Therefore
the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold a virgin will be with
child and bear a Son and she will call His name Immanuel. He will eat
curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose
good. Isaiah 7:14-15
And
He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death;
because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
Isaiah 53:9
You are fairer than the sons of men; Grace is poured upon Your lips; Therefore God has blessed you forever. Psalm 45:2
And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. Luke 2:40
When
Jesus was born to woman, He did not come as part man and part God. He
was fully man and fully God, the second Person in the Trinity. He was
born a helpless human babe, just like you and I were, but He was not a
son of Adam. He was not born with a sin nature. His was born in the
image of His Father. He was perfect in every way and completely without
sin.
Jesus went through the same human development as the rest of
us, because He was fully man. He went through the ups and downs of
every stage of life. It is hard for me to wrap my head around, but He
had to learn how to do things. Here is the One through whom all things
were made. He spoke and things happened….big things....like solar
systems! He had been from everlasting. But just like the
rest of us, He had to learn to roll over, crawl, walk, talk, and feed
Himself…all of it. He got to experience parents, little brothers and
sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and nosey neighbors. He was confronted
with ALL facets of human life. He endured suffering, pain, and rejection
beyond anything we can imagine. He knows what it is like to go through
things. But…and it’s a big but…He did it all without sin.
“Who did no sin, neither was any guile found in His mouth.” 1 Peter 2:22
“This
High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all the
same testings we do, yet He did not sin.” Hebrews 4:15
People
often speculate on when Jesus knew “to refuse evil and choose good." We
know from the following passage that He was completely aware of who He
was and who His Father was by the time He was twelve…
“And
the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the
grace of God was upon Him. Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year
at the Feast of Passover. And when He became twelve, they went up there
according to the custom of the Feast; and as they were returning, after
spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in
Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in
the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him
among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find Him,
they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. Then, after three days they
found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both
listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were
amazed at His understanding and His answers.
When they saw Him, they
were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have you treated
us this way? Behold your father and I have been looking anxiously for
You.”
And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me?
Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”…..And Jesus
kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
Luke 2:40, 45-49, 52
On an aside...I get a kick out of Mary
and Joseph being worried about Jesus. They were acting like typical
parents.....to the SON OF GOD! Can you imagine the legion of angels He
had around Him? You know they were all begging for guard duty! I can
picture the Archangel Michael with his sword drawn the whole time,
ready to attack anyone or anything that dared to threaten His Lord!
The
verse that began the above narrative is Luke 2:40. I want to take a
closer look because we sometimes miss little nuggets in our English
translations.
And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. Luke 2:40
The
word in this verse for spirit is the Greek word pneuma, which most often used in Scripture to name the third person of
the triune God, the Holy Spirit. And here is what we are told in Isaiah
about the Branch/Jesus and the Spirit of the Lord:
"Then a
shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots
will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit
of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear
of the Lord….”Isaiah 11:1-3
Is it possible for us to gain any insights from Scripture regarding Jesus' understanding of good and evil as a little child? The following prophecies give us a clue it was much earlier than twelve years old…
"You
are He who brought Me forth from the womb; You made me trust when upon
My mother’s breasts. Upon You I was cast from birth; You have been my
God from my mother’s womb." Psalm 22:9-10
"Therefore
the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold a virgin will be with
child and bear a Son and she will call His name Immanuel. He will eat
curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose
good." Isaiah 7:14-15
Curds
and honey were common foods for people to eat in Bible times. They were
also the first foods a baby was given to eat as “solid food.” Honey
would be given to the baby first. They would then graduate to curds. To paraphrase
with that in mind… “He will eat baby food at the time He knows enough to
refuse evil and choose good.”
These
verses tell us Jesus would know from the womb, and from a very early
age He would know to refuse evil and choose good. Why would this
surprise us when His forerunner, John the Baptist, leaped for joy in his
mother’s womb when he heard Mary’s voice? He was also filled with the
Holy Spirit in his mother’s womb. So why would anything surprise us as
far as what Jesus knew and when He knew it? But here is what we know beyond any
doubt….. our Lamb was without spot or blemish. He was perfect and became
sin for us....
He made Him Who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21
But with precious blood, as a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1:19
And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation. Hebrews 5:9
May each day of this Christmas season be a precious gift to you and your family.
God bless you!!
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