S7E4 - Luke 2:1-21 - Bethlehem’s Quiet Revolution

A Roman census looked like bureaucracy; Luke shows it as providence. We open Luke 2:1–21 and watch how empire, prophecy, and humble people intersect in a small town called Bethlehem—house of bread and home to lambs bound for Jerusalem. The story is not staged in palaces but in a crowded town with a manger for a crib, where God’s timing and promises take on flesh.

We walk through the details that anchor faith in history: Caesar’s decree, Quirinius, David’s city, Micah’s promise. Then the scene shifts to shepherds—ordinary, overlooked, often unclean—who receive the first birth announcement from heaven. Fear turns to movement, movement to witness, witness to worship. Their pattern becomes a template for us: when grace interrupts our night, we go, we see, we tell, we praise. Along the way we explore rich themes: Bethlehem as the house of bread for the bread of life, a region raising sacrificial lambs as the Lamb of God arrives, and the paradox of glory revealed through humility.

Mary’s quiet strength steadies the narrative. She treasures and ponders, carrying promises she doesn’t fully understand, while Joseph and Mary obey the Law as Jesus is circumcised and named. The one who will fulfill the Law begins by honoring it. The one who commands angels receives a name chosen by God. Luke’s careful detail resists sentimentality and invites trust: God keeps his word, uses unexpected messengers, and writes salvation into real places and real lives.

If you’re hungry for a grounded, hope-filled take on the Nativity that speaks to ordinary faith and everyday courage, this conversation is for you. Listen, reflect, and consider your next step of “haste”—seek Christ, share what you’ve seen, and give glory to God. If the episode encouraged you, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs good news today.

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Transcript

Welcome And Luke Chapter Two Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:22

What's up, Lifehouse family? Welcome back to the Life Talk Podcast, continuing with everybody in our journey through Luke. Man, January is almost over. How did that happen? I can't believe like every year, the year starts off, and it just before you know it, a month is gone. But in that vein, I have a trusty crew who's been journeying through January with me, Jeremy and Jonathan and Mitch. You guys hanging in there? Not tired of this uh Bible talk thing. We're loving it. Excited by God's word, awesome, energized for another episode. Good stuff. Well, for those who've been journeying with us, and we hope you have the whole month. Uh we are continuing, and as we go through, we see God's Word is so faithful to give us strong messages, and each and every chapter really builds our faith. There's a lot of consistent themes that I think we'll continue to see. Uh, if you go back and check out our last three episodes this month, we really gave you a deep dive into chapter one, covering all about Luke and what his purpose and writing and his audience, as well as John the Baptist and the prophecy of Christ. But today we're gonna get into chapter two, which is wow, Christ comes, the birth of Christ, and the news that is shared. So we're gonna be looking at Luke. If you're sitting with your Bible in your app, lap or on the app and following with us, we're gonna do verse one through 21 today, which is gonna really cover kind of amazing, other than uh the first four verses. You know, it's the shortest section, but man, impactful that we finally see like a true fulfillment. I think we've been the build-up, and I know we're a little over a month out from Christmas now, so hopefully everybody's losing the weight they gain from Christmas, but don't lose the message of Christmas, which can so frequently be lost. But we want to really reiterate that today. So the first seven verses really cover some important things for us when it comes to the birth of Christ that says, and we talked about Luke in his detail, in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary his betrothed, who was with child, and while they were there, the time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothing, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for him in the inn. So in seven verses we really get the fulfillment of everything we've been talking about, the lead up for really from Genesis, but especially we've talked about the 400 years of silence, we've talked about John the Baptist, all the things that were pointing to this one moment, and I think really some important takeaways that I see is God's timing and control, even of the government and circumstances. So, you know, we're seeing, and and if anybody's a King James, you know, fan, we talk about, you know, here they talk about tax being related to this census, you know. So we see tax, we see census, we see registration, that the government, you know, too often, you know, we live in a society where we're skeptical of our government and things happening, but you know, God is in control of all the circumstances. And so even here, working through this census, because it was very important and we'll we'll dig into it a little bit, says in the Old Testament that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. That was the city of David, part of the Davidic covenant of the Messiah coming. It was really key to fulfill this prophecy that the birth of Christ happened in Bethlehem. And so God is using these circumstances in some amazing ways, but also the difficulty, right? I think we were talking, who wants to travel with a nine-month pregnant wife? I know I haven't experienced that, but I think I heard some stories maybe coming on this. But this was not an ideal time. You know, it's like, hey, God, why couldn't you just get us over there so we can settle down, maybe have a month with the in-laws, or you know, a short-term rental, you know, something like that. But no, God's timing works out that hey, we have to be there on time. His time is always perfect. So, really, some challenges to that. And then even seeing this is a theme that we've been drawing, how God will use humble beginnings. You know, this means there's no room in the inn. This was a last-minute trip. This was not planned, and there was no room, but that meant Christ would come in a manger. Nobody could claim that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. You know, this was not something where expecting him to be born in a palace, completely counter to what, especially the Jews had been looking for, someone that would probably be of noble birth, of high birth, born to, you know, really affluent parents. But we just have seen through Mary and a lot of these themes that we've been walking through so far, just how much God flips the expectations of the world upside down. And these seven verses are no exception in terms of just God's sovereign plan working through crazy circumstances, government senses, all of those kind of things to be in the right time, at the right place, for the right way that God plans for things to be happening. So sometimes we take this, you know, kind of for granted, like, oh yeah, Christ was born, virgin birth, cool. But really, when we look into it and look into the details, like it should just such encourage us as to how God is always working out his plans and in his way and timing.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yeah, I uh I can totally see, like I agree with you, Nate. Like that I mean when we see like Caesar uh giving that census and that taxation, right? Like Mitch talked about in the first episode and a and a couple other times in the other other episodes. Like Luke is very specific and exact, and he wants to anchor this moment in in history to give us that confidence that this was a real event. Um and you know, and we see that you know, Caesar thinks that he's expanding his empire, but God is working work little does he know that like God is moving to bring Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem to fulfill that proph that prophecy in Micah 5 2 that you know Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. God is working out his promises because he is a promise-keeping God, and this is just another example of him fulfilling his word because he his word does not he doesn't break his word.

