Grains of Sand

Pixabay Did he know that Yahweh was moving him to participate in the greatest event that had yet taken place in history? Probably not. But God put Caesar Augustus in place to facilitate the birth of Jesus. According to Wikipedia: "The reign of Augustus initiated an era of relative peace known as the Pax Romana ( The Roman Peace ). The Roman world was largely free from large-scale conflict for more than two centuries, despite continuous wars of imperial expansion on the Empire's frontiers and one year-long civil war over the imperial succession. Augustus dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt , Dalmatia , Pannonia , Noricum , and Raetia ; expanding possessions in Africa ; expanding into Germania ; and completing the conquest of Hispania ...He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks of roads with an official courier system, established a standing army, established the Praetorian Guard , created official police and fire-fighting servi...

Pixabay One of the lines in a play I saw this week quoted a New Testament skeptic who said, " Can anything good come out of Nazareth? " (John 1:46). Prejudice comes in all forms and sizes, and obviously isn't anything new! Jesus was known to have been brought up in Nazareth and was sometimes referred to as the Nazarene. Apparently Nazareth didn't have much of a reputation and people being what people are, race, colour, religion, gender, physical appearance, age, and hometown, can influence people's opinions. And if we are wrong to judge people based on race, colour, religion and all the others, then it must also be wrong to judge someone based on their hometown! Well, it might be wrong, but it still happens. And the Lord carried around the stigma of being from Nazareth for all of His earthly life. It makes you wonder why God orchestrated the life of His Son so that He was raised in Nazareth. Why not some other more popular place? But then again, why ...