22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”
Like we noted yesterday, everything appeared to be "normal" for this newborn Jewish boy. The next step was for his mother to go through purification after childbirth, so she could once again enter the temple. This brings us back once again to one of our original questions from day 1 of our study: Am I hiding in the darkness? Am I living like a Child of God? Mary and Joseph were committed to holiness before God. Are we? The reason they wanted to go to the temple was for the Baby's presentation to God. This was obeying the instructions of God going all the way back to the original Passover: God had redeemed their firstborn sons from the death angel when he led them out of their slavery in Egypt; they were to present every firstborn son and redeem Him. As we said when we looked at this passage last Sunday, this redeemed Baby is the One God sent to redeem us. The question for us then is Have I been Redeemed?, "Have I been bought back from sin and death?", which is very close to our second original question: Am I a Child of God? As we can see, not only the birth, but the life of this Child answers the most important questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment