“Sweet
thought! He is the Christ of the little ones! “You, Bethlehem Ephratah, though
you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall He come forth
unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel.” We cannot pass away from this without
another thought, which is, how “wonderfully mysterious was that
providence which brought Jesus Christ’s mother to Bethlehem at the very time
when she was to deliver!” His parents were residing at Nazareth, and why
should they need to travel at that time? Naturally they would have remained at
home; it was not at all likely that His mother would have taken a journey to Bethlehem
while in so peculiar a condition! But Caesar Augustus issues a decree that they
are to be taxed; very well then, let them be taxed at Nazareth. No! It pleases
him that they should all go to their city, but why should Caesar Augustus think
of it just at that particular time? Simply because while man devises his way,
the king’s heart is in the hand of our Lord! Why, what a thousand chances—as
the world has it—met together to bring about this event! First of all, Caesar
quarreled with Herod; one of the Herods was deposed; Caesar says, “I shall tax
Judea, and make it a province instead of having it for a separate kingdom.”
Well, it must be done, but when is it to be done? This taxing, it is said, was
first commenced when Cyreneus was governor, but why is the census to be taken
at that particular period—suppose—December? Why not have had it last
October? And why could not the people be taxed where they were living? Was not
their money just as good there as anywhere else? It was Caesar’s whim, but it was
God’s decree! Oh, we love the sublime doctrine of eternal absolute predestination!
Some have doubted its being consistent with the free agency of man; we know
well it is so, and we never saw any difficulty in the subject. We believe
metaphysicians have made difficulties; we see none ourselves. It is for us to
believe that man does as he pleases, yet notwithstanding, he always does as
God decrees! If Judas betrays Christ, “thereunto he was appointed”; and if
Pharaoh hardens his heart, yet “for this purpose have I raised you up, to show
forth My power in you.”
Man does
as he wills, but God makes him do as he wills! No, not only is the will of man
under the absolute predestination of Jehovah, but all things, great or little
are of Him! Well has the good poet said, “Doubtless the sailing of a cloud has
providence as its pilot; doubtless the root of an oak is gnarled for a special
purpose; God compasses all things, mantling the globe like air.” There is
nothing great or little that is not from Him; the summer dust moves in its
orbit guided by the same hand which rolls the stars along; the dewdrops have
their father, and trickle on the rose leaf as God bids them. Yes, the dry
leaves of the forest, when hurled along by the tempest, have their allotted
position where they shall fall, nor can they go beyond it! In the great, and in
the little, there is God—God in everything, working all things according to the
counsel of His own will. And though man seeks to go against his Maker, yet he
cannot; God has bound the sea with a barrier of sand, and if the sea mounts up
wave after wave, yet it shall not exceed its allotted channel. Everything is of God,
and unto Him who guides the stars and wings sparrows, who rules planets and yet
moves atoms, who speaks thunders and yet whispers zephyrs, unto Him be glory,
for there is God in everything!”
-Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
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