Jesus

The life story

of
humanity’s only hope

Chapter 4

A Savior is Born

Page 25
 Chapter 442

It was a real sacrifice for Jesus the Glorious King to become a human. Compared to the palaces
of Heaven’s capitol, His new surroundings were amazingly bad. They were crude even from
today’s standards, and it was daunting just to think about coming and living here. Not only that,
the power and the majesty and incredible beauty of His heavenly form had to be set aside so
people wouldn’t be attracted to Him and His Kingdom of Light for the wrong reasons. He made
a point of avoiding any display of His former life while He was here on earth. God knew that
money or possessions or the honor the world can heap on us or even human power could never
save us. So Jesus made the decision that nothing of a human or earthly nature would be used to
attract people to His Kingdom. It was truth, and the truth alone, that had to draw them to make
the decision to follow Him. Because the prophets had been describing what the Messiah would
be like for thousands of years, it was decided that men would accept or reject Him based on the
evidence found in the Bible for who he was and what he would be about.

The Messengers of Light, as they watched events on planet earth, had been wondering how God
was going to ransom mankind. Now, as the plan began to unfold, they watched carefully to see
how people would respond. They especially watched God’s chosen messenger people to see
how they were going to resact to Jesus when He came as a human being. In fact they weren’t
content to watch from a long ways away. They crowded down to earth to see what would
happen. After all, this wasn’t some pagan nation whose worship was based on fables and false
Gods - these were God’s chosen means of telling the world about Him. His glory in all that He
had done for them through the years had been revealed right there in Palestine, the prophets had
been giving the message of the time of His coming and the methods He would use. So,
invisible they came to Jerusalem to watch and to listen to what the religious leaders of God’s
church would have to say.

Zacharias the priest, as he carried out his ministry before the alter of incense in the Holy Place
of the temple, had dramatically been told that the Messiah was about to come. John, the
prophetic forerunner of Messiah had been born - his mission made clear both miraculously and
prophetically. In fact, his birth and the significance of his mission had been published
throughout the whole of Palestine. Yet, in spite of it all, no one in Jerusalem was getting ready
for Jesus to come. No welcoming committee had been formed. No one was sprucing up the
city and preparing it’s inhabitants. There were no banner headlines in the local news
announcing what was about to happen. It was as if nothing was about to occur.

God had miraculously preserved the Jewish nation over and over as a witness that the Messiah
was to be born as a descendant of Abraham and as a member of the kingly line. Now that He

42
This chapter is based on Luke 2:1-20

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was about to be born they should have known that He was coming and been making
preparations for His arrival. Instead, nothing was happening. It was a non-event, and the
heavenly Messengers were amazed.

In the temple, the morning and evening sacrifices, designed to point to the coming of Messiah,
went on as usual, with no unusual preparations for what was about to happen. The religious
leaders and teachers of the Jewish nation and religion were clueless that the greatest event of all
human history was about to occur. They went through the motions, repeated rote and
meaningless prayers and performed the rituals as expected, but their life was so focused on
accumulating more wealth and prestige that they weren’t even listening for the message that the
Messiah was coming. Their indifference reflected that of the whole nation. People had become
so self-focused and engrossed with themselves that they had no idea of the joy that was filling
heaven. There were exceptions, and it was to them that the final message of the Messiah’s
arrival was sent.

Messengers of Light invisibly accompanied Joseph and Mary on the journey from their home in
Nazareth to Bethlehem. They had to make the journey, in spite of Mary’ pregnancy, because an
imperial Roman decree gave them no other choice. Everyone in Palestine had to take part in the
census and was required to return to their ancestral home to be counted and put on the census
rolls. God had planned it that way. In the same way that He had arranged for Cyrus to sit on
the throne in Persia so that he could set the Jews free to return to Palestine from their captivity,
so God designated that Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor would fulfill His purpose in
making sure that Mary was in Bethlehem when it came time for Jesus to be born. Her ancestry
was in the lineage of David the most famous and honored king in the history of Israel, so it was
important that the Messiah, who was to be a descendant of that line, be born in Bethlehem,
David’s city. The prophet Micah had predicted centuries before that out of Bethlehem would
come one who would be the ruler of Israel. Only this was to be something different than an
earthly monarch. This king was to be One who had lived forever.”43

