Truth About Christmas - Part 3

They needed to follow the Law. Now that Jesus had been born to Mary and Joseph, His parents were under strict requirements to follow the Law of Moses. Mary and Joseph were both decedents of David, meaning they were Jewish and had to follow the Law.

Found in Leviticus 2:2-8, the Law said that any woman that bore a male child was ceremoniously unclean for seven days. Then on the eighth day, according to the Law, Jesus was brought to a rabbi in Bethlehem and circumcised. Mary would then have to go through another thirty-three days of purification to be considered completely clean.

So after a total of forty-one days, Mary, Joseph and Jesus leave Bethlehem and travel to Jerusalem according, once again, to the Law. The Law stated they were to present the first born male child to the Lord and offer a sacrifice. The sacrifice of two turtle doves shows just how poor Joseph and his family was because that was the minimum sacrifice that could be made.

Luke 2:39 tells us that after the sacrifice was made in Jerusalem, that Mary, Joseph and Jesus left Jerusalem and went home to Nazareth. They did not go back to Bethlehem. They went home, not to the inn. This means within the first two months of Jesus being born they are back home in Nazareth. This will have significant importance when we look at the wise men and their introduction into the story tomorrow.

Have a great day and God bless.