For a description of the Year 2 (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Luke 2
What is significant about how God chose to reveal Jesus to the world? Why was Jesus presented at the temple? Jesus was Mary’s firstborn child. This was obviously significant in that this was a virgin birth, meaning that Jesus, though human, was from God’s seed. This made Him God in human form. But being the firstborn son was significant for another reason as well. According to the Law God had given through Moses, the firstborn male of every man and beast belonged to God because He had redeemed them when the angel of death passed over them in Egypt due to the blood of the lamb. So being Mary’s firstborn son, Jesus belonged to God.
One other interesting note is that Mary apparently purified herself according to law using either a pair of doves or two young pigeons. This meant that she could not afford a Lamb (see Lev. 12:8). Mary and Joseph were not rich! So not only was Jesus brought into this world as a humble, helpless baby, He was born to a poor and insignificant family. Quite the antithesis to the conquering King His people were looking for! We, too, need to be careful of our expectations. We don’t want what we think we know to cause us to miss knowing Jesus.
Gen. 3-4
I have realized for quite some time that Satan’s deception was about undermining God’s Truth. He did this by distorting it slightly, causing the woman to doubt God. In my mind, it was the lack of trust in God that ultimately led her to make the wrong decision. But I notice something else in Genesis 3:6a. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.” The woman mistakenly thought that the fruit would give her wisdom.
Because all wisdom comes from God, this to me is the first instance of a human trying to meet their needs in something other than God. This, too, is a lack of trust. If we really trusted God to provide us with everything we need, we would not look for it elsewhere. But, alas, we do. Even Adam was unwilling to put God above his wife, and so followed in her sin. Maybe that is why Jesus later said that anyone who does not hate every other relation and even their own life cannot be His disciple. Nothing and no one comes before God. He alone deserves our unfailing trust.