When Joseph and Mary got to Bethlehem, nobody was expecting them. They wearily wandered
from one end of town to the other, unrecognized and un-welcomed trying to find a place to
spend the night. All of their relatives homes, where they normally would have stopped were
packed. The one hotel in town was filled to overflowing with people even sleeping on the
floors and in the banquet rooms. Finally they found a barn that was empty and there Jesus was
born.44

43
Micah 5:2

44
This traditional translation of he word translated stable or barn may not portray a completely accurate
picture to us 2000 years later. In most homes of the day, the animals - cattle and sheep - were not kept at night in a
separate structure. Most did not have the resources to afford a separate structure, it would have necessitated security
to protect their animals and would have been a needless waste of heat. So, the central portion of the ground floor
would have been the “stable” for the animals. The main part of the family area would have been in slightly raised
levels surrounding the stable area and, if they were prosperous enough to have a second floor, over it. When there
was no room in the local hotel/inn, it is possible, indeed probable, that Mary and Joseph found space in either a

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There may not have been a celebration in Bethlehem at Jesus’ birth, but the sky above was
filled with invisible rejoicing. Suddenly heaven’s Messengers had an interest in planet earth
that bordered on the maternal. In a moment of time, this little dark ball in a little insignificant
solar system in the huge expanse of the Milky Way became a brighter place - because Jesus, the
Light, had been born. Gathered above the hills surrounding Bethlehem an angelic choir so large
no human could number it waited the signal to tell the world that He had been born. If they had
just wanted and chosen to be, the church and its leaders could have been in on the celebration.
But they had no interest, so the parade passed them by.

God is more than anxious to give light to anyone who would be happy to receive it. He says, “I
will pour water out by the bucket-full for anyone who is thirsty; like a major downpour, a gully-
washer, on a dry desert.” “For people of integrity who are walking in the dark, I will arise like
the sun in the morning.”45

There may not have been any religious people looking for Jesus to come, but there were those
who were spiritually sensitive who were. Out in the same fields where David, the shepherd-
king had watched his flocks there were other shepherds46 keeping watch over their sheep that

relative’s or another town person’s stable area since all of the available living space was taken, and that Joseph and
Mary stayed there, surrounded by loving and supportive family and friends. If that is the case, then Jesus was
probably delivered in a much different setting than the traditions that have grown through the years out of the very
sketchy details given in the gospels. The author of “The Desire of the Ages” chose to build this chapter on the
traditional view and that is the view that is used in this paraphrase - while recognizing that some of the facts of the
story may not be accurate historically.
45
Isaiah 44:3; Psalm 112:4

46
In Jesus day, shepherding of sheep was usually done by hired shepherds, who only too often did not
justify the confidence reposed in them (John 10:12-13)."

While some of Israel's great heroes were shepherds, But in the First Century, it seems, shepherds -- hireling
shepherds -- had a rather unsavory reputation. The rabbis opinion was that "most of the time they were dishonest and
thieving; they led their herds onto other people's land and pilfered the produce of the land." Because they were often
months at a time without supervision, they were often accused of stealing some of the increase of the flock.
Consequently, the pious were warned not to buy wool, milk, or kids from shepherds on the assumption that it was
stolen property. Shepherds were not allowed to fulfill a judicial office or be admitted in court as witnesses. A
midrash on Psalm 23:2 reads, "There is no more disreputable occupation than that of a shepherd." Philo, a
Hellenistic Jewish philosopher of Alexandria (25 BC - 45 AD), wrote about looking after sheep and goats, "Such
pursuits are held mean and inglorious."

The religious leaders were not the only ones in Jesus’ day with a low estimate of shepherds. Tthe general populace
considered them, by and large, as untrustworthy. Even worse, their work made them ceremonially unclean.

The Mishna (Qidushin 4:14) lists as unclean: the donkey driver, the camel driver, the sailor, the coachman, the
shepherd, the shopkeeper, the doctor and the butcher. Another, Ketubot 7:10 included in its list the collector of dog
dung, specialists in copper or bronze, and tanners. (Sanhedrin 25) contains a different list: the dice player, the
usurers, the organizers of pigeon contests, the dealer in products from the sabbatical year, the shepherd, the tax
collector and the publicans. It was difficult for shepherds, tax collectors and publicans to do penance for those they

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night.47 As they sat there in the silence of the night, they talked about the Messiah that been
promised and prayed together for the soon coming of the promised King who would one day sit
on David’s throne. Suddenly, their quiet conversation was interrupted by the appearance of an
Messenger of Light. Not just any heavenly Messenger; but, God’s personal Messenger of Light
burst on the scene, and the very glory that surrounds God’s throne in heaven broke out in
nuclear brilliance, and they were so scared they almost wet their pants. Seeing their terror the
Messengers assured them, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I’ve got incredible good news for you that
should make everyone on earth happy and fill them with joy at the announcement. God has just
given you a gift. Over there in Bethlehem the Messiah, the Savior, has just been born. He is
the Christ, the Lord of all creation, born as a human, come here to earth to live in your
neighborhood and to save you.”

