Jesus Christ's Early Childhood

We've had one of these classes here, and I'm going to get back into the swing of things here now over the coming weeks. Today we will be talking about the events of Jesus Christ's early childhood. The events had followed on the subject we talked about last time, which was the birth of Jesus Christ. And by way of quick review to get us back in the understanding of things and the story flow of events here, we talked in previous classes about the genealogies in Matthew and Luke. We talked about how conditions had to be right for the arrival of the Messiah. We talked about the Pax Romana, the Roman Empire establishing peace throughout the Middle East, throughout the Mediterranean world there, that allowed the Messiah to appear in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom to go out.

We talked about the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Zechariah while he is offering incense in the temple there, telling this elderly priest Zechariah that he and his wife Elizabeth would give birth to a son, whom they were to name John.

And this was John the Baptist, who would be the one who would prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

And then we talked about Gabriel's appearance to the young girl Maryam, or Mary, telling her that she would divinely conceive and give birth to the Messiah.

We talked about her visit to her kinswoman, Elizabeth, the wife of John, and the interaction there, how the baby leapt in Elizabeth's womb when Mary approached there.

And we talked about how the timing of the conception of John the Baptist and of Jesus, and the timing of their pregnancies, and the implications for that, meaning that Jesus was probably born on the Feast of Trumpets or on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

And we also showed how he could not have been born on December 25, as so many people think is the case.

And then in the last class, we talked about the specifics of Christ's birth, the circumstances of that, why Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem, why they were up in Galilee before that, and how the traditional view of the Nativity of Christ has virtually everything wrong, because they've read a lot of wrong information into that.

And we closed by talking about some of the lessons we can learn from the lives of the individuals involved, as well as lessons in how God chose to do things there, who he made this information available to and so on. So today we'll pick up the story now. Jesus has been born.

We pick it up now in Luke 2 in verses 21 through 38 that we'll cover today. And this begins with the circumcision of Jesus, covered in one verse here. But this is, again, eight days after Jesus Christ's birth. So when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And this hearkens back to the announcement of Gabriel to Mary that they were to call his name Jesus because he would save Israel from their sins. Now, as we talked about with the birth of John the Baptist, boys were named on the eighth day, on the day that they were circumcised there. And we see this right here with Jesus as well. And we also see throughout this section of Scripture that Joseph and Mary are very meticulous in following the law and every detail of what God told them to do.

You might want to write down a couple of verses in your notes, Genesis 17, and verse 12, and Leviticus 12 and verse 3. And this is telling, well, we'll just read them, "...he who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who was born in your house, or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant." And Leviticus 12 and verse 3, "...and on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised." So this was part of the covenant agreement between Israel and God that the male boys were to be circumcised on the eighth day. Continuing on with the story in Luke 2 and verse 22, "...and when the days of her purification, according to the laws of Moses, were completed, they brought him," Jesus, "...to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written, in the law of the Lord, every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord." A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. So what's this talking about here? Basically, after Jesus was born, he was circumcised according to the law, which we just read. And then 40 days after his birth—this was true of all boys—they were to be taken to Jerusalem according to the purification law.

And we see here two different laws that are being talked about here that have some things in common and others not, and several scriptures that are quoted here. So let's take a look at this and understand what's going on. The first part of this is a reference back to Leviticus 12 and verse 6.

And it says, "...when the days of her purification," this is talking about after the birth, after a woman gives birth to a son or daughter, "...when the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or daughter, she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year, as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtle dove, as they sin offering to the door of the tabernacle of meeting." And of course, this was later succeeded by the temple, originally in the tabernacle, when these instructions were first given. So they were to bring a lamb and a pigeon or a dove, which together was a fairly expensive offering there for your average people there. But there was an allowance so that if the family could not afford that, the lamb and the pigeon or dove, they could instead bring two doves or two pigeons there. And that is what we see here that Joseph and Mary have brought here, two doves or two pigeons. And there was even a name for this in some of the research I came across, and it was called, quote, the offering of the poor. And that's what Mary brought. And one of the study questions I sent out last night was, what does the offering that they brought tell us about Joseph and Mary?

