“Rich in glory; Thou didst stoop;
Thence is all Thy people's hope;
Thou vast poor that we might be
Rich in glory, Lord, with Thee."
Matt. 2; Luke 2
MAT 2LUK 2I HAVE placed this chapter last in my book, that it may be apart from all the other chapters, because the Child of Bethlehem was apart from all other children. The Child of Bethlehem was the Lord Jesus Christ; He was apart from all others in His nature, for His nature was holy and sinless; His life also was different from all other lives, for it was perfect in goodness. The Lord Jesus Christ was the “Lamb without blemish and without spot;" He was the perfect Man, but He was also Divine; He was the Son of God.
The Virgin Mary, who was the mother of Jesus, dwelt in Nazareth; this is a city in that northern part of Palestine which is called Galilee; Nazareth is only about seven miles north of Shunem, and so you will not be surprised to hear that it is surrounded by beautiful and fruitful country; wild flowers grow abundantly on the hillside and along the warm valley, and oranges, lemons, olives, pomegranates, and limes are-plentiful there as at Shunem.
A visitor came to the great woman at Shunem, but a far more wonderful visitor came to Mary at Nazareth. This wonderful visitor was an angel, one of those multitudes of heavenly beings who wait around the throne of God to do His pleasure. There are thousands and thousands of them; they are mighty and beautiful; we read of them many times in scripture, for these servants of God were often sent to earth to carry messages from heaven, or to protect the people of God. Angels came to drag poor Lot out of Sodom; it was an angel who brought food for Elijah in the wilderness; it was an angel who shut the mouths of the lions, when Daniel was cast into their den. The angel that visited Mary was named Gabriel; the heavenly visitor came suddenly into the place where she was, and said, " Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women."
Do you think that Mary was very glad when she heard these words from the wonderful visitor? They seemed words to make her heart glad. She was told that she was highly favored, that she was blessed, and that the Lord was with her; yet Mary was troubled, she could not understand why the angel should come and speak in this manner. She searched in her own mind, but she could find no reason there why an angel should come and speak thus to her. The angel could see that Mary was troubled, so he said, “Fear not," and he called her by her name, "Mary;" "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God." That was only the beginning of the gracious message; the most wonderful and blessed part was yet to come. The angel Gabriel went on to tell Mary that she had been chosen of God to be the mother of Jesus, the Child whom God had spoken of in the garden of Eden, and whom all Israel, for hundreds and hundreds of years, had been expecting. His name was to be called Jesus, because He was to be a Savior; He was also the appointed King who was to inherit the throne of David; Christ was descended from David, yet He was the only begotten Son of God; "therefore," the angel said, " that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
All this was very wonderful news; far too wonderful for Mary's mind or understanding to take in; it is beyond the understanding of any human being; but Mary received this message, wonderful as it was, by faith. Faith is a far greater power than understanding. Faith can receive many things which are quite beyond the understanding of the very wisest man. Mary left off searching about in her own mind, after she had heard of Jesus, and she answered very simply, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." Then the angel went away.
Mary, no doubt, longed to speak to some one of the wonderful message. The angel Gabriel had told her that be had, a few months before, visited Zacharias, the husband of her cousin Elizabeth, and had promised him a little son, whose name was to be John, and who was to go as a messenger or herald before the Lord Jesus, to make known His coming and who He was. You know John did this when he said, years afterward, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."
So Mary went to the house of Zacharias; it was a long journey, perhaps about fifty miles, but Mary's heart was full of joy and thankfulness and faith, and that made everything easy to her.
Elizabeth was very glad to see her cousin, and besides this, she thought it a great honor that one who had been chosen of God to be the mother of Jesus, Elizabeth's Savior and God, should come to visit her. She also had a message for Mary in answer to her faith, and it is a nice word for any who simply believe the precious truths and promises of the word of God. “Blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord." Then Mary spoke, but rather to God than to Elizabeth. What Mary said you can read in verses 46 to 55 of Luke 1
One sad thing I must now tell you. While these two holy, and blessed, and believing women were thus speaking and praising God, poor Zacharias had to be silent; he was dumb; he had not been born dumb, but he had been made dumb at the time when the angel Gabriel visited him, because he had not believed the gracious message sent to him from God about the promised son.
