Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Infant King in a Violent World: Herod's Atrocities, Simeon, Anna, and the Gospel for Israel and the Nations

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The Infant King in a Violent World: Herod's Atrocities, Simeon, Anna, and the Gospel for Israel and the Nations · Reformed Thinking

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So I want you to imagine a paranoid dying dictator.
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OK, setting a dark scene right off the bat.
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Yeah, but picture this. He has already strangled his own
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sons. He has murdered his favorite
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wife in this fit of, you know, psychotic jealousy.
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And now from his deathbed, his body is just rotting from a
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horrific disease, and he issues one final decree.
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It's a. Completely unhinged mandate.
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Unhinged is putting it lightly. He orders his soldiers to round
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up thousands of innocent civilians, lock them inside a
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massive stadium and execute them the very minute he draws his
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last breath. Which is just chilling.
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Right. And he does this for one reason.
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He knows the country is going to celebrate his passing and he
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wants to ensure there are actual tears on the day of his funeral.
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Yeah, manufactured mourning through mass murder.
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Now, to anyone listening, that scenario probably sounds like
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something out of a dystopian novel or, I don't know, maybe a
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biography of a 20th century tyrant.
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But it's not. No, it is not a fictional story
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at all. That is the literal historical,
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geopolitical climate into which the infant Jesus was born.
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Which, you know, totally shatters that quaint greeting
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card image of the Nativity that gets recycled every December.
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Yeah, the cute little Manger scenes.
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Exactly. Wait, I shouldn't say that it's
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thought on. Rather, when you look at the
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historical accounts provided in Matthew and Luke, the glowing
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star and the quiet, calm animals just sort of vanish.
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They fade into the background pretty quickly.
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You are confronted with a historical landscape that is
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terrifying, gritty, bloody and fraught with absolute peril.
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It is by definition a cosmic war zone.
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Welcome to Reformed thinking. Today we are taking a deep dive
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into the unvarnished, historically grounded reality of
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the infancy narratives of Christ.
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And we're going to look specifically at Matthew chapter
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2, verses 13 through 18, and Luke chapter 2, verses 22
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through 38. The mission of this deep dive
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today is to strip away the airbrushed, comfortable pageants
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we are all so used to seeing. Yeah, the sanitized versions.
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Right, We have a stack of rigorous theological sources to
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examine today, and they present a really raw reality of the
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incarnation. The promised king did not enter
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a quiet political vacuum. Not at all.
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He entered a world defined by geopolitical tyranny, total
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human depravity, and massive spiritual warfare.
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And understanding that hostile environment changes how you read
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every single line of the text. It changes everything.
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To comprehend the magnitude of the king and the Manger, we
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first have to examine the chilling reality of the earthly
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ruler who is actively plotting to destroy him.
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So our focus has to shift from the quiet village of Bethlehem
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to the blood stained courts of Jerusalem.
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Right where Herod the Great sat on the throne.
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And we really need to spend some serious time analyzing Herod,
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because the geopolitical monster sitting on the throne in Judea
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is not some, you know, cartoon villain inserted into the text
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to make the story dramatic. No, he is a very real,
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incredibly calculating historical figure.
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The sources dive into his complex background and it is
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fascinating because it explains so much of his his deep
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insecurity. Yeah, his paranoia didn't come
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out of nowhere. Right by race, Herod was an
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Adumian Arab. His father was from the southern
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territory of Adumia and his mother was a Princess from
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Petra. So ethnically, the native Jewish
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population viewed him as a complete outsider.
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He was an interloper. Yeah, an interloper.
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He was not a son of David, yet religiously he was classified as
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Jewish. But that wasn't genuine, right?
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No, not at all. This is a result of historical
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coercion rather than genuine conviction.
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Back in 135 BCA, Hasmonean ruler named John Hercanese conquered
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the Adumian people. And he didn't give them much of
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A choice. Hercanas presented them with a
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brutal ultimatum. He basically said undergo
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circumcision and submit completely to Jewish law or face
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mass execution. Wow.