So any thoughts, comments on that? It's rather obvious here, but yeah, they were clearly poor people, and that was the majority of people in those days. There wasn't quite the kind of middle class here. There were definitely the haves and the have-nots in the culture of that time and day there. So Joseph and Mary were from the lower part of the culture there. So this tells us a couple of things, not that they were poor, but also that they were very obedient to God's laws, followed it very scrupulously as well. But it tells us that Jesus was born into an ordinary family, to an ordinary couple there, a family where they did not have luxuries, where they had to pinch pennies to make ends meet there, where they knew that what it was like to run into financial difficulties there. That was common for them. That's the kind of home and household that Jesus Christ grew up in, people who weren't all that wealthy there. So an implication for that is, you know, He knows what it's like for us when we go through financial difficulties as well, because He grew up under those circumstances with His parents there. Another law that is, well, actually, I didn't read all of that. Verse 8 also says, and if she is not able to bring a lab, in other words, the family cannot afford it, then she may bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons. One is a bird offering and the other is a sin offering. So there was this allowance made for those who could not afford the lamb, that they were allowed to substitute the pigeon or the dove instead. Now another law is also mentioned in this passage, and we find this law back in Exodus 13 verses 11 through 15. And this is the law of redemption that is referred to as well.

Read this here, Exodus 13 beginning in verse 11, And it shall be when the Eternal brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you, that you shall set apart to the Eternal all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have, the male shall be the Eternals.

So again, this isn't for every birth, it's just for the firstborn of animals and of people as well.

Continuing on in verse 14, So what shall be when your Son asked you in time to come, saying, What is this? or What does this mean? that you shall say to him, By strength of hand the Eternal brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

And moving to verse 15, And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Eternal killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrificed the Eternal all males that opened the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeemed.

So what this is telling us is, again, the firstborn males were to be, if it's a clean animal, to be sacrificed. And actually we'll read what happens if it's an unclean animal or a human being. And the next passage, which is Numbers 18 in verses 15 and 16, gives us some more details about what it means to redeem the firstborn. And this is, Everything that first opens the womb of all flesh, which they bring to the Eternal, whether man or beast, shall be yours.

Referring to God's. Nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. And those redeemed of the devoted things you shall redeem when one month old, or approximately thirty days. According to your evaluation. For five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gurus here. So what this is saying is that the firstborn male lambs, goats, calves, clean animals like that were sacrificed. And the firstborn children and firstborn of unclean animals, this would be animals like horses, donkeys, mules, this type of thing, camels, were to be redeemed with money. In this case, five shekels, as is specified here.

Five shekels was about a month's wages in that time. So it was rather, rather expensive to redeem, to buy back the firstborn son or the animals, like a horse, donkey, mule, camel, something like that.

Now keep in mind that what we read about here, not the circumcision, and I should mention too, if you have any questions about any of this, raise your hand. You may have to wave it because I'm not sure I can see you back there. But hopefully that's clear. Those are the two laws that are being talked about here in these early verses of Luke. Now keep in mind also that all of this is taking place at the temple, this beautiful, magnificent structure constructed by here at the Great there in Jerusalem. Enormous, enormous structure covering about the area of 30 football fields there, including the outer courts and so on here. So this is where this is taking place. So hopefully this will help us visualize it a little bit better here. So what we're reading about, what we've just talked about here, is probably taking place inside this courtyard area right here, probably in the area of this gate right there, the Nikaner Gate as it was called. Now the Bible doesn't mention this, but historical writings around this time, written by the Jews, do record two other things that would have happened at this time. At the time, a first-born son was redeemed there. While at the temple there, the couple bringing their son there, while there the priest would have recorded the genealogy of the child.

When we talked about the genealogies back in Matthew and Luke and one of our earlier studies here, I mentioned that the genealogical records for all of the people were kept in Jerusalem there. And of course, all those records were destroyed in the conflagration of Jerusalem in 70 AD. But they were kept there, and that is probably where Matthew and Luke got their information for the genealogies. And in addition to that, the families would also, in most cases, have memorized the genealogies of the mother and the father as well. So Matthew and Luke may have drawn on either of those, but the actual source documents were kept there in Jerusalem and recorded when the child was brought in for circumcision or the redemption here that we've just read about here.

