Taxes and Trust

Hi, this is Cynthia Dowling, and I was wondering, have you ever thought of the magnitude of Luke 2:1? There are just 24 words, and out of those few words, only three have more than one syllable, but they impacted the entire world. Let's take a look! “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” Those last 6 words are the zinger! Who likes taxes? I don't think I've ever met anyone who just enjoys paying taxes. This was not just a nation's taxes; this was a tax on everybody in the whole world. And this is not like any of us who might fuss and fume over entering numbers into TurboTax or paying our accountants to find ways to pay less; this was an in-person tax, a tax using genealogy that forced Joseph to leave Nazareth and travel all the way to Bethlehem, just because, the Bible tells us, “he was of the house and lineage of David.” In other words, he and everyone else in the world had to go back to his ancestral birthplace to register for this tax. And God did not exempt Mary and Joseph, even though they were a part of the greatest miracle God would ever perform on this earth. They, too, made the arduous trek to Joseph's ancestral hometown, over 90 plus miles of rough terrain, compounded by Mary's condition and safety issues. How long would that take on foot and possibly with a donkey? We can only guess, but it probably took at least a week, maybe two! Think of the preparation for food and lodging: no Waffle House or Holiday Inns dotted along that path, and they didn't know how long they would stay when they got there. And from Matthew 2, we know that they stayed there around 2 years.

As Mary and Joseph traveled, they knew that they weren't just doing the bidding of Rome, they knew that God was doing something way beyond what they saw in inconvenience of travel and lodging. God was working His eternal plan, crafted before the foundations of the world were laid. God was keeping His promise to Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3, after the human race fell in Adam. God was sending His Son to be the Savior of the world; the climax of human history was taking place! Mary and Joseph were part of that fulfilled promise, those fulfilled prophecies, ushering in the long-awaited Messiah.

Let’s take a quick minute to look at just one fulfilled prophecy. Seven hundred years before Jesus’ birth, the prophet Micah predicted that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, but there were two Bethlehem’s back then. So, God made sure to clarify; let’s see what the prophecy says, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; Whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.” But Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth near the Bethlehem in Galilee, so God had to move them to the Bethlehem in Judea, the very Bethlehem God had told Micah Messiah would be born. That's just one of the many things God was doing with that trip. God was not only putting the whole world in transit and fulfilling prophecy at the time of the birth of His Son, but God was working His plan of redemption, the main thread that ties all Scripture together. God is always working redemption. No matter what our circumstances feel like, look like, and seem to be, God is working redemption, restoration, and deliverance.

As God worked His redemptive plan, He began to unwrap the greatest gift He could give, the gift the world so desperately needs, a Savior! Do you know what the name Jesus means? The name “Jesus” means “Savior,” and in Matthew 1:21 we read, “. . . thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” This truth is one Mary knew and even stated in Luke 1:47, “And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” Whatever hardships Mary experienced, they paled in comparison with the coming of her Messiah, her Savior! So she and Joseph must have looked beyond the difficulties, obstacles, and hurdles they faced, being overwhelmed with what God was doing for them and for the world, and awe-struck that He had chosen them to participate in the giving of His greatest gift, Jesus our Savior.

Recently, I listened to a sermon that gave an overview of the first 11 chapters of Romans. And interestingly, the preacher divided the chapters into two groups: chapters 1 through 2, and chapters 3 through 11. He then identified these groups as what man sees in chapters 1 and 2, and what God is doing in chapters 3 through 11. So often we just pay attention to what we see with our physical senses, ignoring what God is doing, and complaining about everything that affects us. According to Romans, what we see is men who clearly understand God's creative power, suppressing that truth with an ungrateful spirit, and then as a result of their rejection, we watch them slide into deeper and deeper depravity. But God is not idle, letting man destroy himself. So, what is God doing? In Romans chapters 3 through 11, just as in Luke 2, God is always actively working His plan of redemption, restoration, and deliverance to save fallen men from destruction.

Within the last month I personally experienced letting God do His full work in a situation where I didn’t steer anything. My 95-year-old dad, who watched for my soul in my youth, was in the last stages of congestive heart failure. After his final hospitalization, the Lord graciously gave me three remarkable, lengthy, one-on-one visits with him. I watched the Lord work on my behalf to give me that individual time with my dad, and it was miraculous and I knew it. The timing was perfect! I parked just after he’d had a nap and shower, so he was alert and ready to visit. The Lord also orchestrated everything else to fall into place perfectly for our quiet time together. Then my dad began to talk about how the Lord was preparing him for heaven, how he was ready to go, and how the Lord was with him, closer than a brother. He was resting in the Lord, and he was listening to His still, small voice about everything. And when he didn’t listen, he knew it! I am still in awe over those God-given openings that were so perfectly timed for me to hear how my dad was thinking and how the Lord was still working in his life, before he took him home to heaven. As I pondered those extraordinary visits, I realized that this is the way that God always wants to work for me; He always wants to give me the full range of what He has prepared in any given circumstance. That doesn't give me a pass to Easy Street, but it does give me all the blessing, growth, direction, and protection that He had planned for me to gain. I was overwhelmed with God’s kindness to me. While I watched God continue to work redemption in my dad's body, soul, and spirit before he passed from death into life, I knew He was working redemption of thought processes and actions in my own life that needed to be changed to fit me for heaven as well. That full work is what God wants to do in all of us, every human being on this earth. He wants to redeem the souls of those who do not yet know and trust Him, and He wants to continue to redeem true believers’ twisted thinking of who He is and what He is doing. Redemption is a cleansing process, a shedding of our own will and desires so that we, like Jesus, as He said in John 8:29, “. . . do always those things that please him.” As we endeavor to do only those things that are pleasing in God's sight, we enjoy the full spectrum of the redemption He created for us to have before the foundation of the world. What a plan!

So, what is my focus? Your focus? Are we focusing on what we see, what we hear, what we feel? Or are we willing by faith to endure by looking past our fears, the noise, the pain, and trust that God is working redemption, that God is doing His great love work in us? No matter what its housing or package, God’s way is always the best way to get us to look up and walk by faith, believing that God is working redemption out of our “sight” range.

So, what will it be for us as we finish out this year and stand on the cusp of a new year? Will we continue to keep our focus on what we see, or will we choose to leave the noise and the faulty reads of our senses behind, accepting God's Word by faith, and let Him work His full redemption in us. As Mary and Joseph of old, let's keep trusting what God is doing, stop relying on what we see, and stay awe-struck that He is using us in His plan to redeem the whole world!

God rest ye merry, gentlemen,

Let nothing you dismay,

Remember Christ our Savior

Was born on Christmas Day;

To save us all from Satan's power

When we were gone astray.

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy;

O tidings of comfort and joy.