Lowly Manger And Upside-Down Kingdom

SPEAKER_01 6:59

I think it's interesting the tools he used. Um he had to get Mary and Joseph from Nazareth, which is on the northern side of Israel, just west of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus did a lot of his ministries, down to Bethlehem. And Bethlehem is like 70, 80 miles away, directly to the south, just to the west of the Dead Sea. So he so how did God get him there and Jeremy to fulfill Micah 5.2? He used a pagan ruler to create a census, and God used that circumstance to deliver a prophecy and to get Mary and Joseph to go down to Bethlehem because that's ultimately where he was going to be born. And I think you know, it kind of reiterates a point I think we we talked about maybe on the last last week's podcast, and that was sometimes God works in obscurity. He doesn't use the things of prominence that you and I might anchor ourselves to and associate with. He used the things that are often overlooked. And the and the town of Bethlehem is is literally about seven miles south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the political, I mean, excuse me, is the religious capital of the day. Jesus wasn't born in the religious capital of the day. He wasn't born in the uh political capital of the day, which was Rome. Athens was the economic capital, and Alexandria in Egypt was the educational center of the world at that time. He uses this little obscure town called Bethlehem. And I think it just reiterates what you know we've talked about all along. God uses the insignificant sometimes to accomplish the significant. And it's a matter of willingness. And we saw that last week with Mary in full surrender. And here we are again. They're following the decrees of the land, but God is ultimately in control. He is sovereign. He knew this decree was going to be placed, and that was that that's how that God would deliver Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem to fulfill Micah 5-2.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

And not just, like you said, not born in the particular places, but born in the in a such a humble way, you know, swatting clothing, in a manger, you know, not at all how we view a king, you know, coming. So God could have chosen those, and and a lot of people would have expected that, but completely unexpected, unlooked for. But that's what God does in our lives. He's doing things in ways so that we can't take the credit, right? Like we can't take the glory of of the ways that we do things, but God doing what only he can do and and the way that he can do it, I think, is is pretty incredible the more and more we study the birth of Christ.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

And you mentioned the manger. I mean, what was the manger? You know, and there's there's nowhere in scripture, I don't know if you know this, but I hate to uh to to mess up nativity scenes, but nowhere in scripture is there a stable ever mentioned. Only a manger. And a manger literally is a trough where they fed the animals from. So you talk about lowly, lowly beginnings. That's that's how God came. And he used lowly Mary, all these circumstances to to to basically save the world. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Yeah, and it wasn't an easy thing. I mean, that that journey to have a you know nine-month pregnant wife, I can only imagine, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:05

You know? Some some parents out there can certainly empathize, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Jonathan, I think you can empathize with that. I hear you have a story. You uh you want to I've heard a rumor of this.