So what is relevant about this is that when they would have brought Jesus there to the temple, the priest would have recorded the genealogy and the fact that Jesus is a descendant of David on both Mary's side and on Joseph's side. And that would have been pretty unusual. There would not have been that many people who would have been descended from King David on both sides like that. So that would have really stood out in the minds of the priests recording that fact. And something happened at this time also because once the offerings were given there and once the redemption had been paid, the priest would then announce the name of the child. And he would be, again, probably standing up on these steps here because that's basically where the people interacted with the priest. He's right in this particular area. And the priest would announce the name of the child. So he would shout out to everybody in the courtyard, let it be known in Israel the name of this child is Yahshua. God saves Yahshua. That would have been shouted out to everybody there in the courtyard, not just in Jesus's case, but any boy who was brought there.

That's the way it would have been done. So this priest is announcing to everybody there at the temple, this child's name is God saves, which is what Jesus means. Yeshua, or Yah, Yaveh, Shua, meaning saves or salvation in Hebrew there. So everyone there would have heard this announce that the name of this child is God saves. So it rather adds a little bit of texture and detail to the story that's not found in the Bible, but we know from other secular sources that was done at that time. So continuing the story now in verse 25, And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ or the Lord's Messiah. The Lord's anointed here. So Simeon is quite a special person here. He's very righteous, very devoted to God, and very much looking forward to the time when the Messiah, the consolation of Israel, would come and bring comfort and peace to his people there. So here's also a man, as it points out here, in whom God's Spirit is working. There aren't a lot who are given God's Spirit before the church is founded and acts on the day of Pentecost there. But this does say that Simeon is one of these, that God's Spirit is working with him. And it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he would see the Lord's Christ or the Lord's anointed, the Messiah, Jesus. So continuing on in verse 27. So he, Simeon, came by the Spirit into the temple. So apparently the Spirit has moved Simeon to be at the temple on that particular day, at that particular time, when Joseph and Mary are bringing their son Jesus there to be redeemed. We've probably all had times, if you think back on your life, when God put you in a particular place, at a particular time, under particular circumstances, so that God could carry out his plan and purpose for you and your life. And that's evidently what is taking place with Simeon right here as well. This is happening so that God can carry out his promise to Simeon that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah arrive there. Continuing on, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, the customs we just covered there, that Simeon took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. In other words, Simeon says, I have now seen the consolation of Israel.

The Lord's anointed, and now I can go to the grave fulfilled. I can now go because that which I have asked you for, that which I have devoted my life to seeing, to see the Messiah, you have now given me, and I can depart this life in peace. There's the implication there, although it's not spelled out, that Simeon is probably a fairly old man, that he's waited and waited on this, and now the time has come that he's content, because he has seen the Messiah, and now he can go to the grave in peace there. And then something interesting happens. In his jubilation, at seeing this fulfillment here, he starts quoting a number of scriptures, scriptures that are obviously deeply meaningful to Simeon at this time. So let's notice a few of these, and he starts out here in verse 30. Excuse me, I gotta get ahead of myself.

Excuse me, get out of out of order here.

Yeah, I just got ahead of myself there. So verse 29, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. And then he says, For my eyes have seen your salvation.

And here he is quoting, referring back to Isaiah 52, and verse 10, The Eternal is made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. So now Simeon is saying that he has indeed seen the Lord's salvation.

I'm quoting here from Isaiah 52 and verse 10. Going on, Simeon also says, Which you have prepared before the face of all peoples a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. And notice, Keyen, on this phrase here, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, because Simeon is referring here to a number of different passages that talk about this, about God sending his light and offering salvation to the Gentiles. I'll just give you four of them here. Isaiah 9 and verse 2, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death upon them a light has shined.

Also, Isaiah 42 and verse 6, I, the Eternal, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people as a light to the Gentiles.

And also, Isaiah 49 and verse 6, indeed he says, It is too small a thing that you should be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth.

And finally, if you're familiar with Handel's Messiah from one of the songs there, Isaiah 60, verses 1 through 3, Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people. But the Lord will arise over you, and his glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

So these are just four. There's a number if you do a concordance search on light in the Old Testament, you'll find others as well. But of course, reading through this, one thing that jumps out hopefully to us here, is here God is obviously promising to send a light to the Gentiles. And yet what do we find during the ministry of Jesus Christ? We find incredible hostility when Christ interacts with the Gentiles, or talks about salvation being offered to the Gentiles, and not just in Christ's ministry, but also on up through the early years of the Church as well. We find the Jews are very, very hostile to that, because they wanted to keep God to themselves. They thought they were the chosen people, the only ones through whom God would work. And of course, it should have been evident to them, as it was certainly to Simeon here, Simeon is rattling off Scripture after Scripture about God offering salvation and a light to the Gentiles. So what happened? I don't know. Obviously, there's a spiritual blindness going on there here. And of course, God had determined to send this light to the Gentiles much earlier, before the foundation of the world, because he knew that Adam and Eve would sin. He knew that they would need a Redeemer, someone to pay the penalty for their sins.