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Submit or die. So the Eduians capitulated.
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So Herod's religious identity was inherited from this forced
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conversion generations earlier. Yeah, it was a matter of
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historical convenience, a political mandate.
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He had no inward faith or devotion to the God of Israel.
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None. And culturally, he was
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thoroughly Greek. He spoke Greek, he embraced
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Hellenistic philosophy, and he spent vast amounts of resources
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trying to Hellenize Jerusalem. Building theaters and gymnasiums
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and all that. Right, much to the horror of the
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religious elite. But politically, where it really
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he counted? He was fiercely loyal to Rome.
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Surviving the chaotic, violent politics of the Roman Empire
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required ruthless pragmatism. Oh absolutely.
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The Mediterranean world was tearing itself apart in civil
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wars and Herod had to navigate those treacherous waters.
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And he was good at it. The most striking historical
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example of his cunning took place in the aftermath of the
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Battle of Actium. Such a wild story.
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It really is. Herod had been a staunch, loyal
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ally to Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
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He backed the wrong horse, essentially.
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Yeah, when Octavian, who would later become Augustus Caesar,
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defeated Anthony, Herod knew his head was on the chopping block.
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Because the standard Roman practice would be to execute the
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client kings who supported the losing side.
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Right. But instead of hiding or begging
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for mercy through envoys, Harrod takes a massive gamble, a huge
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risk. He travels to the island of
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Rhodes, stands before the victorious Octavian, and
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physically takes off his royal diadem.
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He just hands it over. He hands over the crown and
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says, in essence, I was a fiercely loyal friend to
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Anthony. I thought for him.
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I funded him. I will be just as useful a
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friend to you, Caesar. It's just staggering.
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He gambled his entire life on his own ruthless competence.
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And Octavian was taken aback by the sheer audacity of the move.
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Wasn't. He he was Octavian saw a man who
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was totally devoid of sentimentality and fully capable
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of maintaining iron control over a volatile region like Judea.
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So Octavian handed the crown back.
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He did. That moment solidified.
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Herod is a client king under the fist of Rome.
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He was untouchable from the outside.
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But as the years went on, that same ruthless survival instinct
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turned inward. His psychological state
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completely disintegrated. He began to see treason in his
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own family. The paranoia reached a fever
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pitch. He had his favorite sons,
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Alexander and Aristobulus, strangled in a fortress.
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Because he suspected they were plotting to take his throne.
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And he executed his favorite wife, Mary Omney, out of this
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psychotic jealousy, which was fed by rumors from his sister.
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The historical accounts tell us that the guilt and madness
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consumed him to the point where he would wander the halls of his
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palace in the middle of the night.
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Screaming Mary Omni's name. Yes, screaming for her, beating
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his servants because they could not bring her back from the
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dead. That descent into madness
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culminated in his final days. Just days before he died from a
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horrific, agonizing intestinal disease.
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He had his eldest son, Antipater executed.
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And then he issued that stadium order you described earlier.
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He commanded his troops to round up the most prominent Jewish
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notables from across the land, lock them inside the stadium at
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Jericho and execute them upon his death.
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He knew the Jewish nation would celebrate his demise, so he
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attempted to manufacture national mourning.
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Now, the order was disobeyed after he died, thankfully, but
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it provides this terrifying window into the state of his
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mind. He really does.
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When I think about a modern, cornered authoritarian dictator,
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someone who sees a coup in every single shadow, someone whose
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entire grip on reality is slipping away because they are
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terrified of losing control, they become utterly
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unpredictable. They rely on violence as their
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primary tool of communication. Spot on.
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Seeing Herod through this specific historical profile
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turns the massacre of the infant's set, Bethlehem from a
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mythical fable into a highly plausible, calculated act of
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state sponsored terror. It is the exact sort of thing a
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tyrant of that magnitude would do.