Journey Hardships And Human Stories

SPEAKER_03 10:15

Well, Christine will acknowledge that with our first, uh, I maybe had not the wisest of things as a dad that I thought was a great idea. Uh in part, we were in at the time uh for Elijah, he was born in Germany. Uh he was born in April, and just prior to that, usually about through March, it's a cold time of year for that part of the world. And uh, and so part of what the the uh the doctor recommended was you need to get out and walk and get exercise and things like that. So I thought it'd be a great idea to go on a hike. Uh so we took some time, uh, I had some time off from work, and uh, there's this great hike I found online. I was like, oh, this is great. It was to the ice caves. And uh looking back, my Christine likes to tease me because she's like, Yeah, that's probably not the wisest thing to do to have a you know very pregnant wife hiking on ice and through these very small caverns and whatnot. And that was only a I want to say it was like a mile, maybe that. And it wasn't easy. And uh, you know, so I can only imagine, at least, you know, they probably hopefully didn't have to deal with uh ice caves, but uh just the logistics of that, even with a donkey, I mean, would be a very difficult thing.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

It's like that hike was easy for you, but probably not for Christine so much, right?

SPEAKER_03 11:32

Oh, I I very quickly learned uh what it was like and realized I probably won't be doing this again. Uh now he was not born in the ice cave, so though.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Well, thankfully not. Okay, I was like, because that'd have been really fun if like labor started.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

Yeah, that that um that's one of the things Christine is like, yeah, you know, we very well could have had Elijah there in the ice cave.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Awesome story of labor and birth and smart decisions. So everybody's learning about uh of course this was your first, right? So at least you learned from that and didn't do it correct.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Yeah, and then Mitch, you and I like the four of us were talking about the just like Bethlehem, you know, being a being a place of insignificance, but just the the the foreshadowing and the parallels of of Bethlehem, the name Bethlehem actually means house of bread. And in John we see Jesus saying, I am the bread of life. Um Bethlehem uh in my studying and researching for this for this episode, like I learned that Bethlehem was the place that they would raise the lambs that would go to Jerusalem to be sacrificed. And how much of a like how much more of a parallel do we need to see where the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world is born in a place where they raise the lambs to go to Jerusalem to be sacrificed?

SPEAKER_01 12:48

I mean John John compares Jesus to the Lamb of God in John 1. And then what do lambs need? They need a shepherd. John 10, I am the good shepherd. And then to your point, John 6, I am the bread of life. All those have parallels back to Bethlehem. This little insignificant place, but has so much deep, deep meaning into the story of Christ.

Bethlehem As Bread And Lamb Foreshadow

Angels, Fear, And Good News To Shepherds

SPEAKER_02 13:09

And in Luke chapter 2, verse 8 it says, And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, Bethlehem, a Savior who is Christ the Lord, and this will be assigned for you, and you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths, and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom he with whom he is well pleased. I want to kind of pause there too, because we were talking about shepherds, and I think it's so important to continue this theme of how God works. Important contextually, that shepherds were not high class individuals in this time. Like these were kind of your your grunts and and often you know not really well thought of individuals. And so we can often get prejudiced in how we read messages, and and even today, because of our technology, we have to read the Bible. What are you talking about? Like read, writing, God writing things down? Like sometimes we get prejudiced towards the message sometimes and how it's delivered, but God's going to use these shepherds in a big way. And we continue to see the angel coming tied with a theme of hey, when angels show up, fear is kind of involved, right? For for pretty much everybody. We talked about Mary last time differently, but this was again very unexpected in who this news is going to be proclaimed to. And again, mentioned a couple episodes, this is not advice. The angels don't come in and be like, hey, uh, maybe you want to check this out. You know, there's going to be this guy, he might be a good example for you to live by. But no, this is good news. This is peace on earth, you know, coming to fulfill this prophecy and make a way. Like this is the biggest news of all time, and coming to these shepherds. So don't know if you guys have any thoughts of just again how we're continuing to see God work in this away. I think you guys even I wanted to segue through the shepherds, the sheep, you know, just such an important theme that we're seeing in Luke and in the gospel as he's writing it to us.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Yeah, I mean it's just goes back to like the theme of Luke, where God is reaching out to the lowly, right? To the and to the to the people who were not on the in the center of society, they're the outcasts. Like the shepherds were despised, they were ceremonial unclean, and they they but yet they were the the among the first to receive the message of the the gospel that that um and that you know they the gospel, like you said, is not a self-help, um, it's it's God's rescue plan from sin by a divine savior. So um yeah, I totally agree with you.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

