aboutcensuses/censushistory/censustakingintheancientworld (January 18, 2016).
[7] Moshe Rideout, “What Is The Census Used For Ancient Rome?” Learn Ancient Rome, https://www.learnancientrome.com/what-is-the-census-used-for-ancient-rome/ (December 9, 2023). See also, Clifford Ando, “Origins: Taking Count,” Biblical Archaeology Society, https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/department/origins-taking-count/ [accessed December 3, 2024].
[8] NET Bible, First ed. (Richardson, TX: Biblical Studies Press, 1996), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "Chapter 30".
[9] Walvoord, J. F., & Zuck, R. B., Dallas Theological Seminary. (1985). The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[10] John 1:29 “The next day John [the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The LAMB OF GOD who takes away the sin of the world!” (NLT2)
[11] Matthew 8:17 “This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, “He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.” (NLT2)
[12] Clifford Ando, “Origins: Taking Count,” Biblical Archaeology Society, https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/department/origins-taking-count/ [accessed December 3, 2024].
[13] Revelation 21:27 “Nothing evil will be permitted in [God’s Heavenly Kingdom]—no one immoral or dishonest—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” (TLB)
[14] Luke 14:28 “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and COUNT THE COST, whether he has enough to complete it?” (ESV)
[15] Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (NIV)
[16] John 14:1-4 1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” (NIV)