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The specific language Matthew uses to describe Herod's
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reaction when he realizes the Magi have outsmarted him is
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crucial, isn't it? Very much so.
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Matthew chapter 2, verse 16 uses the Greek phrase Elian thumathe
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translated as violently or exceedingly enraged.
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Yeah, this is a strong passive verb.
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It depicts a man who has been completely abandoned to his own
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wicked passions. He is bordering on the demonic.
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He is consumed by a rage that overrides any lingering human
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conscience. The slaughter of those male
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infants is not a fairy tale. It is textbook historical
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evidence of total depravity. And when we use that term, total
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depravity, we are talking about what humans are capable of when
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left entirely to their own devices.
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Right, without any restraining. When autonomous man is left
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without the restraining grace of God, he will commit unspeakable
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savagery to protect his own self worship.
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The human heart, unaffected by divine grace, is capable of
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monstrous evil. Herod, sitting on his throne
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ordering the brutal murder of toddlers in a small village just
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to eliminate a whispered, unconfirmed threat to his
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political stability, is the absolute pinnacle of human
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rebellion against God's sovereign King.
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Recognizing the sheer brutality of Herod's regime forces us to
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ask a massive question. How does God respond to this
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threat? Because if you are reading the
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narrative expecting a Hollywood climax, you anticipate the
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heavens splitting open. You expect an army of angels
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with flaming swords to descend and wipe Herod and soldiers off
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the map in a display of divine fury.
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But the response is not an overwhelming show of force.
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It is a quiet midnight flight. It is a stunning display of
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sovereign preservation that confounds human expectations of
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might. Matthew tells us that the Angel
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of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream with an urgent mandate.
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The Greek imperative used is agytheus, perlaberize, arise,
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take the child, and flee. There is no negotiation, no
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delay. The command requires immediate,
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unquestioning obedience. So Joseph wakes up, gathers Mary
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and the child, and sneaks out into the night, heading for
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Egypt. Under the cover of darkness.
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Now I have to push back here on behalf of anyone reading this
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text for the first time, because on the surface this looks like a
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weakness. It does look like a retreat.
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Why does the sovereign God of the universe, who spoke galaxies
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into existence, have his promised king sneak out the back
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door in the middle of the night? Why not strike Herod down
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instantly with a lightning bolt or a sudden aneurysm?
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God certainly possesses the capacity to do that.
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He possesses absolute authority over life and death.
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The choice not to strike Harrod down immediately is a deliberate
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theological maneuver. To me it feels like watching a
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chess grandmaster heavy. Well, when you play chess
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against a genuine master, sometimes they make a quiet
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defensive pawn move. To a novice watching the board,
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it looks like a retreat. It looks like they are scared or
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yielding ground. I see where you're going.
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But the Grandmaster operates on a completely different level of
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strategy. They know that one quiet,
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seemingly weak move actually secures the entire board,
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setting up an inescapable checkmate 20 moves later.
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Is that a fairway to look at the flight to Egypt?
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Spot on. I mean, you hit the nail on the
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head. It appears to be a retreat, a
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desperate evasion, but it is actually a massive theological
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statement. We have to examine Matthew's
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typological reasoning here. Great Matthew explicitly links
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this event to the prophet Hosea Chapter 11 verse 1, stating out
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of Egypt I called my son. So Jesus is not just running
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away to find a random safe place to hide until the political
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climate cools down. No, the geography is intensely
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deliberate. Jesus is recapitulating the
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entire history of the nation of Israel.
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Let's break that down. Consider the historical
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parallel. The nation of Israel went down
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into Egypt to escape a deadly famine.
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They fell into brutal bondage and God called them out of Egypt
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through the Exodus. But Israel failed in the
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wilderness. They grumbled.
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They rebelled. They turn to idolatry.
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They failed to be the obedient son.
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But Jesus is the true Israel. He is the faithful son who
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Florida State obeys, the Father where the entire nation failed.
