STUDY WITH ME! - Vol. 6

​An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21)
There is something that really stood out to me in the last study that I want to dwell upon a little longer. Joseph did not understand the magnitude of the words spoken to him by the angel. Neither did Mary understand when the angel said to her: "[Jesus] shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." (Luke 1:32, 33) That's why they did not really take into account what the focus of their 12 year old son ought to be when they took Him to witness His first Passover. Thus, they lost sight of Him for 3 days. What strikes me as amazing is the fact that, now having understood His mission, Jesus, even from the age of 12, tried to direct His earthly parents' minds to the prophecies that pointed out the future suffering that He would have to endure. Mary, led by the Holy Spirit, did a good job at teaching her Son spiritual truths from the Scriptures. She had access to those same prophecies which Christ then sought to point her thoughts toward. Still, she did not understand His mission. "As Jesus had been separated from her, and she had sought Him sorrowing three days, so when He should be offered up for the sins of the world, He would again be lost to her for three days. And as He should come forth from the tomb, her sorrow would again be turned to joy. But how much better she could have borne the anguish of His death if she had understood the Scriptures to which He was now trying to turn her thoughts!"
 
"If Joseph and Mary had stayed their minds upon God by meditation and prayer, they would have realized the sacredness of their trust, and would not have lost sight of Jesus. By one day's neglect they lost the Saviour; but it cost them three days of anxious search to find Him. So with us: by idle talk, evilspeaking, or neglect of prayer, we may in ONE DAY lose the Saviour's presence, and it may take many days of sorrowful search to find Him, and regain the peace that we have lost." The good news is, even when we lose sight of Christ or fail to seek the Lord as we should, He is tirelessly seeking after us! His promise is, "As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out My sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day." (Ezekiel 34:12) "As the shepherd loves his sheep, and cannot rest if even one be missing, so, in an infinitely higher degree, does God love every outcast soul. [We] may deny the claim of His love, [we] may wander from Him, [we] may choose another master; yet [we] are God's, and He longs to recover His own." And if we "submit to be ransomed, Christ will rescue [with a loving embrace and a heart filled with joy] from the pit of corruption and from the briers of sin" as He carries us back to the fold.

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