Luke intentionally sets the birth of Jesus in the context of world and local history. Caesar Augustus heads a Roman Empire known for peace and prosperity and a glorious culture. Herod, as clientking over Judea, is known for his power and propaganda of the Hellenistic culture, but also for his murderous paranoia and moral evil (not to mention he was a descendant of Esau and an Edomite, Israel’s great enemy. So it is a great predicament for the Jews: do we succumb to the grandeurs of Rome, or the evils of Herod, or both, and lose our way in the world? And how does the birth of Jesus affect that predicament?
Scripture: Luke 2