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He is redoing the history of God's people, but doing it with
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absolute perfection. He succeeds in the exact places
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where the nation stumbled. Furthermore, this movement
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establishes Jesus as the greater Moses.
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The parallels are impossible to ignore.
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Let's lay those out. Moses was a Hebrew infant born
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under the genocidal decree of a paranoid Egyptian pharaoh who
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ordered all male babies thrown into the Nile River.
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And God preserved Moses through an unlikely escape in a basket.
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Right now look at Jesus. He is born under the genocidal
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decree of a paranoid King, Herod.
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God preserves Jesus through an unlikely escape in the dead of
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night. Just as Pharaoh could not
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destroy the infant Moses, Herod cannot destroy the infant Jesus.
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Which highlights the ongoing cosmic warfare we see
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established all the way back in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15.
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The perpetual battle between the seed of the woman and the seed
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of the serpent. Herod is acting as a willing
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agent of the Serpent, attempting to crush the promised seed
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before the child can grow to fulfill his redemptive mission.
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And the sovereign God thwarts the most powerful, ruthless man
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in Judea with a simple dream given to a peasant Carpenter.
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It proves that the raging of earthly rulers, no matter how
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heavily armed or politically entrenched, is completely vain
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against the decrees of God. God orchestrates history so
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precisely that even the murderous rage of a tyrant is
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utilized to fulfill ancient prophecy.
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But God's sovereign preservation of Jesus did not mean an absence
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of collateral suffering. And that's the hardest part of
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this text. The narrative shifts directly
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from the preserved king to the devastated mothers of Bethlehem.
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We are forced to look at the tears of Rama.
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Matthew does not look away from the corporate grief.
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He leaves the weeping right there on the page.
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He quotes Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 15.
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A voice was heard in Rama weeping and loud lamentation.
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Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted
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because they are no more. We need to establish the
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historical context of Rama because I think a lot of people
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miss why Matthew picks that specific geographic reference
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from Jeremiah's prophecy. Yeah, let's unpack that context.
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In its original historical setting, during the time of
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Jeremiah, Rama was a high altitude town about 5 miles
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north of Jerusalem. It served as a staging ground
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for the Babylonians. During the exile.
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Yes, when Nebuchadnezzar's army conquered Jerusalem and
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destroyed the temple, they marched the Jewish captives up
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to Rama. So it was a place of holding.
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A brutal holding place there, the captives were put in heavy
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chains and assembled before being deported into the
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punishing Babylonian exile. It was a place of immense
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national trauma, violence and weeping.
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Rachel, as the ancestral mother of the northern tribes, is
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depicted poetically by Jeremiah as weeping from her grave over
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the slaughter and deportation of her descendants.
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I want to address you, the listener, directly for a moment.
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We live in a modern culture that instinctively wants to put a
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positive in on tragedy. Always looking for the silver
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lining. Yeah, the quick therapeutic fix.
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The inspirational take away We often seek a religion that
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guarantees a pain free life, promising health and wealth if
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you just possess enough faith. Which is completely foreign to
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the biblical text. Completely.
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How does Matthew's raw, unvarnished inclusion of the
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severe trauma challenge our desire for a sanitized seeker?
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Sensitive faith because Matthew offers no immediate explanation
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or comforting platitude to the mothers of Bethlehem.
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He doesn't soften the blow. The slaughter happens, and the
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wailing just echoes through the text.
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If we connect this event to the broader redemptive narrative, we
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encounter the concept of census plenier, the fuller meaning of
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the text intended by the divine author.
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Unpack census plenier for us. Matthew was showing us that
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these tears in Bethlehem are the final agonizing labor pains of
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the Old Covenant era. The old economy, characterized
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by shadows and types, is passing away.
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The Old Covenant era was heavily characterized by exile, failure,
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physical tragedy, and the constant breaking of the law.
