As prescribed in the laws of Moses in the Old Testament when
the eighth day arrived after the birth of the child Jesus, Joseph
and Mary made sure He was circumcised, and at that time the babe
was officially named "Jesus" (as we have seen, meaning, one who
saves), as the angel from the Lord had said to them that He
should be so named. Having a male child circumcised on the eighth
day was in accordance to Leviticus 12:1-3.
The laws of Moses further prescribed that if a woman gave
birth to a male child, she should continue in her body's blood
cleansing, the healing and restoring of her body back to a more
normal condition as when not carrying and giving birth to a baby,
for another 33 days. During that time she was not to come into
the Temple or Tabernacle to participate in the ritual religious
practices of Israel as given by God from the days of Moses.
This law is found in Leviticus 12:4.
Also in the laws of Moses for the people to observe was a
law that if the first child that a woman gave birth to, was a
male, then he was to be dedicated to the Lord. Originally he was
to be given to serve the Lord in the physical work of God in the
religious life of Israel, working in the Tabernacle. Then God
decided to have one tribe of Israel, the tribe of Levi, to do all
that work and be the priests to serve in the Temple. All this can
be seen from Exodus 13:1-2,12-16; 22: 29; Numbers 8:15-17.
The firstborn of males among the animals could not be
redeemed or bought back, but were to be offered in sacrifice to
the Lord (except for those born to unclean animals, as noted in
Numbers 18: 15). The firstborn of male children were to be
redeemed, by using other offerings, so they did not automatically
have to serve in the physical work of God.
The reason for all this is stated by God in Exodus 13:14-16.
It may seem a little strange to us today, but under the
circumstances as to how and what God did in order to bring the
people of Israel out of Egyptian bondage and slavery, to the
Israelites back in the days of Moses and for other generations to
come afterwards, it was a constant reminder of the miracle God
performed in delivering them from Egyptian domain and slavery.
As we have said, God then decided to take the males of the
tribe of Levi to serve in His physical work in the Tabernacle or
Temple, as we find in passages such as Numbers 3:11-13, 41, 44,
45; 8:13-22; 18: 6.
Joseph and Mary came then to the Temple in Jerusalem not
only to have the baby Jesus circumcised on the eighth day after
His birth, but came again to redeem and dedicate Him to the Lord,
after another 33 days had gone by. With that dedication they
offered a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons according as
it is written in the laws of the Lord, for those who were not
able to offer a lamb for whatever reasons. This was all allowed
for in the law of Leviticus 12: 8.
From this passage as written in the Gospel of Luke (chapter
2:21-24) we see that Joseph and Mary stayed in the area of
Jerusalem for at least 40 days and maybe longer, before they left
and returned to their own town of Nazareth in the region of
Galilee (note verse 39).
The wise men from the East had not yet come to pay respects
to the child Jesus. We shall see shortly that it was not till
after Joseph and Mary with the new born Son of God, had returned
to Nazareth, that the wise men arrived in search of the new child
to pay homage and present their gifts.
IN THE TEMPLE WITH SIMEON
Joseph and Mary had entered the Temple enclosure to perform
the ceremonial rites and sacrifices as ordained in the laws of
Moses. Unknown to them there was also another man within the
Temple grounds by the name of Simeon. He was a very devoutly
religious man, righteously following the ways of the Lord God,
and was looking for the comfort and salvation of Israel that God
had promised in the Old Testament Scriptures.
The Holy Spirit had been upon Simeon for a long time. In
fact so close to God was he and so dedicated to serving Him that
the Holy Spirit of the Lord had already revealed to him that he
was not going to die until he had seen with his eyes the very man
child that was the Son of God, the Lord's Christ or Messiah, the
Anointed One (Luke 2:25-27).
Simeon saw Joseph and Mary with the little babe Jesus and
through the revelation of the Holy Spirit guiding him, he knew
immediately that this baby was the Lord's Anointed One, the
Messiah.
His heart started to pound inside his chest, great joy and
excitement overwhelmed his mind, walking over to Joseph he
politely asked if he could hold the baby in his arms, and Joseph
replied that he could.