And it's for his glory, you know. The angels say, Glory to God in the highest. Like sometimes again, we got cut get caught up self-focused and like, oh, this is you know news for me, but it's also for God's glory. We know that our salvation and the relationship we have and what God was doing ultimately points to just God's power, God's love, especially to make this way. You know, uh it's a great thing I heard that you know, if God was all holy, he wouldn't come. He would just give us the law and live up to it or don't. If God was all love and just accepted whatever religion or there were multiple ways, just figure it out. If God's just all love, loved everybody, no big deal, he also would not need to come. Christ coming for God's glory is the combination of God's holiness and God's love. It's the only way that we can hold those together. God's holiness, God's justice, but also his love and mercy completely embodied in the incarnation. And so it says, glory to God in the highest. Like this news brings glory to God, and bringing it to these shepherds is is a huge deal.

Obedient Haste: The Shepherds Respond

SPEAKER_03 17:25

Like when you're relating to these guys, can you just imagine though you got you're there, all of a sudden you got a bunch of angels, and they bring this message. And then you know, the first part, I think, you know, when you got angels there, you're like, okay, I'm tracking. Like, you know, the uh and this are uh for unto you born this day in the city of David, a savior, who is Christ the Lord. It's like, okay, I kind of you know, the the priest talked about this. We got the old testament and it went through that we got a messiah, okay, cool. Well, in my mind, at that point, it'd be like, Well, okay, where's God? But they said, Well, this is the sign, and this will be the sign that you'll find a bab wrapped in swabencloth, clothes, and line in a manger. And it'd be kind of like, okay, wait a minute, what are you talking about? A manger? God? Like, like it just how the um but I think that is something that they relate to on a day-to-day basis because they're very familiar with a manger. Like they knew with sheep that was part of the tools of the craft, if you will. Uh, they probably also knew, you know, they had kids and knew what swaddling cloth was. So it's for them, it was a very practical sign that they understood. But at the same time, I think it was kind of like a wait a minute, and I think you as we'll get to you see their response a little bit, they're kind of what just happened? You know, what what what what's going on? And and this is also one of the few times where the angel, it's a group of people, it's not just one uh individual.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Yeah, it starts out with just one. It's a you know, the angel came and then it says, then and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, I think it's interesting. Um one of the things I I had written down in my Bible is that it I'd underlined the word saying, Verse uh 13. You know, you there's never an instance in scripture. Um you can argue there's one in Job and maybe in Revelation where angels actually sing. And they always speak. And, you know, I hate to break the news to the heart the herald angels singing, but it's the heart the herald angels saying, and they're actually saying, what are they saying? Glory to God in the highest and on peace on earth and goodwill toward all men. Um these are words that, you know, are very well known uh in the Christian community and even the the non-Christian community, because they're read at this time of year, and um, I think they were even quoted by Linus in Charlie Brown's Christmas special at one point. So it's just it's it but I think the reaction of the shepherds in verse 15 is what really kind of gets me. And it says, The angels went away from them into heaven, and the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste. And they found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. They didn't waste any time. They move they made haste. This is the same. Basically, the same exact reaction that Mary had when she was told about Elizabeth, what we talked about last week. And it said Mary made haste and got to that community. And here, these shepherds are direct obedient. There's faith involved, but faith requires action. Once you have that revelation from the Lord, and Mary got it, last uh episode we talked about, you know, she was with child and was told Elizabeth is six months pregnant. Mary immediately, verse 39 of chapter 1, made haste and got got to go down and see Elizabeth. And here we find the shepherds immediately an affirmation from God through this angel, through this host of angels, saying, Glory to God and highest. What do they do? They get out of Dodge and they get right down to Bethlehem and they do it quickly.