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The bitter weeping of Rachel was brought forward to the Mothers
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of Bethlehem. But God's answer to this
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intense, suffocating grief is not denial.
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It is not a shallow promise that things will feel better
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tomorrow. God's answer to grief is
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redemption. The tears are real, the trauma
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is acknowledged, but they do not have the final word in the
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cosmos. The tragedy paves the way for
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the new Covenant king who will conquer death itself.
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Christ enters a world where tyrants rule, children die, and
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mothers weep inconsolably. Precisely to absorb that curse
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and defeat it from the inside out.
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If a church preaches a gospel that ignores the slaughter of
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the innocents, it is preaching a false gospel that has no
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substantive answer for the actual bleeding horrors of the
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world. The incarnation means God
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stepped into the blood and the dirt of human suffering.
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Having seen the intense hostility of the state and the
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resulting tragedy, we now turn to Luke's gospel.
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And the contrast between the two accounts is really jarring.
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It's night and day we move from the bloody swords of Bethlehem
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to the quiet, obedient actions of the Holy Family inside the
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religious structures of Jerusalem.
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We are looking at the temple presentation.
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In Luke chapter 2, verses 22 through 24, Mary and Joseph
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bring Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to present him to the
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Lord. This scene is a display of
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meticulous legal adherence. They're fulfilling 2 specific
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binding Mosaic laws. Let's lay those out. 1st the
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purification of the mother which is outlined in Leviticus chapter
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12, and 2nd the redemption of the first born mandated in
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Exodus chapter 13. The sources highlight the
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specific offering they brought to the priest, a pair of
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turtledoves or two young pigeons.
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What does that specific detail reveal about their situation?
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It reveals the humble economic status of the family.
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They were poor. Very poor.
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The law in Leviticus required a family to bring a lamb for a
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burnt offering. However, it made a gracious
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concession for the impoverished. If you couldn't afford a lamb.
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Right. If the family was too poor to
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afford a lamb, they were permitted to bring 2 turtle
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doves. So the Lord of the Temple, the
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owner of all creation, enters his own temple, not as a wealthy
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aristocrat with a massive entourage, but in the arms of
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poverty. It's a staggering thought.
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I want to pause and push back on a theological point here because
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this specific text gets utilized in some very distinct ways
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today. I think I know where you're
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going with this. Some theological traditions
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attempt to point to this temple presentation of the infant Jesus
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as a biblical justification for the practice of infant baptism.
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Yes, they do, based on the rigorous sources we are looking
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at. Why is that reading historically
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and texturally inaccurate? That is a crucial distinction to
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make, and the sources address it clearly.
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This event has absolutely no connection to the New Testament
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sacrament of baptism. None at all.
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Luke is exceedingly specific in his language.
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This is the fulfillment of Old Covenant Jewish law regarding
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maternal purification after childbirth and the redemption of
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the physical first born male. To read baptism into this moment
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is anachronistic. It is about following the law of
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Moses to the absolute letter. What we are actually observing
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here is a brilliant foundational display of Christ's act of
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obedience. And when I hear the phrase
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active obedience, my modern brain automatically translates
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that to Jesus doing good deeds or Jesus being an active nice
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person. Which is how a lot of people
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read it. But we are talking about a
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strict legal category here, aren't we?
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We are Active obedience is a precise theological term.
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It refers to Christ's perfect lifelong submission to the law
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of God on behalf of his people. He didn't come just to die.
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Right. He did not come just to die for
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our sins, which is categorized as His passive obedience,
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suffering the penalty of the cross.
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He also came to live the perfect, flawless life that we
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failed to live under the Covenant of Works.
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So by being circumcised on the eighth day.
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And by being presented in the temple according to the
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Levitical Law, the sinless Son of God is willingly placing
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Himself under the strict legal obligations of the law.