Simeon, taking the baby Jesus in his arms, and looking up to
heaven with praise, said, " Lord, now I am ready to die in
peace. You have fulfilled your promise towards me. I have seen
the Savior that you have brought into this world for salvation to
all people. He is the light to the nations, and is the glory of
your people Israel. "
Both Joseph and Mary, although they had seen and been told
many things by the angels sent to them, were still in some
amazement on hearing the words of Simeon.
Then under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Simeon blessed
them both. Afterwards he turned and looking more at Mary than
Joseph, said, " This child will be rejected by many in Israel,
and so it will be their undoing and loss. But He will be the
greatest joy to many others. The deepest thoughts and attitudes
of minds will be revealed. A sword of mental pain will pierce
your very life."
Mary would have seen how true and how drastically that
prophecy of Simeon came to pass as she later would have to suffer
the mental and emotional pain of seeing her firstborn, the Son of
God, put to death in a most horrible manner. But before trying to
relate that event in human words, there is much to recall and
expound to you about the life and the teachings of God's Messiah.
We shall come to how He died much later.
ANNA THE PROPHETESS
The Lord, in doing His work and proclaiming His truths,
would sometimes give a special spiritual gift to some women.
Those women could often see ahead of time, certain events that
were to happen. Sometimes God would give them a special message
that they were to tell His people about or pass on to other
leaders of His people. Then on the other hand the Eternal God
would just inspire them to preach His truths to others in a
dynamic way. These women are called "prophetesses" as a group, or
"prophetess" as a single person, in the pages of the Bible.
Such a prophetess there was in Jerusalem when Joseph and
Mary came to the Temple with the baby Jesus.
Her name was Anna. She came from the tribe of Asher. One of
a few (from the 10 northern tribes of Israel, known as the House
of Israel in the books of Kings and Chronicles and in the
prophetic books from Isaiah to Malachi) who escaped the captivity
under the Assyrian armies that progressively took the northern
Kingdom of Israel into captivity from the about 745 to 718 B.C.
Some of the northern people of the House of Israel fled to the
south and became a part of the Kingdom of Judah. The ancestors
of Anna were some of those who came to live in Judea. She was the
daughter of Phanuel, but nothing is recorded about him in the New
Testament, except he was of the tribe of Asher.
Anna, it is recorded was of "great age." She had been
married to a husband for seven years from the time of her
virginity, which is another way of saying from the day of her
wedding and marriage. Somehow she lost her husband, but we are
not told under what circumstances she lost him and became a
widow. The word "widow" is given to a lady who was married but
lost her husband in some way.
As we have seen, most young women in the Jewish society of
that time, were married in their teenage years, often in their
middle teens. If this was the case with Anna, then she may have
been around the age of twenty-two or twenty-four when she lost
her husband.
The Greek in Luke 2:37 can be understood as saying she had
been a widow for eighty-four years, or, being a widow she was now
eighty-four years old. If the first understanding be the correct
one then Anna could have been over one hundred years old. This is
not out of the question, for an increasing number of people today
in North America are living to be over a hundred years of age.
If the second understanding is the correct one, we can still see
that the age of eighty-four could be termed "great age"
especially to younger people and children who have not yet even
become adults.
It is stated by Luke that at this old aged Anna did not
depart from the Temple, probably meaning that it was her daily
way of life to be in the Temple each day. She was in constant
worship to the Lord with fastings and prayers night and day,
which is again a way of saying that she had dedicated her life to
doing lots of fasting (missing meals during the week) and
spending much of her day and evenings in prayer.
She must have been in fine physical strength to live this
kind of life style, most of us feel pretty weak in the knees
after missing just one meal now and again. Well, I'm sure
she was given strength from the Almighty to dedicate herself in
this manner as she served Him as one of His prophetesses.
Anna, coming into the Temple when Joseph and Mary were there
with Jesus, instantly knew that this baby was God's Anointed One,
the promised Messiah. She immediately started to praise the Lord
God. And Luke also records another very important job that Anna
then performed. She went out and shared the good news of the man
child that would bring saving redemption and salvation to the
people of Jerusalem and others from around the world.
Luke records that Anna, "spoke of Him to all who were
looking for the redemption of Jerusalem." This tells us a few
things we need to take note of. Anna did not necessarily go up
and down the streets of Jerusalem knocking on every door of every
house, to preach God's truth to them. She spoke of this Jesus the
Messiah to all that were of the mind of God and who were looking
for the redeeming Savior that God had promised was to come. She
was speaking in a personal way to people who were spiritually
minded about the things of God.
