|  | | Jan. 3, 2010 Student Guide | | |
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| Sunday, January 3rd
Luke 2:22-39 – “Witness to Hope”
Student Lesson Once it was confirmed that I was pregnant with our first child, I thought the “birth day” would never come! It was like having the gestation period of an elephant---eighteen months! After he was born I thought he (nor I) would ever sleep through the night. Then I thought he would never sit up. Never cut a tooth. Never walk. Never talk. I thought I would never have a minute to myself. That child is now in college. Time does pass.
Waiting for something to happen can be a test of patience, endurance and faith. How we wait can reveal our character. The two people in our scripture lesson for today are wonderful examples of people who knew how to wait. They waited with hope and a sense of expectation. Because of that they were blessed beyond those expectations.
Luke wants us, the reader, to understand that Jesus was born into a family that adhered strictly to the Jewish law: circumcision, redemption of the first-born and purification.
Every Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day after birth. The ceremony was so sacred that it could even be carried out on the Sabbath. On that day a boy received his name.
According to the Law (Ex. 13:2) every firstborn male, both human and animal, were to be dedicated to the Lord (Ex. 13:12-13). The animals were sacrificed, but the humans were to serve God throughout their lives. (The Levites actually served in the place of all the firstborn males in Israel). Through a ceremony called the Redemption of the Firstborn the parents could “buy back” their son from God by giving the priest five shekels.
For forty days, Mary had not been allowed to enter the Temple or share in any religious ceremony. Now she appeared in the Temple to offer sacrifice. The prescribed sacrifice was a lamb for the burnt offering and young pigeon for a sin offering. She offered a pigeon in place of the lamb, technically called The Offering of the Poor.
Against this backdrop enters Simeon. Scripture says he was “righteous and devout” and he was waiting. Some Jews were waiting for the day they would attain supreme world greatness. Many were waiting for a king of David’s line to arise and revive the old glories of the past. Simeon, through prayer, worship and in humble and faithful expectation was waiting for the day when God would comfort his people. God had promised him that his life would not end before he had seen God’s own Anointed King. He obeyed the moving of the Holy Spirit and entered the temple courts. His wait was over. He witnessed God’s salvation both for the Gentiles as well as for Jews.
Simeon was waiting with expectation. How is your “waiting attitude”? Is it expectant? Are you listening as you wait? Are you ready to be obedient to the moving of the Holy Spirit?
At the very moment of Simeon’s blessing the prophetess Anna enters the scene. Luke gives us her lineage---another Jewish connection. Anna was of the tribe of Asher. Not a very important tribe but an ancestor of Jacob by Leah’s maidservant Zilpah. Luke also wants us to know that she was old. Some translations say she was an eighty-four year old widow and some say she had been a widow for eighty-four years. Either way, she was old!
Old and widowed sounds depressing regardless of the century, doesn’t it? But it depends upon the “waiting attitude”! Anna made the temple her permanent home. Possibly she lived in one of the rooms surrounding the temple precinct. She made worship, prayer and fasting her occupation. She had known sorrow and she had not grown bitter and though she was old she had never ceased to hope. Like Simeon, she had been waiting for the Messianic Kingdom with expectation. She saw the child, gave thanks to God and spread the good news “to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”
© 2010 First Baptist Church of Wilmington, NC
Anna was waiting with a sense of worship. Have circumstances in your life caused you to become hopeless? Anna’s life of worship kept her hopeful. It gave her a thankful heart. LOOK LIKE JESUS: Putting It Into Practice
Choose one or more of the exercises below and do them during the week. Talk about your experience next week when you gather together. Encourage one another to look more like Jesus. □ BEING. Are there areas of your life that have become dark and hopeless? Allow God’s light to shine in as you confess your fears and focus on worshipping Him.