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He is fulfilling every single demand of the contract that
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humanity broke. Yes, so that later his perfect
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law abiding righteousness can be imputed or legally credited to
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the elect. Our justification rests entirely
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on the fact that that Christ kept the law perfectly in our
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place. Starting from his infancy, he
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was perfectly obedient as an infant, as a child, as a
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teenager, and as an adult, securing A flawless record to
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hand his people. Inside the temple complex, you
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have this bustling, wealthy religious establishment.
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All the elites. You have priests, scribes and
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Pharisees walking around completely blind to the fact
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that the king of the universe has just arrived in the arms of
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2 poor parents holding a couple of pigeons.
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They miss it entirely. But there is a quiet, obscure
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remedy who sees him perfectly. This brings us to Simeon's
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illumination, and it raises a massive question about how
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spiritual sight is actually granted.
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Luke introduces us to Simeon. He is described as a righteous
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and devout man waiting for the paracleses of Israel.
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The consolation of Israel. The messianic comfort, the
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national restoration promised by the prophets.
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And the text says the Holy Spirit was upon him.
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He comes into the temple courts, takes a child in his arms,
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blesses God, and sings what the church has historically called
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the Nunctimidis. Lord, now let your servant
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depart in peace. He declares that he can now
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depart in peace because his eyes have seen God's salvation, a
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light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of
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Israel. I love Simeon because he was not
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a celebrity priest. No, not at all.
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He was not a Sadducee power broker with massive political
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connections in Rome. He makes me think of those
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elderly, unnoticed prayer warriors you find in local
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congregations today. That's a great comparison.
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You know the ones. The people sitting in the back
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to you, who possess far more spiritual discernment and
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theological depth than famous ecclesiastical leaders with
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massive platforms, millions of followers and endless deals.
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That is an incredibly accurate parallel.
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Simeon represents the faithful waiting remnant who clung to the
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promises of God. But the scene raises A
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theological issue. Why did Simeon recognize the
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Messiah when the high priest, surrounded by scrolls and
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scholars, did not? Because Jesus didn't have a
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glowing Halo hovering over his head.
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He looked like any other six week old peasant baby in the
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temple that day. The sources stressed that this
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moment is a clear demonstration of monarchistic illumination.
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Let me break that word down. When I see the prefix mono, I
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think one an erg implies work or energy, so one worker.
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Am I implying that correctly to Simeon's spiritual site?
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You are Monarchism means that the work of salvation,
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specifically the opening of our eyes to spiritual truth, is the
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work of God alone. Fallen man, in his natural state
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lacks the inherent moral capacity or the free will to
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recognize Christ on his own. The religious leaders had all
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the ancient scrolls, all the expensive education and all the
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elite access, but they were spiritually dead and blind.
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It was the Holy Spirit alone who supernaturally opened Simeon's
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eyes. It wasn't Simeon's inherent
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intelligence that figured out the puzzle.
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Saving illumination is a sovereign, unilateral act of
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God. Simeon could look at a peasant
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child and see the cosmic consolation of Israel only
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because the Spirit granted him the sight to do so.
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The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God,
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for they are folly to him. Now Simeon's beautiful song, A
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Peaceful Departure, takes a sudden, shocking turn.
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It really does. He shifts from the soaring
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praise about light to the Gentiles into a dark, violent
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prophecy directed right at Mary. Let's look at the Broadsword of
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the Cross. Simeon looks directly at Mary
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and issues a sobering warning. He says this child is appointed
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for the fall and rising of many in Israel.
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He will be a sign that is opposed.
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And then he says something devastating.
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And a sword will Pierce through your own soul also.
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I want to focus on the specific Greek vocabulary here because it
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is staggering. The word Luke uses for sword is
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Romphia. Romphia, yes.
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Why does the Holy Spirit inspire Simeon to use the word for a
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massive barbarian broadsword rather than a small dagger or a
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precise surgical knife, especially during what is
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supposed to be a moment of temple blessing?