So this goes all the way back to the foundation of the world, that God knew that he would have to send a light to the world and a Redeemer to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind, not just the Israelites or the Jews. So continuing on in verse 33 of Luke 2, 1 And Joseph and his mother, and notice again this slight side point here, but how this is termed, Joseph and his mother, Jesus' mother, doesn't say that Joseph was Jesus' father, because again he's conceived by God the Father through the Holy Spirit. And his mother, yes, Mary is his mother, but Joseph is not his father, his literal father. So Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother. And here again we have a private conversation between Mary and Simeon here.

And Luke is writing this down some 50 to 55 years later after these events happened here. So again, where did Luke get his source of information? Probably, well, probably no doubt from actually conversing with Mary and talking with her as he is writing and preparing his gospel.

He's obviously the source for this because Joseph is long gone, Simeon is long gone.

Mary is the only one still alive who can recount this conversation to Luke and tell him.

These details have happened here when Jesus was 40 days old.

Continuing on, Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother.

Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against. Let's look at a couple more scriptures here that tells us that Jesus is going to be a stumbling block to some. The Rock of Israel, the Rock of Salvation, Jesus Christ, is either going to be a foundation, a firm foundation on which we can build for salvation that will last forever, or it can be a rock that people can stumble over, a stumbling block. So, a couple of passages. Let's turn to Romans 9 and verse 33.

We'll write that down. This is quoting from Isaiah 8, 13, and 14 here.

But I'll read them. Paul writes, As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, and rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.

And this is quoting from Isaiah 8 and verses 13 and 14.

The eternal of host, him shall you howl. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

So, both Isaiah and the Apostle Paul, many years later, are saying that there would be those who would stumble at Jesus Christ. There would be those who, on the one hand, would accept him as the rock of salvation, the rock of their faith, and that he would be the foundation of the church, built on that firm foundation. But he also indicated that some would lose their salvation over Jesus Christ there. And Simeon, we see from this some remarkable insight, no doubt, through the influence of God's Spirit, of the impact that Jesus Christ would have on people's lives, even though Jesus at this time is, again, only 40 days old. And yet, Simeon is prophesying of what would happen in his ministry, that some would love Jesus, they would give his life, their lives for him, and on the other hand, others would stumble and hate him and even try to murder him. And something else to think about here, again, there's a lot of human interaction in this story, and a question that crossed my mind is, why did Simeon tell this to Mary? Because he's telling it to Mary. He doesn't say he sent it to both Joseph and Mary.

Simeon is telling this to Mary. Why Mary? Is God sending a special messenger just to Mary?

Because think of the communication Mary has had up to this date. Almost a year earlier, the angel Gabriel appeared to her, told her she would divinely conceive.

She would have a son. She would name his son Jesus. God saves, because he would be the one to save Israel from their sins. So Mary knows that Jesus is going to be the Messiah.

But what did that mean? What did that mean? Did Mary conceive of the things that Simeon is saying here? That he would be a stone of stumbling to people. I doubt she did. That simply wasn't in people's view when they thought of the Messiah. The Messiah is to be the conquering king who will come and restore Israel to glory.

And now Simeon appears and tells her some things that are quite troubling.

Did she understand that Jesus would be hated? That he would be persecuted?

That is, the Messiah, he would have to die. I don't think that crossed her mind.

She'd certainly have no indication of that. She might have picked it up, gleaned it from Scripture, although I kind of doubt it. And I think because of this, God is probably sending Simeon there to tell Mary what is going to happen.

Sending him is a special messenger to her. And I wonder if this is not the case because of what happens next, what he tells her next. Going back to Luke 2 and verse 35, notice what Simeon says to Maryam. He says, Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. So Simeon tells Mary that something about her son's role is going to hurt her so deeply.

It will be like she's being run through by a sword.

