Caesar Augustus decided to conduct a census in the Roman empire. This census required all the people to go to their home towns and register there. Since Israel was part of the Roman empire at the time Joseph and Mary had to travel from Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the city of David, as Joseph was from the house and line of David. They had to travel despite Mary being pregnant. (Luke 2:1-5)

While in Bethlehem Jesus was born as Micah the Prophet had foretold in Micah 5:2  “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” 

It needed the ruler of the Roman empire to redirect Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, otherwise Jesus would have been born in Nazareth.

Take note: Even world rulers are in the hand of God!

About one thousand years before the birth of Christ another baby was born in Bethlehem. This was David, the great grandson of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 4:16-17). David is a central personality in Old Testament times. Apart from being King for forty years, David was also a Prophet. David was the author of over 70 Psalms. The Psalms are songs, prayers and prophecy.

Amazingly, David wrote Psalm 22 which is a description of the sufferings of Christ on the cross. Jesus was speaking his last words and they came from Psalm 22.1: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthews 27:46)

Many details of Psalm 22 are reflecting the agony that Jesus has gone through at the cross:

Verse 14: I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.

Verse 16: …they have pierced my hands and my feet.

Verse 17: I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.

Verse 18: They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. (John 19:24)

Verse 15: My strength is dried up like sunbaked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have laid me in the dust of death.

David also reports of the victory that Jesus would gain on the cross and His work among the people Verse 19-31.

Verse 27: All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him

Verse 28 ..for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.

Verse 29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him…

Verse 30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.

Verse 31 They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn – for he has done it.

Praise the Lord! This was written about one thousand years before it happened and some details are still to happen in the future.

This is an amazing insight given to David by the Lord he served. 

One more example of David’s prophecies is Psalm 110. In this Psalm we read a prophecy that allows us to look behind the curtain as it reports a conversation between the Father and Christ the Son:

Verse 1 The Lord (Yahweh) said to my Lord (Adonai): Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Verse 2 The Lord (Yahweh) will extend your mighty sceptre from Zion; you will rule in the midst of your enemies.

Verse 4 …You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.

There are many more of David’s Psalms which are of a prophetic nature. God is the God of all times, the God of eternity.

God tells us:  Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish. (Isaiah 46:9-10) 

God’s Word was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That’s why we need to study it and pay attention to His eternal Word giving us revelation of the plans of God.

This is the Word that gives us life, light and direction. Without His Word we are just floating like logs in the currents of our confused times. Students of His Word stand on a solid foundation and must never be shaken!

Let us not get tired of being good students of God’s Word.

Helmut Reutter