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The choice of the word Romphia is chilling and deeply
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intentional. It refers to a large, terrifying
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broadsword used by Thracian warriors, designed to cleave a
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man in half. It signifies A brutal,
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catastrophic severing. A surgical knife implies a
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clean, neat theological fix. A rumphia implies a messy,
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traumatic, agonizing sacrifice. This connects directly to the
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substitutionary atonement at the cross.
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Simeon is prophetically preparing Mary for the sheer
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physical and spiritual violence of Golgotha.
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The Incarnation cannot be separated from the Crucifixion.
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The baby in the Manger was born to be slaughtered.
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He is telling her your son is going to face a violent
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execution and watching it happen is going to rip your soul in
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half like a broadsword. The sources point out that this
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specific text definitively dismantles certain medieval
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theological concepts. Specifically the idea of Mary as
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a Co Redemptrix. Right, the idea of her as a
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sinless divine mediator who participates in the atonement.
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Because the broadsword pierced her as a human mother suffering
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massive, unimaginable trauma, not as someone actively
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dispensing redemptive grace. She is presented here as a
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suffering human disciple. She has to stand at the foot of
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the cross and watch her own Son bear the unmitigated divine
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wrath for sin. Simeon adds that this sword will
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Pierce her soul so that thoughts from many hearts may be
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revealed. The Greek word used there is
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apocalypse, thosen, to strip away, to uncover, to lay bare.
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The cross acts as the ultimate judicial dividing line in human
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history. It strips away all
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self-righteous disguise. When you stand before the cross,
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the true state of your heart is entirely exposed.
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The event of the cross exposed the cowardice of the disciples
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who fled. The hypocrisy of the religious
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leaders who mocked him. The political compromise of
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Pilot, who washed his. Hands and the desperate,
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undeniable need of humanity for a savior.
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To validate Simeon's sweeping cosmic claims, Luke provides a
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second witness. This completes the biblical
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legal requirement found in Deuteronomy that a matter is
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established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
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It also introduces A stunning model of devotion.
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We meet Anna. Anna is a remarkable figure in
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the narrative. She is an 84 year old widow from
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the tribe of Asher, one of the 10 northern tribes.
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Luke tells us she never left the temple, worshiping with fasting
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and prayer, night and day. The word used for her worship is
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latrio. Right.
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Yes, Latrio refers to holy priestly service.
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Even though she is not a Levite, her devotion is categorized as
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priestly worship. When she sees the child, she
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immediately gives thanks to God and begins speaking about Him to
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all who are waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
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I notice a pattern here. In Luke's writing, he frequently
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uses gender pairing. He pairs a story about a man
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with a story about a woman. Like the parable of the lost
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sheep in the lost coin, or Gabriel visiting Zechariah and
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then visiting Mary, he does it to show the comprehensive scope
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of salvation. Based on the sources, how do
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Anna's specific actions find the role of men and women within the
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Covenant community? The sources argue that Anna
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provides A flawless biblical model of complementarianism.
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Let me make sure we define that clearly.
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How exactly does she model this balance of equality and distinct
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roles? Anna exercises massive
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theological discernment, recognizing the Messiah just as
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clearly as Simeon did. She engages in public prophetic
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proclamation to the waiting remnant.
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She is not silent. No, she is actively teaching and
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testifying about the redemptive work of Christ to the community
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gathered in the temple courts. She operates with total
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spiritual equality and massive effectiveness.
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But she accomplishes all of this without overturning the
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established order of the temple. She remains perfectly within her
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divinely designed sphere. She does not attempt to usurp
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the ruling priestly offices of the temple, nor does she demand
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a formal title to validate her ministry.
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She demonstrates that men and women possess equal spiritual
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value, equal theological intellect, and equal redemptive
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inheritance while maintaining distinct complementary roles
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within the covenant community. Her witness is effective
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precisely because it is faithful to God's design.
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This moves us from the historical exegesis of the text
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to the intended effect on the original readers.
