Good morning to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
With only five days remaining in 2023 I wonder how you are seeking to finish this tumultuous year well and launch into a new year of 2024 with expectations of a great year for you and your family? We can’t go back and change anything in the past, we can only go forward. We learn from the past, we build on the past, if necessary, we distance ourselves from the past, but life has only one direction, forward.
There’s an event in the Christmas story that I believe gives us some important perspective for these last few days of 2023.
Luke 2:22 says: “When the time of their purification, according to the law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took infant Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the LORD.” Because Joseph and Mary were good Jewish people, they were deeply committed to carefully following all the God given Jewish guidelines for newborn babies as found in the Old Testament, especially because they understood little baby Jesus was no ordinary Jewish baby! That’s why yesterday we witnessed the ceremony of circumcision and naming of this child on the 8th day after birth. (Luke 2:21)
Leviticus 12 gave very clear instructions to Israelite parents about these early days after childbirth. For 33 days after that circumcision/naming ceremony, the mother of a newborn son was to remain at home in seclusion with her baby and her husband, thanking God for this child, uniting closely with the child, and recovering from childbirth. On the 34th day, she and her husband were to bring the child, by then 41 days old, along with a special sacrifice, to the LORD God for a ceremony of consecrating the child and themselves to God.
For Joseph and Mary, we presume this meant they remained in Bethlehem for these 41 days. Although we don’t know where, we know they were still in Bethlehem more than a full year later when the Magi came to visit them, and then King Herod sent soldiers to kill all the baby boys under age 2 in Bethlehem. (Matt. 2:1-18) Joseph must have found some work, probably as a carpenter, to provide for his little family, and he also must have found a place for his little family to live in Bethlehem for perhaps 18 months after Jesus had been born in that animal stable. Luke 2:22-38 gives us the remarkable story of that 41st day consecration ceremony for little Jesus. It is this ceremony upon which many Christian families today base the ceremony of ‘baby dedication’ done in many Christian churches.
Since Joseph and Mary were still in Bethlehem, only about 6 miles walk from Jerusalem, and considering who this baby Jesus really was, of course the best place to bring infant Jesus for His consecration was the great Temple in Jerusalem. As they walked there that morning, I presume Joseph and Mary talked about what they were about to experience. Which priest, among the many who would be at the Temple that day, would they ask to consecrate baby Jesus and offer the sacrifice they were bringing to the LORD? Would he be kind and helpful? Should they tell the priest who this baby really is, or keep it a secret? What they didn’t know was that God was already working a very specific and important plan for their consecration experience.
The record of Luke 2:25 is remarkable: “Now there was a certain man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit of God was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ (Messiah)! ” Now friends, let’s pause here for a moment. Joseph and Mary had found NO preparation made by God for a welcome to Bethlehem after their long travel from Nazareth, nor a nice place to give birth. They ended up in an animal stable, remember?
Yet I suggest that was in fact God’s wonderful plan for they had a quiet and secluded place away from the crowds and noise of Bethlehem so that when the shepherds came, telling of an angel choir in the night sky, that stable became a quiet, sacred place of worship and meditation. So once again here in the huge Temple area, where we can safely assume hundreds of people and priests were walking around, God had ONE very special man prepared to meet Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus!
It calls us to ask an important question: are you and I enough in tune with the Holy Spirit of God that He can lead us to a God prepared rendezvous, that we had not planned, to accomplish a God given purpose? Now think about that!
The words “righteous and devout” as describing Simeon, suggest he was a very religious man who made great effort to live his life in a God-honoring manner and he had a blameless reputation among the people. The phrase ‘waiting for the consolation of Israel’ means Simeon had a very strong belief in all the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah and Simeon was convinced this Messiah would bring hope and help to the people of Israel in their time of grief and persecution as they lived in the difficult Roman Empire times.
The phrase ‘the Holy Spirit of God was upon him’ is a phrase used often in the Old Testament describing people to whom the Holy Spirit gave an unusual anointing of wisdom or power or discernment to accomplish something very special with God’s direction. David, Gideon, Samson and the prophets are examples of those people. Because the Holy Spirit had ‘revealed to Simeon that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ (Messiah)’ we can imagine Simeon lived every day with great expectation and his eyes and ears wide open waiting for any indication from God that TODAY would be the day he would encounter the long-promised Messiah!
Let’s pause right here. Joseph and Mary were on the road from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Simeon was at home just going about his daily duties with evidently no plan to visit the Temple that day. How would God bring them together? How would they find each other in such a busy city and crowded Temple?
Do you sense God is watching you and me closely? Does God have a plan for how HE wants you and me to finish 2023 well and prepare for 2024? Are we alert to God’s guidance? Let’s meet here tomorrow and we’ll watch to see what God did in this remarkable moment in history. Meanwhile, here’s a song to help us consider how to finish ’23 well in these next days…
Today’s Scripture is Luke 2:22-26.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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