Luke 2:52 Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people. When thinking about the life of Jesus, we many times only reference His birth and then skip ahead to Jesus being introduced by John the Baptist after coming out of the wilderness. Why? Because that is mostly all we have got from scripture. The above scripture shows Jesus grew in wisdom in life situations, much like any person would have, except He was perfect in everything. Jesus never sinned. Think about it. Jesus never sinned. The Message translation of the Bible says that same scripture in this way. Luke 2:And Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people. Matthew shares that Joseph was warned by God to go to Egypt to escape the widespread effort taken on by Herod to find Him and kill Him. Matthew 2:13 After the scholars were gone, God’s angel showed up again in Joseph’s dream and commanded, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him.” 14-15 Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. They lived in Egypt until Herod’s death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: “I called my son out of Egypt.” Once again, all of this is fulfilling prophecies all along the way. OUR GOD IS AWESOME!!
After some years Herod died and an angel appeared to Joseph and said this in Matthew 2:-20 Later, when Herod died, God’s angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt: “Up, take the child and his mother and return to Israel. All those out to murder the child are dead.”21-23 Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother, and reentered Israel. When he heard, though, that Archelaus had succeeded his father, Herod, as king in Judea, he was afraid to go there. But then Joseph was directed in a dream to go to the hills of Galilee. On arrival, he settled in the village of Nazareth. This move was a fulfillment of the prophetic words, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” The distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem is 69 miles (approximate). So Joseph and Mary did some walking for sure and Jesus was transported from place to place until he was able to walk himself.
Then the Bible skips ahead to John the Baptist proclaiming about a coming Savior and John says this in John 1:14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. And then John sees Jesus as it says in John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’ And of course, we can read about the life of Jesus with His disciples and all that God accomplished through His life and realize the Great Expectations we have in the days ahead. There is hope and there is the peace that only Jesus can give to us. The ultimate God-Man has come to save us and redeem us and give us abundant life. Merry Christmas, Emmanuel has come to set us free.
Live THE LIFE!!
The Pilgrimage Continues...
David Warren
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