□ KNOWING. Learn more about Old Testament requirements covered in today’s scripture by reading Leviticus 5:11, 12:2-8; Exodus 13:2, 12-15; Numbers 3:11-13, 8:16-18. □ DOING. Need a “Holy Makeover” to your waiting attitude? Consider memorizing Psalm 5:3: “In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” Consider adding Psalm 130:5: “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.” © 2010 First Baptist Church of Wilmington, NC |
Sunday, January 3rd
Luke 2:22-39 – “Witness to Hope”
Student Lesson Once it was confirmed that I was pregnant with our first child, I thought the “birth day” would never come! It was like having the gestation period of an elephant---eighteen months! After he was born I thought he (nor I) would ever sleep through the night. Then I thought he would never sit up. Never cut a tooth. Never walk. Never talk. I thought I would never have a minute to myself. That child is now in college. Time does pass.
Waiting for something to happen can be a test of patience, endurance and faith. How we wait can reveal our character. The two people in our scripture lesson for today are wonderful examples of people who knew how to wait. They waited with hope and a sense of expectation. Because of that they were blessed beyond those expectations.
Luke wants us, the reader, to understand that Jesus was born into a family that adhered strictly to the Jewish law: circumcision, redemption of the first-born and purification.
Every Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day after birth. The ceremony was so sacred that it could even be carried out on the Sabbath. On that day a boy received his name.
According to the Law (Ex. 13:2) every firstborn male, both human and animal, were to be dedicated to the Lord (Ex. 13:12-13). The animals were sacrificed, but the humans were to serve God throughout their lives. (The Levites actually served in the place of all the firstborn males in Israel). Through a ceremony called the Redemption of the Firstborn the parents could “buy back” their son from God by giving the priest five shekels.
For forty days, Mary had not been allowed to enter the Temple or share in any religious ceremony. Now she appeared in the Temple to offer sacrifice. The prescribed sacrifice was a lamb for the burnt offering and young pigeon for a sin offering. She offered a pigeon in place of the lamb, technically called The Offering of the Poor.
Against this backdrop enters Simeon. Scripture says he was “righteous and devout” and he was waiting. Some Jews were waiting for the day they would attain supreme world greatness. Many were waiting for a king of David’s line to arise and revive the old glories of the past. Simeon, through prayer, worship and in humble and faithful expectation was waiting for the day when God would comfort his people. God had promised him that his life would not end before he had seen God’s own Anointed King. He obeyed the moving of the Holy Spirit and entered the temple courts. His wait was over. He witnessed God’s salvation both for the Gentiles as well as for Jews.
Simeon was waiting with expectation. How is your “waiting attitude”? Is it expectant? Are you listening as you wait? Are you ready to be obedient to the moving of the Holy Spirit?
At the very moment of Simeon’s blessing the prophetess Anna enters the scene. Luke gives us her lineage---another Jewish connection. Anna was of the tribe of Asher. Not a very important tribe but an ancestor of Jacob by Leah’s maidservant Zilpah. Luke also wants us to know that she was old. Some translations say she was an eighty-four year old widow and some say she had been a widow for eighty-four years. Either way, she was old!
Old and widowed sounds depressing regardless of the century, doesn’t it? But it depends upon the “waiting attitude”! Anna made the temple her permanent home. Possibly she lived in one of the rooms surrounding the temple precinct. She made worship, prayer and fasting her occupation. She had known sorrow and she had not grown bitter and though she was old she had never ceased to hope. Like Simeon, she had been waiting for the Messianic Kingdom with expectation. She saw the child, gave thanks to God and spread the good news “to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”
© 2010 First Baptist Church of Wilmington, NC
Anna was waiting with a sense of worship. Have circumstances in your life caused you to become hopeless? Anna’s life of worship kept her hopeful. It gave her a thankful heart. LOOK LIKE JESUS: Putting It Into Practice
Choose one or more of the exercises below and do them during the week. Talk about your experience next week when you gather together. Encourage one another to look more like Jesus. □ BEING. Are there areas of your life that have become dark and hopeless? Allow God’s light to shine in as you confess your fears and focus on worshipping Him.
□ KNOWING. Learn more about Old Testament requirements covered in today’s scripture by reading Leviticus 5:11, 12:2-8; Exodus 13:2, 12-15; Numbers 3:11-13, 8:16-18. □ DOING. Need a “Holy Makeover” to your waiting attitude? Consider memorizing Psalm 5:3: “In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” Consider adding Psalm 130:5: “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.” © 2010 First Baptist Church of Wilmington, NC |
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