The minute they heard these words the shepherds could already, in their minds eye, see the
Roman soldiers being driven out of Palestine. The delivering general had finally been born who
would free them from foreign domination. Power would once again be Israel’s. Once more
they would experience prominence in the affairs of nations. Respect would be there’s as they
triumphed over their enemies.

The Messenger just shook his head in amazement. “You don’t understand,” he said at last. “Go
up to Bethlehem and worship your new King. You’ll recognize Him because you’ll find him in
a stable with His parents, bundled in the cloth’s His father wrapped Him in after He was born.
He’ll be sleeping in the manger when you get there.”

Now that he had quieted their fears, the Messenger gave them further directions about how to
find the barn where Jesus had been born. Because he saw how his appearance was affecting
them, Gabriel gave them time to adjust to the brightness of his presence, then he couldn’t stand
it any longer. Suddenly the whole countryside was lit with the presence of millions of
Messengers of Light. The shepherds stood with their mouths hanging open in awe as God’s
personal choir sang the anthem “Glory to God! Glory to God! Because God has declared his
peaceful intentions towards humanity and His good will towards creators that He still loves and
is proud of.”

had wronged, because they are not able to know all those whom they have wronged.
47
Through the years, considerable discussion, centered on these shepherds and what they were doing, has
occurred because it indicates the approximate time when Jesus was born. Most thinking people realize that the date
of December 25th for Christmas has no basis in the Bible story. But, do facts in the Bible story preclude that date?

The latitude of Palestine is basically 31 degrees - basically that of the Baja Peninsula and Florida. While there are
variations, based on proximity to the desert and the Mediterranean, climatic conditions approximate the weather you
find in those two places. Winter is the time when it is raining and the grass is growing and is the logical time when
shepherds would be out in their fields tending the sheep. So, while there is no way of establishing the date of Jesus
birth, December 25 is not excluded.

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This world would be a lot different, today, if people could comprehend the meaning of the
words of that song! The message of the Messenger choir, sung almost 2000 years ago, is going
to become clearer as we get close to the end of earth time. Like the sound of a distant bell that
gets louder and louder and louder it is going to travel to the ends of the earth until the whole
world has the chance to know. When Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, arrives back here to
Planet Earth as ruler of the Kingdom of Light and restores everything to what it was before sin
came, billions will be waiting to join the choir in singing the song. “Hurrah! Hurrah!” The
cheers will go up. “God rules again on earth!”48

After the Messengers finished the song, the huge choir returned to their places in heaven, the
light that had flooded the plain faded away, and the shadows of night once more returned to the
hills of Bethlehem. But the picture would never fade from the mind’s eye of the shepherds who
had seen and heard them. As they sat there, stunned in the darkness, one of them made the
suggestion: “Let’s go see him.” He didn’t have to say it twice. In an instant, the shepherds
were running pell mell over the hills down towards Bethlehem. Banging on the city gates, they
burst through when they were opened, and scattered through town peeking into every barn and
stable until at last they found Mary and Joseph, and their baby lying in a manger.

Nobody living, today, knows how long they stayed. But when they finally left the little family,
scripture says that told everybody who would listen what had happened. Over and over those
ebullient shepherds told the story, praising God, making Him the center of the story.
Everybody they told was amazed. Mary gathered every bit of the story into the archive of her
heart and kept thinking about it, trying to understand what was happening.

Sometimes we think that God isn’t really interested in what is going on here on Planet Earth.
But, heaven and earth are no farther apart than they were when the shepherds listened to the
Messenger’s song that night. God and all of heaven’s inhabitants still care about us and our
lives the way they always have. We read the Bible stories of Messengers of Light talking to
people on their lunch hour or stopping by to visit them on the job and wish we could experience
the same thing. But, contact with heaven can be as real for us, today, as it was for them. We
may not see them, but Messengers sent from God will accompany us in our daily lives if we
will just make Him the Lord of our lives.

