Let's Ponder These Things Too

One of the biggest tragedies of this time of year is how busy people become. If they do think of Christ at all, it's just for an hour at church on Christmas Eve.

We read in the gospels how Mary pondered the supernatural things done in her and through her. Luke 2:19 (BBE) shows that she kept mulling over all the events of Christ's birth in her mind. "But Mary kept all these words in her heart, and gave much thought to them."

Certainly the prophecies she heard made her wonder how they would play out. We read in Luke 1:30-33 (BBE), "And the angel said to her, 'Have no fear, Mary, for you have God's approval. And see, you will give birth to a son, and his name will be Jesus. He will be great, and will be named the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God will give him the kingdom of David, his father: He will have rule over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.'"

A man also prophesied of Christ to Mary in Luke 2:34 and 35 (BBE). "And Simeon gave them his blessing and said to Mary, his mother, 'See, this child will be the cause of the downfall and the lifting up of great numbers of people in Israel, and he will be a sign against which hard words will be said; (And a sword will go through your heart;) so that the secret thoughts of men may come to light.'"

But Simeon wasn't the only one speaking God's words to those in the temple. Luke 2:36-38 (BBE) reads, "And there was one, Anna, a woman prophet, the daughter of Phanuel, of the family of Asher (she was very old, and after seven years of married life She had been a widow for eighty-four years); she was in the Temple at all times, worshipping with prayers and going without food, night and day. And coming up at that time, she gave praise to God, talking of him to all those who were waiting for the freeing of Jerusalem."

The prophecies from Simeon came to pass in Christ's life. Mary herself saw her firstborn rejected by Israel and crucified. John 19:25-27 (BBE)describes the scene.  "Now by the side of the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. So when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple who was dear to him, he said to his mother, 'Mother, there is your son!' Then he said to the disciple, 'There is your mother!' And from that hour the disciple took her to his house."

This shows us the importance of those scriptures quoted in Christmas pageants each year. By pausing and analyzing them, we gain more from the words.

I'll be writing about the certainty of prophecies in You Think You're Going to Heaven? Our faith isn't based on wishful thinking and hopes based on our desires for happiness. Scripture is God's Word.

On Thursday, I'll post about the arrival of Israel's Holy One.

When Did the Wise Men Show up?

I know that Christmas is over but there's one pet peeve of mine which I'd like to air. In all of the pageants I've seen, the three wise men show up immediately after the shepherds. But a careful reading of the scriptures shows that Jesus must have been two years old at the most when these gentlemen arrived.

Beginning in Matthew two, verses one and two, we can tell that it wasn't that very night but in a general period of time. The Bible in Basic English renders them this way. "Now when the birth of Jesus took place in Beth-lehem of Judaea, in the days of Herod the king, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, 'Where is the King of the Jews whose birth has now taken place? We have seen his star in the east and have come to give him worship.'" People almost always met with kings and rulers during the daytime, as it is today with our politicians.

Reading the next few verses, it's obvious that some days had passed because the wise men journeyed to Bethlehem to make sure of the location of the Christ child. By that time, Mary and Joseph were living in a house.

The wise men were warned by an angel to not inform Herod where the child was so they went home by a different route. It also took time for Herod to figure out that he'd been tricked by the men.

An angel also told Joseph and Mary to flee to Egypt since Herod would seek to kill the young child. We see just how paranoid Herod was in verse sixteen. "Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was very angry; and he sent out, and put to death all the male children in Beth-lehem and in all the parts round about it, from two years old and under, acting on the knowledge which he had got with care from the wise men."

This proves that all the events happened over an extended period rather than the same night. It's only for theatrical convenience that the pageant shows everything happening in one night.

The reason I'm writing about this discrepancy in our modern storytelling is because people don't know how to read their Bibles correctly. In my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven?, I'll point out how people need to derive each verse's full meaning rather than reading it in a literal way.