Soon after Mary's visit, Zacharias showed his faith and his remembrance of the words of the angel in a remarkable manner. When his friends came together, after the baby was born, to rejoice with Elizabeth, they were going to name the child Zacharias, after his father, but Zacharias knew that God had appointed another name for this child. How he must have longed to speak, and interrupt the people, when they settled to name his little son “Zacharias!" But he could not.
Elizabeth had, I suppose, learned from her husband what the angel had made known to him, and she refused the name of Zacharias for the baby, saying, "Not so, but he shall be called John."
The relations did not approve of this name, they saw no reason for calling the child John; they said, "There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name."
But Elizabeth's child had not been sent to keep in remembrance his own family, or to make for himself a name, he was sent to be the messenger going before the Lord, to announce His name and His coming, and to make the people ready for Him. It was a far greater honor to announce the name of the Lord Jesus Christ than to have the greatest of family names of his own; so we read, further on in John's history, "Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of, women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." The Lord had Himself chosen the name of His messenger, but the relations did not know this; they made signs to Zacharias how he would have the child called, but neither could Zacharias choose the name of his son; this child was already named, named of God before he had been born. Zacharias, by signs, made known that he wanted something to write upon, and then he wrote only four words, but they astonished the whole company very much.
The four words were these, "His name is John." Zacharias did not say, “I should like," or "I think," or "His name shall be." No. Zacharias owned that this little son was the child whose birth the angel had foretold, and whose name and work had been already appointed of God. When Zacharias had thus shown his faith and submission to the word of God, his dumbness went away; God opened His mouth immediately, and he spake and praised God.
After this, the friends and relations left the house of Zacharias, and they told of the wonderful time they had spent; how the child had had a name already given him of God, how Zacharias' speech had been restored to him, and how he had praised God. The news of these marvels spread through all the neighborhood, and the people said, “What manner of child shall this be!"
Ah! he was a wonderful child, this son of Zacharias and Elizabeth; a blessed child, and blessed was the work given him to do. His father, when filled with the Holy Ghost, said of him, "Thou child shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins," but a far more wonderful and a far more blessed Child was soon to be born in the land, the One of whom this very John said afterward, "His shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose." This was the Child of whom Isaiah had prophesied saying, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." More than seven hundred years had passed since those words had been spoken, but now the time, “the fullness of time," was come. Mary had gone back to Nazareth, after spending three months with her cousin Elizabeth, but soon she had to take another long journey; and this time, Joseph her husband went with her.
Augustus Caesar, a great Roman Emperor, had possession of Judea, and he had ordered that the inhabitants of all his vast dominions should be numbered, and a tax, or small sum of money, collected from each person. In order to be taxed, every person had to go to his own native city or village; and so Joseph, who belonged to Bethlehem, the city of David, had to take this journey to be taxed, and numbered among the subjects of the great Roman Emperor. Augustus Caesar was, at that time, the greatest man in the world; he ruled over numbers of countries, kings even were subject to him, and every command of his, however inconvenient, had to be at once obeyed; but a greater than Caesar was soon to appear in the land of Judaea.
By the slow traveling of that time, it must have taken Joseph and Mary several days to reach Bethlehem, for it was nearly seventy miles south of Nazareth; the roads, no doubt, were not lonely, for numbers of people were journeying at that same time and for the same reason; and when Joseph and Mary reached Bethlehem, they found the inn already so crowded that there was no room for them. If Mary had appeared as a very grand lady, perhaps the master of the inn might have managed to make room for her, but her appearance was simple, and no one guessed that the wife of the carpenter at Nazareth was the one chosen of God to be the mother of the infant Savior. Joseph and Mary, therefore, were sent away from the inn; and so it was that Mary's first born son, the holy child Jesus, was laid in a manger.
"Mary brought forth her first born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger."
Perhaps, if the master of the inn ever understood what had happened, that the long expected Child, the Messiah of Israel, the Christ of God had been laid in the manger because he had sent away the mother from his inn, he might have felt very sorry; yet it may have been more according to the thoughts of God that the Holy Child should find His first home in that lonely manger than amid the crowd in the inn; for the cattle themselves had not fallen so far below the place in which the Creator had set them, as had rebellious Israel. “Hear, O heavens; and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters! they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they have gone away backward."