And this example also shows us that if there are times when
God works with us in a special way, in clearly revealing His will
and way and promises to us, then we should get excited and
enthusiastic, and share it with other members of the Church of
God, or those looking for and desiring to know the word of the
Lord.
When Joseph and Mary had performed all the laws of Moses,
which were the laws of God given under the leadership of Moses,
it is said that they returned into Galilee, to their own city of
Nazareth. We have seen this was at least 40 days after the birth
of Jesus. Up to this time the wise men from the East had not yet
arrived in Jerusalem. Indeed they would come from the East to
inquire of Herod the king where this Christ child was, but not
till after Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had returned to Nazareth.
They did not find the infant that was born to be King of
kings and Lord of lords in a stable as did the shepherds. All
this we shall see in chapter five.
Luke finished this part of his Gospel by telling us that
Jesus, while in Nazareth growing up, grew in physical health and
strength, that He was filled with wisdom, and the favor and grace
of God was upon Him (Luke 2: 36-40).
................................
Written November 2000
Chapter Five:Eastern Wise Men Come to Jerusalem It was Matthew (who was the author of the Gospel that bears
his name) who was inspired to record for us the coming of the
wise men from the East to Jerusalem to inquire about the one born
to be king of the Jews.
We do not know from where they came in the East, some have
speculated from which nations or nation they may have come from,
but there is nothing in the Bible or secular history that shows
in any certain manner where in the East these wise men made
their homes.
Nor do we know how many wise men there were. Just because
three gifts are mentioned that they finally present to Joseph and
Mary and Jesus, does not prove that it was three wise men only,
it may have been more.
They arrived in Jerusalem asking where this child, that they
understood to be born to be a king, was to be found. They had
come to worship him they said, and they told people they had seen
this King's star in the East.
We now have a question as to what was this "star" that they
saw. A few have written technical studies trying to show at that
time in history there was a great physical "star" phenomenon in
the heavenly sky over the East and over Palestine. It may be hard
to understand how a physical star in the heavens could eventually
come and rest over the dwelling place where Jesus lived, as
Matthew records. But it may be possible if you as skilled in the
movements of the stars in the heavens and if God had sent a
special meteor type star to guide them to the Christ child.
On the other hand the first chapters of the book of
Revelation use the word "star" to represent "angels" of the
Lord.
Could it have been that God sent an angel, which to the wise
men looked like a star in the sky, to guide them to the very
place where Jesus was now living? Yes, it could be possible that
is how the Lord God did it.
Either way, we know God's guiding hand was in all of this,
to bring the wise men from the East to worship this new born king
that was named Jesus. And further, the wise men must have had
some earlier knowledge from some source that a special king was
to be born in the region of Jerusalem, in Palestine. It may have
been possible that they had copies of the Hebrew Old Testament as
we call it today. The Jews had been in captivity in Babylon and
many did not return to Palestine with Ezra and Nehemiah about
five hundred years earlier, but chose to live in other parts of
the known world. Some may have gone further east and taken their
Holy Scriptures with them. Hence, others coming into contact with
those Jews could have had access to God's known word of that
time. They could have read and understood the prophecies
concerning the human birth of the Messiah and the area of the
world He was to be born in.
Part of why they were called "wise men" by Matthew may have
been because they were wise in the understanding of the Old
Testament Scriptures.
Well, these men from the East arrived in Jerusalem asking
about this child born to be king, and when the one who was ruling
as king over Judea, Herod the king as he was called, heard this
questioning from these men, he was naturally very troubled,
upset, and not a little disconcerted. He thought his power and
might and authority was going to be challenged and ripped away
from him, by someone who was to grow up and lead the Jews in
revolt against himself. All Jerusalem, Matthew states, was also
troubled by the questions from these men of the East. So troubled
was Herod that he called for the Jewish chief priests and scribes
(kind of lawyers of the day) to inquire of them where their
Scriptures said this Christ was to be born. They told him that
the town of Bethlehem was the place that the prophets of old had
said He was to be born or to come from. This was foretold by the
prophet Micah. We can see that prophecy in the book that is
called after him, chapter five and verse two. The prophecy reads:
"And you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art by no means
least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler
who will govern my people Israel; whose going forth and living
have been from old, from everlasting (or as the Hebrew can read,
the days of eternity)."