Something will happen that will hurt her very, very deeply, incredibly deeply.

And obviously, it had to hurt her very much for it to see her son, 33 years from now, go through the things that he went through. I mean, those with children, I think back to Sam Hines' sermonette a couple of weeks ago, how you just cannot fathom a parent seeing that happen to a child. And yet Mary did. She had to see her firstborn go through those things. And how would that feel? How much had that hurt her?

Piercing like a sword. And notice also this word, also. Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul, also. So it's also going to happen to Jesus as well. He, too, is going to be pierced. And of course, we know that how did Jesus die? Yes, he was crucified, but what was it that actually killed him? It was the thrust of the sword into his side that actually killed him and put him to death there as he was being crucified. So Jesus would die a horrible death, but Mary herself would also experience something horrible as she saw her own firstborn son go through this. And this is what Simeon is telling her here. And also, through all of this, as he says here, there's the phrase that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And indeed, that happened through Jesus Christ's ministry. The hearts of many were revealed. And some of those hearts, some of those thoughts were were very dark, very murderous as they plotted to kill the Messiah, the Son of God.

And some of those thoughts would be incredible joyous as people came to understand that, yes, this is the Messiah. Jesus is the Messiah. And they would be transformed from carnal, selfish human beings, be transformed by God's Spirit to become converted and unselfish and loving people, and finding the peace and the love and the joy that comes through God's Holy Spirit.

And continuing on now in verse 36, now we come to another individual here at the temple.

Now, there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phamuel of the tribe of Asher.

She was of a great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity.

In other words, she's married and lives seven years with her husband, and he dies. She becomes a widow at that point. And this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord like that phrase, coming in that instant. So how long were Joseph and Mary and Jesus there at the temple? Probably no more than an hour or so, but she, like Simeon, happens to be there at that particular time to witness of these events. And coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. So she goes out and spreads the word after this is what that is saying. So there are a couple of things to think back on here that are reflected in this passage here. One, if you remember back to the background information on the four Gospels in one of the introductory sermons for this series, who does Luke include that the other Gospel writers tend to overlook or leave out? Well, Luke includes a lot of stories about women, a lot of stories about children.

He includes people kind of on the fringes of society, like as we talked about last time, the shepherds, people who are considered unclean. And yet Luke, and Luke alone, records how the angels appeared to the shepherds out there in the field, middle of the night, minding their sheep. And they suddenly get a heavenly choir that shows up and serenades them there. Luke includes a lot of details, a lot of stories like this, that the other Gospels leave out. I think it's interesting, too. He also includes a lot of information about Gentiles. Who is Luke? Luke is a Gentile, probably a convert to Judaism, a god-ferer, as they were called then. But Luke includes a lot of stories like that, people kind of on the fringes, the outcasts or the semi-outcasts there. And we see that here with Simeon, who is probably a fairly elderly man there, and with Anna, who is specifically identified as being an 84-year-old widow there. And Luke is sure to include their stories there. He's a very, very inclusive writer, showing that indeed Jesus is for everyone, not just for the Jews, not just for the priests, not just for the Pharisees or the scribes or the Sadducees or whatever, but Jesus is for everyone. Old, young, outcast, Gentile, whatever here. So Luke is trying to cover as many individuals as possible to show that indeed Jesus Christ is for everybody, for Israel, but also for the Gentiles. And that's why Luke reports here what Simeon says, that he's to be a light to the Gentiles and also to Israel as well. So Jesus is a light to everyone.

Something else to think about here. How many people are there who testify to who this baby boy Jesus is? How many?

Two. Maybe three, if you include the priest who said his name is Yahshua, God's faves.

Does it remind you of anything? About witnesses, about testimony. Let's turn back to Deuteronomy 19, verse 15. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, the matter shall be established.

So under the law, there had to be two witnesses, at least two or three witnesses, to establish a fact as legally valid there. So what do we see in this story? We see two witnesses who are right there at the temple who identify that, yes, this Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. First, there is Simeon, this righteous man who had received a vision from God that he would not die before he saw the Messiah in person. And then when Jesus arrived there at the temple, Simeon is led by God's Spirit to go to the temple at that specific instant, that specific day, that hour, at that time, to see the child. And when he saw Jesus, he picks him up, and what does he say? Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel. And then he says to Mary, behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken about. So Simeon predicted that, again, Jesus' ministry would be filled with controversy. And then next, after Simeon, who do they encounter? They encounter Anna. And what does Anna say and do? And coming in that instant, at that particular place, at that particular time, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of Him, Him, Jesus, the child, the Messiah, to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. So what do we have here? What we see here is that God Himself provides two witnesses. Even though Jesus is only 40 days old at this point, Jesus is providing his own two witnesses to testify to the people at the temple that day who and what this boy is.