Oh, what grace and what glory; what glory of grace filled that humble shelter, where the Child lay in the manger! Children are often proud to find themselves growing up. How pleased a little boy is if any one tells him that he is growing into a man; but Christ, in becoming a man, humbled Himself very very much. If any among those crowds who had come to be taxed had been invited to visit the Emperor Augustus, it would have been regarded by them as a wonderful honor; but if that little Infant had left the oxen's stall and gone to dwell in the palace of the great Augustus Caesar, it would have been an act of great humility and condescension on His part.
“Christ is merciful and mild,
He was once a little child;
He whom heavenly hosts adore,
Lived on earth among the poor.
Thus He laid His glory by,
When for us He came to die;
How I wonder when I see
His unbounded love to me!"
Crowded Bethlehem knew little of the favor that had reached it; earth went on its busy way; but in heaven it was known that the moment, so long waited for, had come; the angels, those heavenly hosts who for ages past had done homage to Him who had been from everlasting, now received the command told to us in Heb. 1:66And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. (Hebrews 1:6), "When he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him."
Outside Bethlehem, how far we are not told, but away in the quiet fields, were some shepherds; they were not the rich, the noble, the wise, or the mighty of this world; they were doing nothing wonderful, they were just going on with their simple business, “Keeping watch over their flock by night." Yet these shepherds of Judaea were chosen to hear and to make known the wonderful news of the birth of Jesus. Little they thought, as they sat quietly in the field through the dark still hours of that night, how soon the light and the music of heaven were to surround them; but “Lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them." It must have been a wonderful light; the shepherds knew at once that it was beyond any of the lights appointed to rule the night; this was no glimmer of stars, no silver brilliancy of moonlight. In the midst of that night they beheld a light beyond the brightness of the sun at noonday; the light shone round about them, all round them, there was no dark place where
they could hide themselves from the dazzling splendor. They were made aware of the nearness of the Lord and they were sore afraid; for man, even a chosen shepherd of Judaea, cannot bear the light of the glory of God. That is the light which the Lord God will give to His saints in heaven forever. To them it will be a blessed, welcome light; but to enjoy it, or even to bear it, we must know ourselves cleansed from sin, and we must also have these weak bodies changed, and fashioned like unto the glorious body of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was not a Savior in a manger, it was not a Christ stooping to take upon Him the form of a man, who could take away all conscience of sins and all fear because of sinfulness from the hearts of the shepherds. None but a crucified, and risen, and glorified Christ can do this; and the Child of Bethlehem was not yet known in this way. But God had compassion on the weakness and fear of the shepherds; and, as from the angel to Hagar, or from the prophet to the widow, or from the angel to Mary, the gracious message, “Fear not," was at once given to assure the hearts of the poor shepherds. "Fear not: for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."
No sooner had this gracious message reached the ears of the wondering shepherds than multitudes of angels joined the one who had spoken; multitudes of heavenly voices now sounded together. They spoke not to the shepherds, but to God, yet the shepherds were allowed to hear what was said; and God has also permitted you and me to read this song of the angels, though we cannot, like, the shepherds of Bethlehem, hear the lovely voices which on that night praised God and said, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men."
What a wonderful invitation these shepherds had received! they had been invited by the angel of the Lord to go to Bethlehem and see the holy baby, the Hope of Israel, lying in the manger. I am sure you are not surprised to hear that they were very anxious to go. As soon as the heavenly message was given, and the heavenly song ended, and the heavenly visitors gone away, the shepherds said one to another, "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us."
They made haste away from the lonely fields and along the roads “even to Bethlehem," and there they saw Mary, the blessed and highly favored mother, and Joseph, and the lovely, lowly Babe lying in a manger. Oh, what a sight this was! the infant Savior, Christ, the sent One of God, the tiny, tender body of a baby, but indwelt by "all the fullness of the Godhead." Can you fancy the silent reverence, the holy joy and adoring love with which these shepherds would stand, and look upon the Child in the manger? And when they had seen, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this Child.