This also shows us why Isaiah said the Jesus child would
also be Immanuel, which word means "God with us." For He existed
as God, a member of the Godhead or family of God before His human
birth. He truly was from the days of eternity. The first chapter
of the Gospel of John also bears witness to this truth, that the
one we know as Jesus existed as God yet with God (the one we now
call the Father) before He came to earth to be born of a woman
called Mary (Matthew 2: 1-6).
Maybe you, or your parents reading this to you, would like
to stop here for a moment, and read the first part of the first
chapter of the Gospel of John.
HEROD SECRETLY TALKS TO THE WISE MEN
Herod was a cunning and crafty king, he sent for the wise
men by secret and brought them to himself without anyone in
Jerusalem knowing. He wanted to ascertain from them what time in
the past they saw the star. Oh, how nice and sweet he talked to
them, just as sweet as honey. He made out that he was on their
side, telling them, " You go to Bethlehem, for I am told he
should be there, search diligently for the child, and then
when you have found him, bring me word of where he is there, so I
can come also and worship him."
King Herod had no intention at all in wanting to worship the
child Jesus. He had much darker and more evil plans as to what he
would do to Jesus if he could find where He was.
The wise men departed from Herod, and no sooner were they
getting ready to leave Jerusalem, when the start once more
appeared to them. They could see it was moving and leading them
further and further away from the city of Jerusalem. Finally it
came to stop over the very place where Jesus was dwelling.
Matthew records, "When they saw the star, they rejoiced
exceedingly with great joy, and going into the house they saw the
child with Mary his mother and they bowed down and worshipped
Him."
We have already seen that Luke recorded that after the
Temple rituals had been performed for the birth of a firstborn
man child, Joseph and Mary returned to their home town of
Nazareth, way north of Jerusalem, in the region of Galilee. The
baby Jesus is now called a "child" and the wise men go into a
"house" not a stable. All this (and something else that we shall
note shortly) bears evidence that the wise men did not come
from the East until sometime later, when Jesus was no longer a
baby but thought of as a child, and was living in the home or
house of Joseph and Mary in Nazareth.
Well, the wise men had finally found the one they had come
looking for, the one born to be king of the Jews.
They had brought treasures with them, and opening their
containers they offered and gave three gifts, the first being
that of "gold." Now, pure gold is one of the most incorruptible
substances on the earth. It can rest in water for hundreds, even
thousands of years and never rust or decay.
The life of this Christ child would be pure gold so to
speak. He would never do any wrong in actions, in thoughts, or in
words. He would be always purely incorruptible, what the New
Testament calls sinless. It is written that Jesus never sinned,
no not once.
The wise men gave the gift of "frankincense." The Hebrew
word is "lebona" and is a whitish, greasy, sticky, gum resin
substance from a bush type plant that especially grows in Persia,
east of Palestine, It was one of the constituents of the sacred
incense that was burnt on the altar in the Temple. By itself it
has a pungent odor and taste, but which, when mixed with fragrant
substances, has the effect of increasing the odor and keeping the
then fragrant smell lasting longer.
Jesus was to endure forever as the first begotten and first
born Son of God the Father. His life on the sacrificial altar was
to be an everlasting sweet smelling odor to God.
The third gift that the wise men gave was that of "myrrh."
The Hebrew is "mor" which means distilling. The Greek is "smyrna"
which we translate as "myrrh." It is a well-known gum resin
extracted from the Arabian "Balsamoderndron Myrrha." It was used
as a perfume for embalming, and as an ingredient of the holy
anointing oil.
This was to represent the lovely smell to God the Father
that the death (embalming was done to the body of the dead to
help preserve it for a while and to see that the body decayed in
a nice smelling way) of Jesus would bring for His plan of the
salvation of mankind to His glory.
The plan of the Almighty could be carried out in no other
way than that a God type person should come as a human to live a
perfect life, to take the sins of mankind upon Himself and to
sacrifice Himself in death for those sins. We shall talk a lot
more about all this when we near the end of the Gospels which
record the facts and the reasons of the death of Jesus.
The wise men, being deceived by the cunning king Herod,
would have returned to him to inform him of the location of this
child Jesus, but an angel from the Lord came to them in a dream
to warm them of the real intent of Herod (the intent being to
kill the child).
