Saturday-December 14
What happened when He came? To answer that question we must
ask ourselves what happened "to whom"? We have seen that there were
three groups that meet Him after He came, shepherds, Simeon and Anna and the
magi. There were also individuals who are mentioned in the story before He
came, such as Elizabeth, Zacharias and John. We have not examined their story
as of yet. We have looked at Joseph and Mary who were the first to interact
with the baby. When the groups, pre, present and post birth, are examined there
is an overlaying theme that is seen. There is movement or a response by people
and that response is often described as a joyous reaction.
The theme of joy and rejoicing is expressed in a variety of
ways. Matthew writes the following concerning the wise men:
Matthew 2:10 (KJV 1900)
10When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great
joy.
The verbs of the sentence are "they saw" and
"they rejoiced". When parsing a verb one of the important consideration
is the "kind of action". The most common is either the active or
passive tense. When it is the active the subject, the wise men, are doing the
action of seeing to the star. But the word "rejoiced" is in the
passive tense meaning that the action is being done to them. The rejoicing and
the desire to rejoice came to them when they saw the star! Hope, faith and
trust came upon them. It entered into their minds which caused their hearts to
be filled with intense joy! The rejoicing was over the top! It was with
"exceeding great joy"!
Matthew 2:11 (KJV 1900)
11And when they were come into the house, they saw the young
child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they
had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and
frankincense, and myrrh.
Here Matthew uses three pair of participles and verbs to
describe their actions when coming into the presence of the child. A participle
is a word that is formed from a verb which can be used as
an adjective.[1]
In this verse the three participles are describing their initial like actions and
then what they do after that action.
1. And when they were come (participle) into the
house, they
saw (verb) the young child with Mary
his mother and
2. (and when they) fell down (participle)
and (they)
worshipped (verb) him
3. and when they opened (participle)
their treasures,
they presented (verb) unto him gifts;
gold, and
frankincense, and myrrh.
The gifts will become the finances that will allow Joseph,
Mary and the baby to travel to Egypt to escape the hand of Herod and back to Nazareth after Herod dies. The
gifts are used for the work of God!
This pattern will happen though out the life of the Lord.
The Gospel records many intendances where individuals come into the presence Jesus
and their response is to fall at His feet (Mark 5:22-23, 5:25-34, 7:25-29,
9:20-27; Luke 5:1-11, 12-16, 17:11-19; John 11:32). Other times it is recorded
that Jesus is worshipped! This supports the believe that Jesus is God because
He allows the worship and does not stop them even though He knows the scripture
that states
14For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a
jealous God: (Exodus 34:14 (KJV 1900)
If He was not the only God, that is Jehovah, then He would
not allow any worship to Himself! Thus He is not another God neither the a
second god in the triune godhead. The
worship by the Wiseman at His birth is not stopped by Mary but become the
starting point that will lead many to worship Him throughout His time on earth
when they are in His presence (Matthew 8:2; 9:18; 14:33; 15:25; 18:26; 20:20;
28:9, 17; Mark 5:6; Luke 24:52; John 9:38).
This pattern will continue after His resurrection and ascension.
When we read the apoligic writings of John in Revelation 4:10-11 the same
pattern is seen as at the birth of Jesus.
1. The four and twenty elders fall down
before him that
sat on the throne,
2. and worship him that liveth for
ever and ever,
3. and cast their crowns before the
throne, saying,
11Thou
art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and
honour and power: for thou hast created all things,
and
for thy pleasure they are and were created.
These three
underlined words are verbs. As verbs they give the actions of the elders. As at
His birth they fall down, worship Him (Jesus) and cast their crowns toward Him.
There is an important detail to understand concerning the parsing of the verbs.
The verb fall is in the future tense meaning it will happen in a future
time. The verbs worship and cast are in the present. The present
tense is where the writer portrays an action in process or a state of being
with no assessment of the action’s completion.[2] That
means that the worship to the Lord and the casting of crowns will have a time
that they start but there will be no stopping of the worship to Him either the
honoring Him by laying down of their crowns before Him. The reason the elders
even have crowns is because of the action of the Savior working through them.
Thus they are His crowns from the beginning. The laying down of the crowns is
the same as the wise men laying down their gifts before the baby! The gifts of
gold, frankincense and myrrh were His from the beginning since He is the
creator of the earth. All these gifts come from the earth itself like the gold
or from what the earth tree's produce like the frankincense and myrrh.
As we summarize our thoughts we see that the proper response
when we are in the presence of the Lord is to:
1. Fall down. This is the visible action
that shows the
inward attitude of humility and submission to the
Lord.
2. Worship Him.
3. Present our gifs to Him. This is the
treasures of
time, talents and finances that are given for
the
work of God.
This is learned from the past actions of the wise men to the
future actions of the twenty four elders.
Your Response:
Take time to slowly read and mediate on the thoughts that you have been
reading. Examine yourself. When you are in the presence of God do you humble yourself?
Do you submit to His commands? Do you worship Him? Have you given Him the
talents that you possess? If you answered yes to any of the above questions make
a change. When you are in a church service and are sensing the presence do
these actions. If you are in a time of prayer and you sense His presence begin
to do these actions. As you continue to follow these actions you will find that
God's presence will stay lingering with you.
[2]
Michael S. Heiser, Glossary of
Morpho-Syntactic Database Terminology (Logos Bible Software, 2005).
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