It was good tidings of great joy to those who heard the shepherds, and, more than that, to all people. Yes; good tidings of great joy, that the Father had sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
The shepherds gave out their joyful message, and then they returned to their flock, glorifying and praising God, for they had seen all as it had been told them. We cannot see, as did those shepherds; for us the word is, "Whom having NOT seen ye love; in whom, though now ye see him NOT, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory."
“Unseen we love Thee; dear Thy name;
But when our eyes behold,
With joyful wonder we'll exclaim,
The half had not been told."
The day is coming soon when we, who now have not seen yet have believed, shall see Him as He is; and, among ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, the mighty countless multitudes of angels and redeemed ones, we shall join in the eternal song of praise to Jesus, once the manger babe, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing."
When the Holy baby was about five weeks old he was taken up to Jerusalem, just as, one thousand years before, little Samuel had been taken to Shiloh, to be presented to the Lord. This was a very short journey. There was in Jerusalem a man named Simeon; all his life he had been waiting in faith and hope for the One whom God had promised as the Deliverer of Israel. He was an old man, those who saw him might have thought him likely soon to die, but Simeon had received a gracious message from God which cheered him very much. It was this: old as he was, and long as the waiting-time might seem, Simeon was not to die until he had seen the Lord's Christ. Was not this a gracious message from the God of all grace? What a blessed hope for the aged man! Do you think he ever passed a day without thinking about it? I think not. One day, the Spirit of God made known to Simeon that he was to go at once to the Temple. He went there, and presently he saw what might have been often seen, at that time, in the Temple: a young mother coming in with a baby to offer the sacrifice which was appointed by the law, "A pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons." Wonderful joy must have filled the heart of Simeon at that moment, for he knew that the Infant, now being brought into the Temple, was One such as he had never seen before; He was the One for whom Simeon had waited day after day, the Lord's Christ, the Salvation of God. He took the precious baby in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou halt prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel."
Then Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary; he did not bless the little baby; that little Child could not be blessed by any man, He was there to bless, He was the One who came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. Simeon also told Mary wonderful things made known to him by God about this holy and wonderful Child, and while he was yet speaking another aged person came in. This was a widow of more than a hundred years old; her name was Anna, she too had long waited for the promised Messiah, and now, with a joyful heart, she joined in the praises of the aged Simeon. Then she went out and spoke about the precious Babe to all who, by faith, were expecting the Deliverer promised by God to Israel.
What gracious messages, what hopes and what praises surrounded “the Child of Bethlehem!" But were all in Jerusalem glad? No. The faithful were a small company, though they were the excellent of the earth. There were many in that city, the great of the, earth, who wanted nothing and hoped for nothing sent of God, and who knew nothing of the glory which had shone around the shepherds, of the lovely sight in the Bethlehem manger, or the joy and praises in the Temple. Herod, called the Great, who ruled over Judaea and Jerusalem, though he was himself under the Roman Emperor, had very different hopes and thoughts from the aged Simeon. The thing Herod least desired was a Deliverer for Israel; the coming of the Promised King and Savior, Emmanuel, God with us, was no blessed hope to his heart. Herod, no doubt, knew something of the hopes and promises of Israel, but they were truths which he tried to forget. The Child of Bethlehem might come to the city where he reigned as the Great, might honor the Temple with His presence, and might fill the hearts of the faithful with praises, but there was nothing in the dark heart of the King of Judæa that could answer to the note of joy. That which was a note of joy to a humble few came as a sound of trouble and disturbance to Herod.
After Joseph and Mary and the Babe had returned to Bethlehem, some other strangers visited Jerusalem; these were from a distance, from the East. They were magi, that is, wise and learned men; these men, some time ago, had seen a star, a bright and wonderful star, and by this sight they had learned that the One foretold of by the prophets as King of Israel was now born into the world. But how little they guessed either the ruin of the people or the lowly grace of the heaven-born King! The wise men went to Jerusalem; surely they supposed that the long-expected King had been born in some princely house in the great city, they expected, perhaps, to be among the last of the willing worshippers who would throng around the promised Child. How great must have been their surprise when they found that, among the chief men in Jerusalem, He had not been heard of. They said, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews, for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him?"
No one could answer them; no one was expecting the King of the Jews, no one was desiring Him. When Herod heard what the wise men said, "he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." Oh, what a sad and dreadful state their hearts must have been in, when the thought of the coming of Christ could thus trouble them.
