Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends and welcome to one of the most exciting weeks of the year.. the week between Christmas and the New Year. I wonder what’s on your schedule this week? For my wife and me, we always try to find some time this week for reflection. Reflection on what this past year has been all about. What have we experienced? What have we learned? And maybe most importantly, what has God been doing in refining us more and more into the man and woman HE wants us to be for HIS glory?
Two weeks ago in our “Walking with Jesus” journey we focused on the journey TO Christmas, looking at what God was saying about Christmas hundreds of years before it happened. Last week we focused on the journey THROUGH Christmas and looked closely at what Matthew and Luke give us as the details of that remarkable event, the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. This week, we’ll look at the journey BEYOND Christmas. Yes, we do have some details in the Bible about what happened AFTER that famous night in Bethlehem.
Yesterday we looked at Luke 2:21 and Dr. Luke’s explanation of the special ceremony which took place in every Hebrew family when a baby boy was born. On the 8th day after his birth, the baby boy was given the Covenant mark of the Hebrews, circumcision. God Himself had ordained that Covenant mark with Abraham, as recorded in Genesis 17. That irreversible mark identified Hebrew men as distinct from all other men in the world. Also on that day, the baby boy was formally given his name, and so Joseph and Mary did as angels had instructed both of them, and they named the baby ‘YESHUA’, Jesus!
Dr. Luke then tells us Joseph and Mary took baby Jesus to Jerusalem, to the Temple, for a very important family ceremony, 33 days after that special circumcision ceremony. We don’t know exactly where they travelled from, but the road to Jerusalem from Bethlehem was only about 6 miles directly north. It was the main north-south road, so there would have been many people, carts, animals, and probably even some Roman soldiers on that road. The census was still happening in Bethlehem so it shouldn’t be difficult for us to imagine a very busy roadway, and that Joseph and Mary had probably by now found some place to at least temporarily call home, and perhaps Joseph had found some work as a carpenter in Bethlehem. Luke describes it this way: “When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord’, and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:22-24)
Now you might be scratching your head and saying to yourself, ‘what is that all about?’ You notice, I’m sure, that three times in one paragraph the phrase the ‘Law of the Lord’ or ‘Law of Moses’ is used. This tells me that both Joseph and Mary were well versed in the Covenant laws Moses had received at Mount Sinai 1400 years before Jesus was born, and they were deeply committed to obeying the laws which applied to the birth of a firstborn son. May I give you a brief overview of WHY they went to Jerusalem that day, and WHAT they were going to do there?
This ‘time of purification’ Dr. Luke mentions, was a specific period of time following child birth in which the mother was to remain at home in seclusion as she recovered from the ordeal of giving birth, while also caring for her newborn baby very carefully, to keep that baby healthy and safe in a dangerous world. Remember they didn’t have refrigerators or bottled water or diapers or so many other things which help modern moms keep their babies healthy!! For young Mary can you imagine what a challenge that was in bustling Bethlehem where she and Joseph had no family, no home, no friends, and especially as they had been entrusted by God with a miracle baby, the Son of God! Leviticus 12 is the chapter of instructions God gave Moses about this time of purification for every Jewish woman after birth. If a son was born, then the woman was to remain in seclusion with her little son 33 days AFTER the circumcision and naming of the boy. Then the mother was to take her baby son, and with his father, they went to the Temple in Jerusalem to consecrate their son to God. The offering of ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeons,’ which Joseph and Mary brought to the Temple that day, was the appropriate sacrifice of poor people. (Lev. 12:8,9)
But there was something else, very special, which Joseph and Mary were doing in the Temple that day. They were presenting Mary’s firstborn son to God. This ceremony also reached all the way back to the days of Moses. Do you remember the Passover as the angel of death passed over Egypt? The Hebrew slaves had been warned by God to sacrifice a lamb and splash the blood on the outside of their home’s front door, top and both sides, so when the angel of death saw the blood it would signify that the people in that home were people of faith, believing God’s promise that they would be safe from that angel of death. God promised that when the angel of death saw the blood then the angel would “pass over” that house and no harm would come to anyone there. If, however, there was no blood on the doorposts, the firstborn son in that household would die! Moses recorded for the people, in Exodus 13, that beginning that night in Egypt, every firstborn son in every Hebrew family was to be consecrated to God in memorial of that Passover night, when the firstborn Egyptian sons died, but God protected the firstborn Hebrew boys. Therefore Joseph and Mary took Mary’s firstborn son, Jesus, to the Temple that day in anticipation of a consecration ceremony.
Let’s walk along with Joseph and Mary. I presume she rode a donkey, perhaps as she might have when they came from Nazareth little more than 40 days before. I imagine they talked about all that had happened in their lives in these 40 days or so. All God had done to protect them and provide for them as they walked this miraculous journey of being earthly parents to the Son of God! As when they had come on that same road from Nazareth heading to Bethlehem for the census, Joseph was not able to send word ahead to the Temple, making an appointment for their consecration ceremony. I’m sure they wondered how busy the Temple would be that day, where they might find just the right priest to lead this once in a lifetime ceremony. Little did they know, but just as God had reached to the shepherds and brought them from their fields to the stable to find newborn Jesus that night, so the Holy Spirit of God was working in Jerusalem, stirring in the heart of a very special man, drawing him to the Temple at just the right time that day.
Tomorrow we’ll look at that special encounter.
For today, let’s just walk along with Joseph and Mary and reflect with them on all they’ve experienced. Then, start thinking back on your 2021…January, February, March, April… What has God been doing in your life journey my friends? How have you seen God provide for your needs, protect you from harm, guide you in your journey, and especially this question: what refining work has the Holy Spirit of God been doing in you this year, to make you more and more into the man or woman God desires you to be for HIS glory?
And here’s a song to help us ponder these wonderful thoughts of God at work in our lives, just as He was working in the lives of Joseph and Mary that day:
Today’s Scripture is Luke 2:21-24.
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 262.441.8785
“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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