Faith Filled Family Magazine September 2016 | Page 91

Let me ask you the reader some
important questions. When
Jesus was born, in the humblest
of maternity clinics one could
imagine, what impact did this tiny
baby have on the shepherds?

in Bethlehem, send his soldiers
to massacre all male babies up
to the age of two?

Let us go back 3500 years to
when Moses was born, did not
the Pharaoh order all the midLuke 2:8 ESV ‘And there were wives to kill any male babies
shepherds living out in the fields born to Jews? (Read Exodus
nearby, keeping watch over their 1: 15-22) God had a plan for
flocks at night. An angel of the Moses, a type of ‘Messiah’.
Lord appeared to them, and the He was born of Jewish slaves,
glory of the Lord shone around brought up an Egyptian Prince,
them, and they were terrified. exiled for murder when he was
But the angel said to them, ‘Do 40, lived as a Midianite shepherd
not be afraid. I bring you good until he was 80, then began his
news that will cause great joy for ministry of setting the Hebrews
all the people. Today in the town free from slavery and to deliver
of David a Saviour has been them to the promised land, he
born to you; he is the Messiah, died completing his task at 120
the Lord. This will be a sign to years of age.
you: you will find a baby wrapped
in cloths and lying in a manger.’ David, a teenager when God
When the angels had left them gave him the grisly job of killand gone into heaven, the shep- ing Goliath, which enabled King
herds said to one another, ‘Let’s Saul and his army to defeat the
go to Bethlehem and see this Philistines. (Read 1 Samuel 17:
thing that has happened, which 1-54)
the Lord has told us about.’ So
they hurried off and found Mary As David grew up into a man,
and Joseph, and the baby, who because of his faith in Yahweh,
was lying in the Manger. When he consistently defeated the
they had seen him, they spread enemies of Israel. Eventually
the word concerning what he became their most loved and
had been told them about this renowned King. God called him
child, and all who heard it were ‘A man after my own heart’; even
amazed at what the shepherds when David committed serious
said to them. But Mary treasured sins, he humbled himself and
up all these things and pondered acknowledged his crimes and
them in her heart. The shepherds submitted to the only person he
returned, glorifying and praising trusted, God himself.
God for all the things they had
heard and seen, which were just The books of Samuel and the
as they had been told.’
Psalms show that David’s relationship with God deepened
Why did wise men from the over the years, mostly through
east travel hundreds of miles to trials, persecution and testing.
acknowledge baby Jesus with
kingly gifts? Why did Herod, Has your relationship with Jesus
who, when hearing the promised deepened and matured over the
‘King of the Jews’ had been born years, is He still your first love?

What can we learn from these
men and women of God, regardless of how young or old they
are?
Samuel, the Prophet Eli’s
apprentice, began to hear God’s
voice as a child and became one
of Israel’s greatest prophets.
Mary was a teenager when God
ensured that the Messiah would
be conceived and grow within
her virgin womb. She was likely
in her late forties when she saw
her beloved son crucified, and it
was only then that she began to
understand the prophesies God
had given her. She experienced
heartbreak, but also great joy in
the resurrection. Her faith and
wisdom helped the early church
to stay strong even when they
suffered so much persecution at
the hands of the Jewish leaders
and the Romans.
Job 32:7 NSB I said: ‘Let days
speak, and many years teach
wisdom.’
John the Baptist, the cousin of
Jesus was dedicated from birth
to serve God, with no earthly
reward. The greatest day of his
life was to recognise Jesus as
the Messiah, and then baptise
him in the Jordan. Yet this great
‘man of G od’ likened to Elijah the
prophet, was, within a couple
years, beheaded by Herod Antipas, as his wife’s price for giving
her daughter Salome to him!
The disciples of Jesus would
have been young men when
they began to leave everything
to follow him. Three years later
they are anointed to preach the
Gospel soon after seeing their
beloved Rabbi crucified. Yet
when the Holy Spirt fell on them,