Your Tough Times WILL Pass. They ALWAYS Do!

“And it came to pass…” That has got to be one of my all-time favorite verses in all of the Bible.

Apparently the biblical writers were quite fond of it too. By my count, they used that exact phrase 176 times! Were they trying to tell us something? Could be. Because if you think about it, there’s a subtle subtext to that verse. A very encouraging subtext that goes something like this: The tough times will pass; they always do!

Now lest you think that I’m just toying with this scriptural phrase, playfully misapplying it to suit my own ends, consider the fact that the words “And it came to pass” do indeed refer to troubling circumstances, difficult situations, times of testing, painful periods in a person’s life where blessed relief did indeed come once the tough times “came to pass.”

Case in point: Luke 2:1. If you are at all familiar with the “Christmas Story” then you are familiar with this passage. But for the sake of this discussion, let’s revisit it and discover together what exactly the “it” was that “came to pass.”

“And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into 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 wife, who was with child.”[1] Talk about being hit with a typhoon of troubles, there’s a lot here to unpack, none of it pleasant.

First, “a decree went out from Caesar Augustus.” Yet another indication that the Jews of Jesus’ day were not a free people. Just as they had suffered bondage under a ruthless Pharaoh until their deliverer Moses came along,[2] so now centuries later they were still a people oppressed. They suffered, unimaginably so, as they were forced by circumstances totally out of their control to try to build their lives under the barbaric rule and at the unpredictable whims of a coldblooded Caesar. Simply by affixing his signature on a single piece of parchment, Augustus was able to upend the lives literally of millions of people.[3]

We then learn that “all the world should be registered.” The word “registered” sounds benign enough, until one understands the purpose behind the census. With his coffers running lean, Augustus demanded an accurate count of his subjects in order to impose upon them yet another hefty tax.

This decree forced Joseph “out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem…with Mary.” 70 miles as the crow flies, a modest distance by today’s standards. But neither Joseph or Mary were crows and could not fly. Assuming that someone was young and healthy and capable of maintaining a brisk pace, the trip on foot or by camelback could take up to a week. However, given the lay of the land back then, where even in the much-guarded courtyards of the Temple complex worshippers were at the mercy of “den of thieves,”[4] wary travelers were ever on the look-out for bandits who could and would strip them of everything they owned. If you remember the Parable of the Good Samaritan,[5] that story took place on the very road on which Joseph and Mary would have traveled.

We have every reason to believe that Joseph and Mary were indeed young and healthy. But capable of maintaining a brisk pace? I don’t think so. Mary “was with child.” Pregnant. In today’s parlance, in the 3^rd trimester of her pregnancy. Can you imagine, ladies, what it would be like to undertake a week-long or longer excursion through rugged terrain under the constant threat of bandits, essentially forced to camp out in the elements each night at a time when, not to be indelicate here, your water could burst at any moment?

Then, to add insult to their injury, Mary and Joseph were not married; they were “betrothed.” Meaning that they were legally committed to one another, but without the privilege of sharing the marriage bed. Yet, Mary was pregnant. No doubt the small town rumor mill from Nazareth to Bethlehem had a field day with that inconvenient fact.

Such was Mary and Joseph’s lot at this point in their young lives. Where one might assume that as an innocently young nearly-wed couple, Joseph and Mary were wonderfully happy. If so, they were rudely awakened out of their newly-wedded bliss by the deadly decree of crazed king that forced them to brace themselves against a tidal wave of tribulation that would push any family to its limit.

No doubt about it. Just when it seems that our problems are here to stay, they’re not. They never are. Even in the midst of Joseph and Mary’s dire circumstances, Luke reminded them, and he now reminds us, that their tough times and ours “came to pass.”

(Just one of 52 Timeless Truths that you can read and relish in my latest book, "No Doubt About It.")

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[1] Luke 1:1-5

[2] Exodus 3:7

[3] Some estimates place the population of the empire under Augustus at some 45 million people.

[4] Matthew 21:13

[5] Luke 10:25-37