So once that was explained to them they departed for their
homeland another way, and never saw or spoke to king Herod again
(Matthew 2: 7-12).
HEROD KILLS THE CHILDREN TWO YEARS OLD AND UNDER
Back at Herod's palace, the king is walking the floor with
more and more agitation as the days pass by in which the wise men
do not return to him with information as to the whereabouts of
the boy born to be king of the Jews.
"I am king Herod, look what I've done for these Jews. I've
built them a great and magnificent Temple here in Jerusalem, as
well as other fine buildings around Palestine. And what do I
find? They claim their Scriptures say a child is to be born to
them in Bethlehem who is to be king of the Jews. I am their king,
they will have no other."
More days passed by and still the wise men did not return.
Finally Herod knew he had been tricked and that they would not
return with the information he so desperately wanted.
"I will show these Jews," he shouted as his face grew red
with anger, " I will show them who has the power and who will be
their only king," he continued in his now furious rage. With his
hands trembling in fuming hateful thoughts, and the veins of his
neck protruding in stark enlargement, Herod shouted out that the
chiefs of his army should come to him immediately.
On entering his presence they heard these chilling words
from his mouth.
"The men from the East said they saw a star of this child
king about two years ago. You will take some of our soldiers and
go to the city of Bethlehem and the region round about, and they
will kill all the male children that are two years old and
under."
Even those hardened men of war were taken aback and stunned
by this command they had to carry out, but they knew it was
either carry out his demand or they would loose their own heads
by the sword. They felt they had no choice but to comply and do
as Herod commanded.
So it was done. All the male children from the age of two
and under in the region of Bethlehem were put to death by the
order of king Herod, in his hope that one of the dead children
would be this child the Jews claimed was born to be their king.
You will notice that it was from two years of age and under
that Herod had the male children killed. This could indicate that
the wise men did not arrive in Palestine in search of Jesus until
around two years (less a few months for their visit with Herod
and then finding Jesus and returning home a different way) after
Jesus was born.
It is hard to imagine the weeping and anguish of mothers and
entire families where all male children under two years old were
put to death. It had been foretold by the prophet Jeremiah. God
had known beforehand it would happen, and the great prophet
Jeremiah under inspiration from the Lord had spoken of it when he
had said:
" A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud sorrow.
Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted,
because they were no more alive."
But Herod could not fight against the Almighty God, who knew
the intentions of his evil heart. After the wise men from the
East had departed, God had sent an angel to tell Joseph to take
Mary and Jesus to Egypt because Herod was planning and hoping to
kill the child (Matthew 2: 13,14). All this was also fulfilling
the prophecy of Hosea 11:1 that had said, "Out of Egypt have I
called my son."
Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were now safe in the land of Egypt,
when king Herod killed the children of two years and under. It
was not that many months later when the king suddenly died.
Probably the hand of the Lord was in that untimely death of his.
Well, upon it happening, an angel from the Lord once more
appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, " Pack up your things
Joseph, and take the child and His mother back to the land
of Israel, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead."
Joseph was pleased to hear this news and quickly did as the
angel instructed. He was thinking it would be nice to settle in
the area of Judea, somewhat near Jerusalem, but on hearing that
Archelaus, the son of Herod, was now reigning in Judea in place
of his father, he decided it was better to live outside of the
region of Judea. Joseph decided his old stomping ground of the
city of Nazareth would be the best place to raise this child
of God.
No doubt the Lord God was inspiring him to make this
decision for it had been prophesied by the old prophets that
Jesus was to be called a Nazarene, meaning one who was from the
city or town of Nazareth (Judges 13:5).
As we look at this prophecy in the book of Judges, it is
hard to relate it to the time of Jesus, but the nature of some
prophecies can have a number of different applications down
through the centuries. Obviously this one in Judges is a case in
point (Matthew 2:13-23).
JESUS AT THE PASSOVER AT AGE TWELVE
We are told nothing about the life of Jesus or Joseph and
Mary, from the time they returned to the land of Palestine from
Egypt, until they all as a family, went to Jerusalem to observe
the Passover when Jesus was twelve years old. This account is
recorded for us in Luke 2:41-50.