You know, you can read and study the story of Bethlehem your whole life and still never
understand it all. Hidden in that old familiar story are rich depths of meaning that reflect both
the wisdom and inexhaustible knowledge of God.49 When we stop to think about it, we can’t
help but be amazed that God would do what He did. Who of us would have left our throne in
heaven and come down to be born in a manger? Who of us would have left the company of

48
Revelation 19:6

49
Romans 11:33

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angels and traded their company to be born amid the sounds and smells of a cattle barn? None
of us like to really think about that kind humility, because it confronts our pride and self-
absorption.

Yet, this is only the beginning of the story. To leave heaven and come to take on Adam’s
nature as it was when he was originally created would have been a come down that is beyond
imagination. But, Jesus chose to accept a human body and nature as it was after it had been
weakened by four thousand years of sin. The same laws of heredity that affect us, affected Him.
All you have to do is look at His ancestors to realize the burden he carried. With a geneology
like that it becomes clear that He did share both our weaknesses and our temptations. And, He
proved that we, with our weaknesses, could live as loyal and obedient citizens of the Kingdom
of Light.

If you think that Satan hated Jesus when he was in heaven, in His position as Creator and Lord,
imagine how he felt when Jesus stepped down from His throne and came to earth. When it
dawned on him that Jesus had offered to trade places with us so that He could ransom us, Satan
was furious! That God would allow Jesus to come into Satan’s domain as a helpless baby, with
all of our deficiencies in order us boggled his mind. That He was willing to come and to fight
the battle against sin in the same exact way that we have to, risking everything if he failed, was
almost more than Satan could believe. Yet the proof was right there before him, in Mary’s baby
in Bethlehem.

Any of us human fathers who love our children know how it to look at them when they are
young and worry about what face as they grow up. Every one of wants to shield our children
from Satan’s power and the temptations and conflict we all deal with every day. Imagine how
God in heaven felt watching Jesus and knowing that the whole future of His Kingdom of Light
as it existed throughout the whole universe was at stake. Yet, “God loved us so much that He
gave His only Son so that whoever truly believed in Him could have life that lasts forever.”
(John 3:16) Now, that is love!

Is it any wonder that ever since the inhabitants of heaven and earth have been amazed!

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Jesus
The life story
of
humanity’s only hope

Chapter 5

The Messiah is Dedicated

Page 32
Page 33
 Chapter 5

About 40 days after Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary left Bethlehem and took Him to
Jerusalem. He had already been circumcised eight days after His birth, and now, according to
Jewish law, they were required to offer a sacrifice and to dedicate Him to God. The sacrifice
was for His mother.50 While He was here on earth, Jesus generally chose to subject himself to
Jewish religious statutes. They required that His parents sacrifice a lamb, less than a year old,
on the Alter of Burned Sacrifice located in the courtyard of the temple, and a young pigeon or a
turtledove as a sin offering. If they were too poor to afford to sacrifice a lamb as an offering,
they were allowed present a pair of turtledoves or pigeons.

Whatever was presented to God, there was one requirement - it had to have no blemishes.
These offerings were designed to represent the Messiah. The prerequisite that they be without
flaws was because He would be without defect in His life and death. (1 Peter 1:19) Just like the
lambs that represented Him, physically Jesus had no deformities. He was strong and healthy
His whole life. Not only that, He chose to live, His whole life, in conformity to the laws of
nature. Physically and spiritually, during His earthly life, He was an example of what God
designed us humans to be through obedience to the laws of the Kingdom of Light.

The custom of dedicating first-born sons to God was an old one in Israel. It had always pointed
to the day when God would give Jesus to save rebellious humans. It was required that every
family dedicate its first born boy-child to the priesthood. In so doing, they created a living
picture of what God would do for humanity.

During the Exodus from Egypt, God reminded Israel of His requirement to dedicate the first-
born son of each family to Him. Symbolically, He called Israel His first born when He sent
Moses to Pharoah with the message: “The God of Israel says, Israel is my first-born son. Let
him go so that he can serve me. If you don’t, I am going to kill your first born son. It’s your
choice.” (Exodus 4:22,23)

When Moses delivered the message, Pharoah responded, “ Who is this that claims to be God,
and why should I obey Him? I am God around here. There’s no way I am going to let Israel

50
This was the “purification offering” required by the ceremonial laws given to Moses
by God in their journey through the “Wild Places” from Egypt to Canaan. (Luke 2:22)
According to Leviticus 12:2-6, after a woman gave birth to a child, she was to present a year old
lamb and a turtledove or a pigeon, or two pigeons and two turtledoves if she was poor, to the
priest at the door of the place of worship as an offering. This offering was part of the
purification ceremony that signaled that a wife was ready to begin physical intimacy with her
husband after the baby was born.