Tell What You’ve Seen: Witness And Wonder

SPEAKER_02 20:45

They lose any time. I think that's super important because these couple verses, we see the shepherds respond, you know, and that's something we'll get to later in chapter two with Simeon and all. Christ is the ultimate dividing line of humanity. You know, too often we want to create races and different kinds of stereotypes, but really it's you're in Christ or you're not. That's going to be the ultimate dividing line of all humanity. And so Christ requires a response. Exactly. So, but Christ requires a response. And so these shepherds, you had to either think we just hallucinated. Did you see that? Are you sure? Did we actually see that? Did that just happen? You had to respond. Either you just dismiss it and you try to make uh rationalize it away or or not explain it, or you respond. You go, you know, like you've heard this news, you have to go check this out. And so we see the shepherds, like you said, Mitch, with haste. Like it ain't just uh, well, hey, maybe we'll go next week, you know, maybe when we get off work, we'll go check this out. But it's kind of late. We need to maybe we'll uh yeah, you know, we don't want to leave the sheep for a little while, but no, they go with haste. We gotta we gotta see this, you know. Like this is it, we need to verify this. So I think especially people, you know, again, we've kind of talked in past episodes. If you're listening to this, studying God's word, think of your own experience. You know, was it, you know, sometimes we have to think it through. You know, I admit my own stories, I wrestled with God for a little while, but man, when it became clear, Lord, I just prayed, I just cried out, I surrendered, I want to make haste, I want to follow after you. So very much requires a response, you know, to go and see, to check this out. You know, you can't feel God calling you out, feeling that spiritual stirring, and just ignore that. You have to pursue that.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

And look what happens right after, literally, right after they're right. They made haste, they went and did this. As soon as they met, after they met Mary Joseph and the baby lying in a manger, look what they did in response. And then when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning the child. They couldn't help but speak about it. They said, I've seen Jesus, and they went out and talked about it. And then the next thing that happened, verse 18, and all who heard that wondered at what the shepherds had told them. It created this stir in the community. That's our job. When we encounter Christ, our job is to go tell other people, and that's exactly what the shepherds did. You got this little parentheses, verse number 19 says, But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her hearts back to the shepherds, there was 20. And the shepherds returned. What did they do? Glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen and had been told them. They couldn't help it.

Luke’s Focus On The Marginalized

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Yeah, what I what I am remembering from previous episodes, we talked about it, we hit on it, but it's important to reiterate is that you know, the word in your mind is different than the word in your heart. Like, and these these guys, these shepherds had the word like faith that went from their head to their heart, and then they went and told. Like, and they you can start at a point of amazement with Christ, but if you just stay there, you're not that's not that's not like the discipleship, true discipleship is like surrendering your life and following after him.

SPEAKER_03 23:51

And kind of like you were talking earlier, Jeremy, with the the process of being a shepherd. And we you know, and uh Nate, what you were saying with you know the the role they played, because it was a dirty thing and and it made them unclean, but that was a critical role for their uh culture for for processing and and the the uh remittance of sin, you know, to that basically a a sacrifice would be made with a with a holy or a unblemished lamb, and so this whole process that they were in, like, you know, to some level it reveals their heart, but they you know knew knew that and yet they were able to uh that was reflected in how you know, like you were saying, Mitch, with the praising God. Like they uh even though they may be an outcast, even though they may be uh part of the you know the uncleanliness part of uh you know providing the lamb for sacrifice in this story, it's just how God is able to, you know, so so succinctly bring that all together, and just it's beautiful in how God is able to do that so accurately.

