Mature and Ready

January 14

(Luke 2:42-52 NIV)  "When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. {43} After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. {44} Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. {45} When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. {46} After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. {47} Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. {48} 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." {49} "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" {50} But they did not understand what he was saying to them. {51} Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. {52} And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men."

(Luke 3:23 NIV) “Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.”

(Numbers 4:23 NIV) “Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who come to serve in the work at the Tent of Meeting.”

When the eternal God of heaven entered time as a human, He did not come as a man and preach His message for as long as it took to get it across. Instead, God came as a baby and grew to manhood in a family. Even though Jesus seemed to know who He was at twelve years of age, He did not leave home and begin His ministry until about age thirty. This may seem odd to us, but in the Jewish culture of Christ’s day, thirty was looked upon as the age when manhood was achieved. A trade had been learned and the young male was now mature and ready for the responsibility of a family. Thirty was also the age at which men would typically be seen as ready to serve as priests. And so our Lord and Savior waited in patient humility for His time to come. He did God’s will, but did it in God’s way, and in God’s time. This is still a good practice for the child of God today. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day