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Why did Matthew and Luke sit down and rate these specific
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jarring details, and what does it mean for you, the listener,
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today? We must consider authorial
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intent. Matthew was writing to a
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community of Jewish Christians who are facing intense
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persecution and the daily threat of physical violence from the
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state. By including the horrific
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narrative of Herod and the midnight flight to Egypt,
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Matthew is showing his audience that state violence cannot
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derail God's decrees. Just as God preserved the infant
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Jesus from a raging King, he will preserve his church.
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The violence they suffer is not a sign of God's failure or
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abandonment. It is the predictable historical
29:00
rage of the world against the Kingdom of God.
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And Luke's intent is slightly different.
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He writes specifically to a Roman official named Theophilus.
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Luke states in his introduction that he wants to provide
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absolute historical and legal certainty.
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The Greek word he uses is asphalia.
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In a Roman world that often viewed Christianity as a
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superstitious, illegal myth, Luke provides verified
29:23
eyewitnesses like Simeon and Anna.
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He documents meticulous legal temple adherence.
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And provides concrete historical markers to prove that the faith
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is anchored in verifiable, unshakable facts.
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I want to challenge you listening right now.
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We talked earlier about the modern church's obsession with a
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harmless, therapeutic Jesus. A Jesus who exists just to
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validate your feelings, fix your temporary problems, and make you
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feel fulfilled. Are you submitting to the
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biblical Christ of the Thracian Broadsword in the cross, or are
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you worshipping A sanitized idol constructed for cultural
29:55
convenience? Because the Christ of Matthew
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and Luke demands absolute submission.
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The sources highlight an observation from scholar Kenneth
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Bailey that brings this home. He noted that Lebanese
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Christians survived decades of brutal, bloody civil wars
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precisely because their faith was anchored in the gritty
30:13
reality of the incarnation. They knew their savior was born
30:16
into a world of state sponsored terror surrounded by political
30:20
assassins. That gritty reality gave them
30:23
immense resilience. When the bombs were falling,
30:26
they didn't have a crisis of faith because they never
30:28
believed in a safe, plastic Jesus in the first place.
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They understood that security rests not in political
30:34
majorities, not in the favor of earthly rulers, and not in the
30:38
illusion of earthly peace. It rests in the immutable
30:41
decrees of God. Believers today are called to
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stand firm amidst societal pressures and ideological
30:47
hostility, knowing that our King has already conquered the
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darkness through his active and passive obedience.
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As we wrap up this deep dive, I want to leave you with a final
30:57
striking contrast to meditate upon.
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Think about the staggering irony of God's sovereign design.
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The infant Jesus escaped the literal physical sword of King
31:07
Herod in Bethlehem. He was rushed away in the dead
31:10
of night by a Carpenter to preserve his life.
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But he was preserved only so that he could willingly March
31:15
toward a far more terrifying sword 33 years later, the Sword
31:19
of Divine Justice on Calvary. As Zechariah the Prophet wrote
31:23
awake, O sword against my shepherd.
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On the cross there was no midnight escape.
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There was no Angel telling him to flee.
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He took the full catastrophic blow of the broadsword in our
31:34
place. The ultimate comfort for
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believers isn't the promise of escaping earthly suffering,
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political tyranny or physical illness.
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The comfort is the absolute knowledge that our king absorbed
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the wrath we deserved so that we could be brought near to a holy
31:47
God. We must view the scriptures with
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our eyes wide open to his historical gravity.
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We started by talking about how the historical reality of the
31:55
Nativity is not a peaceful greeting card.
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It is a landscape of trauma, terror and cosmic warfare.
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But in the midst of that bloody reality, the Sovereign King
32:05
stepped into the mud and secured a victory that no earthly Herod
32:08
could ever or threaten. Keep your eyes open to the real,
32:11
unvarnished text. Let it challenge you, Let it
32:13
strip away your preconceptions, and let it point you to the
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Savior who conquered death itself.