Saying All Those Nouns Over And Over Can Really Wear You Down!

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

"They" being Joseph and Mary, "there" being Bethlehem, and "she" again being Mary who was to be delivered of Jesus, her firstborn Son. "Son" being capitalized in that previous sentence because Jesus has God as His Father, so Joseph was not His father -- but that is the role he takes on. For Jesus and for six other children later born of him and Mary, as we saw in the last message. We are not told in Luke 2 how far along Mary was in her pregnancy, but she was not so far along that she could not be moved safely. Of course, it's also possible that men and women in the now-Middle East were hardier and could take less coddling and handle more pain than their modern day industrialized world counterparts. My knowledge of twenty centuries ago is quite scant.

So it is likely that Joseph and Mary spent some time pre-the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem (the word "accomplished" in this verse means our word "completed") actually in Bethlehem. Maybe not in the stable -- more about that in our next study -- but actually having to find a place to stay. It is a safe bet that being offered the manger in the stable to stay in was really REALLY a last-ditch resort; Joseph being the provider that he was obligated to be and the father and husband he wants to be he would comb up and down the streets of Bethlehem (with Mary in tow, or resting somewhere off the back of a donkey? Not sure) to find someplace they could stay. All this time, the baby inside Mary is growing and growing and growing ...

I expect like any pregnant woman all the stopping and going and stopping and going and stopping and going was not helping Mary keep steady. So wherever she was during the time in Bethlehem before she and Joseph got offered the stable -- I highly doubt she was the only woman in the city of David preparing to give birth; there is something about that time of the year -- it ought to have been someplace where she could at least sit still. The Romans may have been efficient administrators and excellent builders if a bit ham-handed about how they dealt with the people in occupied territories, but they were not stupid; the wives of taxpayers dying in large numbers due to inefficiencies in transport or lack of comfort for expectant mothers would likely prompt ANOTHER revolt.