How happy was Mary, the blessed mother! How happy was Joseph the carpenter from despised Nazareth! How happy were the dying Simeon, and the widowed Anna! How happy are all who need and who trust in Christ! however humble, however poor. How miserable are the greatest, the richest, the noblest of earth who know not and desire not Christ Jesus the Savior!
Herod the Great was much alarmed by the news which the wise men brought. These wise men from the East were very different people from the poor Judæan shepherds, they were messengers not to be disregarded. Herod feared that there was some truth in what they said; he sent for all the chief priests and scribes of the Jews. The scribes, you remember, were those whose business it was to study and write out and teach the scriptures, and they would certainly know whether it was possible that the King had been born to Israel. “Herod demanded of them where Christ should be born." The chief priests and scribes knew the scriptures, though they so little desired Him of whom Moses and all the prophets had spoken. They could answer Herod at once, that Messiah the King had been spoken of as being born in Bethlehem; they could say, “for thus it is written by the prophets." Herod felt assured that the prophecy had been fulfilled, and an awful plan of wickedness arose in his heart, but he did not tell this plan to any one. Perhaps he feared that no one would have been found wicked enough to help him in it; that some one, if he had made it known, would have prevented it. But could Herod hide his plan?
Can any one hide any thought, however dark and wicked, that has a place in his heart? No. God read the dreadful plan that was in the heart of Herod, and prevented it from succeeding. When Herod had made this dreadful plan in his heart he told a lie to the wise men. He told them to go to Bethlehem, and he said, "Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also." The wise men went away; it may have seemed strange to them to be sent from the great city Jerusalem to the little town of Bethlehem, but no sooner had they started on their journey than their hearts received a token of encouragement from God, which made them rejoice with exceeding great joy; for lo, the star, that bright and wonderful star which they had so long ago beheld in the eastern sky, now shone again upon them; and, more than this, it moved swiftly on in front of them. It guided the strangers to Bethlehem, and then it stood above a house. This was the house where Joseph and Mary and the Babe were dwelling; for during the many weeks which had passed, Bethlehem had, no doubt, become less crowded, and Joseph had probably removed with his wife and the holy Child from the stable and the manger to which the master of the inn had sent them.
Exceeding great joy had filled the hearts of the magi as they gazed upon the star, but their hearts must have overflowed with joy when they entered the house and beheld Him of whom the star had told-the little Child with Mary His mother. A sweet, gracious "Little Child," simply, to their eyes, a little child; but the sent One of God, "A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel." The magi, truly wise, for they were taught of God, fell down and worshipped, for they felt themselves, honored men as they were, to be but nothing in the presence of that little Child. They “worshipped him," and presented unto Him gifts-gold and frankincense and myrrh.
All this was heavenly light and heavenly joy, pure bright light and gladness; but, during the night, God made known to the wise men in a dream the dark plan which filled the heart of the wicked and miserable Herod. They were not to go back to Jerusalem, that lovely sight at Bethlehem was not to be displayed to Herod. The wise men departed into their own country another way. Herod waited in vain for their return; at last he knew that they were not coming. He had deceived them, but now that he found that they had dared to deceive him, he was full of rage. He was determined, too, to carry out his wicked intention, so he sent and killed all the little children of two years old and under that were in Bethlehem. Lamentation and weeping and great mourning filled the town.
Oh, how cruel was this wicked king, Herod the Great! Great indeed was his wickedness, but great indeed, too, was his foolishness if he thought that with all his strength, his swords, and his rage he could cut off from the earth the Branch of the Lord, the Child whose name was "Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
God could have struck all the soldiers dead as they entered Bethlehem to perform the wicked commands of King Herod; the very presence of that little Child of Bethlehem would, if His divine power had been put forth, have been enough to make them all then—as other soldiers did later—go backwards and fall to the ground; but God was showing then not the power but the lowly grace of the Savior, so, long before the Jerusalem soldiers came to Bethlehem, Joseph, having been instructed by God in a dream, had taken the little Child into Egypt with Mary His mother. The people of Israel had once, long ago, dwelt in Egypt, and Christ, who in grace shared all things which His people suffered, would dwell there too; He would journey, as the people had done one thousand four hundred and ninety-one years before, from Egypt to the land of Israel.
