Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

God had promised His people, Israel, a Messiah (anointed one, Christ), he would also be their King from the bloodline of David, who would rule Israel and free His people. Nor was the promise given only once or twice, but in the Old Testament it was given in details over 300 times.

Isaiah 9:6-7 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

God’s plan didn’t stop at just written prophecy, nor did it stop at just the people of Israel. God, because He is God, wrote His sovereign plan in the events of history.

God’s Plan In The Past

When Jesus was born it was exactly the right time and place because God had prepared the world to be ready for Messiah to come. Israel at this time a nation that is in turmoil, balanced upon a precipice. Less than 200 years before this time, Israel had been a free and independent nation. Ruled by the Maccabees family after a bloody war against the Greek tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes. But now Israel is no longer free, it has submitted to the power of Rome. Rome has filled their nation with thousands of foreign, pagan soldiers. Taken their land for fortresses and even appointed an Edomite King, called Herod the Great to his face but Herod the cruel behind his back. They people were harshly taxed for the privilege of being Rome’s great Empire.

The talk and hope of the promised Messiah was everywhere during these harsh times. Secret organizations like the zealots were planning assassinations and a war for freedom. Finally, in 70 AD they got their war and it destroyed Israel. They lost their nation, their Temple and their hope of freedom. During these days, many false Messiahs had rose to prominence and some had raised hundreds of followers, who they led to their deaths.
Into this turbulent, dangerous time the real Messiah, Jesus was born as we read in Luke 2.  This hated empire that ruled over them, ordered a registration, in order then to tax the nation, And God used this registration to move Jospeh and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem where He had promised the Messiah was to be born.

All of these events, nations and people, God was using according to His plan, moving them like pieces on a chess board, putting them in the right place at the right time. God used history, events, nations and kings to set the stage for His Son to come and show Himself as the Messiah.

God, because He is God, can and does use nations, kings, heroes, villains and unknown common people to do His will and carry out His plan for mankind. All these have been moved, controlled, influenced, directed or redirected by the Sovereign Creator to do as He pleases.

Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.

Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

Daniel 4:35 Nebuchadnezzar, “And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?

“Though all human acts are free in the sense of being self-determined, none are free from God’s control according to his eternal purpose and foreordination.” - J. I. Packer, Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1993), 39.

And especially is God’s sovereignty and plan seen in His preparing the world for the coming of the Messiah.

God’s Plan In the Present

Nor has God quit working. He has not wound up the universe and left it to run down on its own. He is still carrying out His plan through prophecy, history, nations and individual people, even people like you and me.

We will not have a place in that plan like Mary, Joseph or the leaders of the nations, but you would be foolish to think that God in his omnipotence and omniscience has not made plans for all his people or all time.

Isn't this what Jesus taught? Matthew 10:29–31 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Yes, He watches me and though I will never fully understand it, He also moves me. Just as he moved all those others when Jesus was born.