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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Matt. 2
When the wise men came to Herod, he consulted the Jewish chief priests and scribes to locate the young Messiah. Those chief priests and scribes knew that the prophecies pointed to Bethlehem as his birth place. To say that they were well versed in the prophecies is quite likely a severe understatement. Thus, it is not a stretch to think that they also knew that the Messiah would come out of Egypt and be call a Nazarene. They knew…and yet they missed it.
The Bible repeatedly speaks of having eyes to see but not seeing and ears to hear but not hearing. What is it that makes people overlook the obvious, to refuse to admit what they should know to be true? Pride. It is pride that closes our eyes, stops up our ears, and hardens our hearts. So when Jesus said things like, “Let him who has ears, hear”, it was a call to any who were willing to set aside their pride and accept the truth.
Luke 2:39-52
I wonder why Luke left out the visit from the wise men, Herod’s massacre of the young boys, and Jesus’ escape to Egypt? I know that each of the gospel writers wrote with a specific purpose in mind. So Luke must have felt that this part of the story was not relevant to his purpose. Clearly, then, his objective was not to show how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. That makes sense, since his audience, Theophilus, was obviously not a Jew who would have been familiar with such things. Actually, Luke’s self-stated purpose was so that this presumably Greek man would, “know the certainty of the things about which [he had] been instructed.” (Lk. 1:4).
Returning again to Luke 1, this stated purpose clarifies why Luke included Simeon’s seeing the baby Jesus. He called Jesus, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles” (Lk. 1:32a). So I suppose this rather significant chunk of Jewish history that Luke omitted was not so relevant to the salvation of the Gentiles. This segment about 12 year old Jesus separating from his earthly family to, “be in [his] Father’s house”, however, supported the truth that Jesus was – and is – the Son of God.