Mary Treasures, Jesus Named, Law Fulfilled

SPEAKER_02 24:50

Yeah, and to use these shepherds, like you say, they came and saw, but then they went and told. Like we you mentioned, Jeremy, and that response continues. Like once we've seen that truth, once the eyes have been opened, once you truly understand the gospel, like you gotta share that. You know, this is good news. You know, how often have you heard something, you know, cool or awesome? Yeah, but I ain't gonna tell nobody about that. You know, I'm gonna keep that to myself. Like our faith is something that ultimately enacts, which we'll get to a little while down the road. But we can't help but speak of what we have seen and heard. We can't help but, and we talked about in our previous episode of people encouraging, like when you speak this, when you share this, you know, it can be encouraging to others. But we also see that, you know, everybody who heard wondered, it doesn't say they all believed, you know. So we are faithful to share the gospel whether people believe or not, but we are to be faithful to share that good news, and we see that here in the shepherds in a big way of going and telling. And now a lot of those people similarly, like, who are these shepherds? You know, it's kind of like, and sometimes we can feel inadequate. We can feel like, man, I can't share the gospel. No, you're gonna listen to me. I'm not anybody. But we see right here in God's word, and God used shepherds to spread this word, to proclaim this gospel. So we should never feel inadequate, but should always really be sharing our heart, sharing that good news of what Christ has done in our life and here, seeing this fulfillment. Man, we got to tell people about this. We can't just keep this to ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Yeah, I think one of the things, if you're we came through Christmas, what about a month ago now? Um, if you think about it and you know the Christmas story, um, you know that there's a piece missing in in Luke's accounting of it, and that's the wise men. You gotta go to Matthew to piece that piece of it together. And and it kind of comes back to what we talked about in the very first episode about how Luke writes this gospel. Matthew presented Jesus as a king. The Magi were kings. Luke leaves that out. Who does Luke focus on? This lowly town of Bethlehem and the shepherds. Luke focuses on the disadvantaged, the marginalized, the people that are, and I think there's a huge lesson in that for all of us, and that is regardless of how insignificant we feel, in and of ourselves, God has a purpose, God has a plan for our lives. Our job is to be obedient, to go see it, and then most importantly, to go tell others, like you were saying, Nate.

Closing And Next Week’s Teaser

SPEAKER_02 27:09

Amen. And I think we, you know, we do see Mary coming back here in verse 19. Mary treasured up all of these things, pondering them in her heart. You know, so we have to be kind of reminded, we know the full story, we know what Christ is ultimately going to do, living the perfect life, ultimately going to the cross, dying for our sins, but being, praise God, resurrected on the third day. But Mary doesn't know all that yet, you know, and so she's still like kind of figuring all this out. She's still walking by faith. So kind of like, whoa, what are these shepherds who just show up? Like, how did they even know this? You know, so she's continuing to see God's faithfulness, continuing her faith, the journey in all of these things is kind of unique to see. And then even in verse 21, and at the end of eight days, past episodes, we talked about you know the circumcision, why this was important, and it says, and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. So we see consistent themes here of you know, Zachariah had to give up his fatherly quote unquote rights to name his son. Joseph, the same thing. You know, we know in Matthew, like you said, with the kings, Joseph's dream is told to us in Matthew, where God said, Hey, yeah, you're gonna have to name him Jesus. You don't you don't get that option. Not only should you not divorce, you're gonna have to endure some shame of you know marrying, even though they're gonna know it's not your kid. You're gonna have to bear that. And as Christians, sometimes, you know, we deal with criticism, we deal with people who think we're crazy for what we believe, but we're faithful, we're obedient, we follow in that. So we see that same thing here. They were obedient. Jesus was his name, and he was circumcised. You know, Jesus was not above the law, he came to fulfill the law, he came to live that perfect life that we should have lived, ultimately die the death we deserve to die. But we see that even right here at the start from his birth, his parents being obedient, his parents following that plan for his life. So kind of just neat some things we can draw from God's word in Luke's account specifically, and like we've talked about as we tie that into the other gospels, man, it just paints this full picture in a lot of different ways. Well, guys, we are off and running into chapter two. So uh Life Talk Family. Hopefully this was encouraging to you just to really dig in. Again, a reminder of Christmas, which we're over a month out, but really we joke, you know, but it is very true. Christmas should be all the time, all year. We should celebrate the birth of Christ all the time in our lives, and it won't be too long. We'll get to Easter before you know it, man. This the year will keep flying by. But we hope these episodes have been encouraging to you. We look forward to continuing with you next week as we get into uh what Luke shows us about, you know, one of the very brief pictures we get of Jesus as a child in the gospel. So stick with us. We'll be back with you next week, continuing through God's Word and taking it through. So thanks for joining us, Life House Family. We'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning in to the Life Talk Podcast. If this episode encouraged you, please be sure to like, comment, subscribe, and leave a review so others can find this content as well. And we'll look forward to seeing you next Monday for another great episode.