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go.” (Exodus 5:2) So, God showed him who was really God - and, it cost Egypt dearly.
Through one terrible miracle after another, God showed applied more and more pressure to
Egypt and made it clear to Pharoah who He was. Finally, he sent his Messengers to kill every
first- animal in the whole territory of Egypt - including the first-born man-child of every family
in the country.

The only way that Jewish children were spared was by carefully following God’s instructions.
Moses told the Israelites to put the blood of a sacrificial lamb on the doorposts of each house.
When the Messengers of death saw that sign on a house, they would skip it and go on.

When that terrible night was over, God told Moses, “From this point on, I want every first born
of any animal including humans dedicated to me. On the day that I killed all of the first-born of
Egypt, man and beast, I committed the firstborn in Israel to myself, as worship leaders. I have
the right to do that, because I am Lord and ruler.” (Exodus 13:2; Numbers 3:13) When the
services of the moveable tent church where Israel worshipped were established after they left
Egypt, God substituted the Levites as the worship leaders and caretakers. That didn’t negate
God’s claim on the firstborn. Instead, He allowed them to be ransomed back with the sacrifices
specified for the firstborn of each family.

Those sacrifices for each firstborn held special significance. They looked back to God’s
deliverance of the Israelite firstborn when the death Messengers flew through Egypt, and they
looked forward to the day when the Messiah would come and deliver us from sin. In order to
help us understand His relationship to God, one of the titles chosen for Jesus was “God’s first-
born.” He took the role of son to God, and first-born son among men, to show us the how His
blood would save us.

Here is how it all happened when Jesus was taken to Jerusalem for His firstborn dedication.

Parents dedicating their children were not an unusual sight in the Jerusalem temple. In fact, it
became almost mechanical for the priests involved. In assembly line fashion, parents lined up
with their children, gave their money to the priest, received a token blessing, and went their
way. At the end of the day, the priest couldn’t tell you who had been there, or even what they
had looked like - unless they had been wealthy or influential. Then the priests took notice and
went out of their way to fawn over them. Well, Mary and Joseph were not wealthy - that’s for
sure! Joseph was a working man - a master carpenter to be sure, but a blue collar worker none
the less. He and his young bride were nothing to get excited about. Not only were they dressed
in the rough clothes of the working class, it was obvious that they were from up in Galilee.
Hicks from the hinterland didn’t deserve any special attention; so when Joseph and Mary
presented the two doves as their offering, the priest gave it no thought. He briefly waved his
hand in a prefunctory blessing, took Jesus in his arms and raised Him before the alter, handed
Him back to His mother, wrote the name “Jesus” on the roll of the firstborn, and motioned for
the next parents to step forward.

That priest had no clue that the baby he briefly held was God, the King of the whole universe,

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the same one whose glory Moses had seen up on Mount Sinai. It never dawned in him that
Jesus was the one Moses had written about when he said “God is going to raise up a prophet for
you - he will be Jewish, just like I am. Listen to whatever He has to say.” (Acts 3:22) If he had
known, who knows what the reaction would have been - because this was the One who was
going to bring the whole Jewish system of worship to an end. Everything in the whole system
of sacrifices which the Jewish people performed so carefully pointed to what was about to
happen, and when it was done, it was done.

The brilliant blinding light that signaled the presence of God in the temple in Jerusalem had
long ago left. Now, in a new form, God was back in His temple - and nobody recognized Him.
Every alter erected to worship God since humans first rebelled had pointed to this baby. He
was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Adam and Eve that one would come who would defeat
Satan the Usurper. He was I AM in human form; Shiloh, the Prince of Peace; the “Bright and
Morning Star;” the legitimate heir to the throne of David. When the price was paid, and the
name of the one who had been the hope of the whole world since it fell to the Kingdom of
Darkness was entered into the birth records of Israel, no one was aware of who He was. The
ultimate leader of the worship of the whole universe, the One who sits at God the Father’s right
hand in heaven, visited His earthly temple incognito and no one recognized Him. Well, almost
no one.