So that's all we're going to cover today. So we'll continue on with the story next time. Any questions on any of this? Thoughts? Lessons? Yes, Tim?

I'm talking about most of Matthew 18 days. But first, we're about to have a lot.

I get that when the sittings come, it was the site down the road. Later on in the staff, which in about 12 years was the first one where this was at the Christ's end, and it was at the end of the day behind.

Right. And we talked to this person. We didn't know what happened to Jesus, and we didn't know what He was recommending or what happened to Him. So you kept this story in our hearts. In other words, I think she was beginning to get a picture of Him. I don't understand that. That's my part. I think that's a very astute observation. She's seeing and understanding these things.

But who can she talk to about Him, too? I was asking you earlier, did Gabriel appear to be heard of Him? I'm not sure. Yes, very biblically literate woman, certainly. It's interesting. I've got it written for the wall. Yes, it doesn't toter the whole thing up front, by no means. It brings her along a bit at a time. That would be a tough thing to handle all at once. How would you like it to be told that you're going to have a son, but he's going to be killed in the case of either John the Baptist or Jesus? That's not told up front. He knows what we can take and what we can deal with and teaches it accordingly, I think. Good observations. Yes, Dave? I was interested in just talking about this event, but it's really helping Mary prepare Jesus in telling Him who He is. I'm not sure I've got a father who's going to be transforming Him, but it kind of sets the standard for Mary telling Jesus who He is. I was really struck by Jesus giving up who He was to come to this church. He chose somebody of a great title or something, but the loneliness, I think. He was chosen to be the parent. Yes, we talked about last time. Who did God announce this to? A bunch of shepherds, outcasts, unclean because of their profession out there in the field. He chooses Joseph and Mary, who don't have hardly anything, two nickels to rub together, as the saying goes. Who does He choose for His disciples? A bunch of fishermen. We'll talk about that later because there's an awful lot of information there, culturally, behind the scene. But yeah, and as we know, one of our hymns, who does God choose? He chooses the weak and the base and the foolish things to put to shame the things that are wise, the wise of this world. It's just the way God has chosen to do it so that no man should boast. It's not our doing, it's God's doing. Working within us and the obligation on us is to allow Him to work within us in that way. Lynn, yes? I'm very presented. What was the purpose of those offerings?

Good question. What was the purpose of the offerings? Basically, and I meant to include this in here. I didn't catch it in my notes. Basically, the thinking behind it is this. God is giving you a precious gift in the form of a child. That theme is constant throughout the Bible. God is giving you a gift. Children are the gift of God, and so on. We have a hymn that sings about that as well. So part of this is to acknowledge that gift and to indicate your thanks to God for that. That seems to be the thinking that is behind that as well. Yes, Dave? Could it be in representation of maybe sin that Mary had in her eyes, which she's shown as a righteous person, but it wouldn't represent the thing of Jesus, but maybe for her? Yeah, I would say so. And then, of course, the redemption is a reminder, as we talked about back there in Exodus, to remind people of the Exodus that God took the firstborn of all the Egyptians, and therefore whatever is the firstborn of you, your offspring, your beasts, that belongs to him. Just like God took the firstborn of the Egyptians, God is essentially taking the firstborn of the Israelites, man and beast as well. But people are allowed to redeem that back. You might also think back to Samuel. In Samuel's case, with Hannah, his mother, Samuel was the firstborn. She waited, apparently, a long time to have Samuel. And she doesn't redeem him. So Samuel is actually dedicated to God's service. If you remember the story, he becomes kind of an assistant, if you will, to the high priest for his life, for as long as the high priest lives there. So there was that one example where a child was not redeemed. It's obviously not that Hannah didn't want and didn't love her son, but she chose a higher calling, if you will, that he would assist the priest there. Hopefully that clarifies things a bit. One other question for you. I had this in my study question I sent out. What lessons do we learn from Simeon and Anna from what's written about here? What does that teach us about lessons we can learn in our own lives from their examples? Any thoughts about that? Yes, Vicki? They were patient, and they were faith that you would come to count. Yes, patience and faith, a great deal. In Anna's case, we're not told how old Simeon was, but Anna, 84 years old, waiting for those things. Yes, Dave? I think it's interesting through Simeon that somehow he knew that he would see the Messiah before he got to Simeon. It's pretty profound. It must have been something prophetic.

