Thursday, March 17

THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2016

Numbers 26:1–51

Luke 2:36–52

Psalm 60:1–12

Proverbs 11:15

 

 

“After the [Passover] festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it.  Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends.  When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.  After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.  Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.  When his parents saw him, they were astonished.  His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

 

“Why were you searching for me?” he asked.  “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”  But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

 

Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.  But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.  And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

[Luke 2:43–52]

 

 

In this incident, we find some confusion among Jesus’s parents, as He began to reveal more about His earthly purpose and His heavenly connection.  We may easily identify with Joseph and Mary, who might have become justifiably concerned after losing their son among the Festival crowd.  Their separation lasted three days!  While we may not know the specific reason for this timing, it does parallel the three days of separation that Jesus endured upon His crucifixion, except here He had walked away from His earthly father and mother.

 

Jesus’s parents bring a very natural question to Him, looking to know why He had troubled them with this escapade.  Jesus’s matter-of-fact reply foreshadowed the responses that He would give during his adult ministry, pointing to His relational intimacy with His Father.  Here, as later, His observers struggled to understand the depth of this relationship and its crucial implications.  They wondered how He had achieved such great understanding of spiritual matters without having “studied.”

 

Reflecting on these verses, it makes me think of how Christ-followers should also demonstrate an easy closeness with our Father.  Given that Jesus needed His Father, we recognize how desperately we do as well.  It points to the heartfelt realization of Psalm 73:23-26, where we read:

 

“Yet I am always with you;

    you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

    and afterward you will take me into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

    And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

    but God is the strength of my heart

    and my portion forever.”

 

 

Also, these verse encourage us to always be about the Father’s business, reminding us of Matthew 6:33:  “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  Placing Kingdom priorities in our lives should follow from our connection with our Father, bringing us joy as we complete the purposes for which He created us.

 

Finally, today’s verses close with the multiple dimensions of maturity that we seek for our young people:  wisdom (intellectual growth), stature (physical growth), favor with God (spiritual growth), and favor with man (social growth).  We will be well-served to seek maturity in these areas as well, taking care of our minds and bodies and building solid relationships with God and other people.  In Jesus, we see beautiful wholeness, free of shame or self-loathing.

 

In A. W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God, he writes about the “blessedness of possessing nothing.”  Pointing to Abraham, Tozer explains that, in God, we may possess nothing but have everything.  Jesus also provides a great example of this God-centeredness – relying on and feasting on His presence.  If we do the same, we will be rich indeed.

 

 

Lord Jesus, thank You for showing us such a great example of seeking first Your Father and the Kingdom.  Thank You for making Yourself poor on the earth and particularly on the Cross so that we might become rich in knowing God.  Send us Your Spirit to enliven and teach our hearts to follow You in obedience and to discover intimacy with our Father.  To You be all praise, honor, and glory forever!  In Your Name, we pray.  Amen.

 

 

“This Is My Father’s World”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9dWMTxw290

 

 

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