And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And she brought forth her first-born son (see the note at Matthew 1:25 ), and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him - that is, the mother herself did so. Had she then none to assist her in such circumstances? All we can say is, it would seem so.
In a manger - or crib, in which was placed the horses' food, because there was no room for them in the inn - a square erection, open inside, where travelers put up, and whose back parts were used as stables. The ancient tradition, that our Lord was born in a grotto or cave, is quite consistent with this, the country being rocky. In Mary's condition the Journey would be a slow one, and before they arrived the inn would be preoccupied-affecting anticipation of the reception He was throughout to meet with (John 1:11).
`Wrapped in His swaddling bands, And in His manger laid, The hope and glory of all lands
Is come to the world's aid. No peaceful home upon His cradle smiled, Guests rudely went and came where slept the royal Child. (KEBLE) But some 'guests went and came,' not 'rudely,' but reverently. God sent visitors of His own to pay court to the newborn King.
Remarks:
(1) Caesar Augustus had his own ends to serve in causing steps to be taken for a general census of his kingdom. But God had ends in it too, and infinitely higher. Augustus must bring Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, and bring them just before the time for the Virgin's delivery, that the mark of His Son's birthplace, which He had set up seven centuries before, might not be missed. Even so must Pharaoh dream, that Joseph might be summoned from prison to read it; and dream such a dream as required Joseph's elevation to be governor of all Egypt, in order to the fulfillment of divine predictions (Genesis 40:1-23, etc.); and king Ahasuerus must pass a sleepless night, and beguile the weary hours with the chronicles of the kingdom, and read there of his obligations to Mordecai for the preservation of his life, in order that at the moment when he was to be sacrificed he might be lifted into a position to save his whole people (Esther 6:1-14); and Belshazzar must dream, and his dream must pass from him, and the wise men of Babylon must be required both to tell and to interpret it on pain of death, and all of them fail, in order that Daniel, by doing both, might be promoted along with his companions, for the present good and ultimate deliverance of his people, (Daniel 2:1-49, etc.)
(2) In the Roman edict, which brought the Jews of Palestine to their several tribal towns, we see one of the badges of their lost independence. The splendour of the theocracy was now going fast down: but this was doubtless divinely ordered, that the new glory of Messiah's kingdom, which it dimly shadowed forth, might the more strikingly appear.
(3) Our Evangelist simply records the fact, that the newborn Babe of Bethlehem was laid in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn; leaving his readers from age to age to their own reflections on so stupendous a dispensation. 'Thou camest,' exclaims Dr. Hall, 'to Thine own, and Thine own received thee not: how can it trouble us to be rejected of the world, which is not ours?'