Herod could not put the Child of Bethlehem to death, but soon after he tried to do it he died himself, and then an angel of God appeared to Joseph saying, "Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead which sought the young child's life."
Joseph did not return to Judea; he went on to Nazareth. It was a place despised by the Jews. Nazarene was a name of contempt, yet it was given to Jesus, for “He is despised and rejected of men." In Nazareth, amid the humble surroundings of the home of Joseph, "the Child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him."
Every year Joseph and Mary went up to Jerusalem; this was to keep the feast of the Passover. All the feasts and all the sacrifices spoke of Him who, now in grace, as a Child, accompanied Mary and Joseph.
“In Him the shadows of the law
Are all fulfill'd and now withdraw."
Twelve years had passed away since the night of the angels' song. Joseph and Mary had gone up to Jerusalem to the feast of the Passover, and the Child Jesus, Himself the “Lamb foreordained," had gone with them.
When the feast was ended, which was not until after several days, Joseph and Mary began their journey homewards, but the Child Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. It was some time before the parents observed that Jesus was not with them, then they began to search among the many companies of people who were, like themselves, traveling home after the Feast, but among them all the precious Child could not be found; the parents went from one to another of their friends and relations, but they could hear nothing of the Son whom they sought. Their hearts were very sorrowful; this Child of perfect Grace and Wisdom was, no doubt, a gift much prized and dearly valued in the humble home at Nazareth. Mary, too, kept in her heart the wonderful things that had been seen and said at the time of His birth; but none, as yet, really or fully understood who Jesus was; none could know all that His heart felt and knew as He walked, a child of twelve, through the streets of the beloved city, Jerusalem. Great was the surprise of the Nazareth parents when, after three days, they found the Child whom they sought. He was in the Temple, "sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions." The doctors were the learned, men or teachers of the Jewish people, yet they, as well as all who heard, were astonished at the understanding and at the answers of the Holy Child. We know that He was the Wisdom of God, therefore we are not surprised that His understanding should have been far beyond that of the most learned men in Jerusalem, but the people then did not understand the wonderful truth that Jesus is the Son of God.
Mary gently questioned her Son; she said, “Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." "And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"
Mary and Joseph did not understand this saying of Jesus; they did not understand who Jesus was, nor the work He had come to do, but Jesus returned with them to Nazareth, and was subject to them. This was grace in Jesus, in us it is a duty. Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man; the Perfect Child grew into the Perfect Man.
When Mary said. “Thy father and I," she spoke of Joseph the carpenter, for Jesus was counted to be, or supposed to be, the son of Joseph; but when Jesus said, "my Father's business," He spoke of God, for He had come to do the will of God. Of Him it was written in Psa. 40, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart."
How rich was Christ, the Son of God, who was equal with God, whose dwelling from everlasting had been the glory of God! How poor, for our sakes, He became when He lay in the manger at Bethlehem, when He fled from the king into Egypt, when He had not where to lay His head, when He sat weary by the well-side and asked for a little water; yet all this stooping in grace, wonderful as was its lowliness, would not have been low enough to reach us. To reach us, poor sinners, Christ had yet to humble Himself, and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Only by the death of Christ could the sinner be reached and saved, and "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world TO SAVE SINNERS."
Lord, we would trace Thy lowly path,
And in Thy steps discern
The luster of Thy light and love,
And all Thy goodness learn.
How wonderful in grace Thy birth!
But grace man could not see;
Content, in blind self-love he sat,
And found "no room” for Thee.
The lonely stall, where oxen feed,
Must be the accepted place,
First open to Thine infant need,
Oh, mystery of grace!
The Savior God in manger laid,
Can heaven the secret keep?
No, angel hosts triumphant break
Earth's midnight silence deep.
The voiceless heavens take up the tale,
By starry guidance led,
Men, whom the world that counts Thee mean,
Held wise, fall round Thy bed.
Shepherds and wise men taught of God,
Fall round Thee and adore;
Teach me, like them, to know Thy worth,
And praise Thee evermore.
But though so great in lowliness,
Thy life from earliest days,
We only through Thy death can learn
Thy precious worth to praise."
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