We can be assured that Mary would have raised the child
Jesus in the very best Jewish manner, as to schooling and
religious education. I think we can correctly assume that Jesus'
childhood life was without any great noticeable declaration. He
was probably like many other Jewish boys of His time, enjoying
His education both in secular and religious studies, as well as
the fun of the great outdoors. We are not told that He did any
miracles or tried to manifest any super-natural power as a child
and young adult, hence it is likely He did not. Yet, as the Son
of God, who was sinless all His life, His thoughts, words, and
actions, as a child would have been noticed by adults, I'm sure.
Most people will take note of a child that is outstandingly
mannerly, polite, kind, thoughtful, respectful of adults, and
self-controlled in actions and words.
Joseph and Mary made it a custom to attend and celebrate the
Passover in Jerusalem each year in the spring time, when the
Passover feast is celebrated. This is one of the 7 great
festivals of the Lord as outlined and described in Leviticus 23.
This time when they were leaving to return to Nazareth,
Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. For the first day of the
journey they did not miss Him. We might wonder why this was. When
we read in Luke that they sought for Him among their kinsfolk and
friends, we are perhaps given the answer. There were many of
Joseph's and Mary's family relatives as well as close friends
with them on this journey. The Jewish people tend even today, to
be a very close knit group of people. It is natural for them,
especially blood related family members, to mingle with each
other, as one large family. Joseph and Mary simply thought Jesus
was somewhere within the larger family of their relations and
friends, and so did not get concerned until after the first day
had gone by. Jesus not returning to be with them for the night
(without asking) was something He obviously did not do before in
His life as a child, so then they missed Him and went looking for
Him.
Jesus could not be found among any of their relatives or
friends. There was only one other place they could think of where
He might be. That place was the city of Jerusalem. So, back they
went to Jerusalem and started their search for Him up and down
the streets, in every place where they thought a twelve year old
could or would go.
For three days they searched for Him but He was nowhere to
be found.
Whether it was some people in Jerusalem or God putting the
thought in their minds, whichever it was, they finally decided
the only place left to look for Him was in the great huge Temple
of Jerusalem. And sure enough, there He was, sitting among the
Jewish Temple teachers, listen to them and also asking them
questions, and obviously answering some, for all who heard Him
were amazed at His understanding and His answers.
Joseph and Mary, bless their hearts, still could not see the
clear picture of the life of this child from God that they had
been given to raise and care for. They were very upset at what
Jesus had done and all the trouble they thought it had caused
them over the last four days. Mary said to Him, " Son, why have
you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking
for you anxiously."
Jesus, relying to her said, "Why have you sought me
anxiously? Do you not understand after twelve years that I must
be in my Father's house."
Joseph and Mary did not understand what Jesus was meaning by
this answer to them. They had been visited by angels twelve years
earlier, had seen miracles happen, had seen how Jesus had grown
from a baby into a child and up to this age of twelve. Seen how
He had grown without ever committing one sin. They knew there was
something very special about this person, but just could not at
this period in His life put the picture in clear focus.
Jesus was now at age twelve, to really get into first gear
so to speak, in a spiritual way, heading for third and fourth
gear and full speed ahead, to do the work of His real Father in
heaven.
Many of us today in the Western world would think Jesus was
at age twelve, being very disrespectful and high handed towards
Joseph and Mary in His actions at this particular Passover season
as recorded by Luke. But when we understand that in that time of
Jewish culture, the age of twelve was when you were deemed an
adult, to take on an adult mindset, and adult responsibilities,
then we see that was just what Jesus was doing. He was taking a
serious adult mindset towards His Father in heaven and the
spiritual work He must now really focus on as He moved from
childhood to adulthood. Not that He had not done so in the past,
but now as a young adult it took on even more importance.
JESUS GROWS IN A FOUR FOLD WAY
Luke records in very simple and short sentences the growing
life of the now young adult Jesus, until He was made manifest
with might and power to the masses of the people of Israel. Luke
says, " And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was
obedient to them; and His mother kept all these things in her
heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor
with God and man " (Luke 2:51,52).
Jesus, as the very Son of the Most High, was not handed it
all on a silver platter, just having the perfection of God as if
falling off a log, having it so easy that it was just a "shoe in"
as we often say.
Jesus was also born of a woman, of Mary, and so was also
very human as we are. He had to learn, to study, to think and to
meditate, as we also have to do.
As we should do, Jesus increased in wisdom and in mental
stature, and in favor with God and man.
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Written December 2000
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