“There was a man living in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. He was a man of integrity and
a committed citizen of God’s Kingdom. He was a man who filled with God’s Breath and who
lived every day looking for the coming of the Messiah. God’s Breath had revealed to Him that
before he died the Messiah would come, and that he would get to see Him.

One day, as he entered the temple to worship, he noticed a family offering their firstborn son for
dedication by the priest. One glance tells him that they are poor; that’s nothing unusual. But
there is something else that draws him to them. The same Spirit that revealed that he would see
Messiah now impresses Him with the fact that this baby is the One.

The priest has just returned Jesus to Mary, His mother, when suddenly Simeon pushes his way
through the crowd, walking like a man who has just seen heaven itself. In utter amazement he
watches as Simeon takes the baby and raising it to heaven offers it again to God. But this is no
prefunctory blessing! Simeon’s eyes sparkle and dance with joy as he calls out, “Lord, you
have kept your promise. Now I can die in peace. I have seen the One who will save us. The
One who you have prepared to save everyone, gentiles and Jews alike is here.”

Simeon didn’t stop there. Turning to Jesus’s amazed parents, he blessed them too. Then to
Mary he delivered the prophetic message, “Mark my words, this baby is going to make many
rise or fall in Israel. He is going to have a lot of enemies. They are going to break your heart
by what they do to Him. But, God is going to use Him to reveal what is truly in the hearts of
each individual man and woman on earth.”

As he finished speaking, another voice spoke from the crowd. Anna, a prophetess, pushed her

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way to the front and confirmed what Simeon said. Like the proudest grandmother on earth, she,
too, looked at the baby and poured out thanks to God that she had seen the Messiah.

These two may not have been priests. They were just laymen. But their study of the prophecies
concerning the Messiah had not been in vain. The tragedy was that the religious and secular
leadership of Israel weren’t there worshiping as well. They too had studied the same
prophecies. But, their heart wasn’t in it. So, they missed the opportunity to be there welcoming
Him when He arrived.

That’s not so unusual. The same attitudes prevail today. There are things happening on earth
that have the attention of every being in heaven riveted on earth. Yet they occur without most
religious people having any idea what is going on - that includes scholars and lay people,
leaders and followers alike. It is ironic that people will acknowledge the Jesus of history, then
ignore what He is doing today. Think about all of the obvious ways He is overlooked: in the
teachings of His word about how to live our daily lives; in those less fortunate than us whose
situation we have an opportunity to change. We can’t be too critical of the people living then.
Because, anything that calls out for us to take our focus off of our selves and to invest in a
spiritual cause that might cost us something is ignored today as easily as it was 2000 years ago.
The whole idea of sacrifice for others and for God is as unpopular now as it was then. Jesus, as
present today in unpopular and unattractive ways as He was then, is just as overlooked and
rejected by us.

Mary spent a lot of time thinking about Simeon’s prophecy about Jesus. It covered a lot of
ground. As she looked at Jesus and remembered the shepherds who had arrived unannounced
with the story and message of the Messenger’s appearance to them, she was grateful and happy
for God’s confirmation of who Jesus really was. As she thought about it, she realized that
Simeon’s prophecy paralleled what she had heard of Isaiah’s predictions about the Messiah. “A
volunteer is going to appear on the trunk of Jesse,” he had written, “an unexpected Shoot is
going to pop up out of his roots. He is going to be filled with God’s Breath and therefore wise
and understanding, full of good counsel. He is going to be a man who is strong in His
convictions. He will make His relationship with God a priority. He will keep Himself filled
with knowledge of God and His Kingdom, and will be loyal to Him in all areas of His life. He
will be a man of integrity because He knows God intimately, so God will be able to lead in all
aspects of His life.” (Isaiah 11:1-5)

“Humanity, walking in darkness, has seen a brilliant light. Living in the constant shadow of
death in the Kingdom of Darkness, it has suddenly bathed them in the radiant flare of His
presence. A Child has been born to all of us in darkness, the Light. He carries the authority of
the Kingdom of Light on His broad shoulders. Among His names are, ‘Almighty God,’ ‘Father
of Eternity,’ ‘The Ruler Who Brings Peace,’ ‘Amazingly Incredible Counselor.’” (Isaiah 9:2-6)

In spite of all this, Mary, herself, didn’t understand Jesus’ reason for coming to earth. Simeon
had predicted that He would be a light bringing light to Jew and Gentile alike. The Messengers
of Light had announced His birth as joyful Good News. Yet it would be over thirty years before

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