Right. It's interesting that Luke calls Anna a prophetess, and yet, obviously, Simeon is prophesying there, but he's not called a prophet. I'm not sure what to make of that. I just find that an interesting turn there. Yet, we actually get more detailed prophecy from Simeon there than we do from Anna. Let's see. Tim, did you have your hand up? Perseverance. Perseverance, yeah. Yeah, very true. In Anna's case, think about that. She's a widow from... she'd been married to her husband for seven years before he passed away. Assuming she died at... excuse me, assuming she married at 14, 15, somewhere along in there, if she was married seven years, she would have been widowed at 21 or 22.

And she stayed a widow. Now she's 84. She's 60 plus years as a widow there. And how's it described her? She's very thankful. She's there serving God day after day. How many of us, having the rough life that she had, would have turned bitter, angry, resentful? In your early 20s and you're widowed? And not her? She just hung in there faithfully.

She and Simeon are kind of parallels, kind of bookends, if you will. Both very faithful, both very giving, very serving, very devoted, looking for the Messiah. Never lost faith. Remarkable examples. Yes, Dave? It just kind of struck me that once she became a widow, she went to give service to the temple. I wonder if somewhere at that time God told her that the Messiah was coming, and that may be a reason why she was there. I don't know, but it just... Yeah. I couldn't help but think of Don Mater's sermonette on Pentecost about how God's Spirit sometimes works with you.

Kind of whispers, if you will, to take this other route to work today or so on. I was thinking about that as I was reading through these stories. How is it... Yeah, they knew to be at the temple that particular day, that particular time, that particular hour, when Joseph and Mary are bringing their son there. There's no way they would have known that ahead of time, knowing they would have cared about it ahead of time. It's just one of many couples bringing their sons there, and yet they are there for God to fulfill His purpose for both of them.

Yes, Sam? They wouldn't have known necessarily that that blood, who goes to the Mary's work, loses five lives. And had to ask them, sort of, to take up the title. They didn't work their job. Right. And they were like, is that a challenge? Right. Right. I'll go back and look up what you were reading. Yeah, yeah. Good point. And I have to wonder, you know, one reason I debated whether to include that about the priest shouting out, Let it be known in Israel, the child's name is Yahshua, God saves. I wonder if it was that time that the ears of both Simeon and Anna perk up and they say, God saves, this is it.

Here's the Messiah. I don't know, but I wonder if it might not have been what triggered it. Obviously, God did reveal to them somehow that this was, indeed, the Messiah. There is a young boy. Maybe that was it, maybe not, but it's an interesting possibility. Yes, ma'am? There were a lot of relatives that I might just realize. For example, John the Father, they were related to Christ. Right. It could be that they knew each other better than we think they did, you know, because they probably lived in temple before for others. They probably heard about the angel of the Spirit, and they certainly heard about that Messiah coming up and not being able to speak for a while.

I think that also could set up, you know, two areas. Quite possibly, yeah. Yeah, I think that's a possibility. It's quite things that happen in our group. Right. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, good point. Good point. Yes, Tony. Still, it is called the Jost and Devout. Yeah. And I think that the media is also like that. You know, all these people speak just about calls for this purpose and written for our education to show us what the Jost and Devout are. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and Jost and Devout had very specific meanings at that time, too. I mean, we kind of, you know, kind of blows over our head, but—or the average Bible reader. But yeah, Jost and Devout meant somebody who was dedicated to keeping God's laws meticulously in everything they do. That's how they lived their life. That defined their lives here. We see it with all the examples you mentioned. Zachariah and Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, Simeon, Anna, Cornelius, others. They were people who feared God and obeyed Him meticulously in everything they did. Yeah, good point. Okay, well, we'll wrap it up with that. I need to head down to Colorado Springs here. So, with that, the Bible class of dismissed. We'll look forward to having another one in two weeks.