[A
Monday / Wednesday / Friday Devotional Feature of the First Road Blog]
While
both Joseph and Mary needed a Savior like any other sinner, there must have
been some factors in place which prepared them to cultivate the character and
skills of the boy who knocked the sandals off the established teachers at the
temple when he was twelve.
We
know that Joseph was a just (righteous) man – which has to do with his upright
conduct in the community and not his standing before God. We know that Mary found grace (unmerited favor) before the Lord – a grace which developed in
her a gracious, discerning, obedient, and contemplative spirit.
With
that in mind it is no stretch to assume that they implemented the principles of
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 in their home.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the
LORD is one. You shall love the LORD
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And these words that I command you today
shall be on your heart. You shall teach
them diligently to your children, and
shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the
way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
You
shall bind them
as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts
of your house and on your gates.
It is likely that in most Nazarene households these commands had degenerated to Phylacteries and Mezuzos if anything at all. But I suspect
that may not have been the case in the home where Jesus grew. Personally, I
wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Joseph and Mary may have set aside the
outward superstitions of rabbinical law and focused on the spirit of the command. We know that
Jesus had a well established habit of doing that in his ministry.
PREVIOUS DEVOTIONAL: A CHALLENGE FOR NOT-GOD PEOPLE
FIRST DEVOTIONAL OF THIS SERIES
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